We'll Keep Singing

“Alright monkeys,” Mr. Braistsch chuckled. “After all that we've been reading this past week, it's only fair that we write an essay as our final project.”

“Oh god,” Jarrah Belen, junior, tall, fun-loving, sat in the corner of the room and groaned.

“But - !” Mr. Braistch gave a grin. “I have all my students do an essay every year and it gets boring and repetitive, not to mention the amount of failures I get.”

“So,” Jasmine Bautista raised her hand. “What are we gonna do?”

“Wait until I finish speaking Bautista!”

“Sorry...” She slid back in her seat.

“I'm all gonna have you do a short film on, “What is happiness?” And you better make it good, because the whole class is gonna judge it.”

“Crap.” Jarrah grumbled under her breath. She didn't have any enemies in class, but she was uncomfortable with the fact that the entire class would have to watch either something good or really terrible.

“Project is due next week and it must be ten minutes long. Get into groups of three or less and don't waste time.” He waved his hand away, a signal for them to diverse, and went back to his desk.

“Partner.” Jasmine hissed.

“Always.” Jarrah held up a hand and the two high-fived.

“So, what do you wanna do?” But Jarrah was half distracted, because her eyes continually went over to Chris Kamrada from across the room. He didn't seem to be talking about the project, the way he was playfully shoving Maika.

“Jarrah,” Mr. Braistch barked. “Did you finally found your reflection in Kamrada's eyes?”

Chris turned to her and Jarrah quickly looked away. Jasmine who quiet sat and watched the scene, laughed to herself. “That was embarrassing.”

“I know, shut up!”

“Why don't you ask him to be our group?”

“No!” She hissed, shaking Jasmine's shoulders. “He's probably, no most likely, already in a group with Maika.”

“So? Let's invite both of them!”

“No! Three people at max, remember?”

“Okay, let's say I convince Maika to leave the group. Would you want Kamrada to be in your group?”

“Unlikely because those two are inseparable!”

“Look,” She hissed. “You like Kamrada, don't you?”

“Not so loud!” Jarrah gulped and whispered, “Yeah.”

“You should start talking to him soon, it's almost winter break. Don't you want to give him a Christmas present?”

“Jasmine, shut up.”

xxx

“Hey Jarrah!” It was after school and she didn't expect to run across any of her classmates, especially sine she had two earphone buds occupying her ears. She froze at the familiar voice. Removing the earphones, she slowly turned with wide eyes.

Chris Kamrada was jogging towards her. The Chris Kamrada. Jarrah swore she was close to fainting.

“H-Hey.”

“This is the first time we're talking, right?”

“No. There were other times.” She gave a nervous laugh and thought about that one time where he leaned over to her, when he was coincidentally put next to her, and asked her if she had the answer to question seven.

Chris seemed to ponder on the thought for a moment before replying, “Oh.”

“Yeah...” Her eyes fell down to her feet, for she could not look at him without turning red all over. She looked up and Chris was still staring at her with a strange smile, she couldn’t comprehend. She looked away again and he chuckled in reply.

“So, about that thing that happened in Braistch, what was that about?”

Jarrah's eyes grew. What would she possibly say to him? That she was staring at him? Like she always was?

“Uh...um.” She was mentally whacking her brain for an answer. “I happened to be zoning out.”

“Really?” For a second, did she hear a twinge of disappointment?

“Yeah, sorry if you got the um...wrong idea.”

“Oh, that's cool.” Chris rocked back and forth on his feet, his eyes still locked on hers.

“Um...I'm gonna be late for my bus.”

“I'm so sorry!” He held out his hand Jarrah could only stare in awe. “No hard feelings.”

Jarrah stared dumbly at his hand for a split second, before slowly placing her hand in his. The two shook hands and Jarrah would've quickly pulled away, if he wasn't still holding on to her's. He gave a light squeeze and finally let go. She turned to leave and heard a, “Bye Jarrah.”

Jarrah stopped and murmured, “Bye.” Then quickly hurried off, her heartbeats synchronizing with the sound of her footsteps.

Xxx

The next time in AP English, Jarrah couldn’t bear to look at Chris. Every time she unknowingly snuck a glance, she would think about how the two shook hands and how he was gazing into her eyes.

“Jarrah, you should be in love all the time.” Jasmine mused. “It's so cute!”

“Can we not discuss while he's in the room?” She jeered. She didn't hear a reply, but instead heard,

“Chris! Can you come here for a second?”

“No! Jasmine, what are you doing!?” She wailed.

“I'm helping you out.”

“What!?” Jarrah's eyes kept glancing at Chris who was getting out of his desk.

“I'm kidding, he's for our project.”

“Yeah, what's up?” Chris approached the two's desks.

“Our project is to survey people on what happiness it. We were wondering if you would be the our first person to interview.”

“Sure.” He shrugged.

“Jarrah, here's the camera. You're interviewing him.” She shot a panicked look towards Jasmine, but got up anyway.

“Should we go outside?” Chris motioned his head towards the door.

“Sure.” She swallowed and knew that word sealed her fate.

The two stepped outside and Jarrah quickly turned on the camera. Her hands shook a little, but she quickly regained her composure. She couldn’t afford to have the video shaky, plus Chris could not see nervous.

“So, what do I have to do?”

“Just introduce yourself and tell us what makes you happy and why. I'm recording....now!” She pressed the recording button and a blinking red light shone in the corner.

“Hi, people of our English class.” He gave a wave. “I'm Chris Kamrada and the thing that makes me happy is music.”

Jarrah felt herself smiling. She knew that Chris was in a band with Maika called, “There for Tomorrow.” He was so musically talented and even though he was just the drummer, she knew he could sing and play guitar. It was one of the many things that made him perfect to her eyes.

“But - “ He paused and was no longer staring at the camera, but into Jarrah's eyes. “There's something, no someone, that makes me much happier.” He took a deep breath and said the name that completed moved her away. “Jarrah Belen.”

Her mouth dropped and she was now blubbering random words. “W-What?”

“I always liked her, more than a friend. I know we haven't talked much, but I really like you Jarrah. You make me happy, because you're pretty, you're fun, you have an amazing taste of music, and you have the best humor. I would go on listing, but the video would go over the limit.” He gave her a toothy grin. “Was that good enough?”

“You're not joking with me, are you?”

“Why would I be? I don't compliment just anyone, you know.” He moved closer to her and she stopped the recording. If it weren't for the camera string around her wrist, the camera would've fallen to the ground by now.

“I um....”

“You like me too right? I see you looking at me sometimes. You're so nervous around me, it's adorable.” Chris moved away some of the lose strands of hair from her cheek.

“Dammit,” Jarrah gave a shy grin. “I thought you didn't notice.”

“Are you kidding me? I notice you all the time. I mean, isn't it your birthday today?”

Jarrah almost forgotten it was her birthday today, she was too busy occupying her thoughts with Chris Kamrada. “You remembered?”

“Honestly,” He smiled sheepishly and ran a hand through his long hair. “I saw it on Facebook.”

“Oh.” The two shared a laugh.

“I would've gotten you a birthday present, but I didn't know what you liked.”

“You really don't have to.”

“Can I do this instead?” He cupped his hands around her cheeks and pressed his lips to hers. They were soft and had a sweet taste to it, the way she always imagined it to be. After what it seemed to be a while, he moved away and wrapped her in a hug, whispering, “Happy birthday.”