Chapter Text
“Oh, he was desperate.” N’adana corrected Alisaie, who was in the middle of explaining what had happened that previous Friday as they all picked at their subpar school lunches. “Stuttering and red when he tried to talk to you. Lucky I swooped in when I did, or he would have been asking you out on a date!”
Alisaie huffed in annoyance, “I’m sure he wouldn’t have asked that fast! I don’t think he was that into me.” She had her white hair back in her normal braid, though now she was dressed down in a long skirt and combat boots, which she used to kick the red messenger bag that was sitting under the bench beneath her. She also wore a grey, tucked sweater with the word disappointment slapped across it in bold, red font.
“Are you kidding me? Look at you! I’d be a stuttering mess if I were him.” N’adana chuckled, shoving a soggy french fry into her mouth. She, similarly, was dressed down, but instead wore a t-shirt and ripped jeans paired with some white sneakers. She wore a yellow, oversized jacket that had more of a corduroy texture than jean, with studded sword earrings in her ears as they twitched nervously.
Arenvald and Alphinaud looked on with their jaws practically dropped. “Why don’t ya’ two just actually date already, so you don’t have to go through all this pretendin’?” Arenvald chuckled, and the sound made Alphinaud blush, but the larger boy was too distracted with his pizza to notice.
“Not a chance!” Alisaie argued before N’adana could say anything, which turned into the both of them teasing each other about their various ‘bad’ qualities at the same time Ryne decided to join them, plopping down next to N’adana with a sad-looking grilled cheese. She had to adjust her dress so she could haul herself over the long bench, rolling her flowy sleeves up so they wouldn’t get covered in the week-old cafeteria grease that covered her lunch. The group had promised Thancred to take the freshman girl under their wing, but they truthfully really enjoyed her company and customary inherited wit.
“The line was so long today, how do all of you manage to get through so fast?” she sighed, brushing red hair out of her face.
Alphinaud smiled sympathetically at the freshman, “Take the back stairwell, it’s always much less crowded. Usually that’ll get you in pretty quick.”
Ryne sighed, “But that’s on the opposite end of the first floor for me!”
Ryne continued to lament her standing as a freshman while Arenvald stepped away from Alisaie and N’adana’s arguing, returning to the converse with Alphinaud as the poor boy tried to balance talking between the two blondes. “Did ya’ hear about Mr. G’raha assigning us to write a song for honor’s music theory?”
Alisaie and N’adana stopped their bickering when they heard Arenvald’s awful news. “He’s what?” Alisaie groaned.
“Yup, Miss Baldesion told me during history this morning. Said she saw his class notes when she was hiding his stapler in the closet.”
Aphinaud snickered, “Do you think he’ll have found it by the time we have class this afternoon?”
“Doubt it,” Arenvald grinned, “She said she hid it behind an unsorted box of music.”
“Okay, but an entire song? Like… composing an entire song?” Alisaie raised a brow, still caught up on the idea of such a hard project the first week of school.
“Yeah, an entire song. You get until All Saint’s Wake to do it, though.”
“Oh, that’s not that bad. It’ll still suck though, ‘cause we won’t be getting a break from band that entire time.” N’adna sighed into her sandwich.
“Mr. G’raha loves you like his own, I’m sure if you wanted an extension he would give it to you.” Alphinaud smiled softly at his friend, reassuring her despite the fact that she was feeling her assignments pile up already.
N’adana sighed, “I’d never ask him, though. That’s so unfair.” She wasn’t as smart as the twins - honor’s music theory was the only advanced class she was even taking - but being drum major really put a damper on how much time she had to work on homework. It was really stressing her out, but she didn’t want to share that stress with her fellow band members.
“Alright, class. Since you're in honors, I know all of you know basic song structures, so I trust that all of you can handle this next assignment just fine.” Mr. G’raha went on, explaining the inevitable song writing project while N’adana sank down in her chair and groaned silently to herself.
Her and Alisaie made faces at each other while Mr. G’raha was turned towards the board, writing out the requirements. However, he was done quicker than they expected, and he turned around to see N’adana sticking her tongue out at Alisaie.
“N’adana? Paying attention, I trust?”
“Oh, yeah…” N’adana died internally, sinking down into her chair in embarrassment, “Sorry, Mr. G’raha, I had heard about the assignment previously so I was zoning out a bit. Your stapler is in the closet, by the way.”
Arenvald and Alisaie held back a laugh as he sighed heavily, shuffling over to the closet and digging around until all of them heard an ‘Aha! Miss Baldesion will surely be repaid for this act soon enough.’ He peeked his head back out and cleared his throat with a “thank you” before returning to his desk, stapling packets together as he continued to explain what the project entailed. “I’ll be handing these out so you can reference it during the next few weeks. I do not expect your songs to be masterpieces - this is simply an exercise on song structures and helping you develop the skills to make them yourself!” he smiled warmly at all of them, tail and ears perking up as he began to hand out the packets.
“Also, I almost forgot to mention! You all have the opportunity to choose your own partners - there’s enough of you in here for perfect groups of two. I’ll give you the rest of the period to figure it out amongst yourselves.” Mr. G’raha sat down at his computer, and N’adana silently wondered to herself if he was emailing Miss Baldesion to gripe about the stapler shenanigans.
By the time Alisaie had looked in her brother’s general direction, Alphinaud had already tugged on Arenvald’s sleeve and partnered up with him, their chairs now pushed up next to each other as they (and by they, she meant Alphinaud) eagerly discussed what they wanted to do for their song. Gods damnit! She was hoping to swipe her brother to make this easy for herself.
Alisaie then turned her attention to N’adana, who was already mouthing her name and waving at her to get her attention. Once their eyes met, the miqo’te pointed to Alisaie and back to herself, as if to signify their partnership without any words. Alisaie nodded, and with that the two of them scooted their chairs next to each other to discuss the project.
“You think Alphinaud will finally get some Arenvald action if they partner up?” N’adana chuckled as she leaned in towards Alisaie to whisper in her pointed ear. The closeness, again, made Alisaie internally shutter.
“Doubt it. Arenvald is denser than a sack of bricks, and Alphinaud talks a lot, but never about shit like that.” Alisaie shook her head, cracking a grin but trying to wrangle her brain from wandering off and fantasizing again like it did on Friday.
“Anyways,” N’adana started, flipping through the packet as she got back to talking about the project. Alisaie zoned out completely as she talked, chin resting in her hand as she failed miserably to keep herself from getting lost in N’adana’s voice.
They’re on the bus next to each other, the warmth of N’adana’s hand in her’s. The miqo’te is passed out on her shoulder, hair plastered to her forehead from dried sweat, hair braided back in an updo that Alisaie had done herself on the bus ride earlier that night, when they were still a bundle of excited nerves. They all chattered excitedly, the bus alive with other band members hooting and howling and singing in an eager uproar of energy as they made their way to a competition that did not matter in Alisaie’s daydream. Now, as they were heading back from this made-up event, N’adana shifts against Alisaie’s shoulder, drooling on her coveralls as Alisaie pulls her closer. She’ll complain about the drool later, but deep down she’s happy to have it if it means feeling N’adana’s warm forehead pressed against her neck. Alisaie readjusts the bag of candy tucked between her and the window of the bus - a candy gram filled with treats that N’adana had sent her, scribbly handwriting and a heart looped at the end of a note which had been stapled to the outside of the bag haphazardly.
Lights pass by from street lamps as they pull up to the back parking lot of Mor Dhona High School, N’adana stirring against her as the bus jostles the miqo’te awake. “Alisaie?” she mutters against her girlfriend’s shoulder.
“Alisaie? What do ya’ think?” N’adana taps a pencil against her lips, which she had slathered with rolanberry gloss after they had finished eating lunch. “What kind of song do you think we should write? I was thinking a love song, since that’s probably the easiest-”
“Oh, huh? Right, right.” Alisaie had said it before she thought it, still lost in the bliss of her daydreams as she looked over at N’adana. It wasn’t until she had processed what the miqo’te said that her face turned bright red. A love song? Is she really trying to get me to lose my mind?
“When do you want to work on it? We have practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so…”
“That doesn’t matter, I can come over after practice and just snag a ride home with you.” It was customary for them to converge at N’adana’s house, considering the twins lived with school-favorite front office secretary Miss Tataru, and she was always so busy and they hated to impose. Additionally, N’adana’s mom loved the twins anyways, so she was more than happy to host them for dinner whenever the three wanted to spend time together.
“Mm, true. You and Alphinaud are already coming over Sunday, though, so we can just talk about it then. We have plenty of time to work on it, after all.”
“That’s true I guess.” Alisaie conceded, but there was a part of her that wanted to schedule something alone with N’adana. It was always the two of them plus her brother, which really put a damper on any fantasies Alisaie concocted about getting her friend alone to confess her feelings.
Not that she’d do that anyways. Gods, the embarrassment alone would kill her.
“You seem distracted today. You alright?” N’adana suddenly asked, reaching out for her shoulder. Alisaie flinched at the contact to avoid melting into it, cursing herself silently for being so godsdamned jumpy. “Listen, I know Friday was rough for you, but we can work on it! It’s only the beginning of the season, we still have plenty of time to fix up the second movement.”
Her smile pierced directly through Alisaie’s chest. “Y-yeah, I guess it has been bothering me,” she half-lied. “Thank you, Adana.”
“No problem.” She squeezed Alisaie’s arm, and she swears she could have combusted right there.
The bell rang before Alisaie could embarrass herself further.
“Want a ride home today?” she offered before N’adana could slip out of the classroom, “Alphinaud doesn’t have to be at piano lessons until five, so we have time today.”
“Which one of you is driving?”
“Alphinaud.”
“Then yes.” N’adana laughed, waving as she slipped out the door to get to her next class.
Alisaie waved back just as Alphinaud clapped her shoulder, teasing his sister out of the earshot of her hopelessly clueless crush.