“Nah, that’s wrong,” I said to Aurora as I tried, and failed, to balance an eraser on my finger.

  “Ugh, this sucks. Can’t you do it for me?” Aurora snarled.

  I gazed at her with a small smirk.

  We were in the middle of math class and even though it was supposed to be independent work, I was helping out Aurora with her worksheet.

  But she wasn’t really putting her all into it.

  “Nope, if you actually tried, you’d get it right. I know you would,” I answered.

  Aurora groaned in response.

  “Finee,” She said begrudgingly.

  I chuckled and watched her try to solve the problem yet again.

  As I did, a thought came to mind.

  ‘Wait, isn’t Nishimoya’s birthday coming up soon?’

  Thinking back, I remembered that Nishimoya’s birthday was December 1st, which was this Sunday.

  ‘Crap, how did I forget that? Now that I think about it, should I get her gift this year?’

  In previous years, I didn’t really give gifts to my friends for their birthdays. For example, I didn’t get Tristan birthday gifts and he didn’t get me anything either.

  But earlier that year, Nishimoya gave me a birthday gift for the first time.

  So out of common courtesy, I felt like I had to get Nishimoya something just like she did for me.

  ‘What would she even want though? She’s not allowed to play video games and it’s not like she watches a whole lot of shows or anime. Ugh, I’ll pick up a present for her after school.’

  I focused back on my math class and worked on our assignment for the rest of the period.

  Since it was already our 4th period, I had lunch next.

  But on the way to the cafeteria, I got a text from Soriel.

  — Snickerdoole Soriel: Do you wanna hang out with me in the music room this lunch period?

  I stare at my phone for a few seconds before typing a response.

  — Me: Sure

  — Me: On my way! Now

  ‘Stupid Auto correct.’

  Looking at Aurora who was walking to the cafeteria with me, I let her know where I was going and told her I’d see her later.

  She seemed a bit confused, but didn’t protest against it.

  So I made my way to the music room, where Soriel and I first met.

  When I got there, Soriel was already waiting for me, sitting at the piano.

  “Hi Elliot!” She greeted me.

  “Hey Soriel,” I replied as I entered the room.

  I placed my bag at a corner and sat down on the floor near the piano.

  Then, Soriel made a confused expression.

  “Why are you sitting on the floor?” She asked.

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  “There’s nowhere else to sit in the room,” I answered.

  I wasn’t lying. There were only instruments, not seats.

  Soriel waved her finger side to side, as if I’ve made some mistake.

  “Nuh uh, sit next to me. Like we did last time,” She instructed.

  I didn’t like to be told what to do, but I complied and sat next to her.

  “Also, clean your hands, you just touched the floor after all,” Soriel said, handing me a bottle of hand sanitizer seemingly out of nowhere.

  “Okay?” I responded, taking the hand sanitizer and using it.

  ‘Now that I think about it, Soriel cleans her hands a lot more than normal. I mean I wash them before lunch or anytime I eat, but I feel like I’ve seen her use sanitizer every time I’ve been with her.’

  I didn’t mention it before, but Soriel tended to use hand sanitizer whenever she touched something remotely dirty.

  That wasn’t a problem or a bad thing. It’s not like it was an excessive use, but it was still a significant amount compared to the average high schooler.

  After I cleaned my hands, Soriel placed her hands on the piano keys.

  “Have you ever played a game called undertale?” Soriel asked.

  I raised my eyebrow.

  “Yeah it’s one of my favorites. Have you?” I replied.

  Soriel nodded and said, “Yup.”

  ‘I guess that makes sense. She said she likes story games earlier right?’

  Soriel smiled and declared, “Since we both play it, I’ll try to teach you how to play one of the songs.”

  “Really?” I asked.

  Soriel nodded and instructed, “Just follow after me.”

  Soriel began to play intervals of a few notes at a time. Then, I would play those same keys.

  Eventually, we made a good progress through the song. However, lunch was going to be ending soon, and my brain was getting tired.

  “Yeah, that’s all I got in me,” I said as I let my hands drooped to my sides.

  Soriel chuckled but her fingers didn’t leave the piano keys.

  Instead, she began to play a song.

  It started off slow almost mystically. It was as if every note was slowly getting farther away.

  Then the beat began to pick up and get faster. The beat wasn’t a smooth fast, instead it was like it was frantic. Like it was messy.

  Not an immature mess though. Despite the fact that I could hear that there were flaws, I could tell that each and every note was intricately arranged to give a certain feeling.

  At first, I didn’t know what that feeling was.

  But soon, I came to a realization.

  ‘It feels like longing.’

  Yes, that was the emotion I felt. Longing for something or someone that was out of reach.

  It felt crushing.

  At that moment, the bell sounded, signaling that it was time for lunch to end.

  “Well, that was fun!” Soriel exclaimed, abruptly ending the song.

  “We should go, Elliot,” Soriel suggested as she stood up.

  “Yeah,” I said, getting up as well.

  Soon after, we left the music room.

  For my next period, I unfortunately had English.

  It felt even more uneventful than usual since I had just had so much fun with Soriel.

  But it wasn’t that bad since the assignment wasn’t too hard.

  Anyway, once I got that period over with, I had coding which is the period I was actually looking forward to.

  In coding, we weren’t working on anything too important so I thought about my present for Nishimoya for a little bit.

  While I did, I realized something.

  ‘Nishimoya is in coding class too!’

  Turning my head slightly, I could see Nishimoya at the table behind me in the corner of my eye.

  ‘I keep forgetting she’s in this class since she’s always so quiet whenever we’re here. Actually, it’s weird for her to be so quiet, even if we’re in class. Does she really like coding that much? Is that why she’s so focused?’

  Nishimoya was always focused in class but her complete focus in coding specifically was unnatural.

  That’s when a small lightbulb went off in my head.

  ‘Why don’t I get something about coding games? After all, that’s what we’re doing in this class.’

  Once I came to that conclusion, I went back to focusing on coding class.

  **

  About an hour and a half later, all my classes had finished and school was over for the day.

  As I walked out of the school building, I received a notification on my phone.

  When I took out my phone to see what it was, I noticed it was a message from Aurora.

  — Girlfriend: Do you wanna hang out today?

  I read the message and responded back.

  — Me: I’m gonna be looking for a bday present for Nishimoya so I can’t

  — Me: Sorry

  After a few moments, Aurora read the message and replied with a single message.

  — Girlfriend: ok

  Upon seeing this message, I frowned.

  ‘Aurora never texts in lowercase. Is she upset?’

  I thought about whether I should say anything or not before ultimately deciding to just not respond and start looking for Nishimoya’s present.

  ‘I heard there was a mall nearby. Maybe I should over in that area? They’re bound to have more stores near it.’

  With that in mind, I began walking away from the school in a different direction than usual.

  It took about 20 minutes of walking but I finally arrived at the mall.

  So I entered it and looked around.

  ‘That’s clothes, that’s makeup, that’s…oh a target! I’ll look there.’

  Finding the right store, I entered inside and began to look throughout each aisle for what I wanted.

  ‘No. No. No. No. Gosh, why are there so many legos? I’m almost tempted to buy some for myse…no! I must stay focused.’

  Hardening my resolve I continued to look for a suitable present.

  And then, I found it.

  ‘This seems like it’ll work.’

  Picking up my future present, I walked all the way back to where the self checkout stations were.

  Once I did, I paid for the gift and left with a fatigued expression.

  ‘Finally. I did everything I needed to do. Now it’s time for me to go home and sleep!’