Let Me Count the Ways I Fell in Love With You

Tania covered her eyes from the glare of the sunrise. Her bed was perpendicular to the window. Unfortunately, her window overlooked the road.
She glanced at her alarm clock beside her bed, 7:00 AM. She had an hour before her new school starts. With a groan, Tania got out from her bed and shuffled to the bathroom for a quick shower.

After that, she went to the kitchen and prepared breakfast for her dad and Tyler, as usual. Everything still looked as normal as it had after her mum’s death. She had been the one who handled the household when her dad was drowning in his own sorrows. Tania was grateful that he had changed recently, but, somehow, she kept thinking that it was too late. She had fallen sick a little bit too late.

At 7:30 that morning, Tania swung her bag over her shoulder and took one last look at herself in the mirror: She wore a casual, green tank top, the sleeves were three-quarters long. Bermuda shorts hung lightly on her hips. Her shoulder-length hair was tied up in a simple ponytail; her fringe fell lightly over her eyes to the left. Talk about simple.
Finally, she walked to the door and stepped out into the heat. Before she had even taken a step, a trickle of sweat trailed down her spine. A car whizzed past her.

Tania took a deep breath and started her 15 minute walk towards her new school: Abingdon High School.

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Shane got out of his car and frowned. Sweat dribbled down his forehead as he walked towards his group of friends. They were all seated on a bench near the school entrance.

“Oh! His highness arrives!” One of his friends, Darren, smirked.
“Hey man! What happened yesterday? You totally ditched us!” His best friend, Louis, asked.

Shane shrugged as he and his friends did their usual handshakes.

“Yeah Shane… Did your mum stop you again?” Allie laughed flirtatiously.

Shane glared at her. She was probably one of the most irritating woman he had ever met. Why he had even liked and dated her once was mind-boggling even to him.

“Look, guys, just give him a break alright?” Esther said, rubbing herself against him. She purred as she rubbed his chest.

Shane looked down at her, his scowl growing deeper. At first, he was quite honoured that someone as sexy as Esther was attracted to him, but, recently, she has been getting on his nerves. He removed her hand and stepped away from her.

“Sorry guys,” He started softly. “The new neighbour just came in today and mum was crapping bout us meeting them,” He lifted an eyebrow.

Then, he saw her. The new girl, walking in casually through the school compound. He did not know why, but, he would get agitated whenever she was concerned. He stared at her as she climbed the few stairs and entered through the school’s double doors. Then, the bell rang.

His group of friends dispersed as they headed for their respective homerooms.

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Tania looked around the crowded corridor, secretly hoping that a guardian angel – or at least one good soul – would help her find the office. Unfortunately, they preferred to stare funnily at her or just simply give her funny stares – if that even makes sense.

She continued her journey down the corridor. As she was about to turn left towards another corridor, a female voice stopped her.

“If you’re finding the office, it’s the opposite way.”

Tania turned. A girl, probably the same age as Tania, looked at her amusingly. She wore a short mini red skirt and a white shirt that said, “I’m not single, but available.”. The girl had wavy, blonde hair and deep blue eyes. She was very beautiful.

“You’re finding the office right?” She asked again.

Tania nodded slowly.

“Well, it’s that way,” She pointed to the opposite direction with her left and then, she held up her right. “I’m Esther. Esther Dave. You’re new,” She stated more than asked.

Tania nodded again. She looked down at Esther’s held up hand and hesitantly took it into hers. “I’m Tania. Tania Audrey but, everyone calls me T.A…” Tania trailed off.

Esther beamed at her, took her hand and headed for the direction that she had pointed out previously. Once the were outside the office, Tania said her thanks as she watched the girl walk – more like skip – away.
She took a deep breath, gave a quick knock before entering the office.
The office, surprisingly, felt homey. A faint smell of peppermint and coffee wafted through the air. The front desk stood proudly at the centre of the room. Two sofas and a coffee table were set to the left of the room and a table that was clattered with coffee-maker, tea bags, coffee powder and the likes stood on the right. The lady behind the desk looked up as soon as she heard Tania walking in. A warm smile spread across her ageing face.

“You must be Tania Audrey Evans,” she said matter-of-factly. The lady rifled through some of the papers that cluttered her desk until she finally found the one she had been looking for. She looked back at Tania and handed her a few pieces of paper.

“This is your schedule for the rest of the year,” She handed Tania a small piece of paper, “You’re in class J02. J for Junior. And this is your locker number, and this is the consent letter. You’ll need to ask the lecturers to sign it for you. It’ll ensure us that you’ve actually attended all your classes on your first day. You’ll need to give this paper back to me by the end of the day. And here, is your map around school. I doubt anyone would want to give you a tour, unless you have actually made friends, but, it’s better to be safe than sorry. This school is big, mind you. Now, off you go!”

With that, the lady got back to her laptop and continued whatever work she left.

“Well… That was very helpful…” Tania thought.

She looked at her schedule as soon as she got out of the room.

English

Maths II(Advanced)

Gym

Break

Biology

Chemistry

American History.

“Great… American History,” Tania muttered in disgust.

She remembered the last time she took the subject. All she could think about was: Hell. She swallowed as she remembered the history essays that kept piling up.

She looked at her map and started back towards the lockers. Finally, after finding her locker, she headed for her homeroom.
As soon as she entered, everyone froze. She instantly froze mid-step instinctively. The image was comical and Tania would have laughed if not for the butterflies that kept fluttering in her stomach.

“Are you going to come here or stay there?” The old man asked cynically.

Tania started towards the old man again. She looked over at him and noticed that he was probably 75 years old – if that was even possible. He had grey hair that was thinning in the centre. Deep wrinkles etched on his forehead. Tania handed him the consent letter and she noticed that his hands were dry and wrinkled. Think Witch hands.

He glanced at the consent letter, signed it and looked at the class. “Everyone, this is Tania Audrey Evans. Take care of her and everything would be alright. Who knows, she might be a black belt in Karate. You wouldn’t want to be Joe chop now would ya?” He grinned to himself.

Tania stared at the old man, horrified at the fact that this man makes cold jokes in the 21st century. For all she knew, he could have been beaten up for his jokes. She tried to smile at his joke.

“Go grab yourself a seat lady,” He demanded.

She nodded and took a quick once-over of the class and found and empty seat at the back left corner of the class – window seat. She started to her seat when she saw Esther grinning at her. Tania grinned back in reply before sliding into her seat. This would be the longest 15-minute homeroom ever.

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In English, they were forced to write an essay within an hour. Tania had no idea what to write so, she forced herself to write about the wonders of the trees and where it came from. Being book smart had its perks. She just hoped it would not bore Mrs Rovert, her English teacher, to death.

Tania made her way to her next class, Maths II(Advanced). She smiled to herself as she eagerly walked. Maths has always been her favourite subject. Acing it was easy, liking it was easier. As she entered the class, everyone froze, much like what happened in both her previous classes.

“Great… Why do this people keep freezing? Why am I freezing up too?”

“Ah… The new kid’s here. Alright guys – and girls – please take your seat. And you, come’ere.” A British man with a heavy British accent spoke.

Tania approached the British man cautiously and handed him the consent letter. The guy looked to be around 30s with a very handsome face. When he turned, Tania instinctively smiled to cover up the fact that she had been staring at him. Of course, he smiled back.

“Tania Audrey Evans is that right?” He waited for Tania to nod before continuing, “Well then, introduce yourself.”

For a few heartbeats, they got into a staring contest – her, the lecturer and the class – when she finally understood what the lecturer was talking about.
“Oops.”
“Oh,” Tania stuttered, “We-well… I… uhh… like-to-start-my-sentences-with-well-when-I’m-nervous,” She gushed out.

Tania hated introductions and has never been good at it, except for the exchanging of names. Now, she just felt like a complete idiot. Who starts her introductions with that anyway? She looked around the class and noticed that almost everyone had an eyebrow raised.
At least they did not laugh at her. Then, as if on cue, an imbecile – make that two – at the back of the class roared with laughter. Tania narrowed her eyes at the criminal. Then, she saw Shane Owen sneering at her together with his 2 other stooges.

“Alright, alright you two! Quiet down! Tania, are there anything else that you would like to tell us? Perhaps your hobbies then. How about your family? Anything?” He prompted.

Tania thought for awhile, then started again, “I… am Tania Audrey Evans. Everyone calls me T.A. Everyone I know anyway. So, you guys can call me T.A…” She trailed off, feeling like an idiot… again. She turned towards the lecturer and pointed lightly at him before saying, “You too,” softly.

The lecturer nodded thanks and asked her to grab a seat. Again, she gave a once-over of the class and saw an empty seat right in front of Shane Owen – Her worst nightmare.
Slowly, she headed for her seat and sat down stiffly.

“Hey baby girl, what else do you like to start your sentence with when you’re not nervous?” One of the 3 stooges asked before laughing again.

Tania turned slowly towards him and waited for him to quieten down before saying, “Well, usually for guys like you, I’d start with, ‘Hey Idiot!’ and end it with, ‘Do you understand me or would you like me to spell it out for you?’” The laughter stopped and he glared at her.

She gave him a quick fake smile and turned towards the blackboard, where the lecturer had written a few equations and were asking for answers. She looked at the blackboard:

Given that sinx= ¾ and x is acute, find the value of:
(a) secx (b) cotx

And then, there was a drawing of a triangle with 4 as the hypotenuse length, 3 as the opposite length and 2 as the adjacent length. Tania’s eyes lit up. She knew this question. They were forced to practice it back in her previous school. She beamed as she worked at the question furiously. Finally, when she had her answer, she raised her hand eagerly.
Everyone in class stared at her. Suddenly, her confidence diminished.
“Was it not normal for students to raise their hands here?” She asked herself, going half-insane with their stares.
Finally, when she was about to lower her hand down, the lecturer pointed at her, a smile shone on his face.
“Yes, T.A? Do iyu have the onsar?” He asked, still smiling. At least that was what Tania heard.
“Yeah…” She replied, unsure. She saw the lecturer nodding, encouraging her to say out her answer. Finally, she said, “ two and two-third.”
Again, the lecturer beamed at her and nodded vigorously before facing the other students.
“That’s roait,” He exclaimed, “See? At least someone wos listening in closs,” He stated before writing down the answer on the blackboard.

Tania could not help but smile proudly.
“Dork,” Someone said behind in-between coughs. Then, he repeated again, twice.
Tania sat up stiffly as soon as she recognised the voice. She turned around stiffly and stared daggers at the same guy that had been insulting her. He smirked at her. She looked over to Shane and saw that he was staring intensely at her. Tania could not put a finger – or five – to what was his problem. Then, seeming that the guy was being a jerk, she just gave him a pitying look, sighed and faced the front again.
The class went on until the bell rang.

The other students immediately went out of the class as soon as the bell rang and the lecturer – whose name Tania found out to be Mr Robertson – did not even stop them. Being a senior definitely has its perks. The bell had somehow gotten her off-guard, so, she clumsily packed her things away.

“Hey, Louis, do you believe in god?” Tania heard one of the 3 stooges saying, a tad bit too loud.
“I dunnoe Darren, do you?” Another said.
“I’m not sure… Maybe she does!”

Tania looked up from her bag-packing and saw the same two guys smirking in front of her. Talk about lame. She gave them a yes-can-I-help-you-two-idiots look.

“Do you believe in god baby girl?” Darren asked.
“Yeah…” She replied, challenge shone in her eyes.
“Is that right? If He exists, then why isn’t he giving you any fashion tips,” He continued, looking her up and down amusingly. The guy beside him, Louis, was trying to stifle his giggles.
Tania shrugged and said the first thing that came to her mind: “He was too busy searching for your scattered brains.”

She looked up and saw the amusement washing away on Darren’s face. With a triumphant smile, she packed the last of her things, swung her bag on her shoulders and walked away to her next class, Gym.