Tales of the incredible Naina Talwar: Where art thou Romeo?

(All characters appearing in this collection are fictional. Any resemblance of anyone alive or dead is purely and truly coincidental)

Naina felt her phone vibrate. She was busy preparing her lessons for the rest of the day while listening to ‘feel this moment’ by Pitbull.

It was Bryan on Line.

“Spot on babe. Spot on. Did you see the horoscope for the year for us? At the rate we are going, you will be doing grad school and I will be off to New York end of the year.”

Naina had known Bryan for nearly ten years and their friendship was still going strong or it had to be, at the rate Bryan was messaging her. Even when he was overseas, he never failed to message her with regards to decisions on relationships and in life on the whole. The older they got, the closer they have become and Naina has only one thing to thank that for. The Universe. For some absurd reason they both have a love-hate relationship with the cosmological universe, a concept they have created to blame when things went terribly well or terribly bad. Nevertheless, Bryan was one of the important friends in her life that she was never ever sexually attracted to, because he was gay.

The bell rang and Naina decided to reply to his message when she came back from class.

Naina did a final check on the things she needed to bring to class and headed out of the common room. The hall was still jam packed with students trying to rush for their next class. Naina managed to find the class she was looking for.

“What’s Montague? It is nor hand nor foot, Nor arm nor face, nor any part belonging to man. O, be some other name. What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.”

“Good morning Jude”, Naina remarked with not the slightest glance at the actor who delivered Romeo’s speech. Naina placed her laptop on the table and switched on the projector.

“You are looking mighty fine Ms Naina. How was your holidays? Did you go on any exotic trips? Joined a cult lately? Got a new boyfriend? ”

Naina looked up. Jude was grinning from ear to ear, trying to look cool at the same time with his fringe covering his forehead.

“Nope. No exotic journeys nor cults nor boyfriend. But I see you had a great holiday. You brain is functioning once again and I like the new mop on your head”, she grinned back.

“Ms Naina!!! I am appalled. This is not a mop. It is an iconic symbol of a musician in the making. Even Mozart would agree to this new trend I am setting”

“Well, sadly he is not alive to comment. So let me do the honours and remind you that if it is not cut before the next lesson, I will assist you in becoming the next lady gaga by making you wear one of my ridiculous props on your head. Now go and sit down and let me start with my lessons.”

Jude made a small flick of his hair and snorted something about fashion sense under his breathe and made his way to join his less quirky friends for lesson.

The rest of the class was waiting for Naina to begin. “Good morning class and welcome back to school as graduating seniors this year. The road is going to be a tough one and some of you will be left behind if you don’t put in any effort in your work. I assume you have completed the holiday assignment I have given you and….”

The class was over in a blink of an eye. The students of graduating class Apollo were busy copying the last few slides of Act Two Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet while Naina counted the number of holiday assignments. There was one piece missing and she immediately knew who it was. She lifted the paper and stared at Jude who was anticipating the look from Naina, the moment she started counting the assignments.

"Ms Naina, it is not that I did not do your work. But after careful consideration, I decided not to burden you by handing up a sloppy inaccurate essay, I shall redo the essay and had  it up to you tomorrow."

"Oh how considerate of you Mr Jude. Tell you what, since you have been so considerate in ensuring a fantastic quality of work for me, why don't you also complete question (b) and hand it along with your holiday homework?"

"But Ms Naina..."

"Now, now Jude, you won't want to break the heart of someone who slowly, in the sand time of eternity, growing to trust you, would you?" said Naina in her honey dipped venomous tone.

Jude nodded, "Yes Ms Naina, I wouldn't want to do that". Jude's friends were sneering and sniggering behind his back.

"If that is all, I am going out of class and I will see you all on Thursday. Thank you class." The class greeted Naina and she made her way out of class.  Gosh, she had so much marking to do. And to make matters worse, some of the essays are so lengthy that she had to read at least a paragraph before she came to the point the student was trying to get at. At times it seems finding a way out of Bugis market on a crowded Saturday was much more easier.

As she stepped out of class, a familiar breeze engulfed her.  The whispering smell of fresh citrus fruit with a slight musk awakened her half dead cells, creating a tinkling feeling which ran from her neck to the edge of her spinal cord. The scent caressed every part of her body just like how Bach's Suite No 1 engulfed her soul and took her breath away each time she listened to it.  Time seemed to suddenly slow down and everything was moving slowly except for her. She knew that could only mean one thing, he was here.

Travis was looking stunning even in his work attire. Not much taller than herself, Travis was standing in the corridor surrounded by young teenage girls trying to get his attention. She could see how some of the skirts have suddenly become shorter while they were talking to him. Why wouldn't it be? Just look at him. His high cheek bones, strong jaws and hazel brown hair with a glaze of bronze that shines each time the sunlight hit that area. A petite guy but with broad shoulders that gave him a nice frame. The only thing that made him seem disproportionate is his skinny legs which he always covered by wearing long track pants. That is the advantage of being a PE teacher in school.

He reminded her of the less good looking version of  Jonathan Rhys Meyers. She continued to gaze at him and wondered if he would look better with streaks of white hair, he turned and their eyes met. Time stopped. Her breath had stopped. He was not just looking at her, he was looking into her soul.

"Naina, my dear Naina..." a low husky voice could be heard from a distance. Naina almost melted.

"Naina, oi Naina!!!" The voice got louder. Suddenly, the noise came back and Naina realised that she was still standing at the corridor. The voice however was not coming from the front but from the back. She turned and saw Mrs Kwang walking towards her. She was a big rounded woman and by the time she reached Naina, she was nearly breathless.

"Naina, there is a parent at the General office to see you", she huffed.

"Oh no, I forgot that I have arranged a meeting with Ryan's parents. Thanks Mrs Kwang!" And with that she turned around to see catch a glimpse of Travis but he was gone. Disappointed, she tapped Mrs Kwang's shoulder, thanking her again and hurried to the office.