Two positive charges cannot attract each other... right?
I reluctantly remove my hand from my book to see if I'm correct. Reading the first few words, I realise that I am right. We need two opposite charges for an attraction.
My hand immediately covers the sentence before my eyes can read the rest of the sentence as that would be cheating. I need to do it on my own. If I just read it, I will not be able to remember it during the exams. What about electrolysis? Something about a solution. A solution that... can conduct electricity? Something about ions. Through the movement of ions?
Eventually, I just remove my hand and read the definition of an electrolyte. I will remember it now. Moving onto the next definition, I inadvertently bob my head when a song I like plays into my ears through my headphones. It's the only way I can study. With music. Silence makes me really uneasy and I end up getting distracted easily. Music helps me concentrate.
At first, Amma didn't understand that I could study with music blasting into my ears. She was used to studying in a quiet environment. In fact, she'd encourage me to head over to the library if I wanted to do some quick revising. I would always adamantly shake my head no. The library is good for doing last minute homework and assignments I haven't finished yet. Not for studying.
Eventually, when she received my report card, she realised that my grades had neither declined nor increased. They remained the exact same. The following report had a slight inclination which is what convinced her that I was not lying about music helping me to concentrate while I'm studying.
The thing is my grades are already high so getting anything above what I've already gotten is a struggle. I'm not like Christian who has a perfect grade. I make a few mistakes in tests and exams that I beat myself up for afterwards.
My brows furrow down enquiringly when it feels like someone is watching me. Slowly, I throw my head over my shoulder and at the sight of the small human standing a few feet away from me, merely staring at me blankly I slightly spring out of my skin in surprise.
Calming myself with a nervous chuckle, I greet the little girl with a crooked smile.
"I know you," she tells me.
"You do?"
With an adorable grin, she bobs her head up and down. "You're the pwince charming from the park."
I'm left confused for a second until my gaze is drawn to the plastic wand in her hand and it hits me who this girl is. She cast a spell on Dominic and I that day at the park when we were practising how he was going to catch Jodie the following day. I do recall him failing horribly. That seems like such a long time ago.
"Oh, Tammy right?"
Again, she bobs her head up and down with a large grin on her face the longer her gaze stays on me.
"You're here for Chu Hua's sleepover?"
"Yes, mummy dropped me off," she says dismissively and quickly she asks in interest, "So, did my wish come true?"
Blankly, I blink at her.
Her wish... I do remember it. At the time she made said wish, I had no idea who prince charming was and who the beautiful prince was. Now I know. I'm apparently prince charming and Dominic is the beautiful one. It makes sense. He has zero charisma.
Through my soft music, I manage to hear my name being yelled by someone and I hurriedly pull my headphone down, heightening my ear senses as I listen in for anyone calling me. When I don't hear anything, I shrug dismissively and I am about to go back to listening to my music when I hear my name being called again. It's Amma, shouting my name almost frustratingly from all the way upstairs.
"Yeah?" I yell back.
"Can you not hear that someone is knocking at the door?"
I grimace and decide not to answer her rhetorical question with something sarcastically drenched lest she storms downstairs and backhands me for backchatting. She knows that I have my headphones covering my ears. The chances of me hearing the knocking at the door are little to none.
Hopping off the high stool in the kitchen, I leisurely land on the ground. I tell Tammy to hold that thought before I'm slightly limping towards the door from the numbness in my legs. I let my headphones rest around my neck, the music quieter now.
When I pull the door open, I stare at the other person on the other side in confusion. He has his back turned and seems to be looking around as if to ask for help from someone. Looking around, I spot that there is no one here except for him. I clear my throat and he spins around on his heels. I don't know who I was expecting when I did open the door, but I definitely wasn't expecting to see his face, especially since we're outside of school.
"Hey," Dominic greets, lips quirking up almost nervously.
"Hi?"
"I know this is weird, but I just had to come over and tell you about something really important."
"You couldn't have texted me about it?" I ask him slowly, furrowing my brows in confusion.
"No, I couldn't have. This is... too big to just carelessly say over text. I had to come over and tell it to you face to face."
"Okay... you wanna come in?"
Without answering my question, he merely walks into the house past me and after shaking my head and blinking in my confused daze, I push the door close. Once entering the kitchen which is where I'm guessing he immediately went, I find him standing by the door staring down at Tammy bluntly. She stares back at him.
Leaning into me, he whispers, "Who's she?"
"That's Tammy."
"So my wish did come true," Tammy says with an excitement shining on her face.
"What wish?" Dominic asks in bemusement, his brows furrowing when he looks over at me.
"No wish," I stutter awkwardly, failing to keep my blush below the neck. "There is no wish."
Then it gets unnervingly quiet.
"This is awkward," Tammy says. Then she runs past us, exiting the kitchen and in the background, I hear her soft footfalls against the floorboards of the stairs. They grow fainter the further away from us she jogs.
Before Dominic can badger me about what that little girl was spouting about, I'm already making my way over to the fridge and asking him if he would like anything to drink. When I glance over my shoulder to look at him expectantly, he shakes his head, making a comment about having learned his lesson not to drink things from other people's fridges.
"So, what was so important that you couldn't text me about it and had to come over here?" I ask him, uncapping the bottle of water I grabbed from the fridge.
"Oh, I finally watched American Dad."
"Oh," I'm pleasantly surprised by this. "Did you enjoy it?"
"Uh... I mean, I watched it."
"That doesn't really answer my question," I mutter under my breath mostly to myself as I make my way back to sit down in my stool again. "So, is that the important thing you couldn't text me about?"
"No, the important thing is I broke up with Jodie yesterday," he just indifferently blurts out.
"What?" I exclaim in shock and my grip around the bottle of water tightens, causing some liquid to spill over my hand.
"Yeah. By the way, where were you yesterday? 'Cause I came over so I could share the news with you, but your sister said you left early in the morning."
Nervously, my eyes widen at his question and then I avert my gaze contemplatively, putting the bottle of water down on the counter.
Do I want to tell him that I was hanging out with Kai all day yesterday at a skatepark in South Bank? I should, right? I mean it's not like it's something worth hiding from him. Why would I even want to hide that sort of information from him? Hiding something as trivial as this would suggest that this thing holds much more significance than it actually does. He should know about Kai and what a good friend he is to me.
"I went to South Bank."
"What were you doing in South Bank?"
"I was at a skatepark."
"What were you doing at a skatepark?"
"I was skating?"
"Since when do you skate?"
"Since yesterday."
He narrows his eyes. "You're acting really suspicious. Are you hiding something from me?"
"What? I'm not hiding something from you. I'm not hiding anything in fact. The fact that you think I'm hiding something makes me wonder what exactly you're hiding from me."
"Okay, you're doing that stupid, stuttering thing you normally do when you're lying. You're definitely hiding something from me."
"You know, I actually have to study for the test tomorrow since I was skating at the skatepark yesterday all on my own so I'd really appreciate it if you could make your way this way." I quickly usher him out of the kitchen and then outside the house. Before shutting the door in his stupefied face, I jubilantly say, "See you tomorrow at school."
Then I'm leaning back into the door, heaving a deep sigh from my chest.
What the hell is wrong with me?