India

The front door closed behind her, and she was safe, trapped in her own world for at least another night.
Of all her first days at new schools, this one had probably been the strangest. She didn’t get why carnival boy stayed in her head all day. It was so stupid, she didn’t even know his name yet.
India walked upstairs and tossed her bag on the floor, putting her hair up in a messy ponytail quickly. She could tell it was going to rain tonight, and that definitely made her happy. There was nothing more therapeutic and calming than falling asleep to the sound of rain outside.
Boxes were still piled around her room from where she hadn’t quite finished unpacking, which she knew wouldn’t please her mother. Sighing, India pulled one of the boxes to her bed and opened it, beginning to unpack some more of her things.

She’d managed to find out that one of the popular guys was named Jack, and there was a girl called Stella who hung out with the popular crowd too. Knowing more would have been convenient, but that was enough for her first day. She could tell carnival boy was popular. He just had that whole persona about him. He was confident and slightly cocky, plus he had the looks for it. She wondered if he was friends with Jack.

Figuring out the social ladder of a new school was always difficult for her, she never understood it fully. The sound of the first raindrops hitting the roof made a smile spread across her face, assuring her that tonight would be a good night.

Alex pulled up his driveway at around 5, running inside to escape the rain that was falling outside. He much preferred summer.
Running up to his room, Alex peeled off his wet clothes and tossed them into the hallway carelessly for his Mum to collect, pulling on a pair of grey sweats and his favourite ravens hoodie. Turning his laptop on, he jumped onto his bed, sighing to himself.
He didn’t know why his thoughts kept drifting back to the new girl, it was really starting to confuse and annoy him. People never usually stuck in his mind for this long, especially girls. Maybe it was for the simple fact that she hadn’t yet shown any interest in him. Alex knew she would though, they always did. He wondered what her name was, where she was from, why she moved here. He kinda wished she would wear something more flattering though. She probably had a killer body and was just afraid to show it.

Movement in the house next door caught his eye, and he remembered the girl who had moved in next door, his mind drifting from the new girl. A grin spread across his face, just thinking about how hilarious it was going to be once he kicked his plan into action. It was funny to mess with girls like that, they always reacted ridiculously, and Alex loved the control he had over them. He got up from his bed and sat on his desk chair, looking out his window and straight into the bedroom next to his. He made sure it looked like he was doing something else, just so he didn’t scare her.

The girl in the room with fairy lights and pale walls however, definitely wasn’t who he was expecting to see. Alex felt a smile grace his lips when he saw the new girl, unpacking things from a brown cardboard box and place them around her bedroom. She was no longer wearing the scarf she had on today, and he decided he liked that. Her hair was up in a messy ponytail, short bits falling around her face messily, framing it. She truly was beautiful, which was a word Alex never used to describe anything. There was something so fascinating about just watching somebody, noticing the small things about them, like how they walk or how their expression changes every few minutes. He didn’t really get what it was about her that intrigued him so much.

India bit her lip when she got that dreadful feeling that someone was watching her. It made her shiver, icy fingers raking up her spine. India looked up from the box of books and stuffed toys, seeing carnival boy staring straight back at her from the window next door.

Her heart nearly stopped from fright, her eyes blown wide. Without even thinking, she walked over and started to close her curtain, pausing when he waved his arms frantically at her.
Alex couldn’t believe she had caught on that fast. He held a finger up, silently telling her to wait. Ripping open the drawer to his desk, he pulled out a half crumbled pad of paper and a black marker, writing a message.

‘I’m so sorry! Can we talk? :)’ He wrote messily, holding it up to the window.

The new girl frowned a little, squinting slightly to read his message through the rain on the window.. Against her better instinct, she disappeared for a few minutes, coming back with her own pad and a dark blue pen.

‘Its okay. No.’ She wrote, neat and in the centre of the page.

‘Why not?’

‘I don’t have anything to say.’

Alex frowned a bit.

‘What if i ask questions and you just answer?’ He held up his pad.

India thought for a minute. She knew she really shouldn’t be doing this. He was popular and therefore, definitely not someone she wanted to get involved with. She didn’t have the heart to shut the curtain on him though, he looked somewhat innocent and normal now that he was on his own, hair messy, sitting alone without a hundred people surrounding him.

‘Maybe. Try.’ She replied, biting her lip.

Alex smiled. ‘My name is Alex. What’s yours?’ He wrote, showing her.

‘That’s a nice name. Mine’s Alex too.’ She wrote and showed him, smirking a little to herself.

Alex looked taken aback, and India laughed. It made him smile, and he really wished more than anything, that he could have heard it.

‘I’m kidding. Guess my name.’ She wrote, showing him.

Alex smirked, looking down at his paper.

‘What letter does it start with?’
‘I’

‘Isabel? Indigo?’ He showed her. There really wasn’t a huge amount of names that begun with I.

‘No, and no.’

‘Give me another clue?’ Alex asked, smiling.

She rolled her eyes a little.

‘Country.’ She wrote.

Alex was dumbfounded. Maybe she was just messing with him. It was working though, and under no circumstances did he mind. Any contact with her was better than none at all.
‘Italy..? Iceland?’

The blonde girl laughed again, and Alex smiled. He wondered if she knew how beautiful she was. ‘Not quite.’

‘Indonesia?’ He wrote, showing her.

‘Close.’

Alex thought for a second, scribbling again.

“India?” He held it up, biting his lip.

The blonde girl nodded, her eyes crinkling in the corners as she smiled. Alex could barely keep his eyes off her.

‘I like it. Its pretty. It suits you.’ Alex wrote, smiling a little. And it did suit her. It was weird and different, yet abstractly beautiful and wonderful at the same time.
India bit her lip, not knowing what to reply to that.

‘Alex is pretty too.’ She wrote, smiling a little.

‘You’re pretty.’ Alex responded.

India’s stomach turned. Pretty was not a word that should ever be used to describe her. Never.

‘You don’t believe it. Why?’ Alex wrote, seeing that she wasn't going to respond to that.

‘You aren't meant to believe lies.’ India wrote back.

"Im not lying." Alex scribbled back, eyebrows meeting together in concern.

‘I’m tired, I’m going to bed. Goodnight Alex.’ She wrote and showed him, getting up to close her curtain.

Alex frantically scrawled words, holding up the paper just as the curtain closed, leaving him alone with the sound of the rain and her name on the edge of his lips.
Sighing, he walked back to his bed, looking down at the unseen words.
‘I think you’re beautiful.’

India stood still for a minute, trying to gather her thoughts. She tossed the paper and pen on her floor, kicking it under her bed.

Crawling under the blankets, she laid there in silence, a pillow clutched close to her chest as she listened to the rain until sleep came and took away her pain for just a few more hours.

Alex laid on his bed, staring blankly at his ceiling as he thought about what had just happened. He wanted to know who had made her feel as though she wasn't beautiful. The thought of anyone speaking such lies over her made him feel sick. He needed to befriend her, at the very least.
He had to keep her safe from anything that might try to hurt her, he felt like it was his duty to this beautiful girl named India that he knew nothing about. Nothing would hurt her as long as he was around.