“Earth to Bella,” a voice, deep and imposing, called out to me. “Earth to Bella!”
I woke up startled and confused. Where was I again? Oh right, class. Physics class, no less, the most boring of all subjects I was forced to take in college. I would much rather spend 36 hours consecutively in a Literature lecture than an hour in Physics. The lectures somehow always lull me to sleep by how boring they sound, and it doesn’t help that I always have ballet class the night before the early morning Physics class. Ballet does take a toll on my energy in the subsequent mornings, but I would not trade it for anything else in the world.
“Sorry, Mr. Joshua,” I apologised solemnly. He looked at me with a singular raised brow, as if he was expecting more. “What am I supposed to do?”
“You’re supposed to find a group of three and start working on your assignment,” he said with a heavy sigh, very disappointed in my lack of class participation. “Everyone is already in groups, except for you and the new student. Perhaps you two can pair up.”
He pointed at someone seated in the corner of the class, who donned an oversized black hoodie with a huge cybersigil design, and wore the baggiest black jeans I had ever seen in my life. Her hair was messy and layered in a voluminous wolf cut with green highlights. She had this stylish swagger, and was someone I would typically never approach on any other given day or circumstance. I walked over towards her carrying the assignment brief and a few dreadful worksheets, and placed them gently on the table as if they would bite back if I treated them horribly. Now that we were face to face, I could see how many piercings she had – a nose ring, an eyebrow piercing, and more adorning both her ears. She held my gaze with her eagle-like eyes which were brought out by her stunning smoky makeup.
“Steph,” she said suddenly in a poor attempt to introduce herself, sounding cool and composed while breaking the silence. “You are?”
“Hello to you too,” I replied, waving my hand half-heartedly but trying to sound as warm as possible. “I’m Bella. Nice to meet you!”
“Uh, likewise. I don’t like dilly-dallying around assignments too long. I suggest we finish everything by tonight.”
“Same!” I exclaimed. I hate dragging out assignments and was glad that we were on the same page, but was doubtful about our efficiency as a team considering my ineptitude for the nightmare called Physics. “Just informing you in advance, though – I’m really bad at Physics. Like, really bad. Terrible, actually.”
“That’s alright. I think I’m quite okay at it, so I can help you with it,” Steph replied with an uncanny nonchalance. How someone could maintain the same calmness for everything is beyond me. I glanced at the first question on the worksheet and sighed. Before I could search through my mental textbooks for the answer, her eyes lit up and wrote down formulas and equations immediately. I ended up being an assistant to her rather than a teammate. There were times where I felt guilty for not contributing enough, and she somehow knew how I felt, and would pause to allow me to answer several questions. She was like an extraterrestrial being with telepathic abilities sans the physical attributes. Not only did we spend our whole day on campus working together, but also went on quests hunting for quiet spots constantly, since some areas became packed and noisy during peak hours.
By late noon, we settled for a quiet classroom in an empty part of our college and continued our assignment completion conquest. By 6 p.m., we were able to finish the entire stack of worksheets. By 8 p.m., we were able to eat dinner together while working on our essay. By 10 p.m., we were able to complete our presentation together. At 12 p.m., we…
Wait, “p.m.”? I checked the time and realised it was 12 a.m. – how was it midnight already?
Little did I know, it was the first of our many midnight “excursions” together.
The First Midnight
“Steph, I think we should make a move,” I said, closing my laptop lightly, so as to not disturb the pin-drop silence that surrounded us.
She nodded her head in agreement, and began to pack her things in a haphazard manner. Thankfully, the doors of the classroom we were in weren’t locked yet. We were about to walk out the hallway slowly, but we realised that there was a security guard patrolling the area and locking the doors. We froze for a moment when a flashlight shone on us, like deer in headlights. We panicked even more when the security guard shouted “Hey!” and began to approach us. Steph took my hand suddenly, and before I knew it, I was sprinting out that hallway along with her. I didn’t know why I ran with her, or why I didn’t pull away – the security guard was presumably not a threat. I guess we were just running for the thrill of it. We dashed across different stretches of hallways, sprinted down staircases and rushed out of the gate as it was being closed. Adrenaline rushed through my veins as we ran away from our campus, like we were running away from our problems- namely assignments. We finally slowed down when we reached the park and threw ourselves onto the grass.
We exchanged a look of shared jubilance as we laid on the soft grass, giggling as we recounted what we had done. An escape from the stress our academics brought us was just what we were looking for.
The Second Midnight
Chemistry class was dreadful. We were given assignments that had to be done in a week’s time. Thankfully, I managed to finish most of them at the library, but my brain was exhausted from all the work. I decided to wander around the park near my dorm and take in the fresh air of the night. Soon, as if it were clockwork, lethargy took over my body at 12 a.m. sharp, so I plopped down onto a bench to rest. I was supposed to be in my bed, but I couldn’t bring myself to go back – I was too tired, and quite frankly, I still wanted an escape.
While I was ruminating over my stress-inducing studies, wheels rolling against the coarse pavement broke my chain of thought. I looked up and saw someone with wild hair on a skateboard approaching where I was seated.
“Fancy seeing you here,” the figure on the skateboard said. Upon closer inspection, I realised it was Steph. She halted right in front of me, and flipped her skateboard up with her foot, which I recognised was a poor attempt to impress me. “I saw you ‘round the corner just now. You saw me earlier too, didn’t you?”
“You noticed that?” I giggled. “I didn’t know you were that good at skateboarding.”
She smiled with a sense of pride I wish I had for myself. I couldn’t help but pry for more of her. Her smile, her pride, her everything was contagious. I kept asking her questions, but her answers were either too vague or too short. Eventually, my curiosity got the best of me, and I somehow ended up on her skateboard. She led me down the street, making sure I didn’t tumble over. In return, I tried teaching her to go en pointe, which she managed to do with the help of the thick soles of her shoes.
I never expected to get along with her that well. Steph and I had nothing in common, yet had so much to share; so much to learn from each other. Time became irrelevant to us. We ended up fooling around together like a pair of hooligans the whole night. By dawn, our legs finally gave out, and our backs ached for rest. We headed back to our dorms, separating rather begrudgingly.
The Third Midnight
I was supposed to be asleep, but I was tempted to get a drink. I had a rough day, and flashbacks of Mr. Joshua’s bitter expression and words refused to leave my pre-slumber thoughts. I tried everything in my power to put myself to sleep – I listened to Bach, I tried reading boring articles, I counted sheep. But my efforts ended up being in vain, so I dragged my sorry self to the convenience store adjacent to my dormitory block. I got an iced lemon tea and was about to make my payment at the cashier when I felt a familiar presence behind me.
“We’ve gotta stop meeting like this,” said Steph, who was getting herself an energy drink. She gave me a smug smile, as if she was going to make a silly remark, but restrained herself when she saw my annoyed expression. “Is now a bad time?”
I nodded my head, refusing to let her eyes meet mine, and darted away. I walked down the street towards the park nearby. Just as I closed my eyes and took a sip of my drink, the person I wanted to see least appeared before me. Alas, I accepted my fate and welcomed her presence reluctantly.
“Mr. Joshua’s earful yesterday sucked, huh,” Steph said, her voice soft. “Mind if I sit?”
She gestured at the space beside me, so I scooted over as an open invitation for her to take up the other half of the bench. She looked at me, hesitated to speak, then muttered out something unintelligible, but I managed to hear her say something along the lines of, “Um… Don’t let his words get to you.”
“He was right, though,” I said sadly, chuckling nervously. “I need to get my act together. I’m only ‘sloppy’ in Physics class. I’m trying so hard to perform well in classes and ballet performances, but one slip-up in a class I absolutely despise tore down the wall of perfection I had crafted for myself.”
“You don’t have to act well put together all the time, y’know,” she said suddenly with equanimity, patting my shoulder. I cried into her arms for a good hour, airing out my academic sorrows and the accumulated stress from upcoming ballet performances. Steph didn’t speak, but opted to listen the whole time.
The penumbra of a moonlit midnight brought me an unspoken comfort, and inadvertently, so did she.
The Fourth Midnight
It was the second month of my second semester, and I could feel the stress take over my mental well-being. No amount of Mozart or Tchaikovsky could save me. I could not comprehend how Steph could listen to AC/DC and Led Zeppelin with a straight face. I decided to rest and ruminate on my favourite bench at the park, taking in the breeze and tranquility of the hour.
“Hey, you.” I heard a familiar voice calling after me from behind. “We’ve seriously gotta stop meeting like this. Outside of class, I mean.”
“Speak of the devil,” I thought to myself as I whipped my head around. Lo and behold, it was Steph, holding a skateboard with graffiti sprayed all over it. Her hair tousled wildly by the wind, and for a moment, I thought she looked like a rockstar. She was everything I was not. I liked wearing lace and listening to classical music, while she liked to skate and listened to rock music. I loathed science and loved the arts, she was the total opposite. We were polar opposites of each other, yet we were pulled towards each other. I suppose the only kind of magnetism I learnt from Physics class could only be applied to our unlikely friendship. Our conversations together were rather amicable, dare I say more so than when I was with my friends.
We ended up chatting the entire night, laying down on the grass at the park. She told me all her frustrations with Literature class, and how she hated reading and analysing texts. She told me that she was supposed to follow in her parents’ footsteps and step into the world of the arts, but it just did not sit right with her. She was more of the studious type who liked equations, surprisingly. Steph hated stereotypes too, and thought that people were all nuanced individuals, and I learnt to be less judgemental of others through her. Ironically, she made a joke of her full name, “Stephanie”, due to how preppy it sounded compared to her preferred aesthetic and interests.
“Shall we meet at the same time tomorrow?” I asked, my heart filled with hope. I grew to enjoy our conversations together.
“Bet.”
The nth Midnight
“How was ballet practice?” Steph asked, handing me an iced lemon tea.
“It was fine! I sprained my ankle, unfortunately,” I said, sounding deliberately dismayed as I pointed at my left foot.
“Aw shucks. I hope it heals quick,” Steph said, sharing my frown. “We’re twinnin’, though. I also hurt my left knee while skating earlier today.”
We laughed heartily at our misfortune, and at Steph’s morbid way of comforting me. Then I took out a large blanket and laid it out on the floor, and the both of us laid together, gazing up at the stars.
“I think I can see Pisces from here,” I said as I pointed at a group of stars.
“Really? I thought that was Mr. Joshua’s frown,” Steph replied, smirking smugly. I rolled my eyes and hit her arm, but I noticed how her smile gradually faded, like she had a revelation. “I can’t believe we won’t ever see him again next semester.”
“Oh, cheer up, Steph! Our new lecturer might be friendly,” I replied in the most reassuring tone I could muster, perplexed by her increasingly moody temperament over a lecturer we mutually disliked. Then it hit me. She was worried about us. I looked over at her, and could see that she was avoiding eye contact. “You’re not worried about us hanging out less, are you, Stephanie?”
She stayed silent, and curled up into a ball, like a black cat affected by the cold. I sat up and tucked my knees in my arms. I could hear her mutter a soft “yes”, followed by an even softer, “you’re the only friend I have who understands me”. I patted her back, comforting her while trying to think of solutions.
“We can always hang out after classes. Or we could sync up our schedules,” I suggested. “I’ll let you know the time slots I’m picking next semester. You can also let me know your preferences.”
She sat up slowly and finally smiled. “Good idea.”
“Don’t be silly, Stephanie. Leaving our friendship here would make it so unfulfilling. We still have so many things to do together. You haven’t even seen my performance for the talent show yet, you know?” I said, as I embraced her warmly.
“Is it weird that I only find the way you say my full name comforting?” she asked suddenly, and I could feel her smile as she rested her head on my elbow. “It irks me when my other friends and even family do that.”
“Stephanie,” I called out her name. “It’s a pretty name. And no, it’s not weird at all. ‘Isabella’ is my full name, and it also irks me sometimes when people say it.”
“Isabella,” she said suddenly, her voice soft and unsure, like she was testing the way my name would roll off her tongue.
“Stephanie.”
“Isabella.”
“Stephanie.”
“Isabella.”
And just like that, we were being our weird, goofy selves again, giggling and guffawing together while cracking cringe-worthy one-liner jokes. The moon beamed at us brightly as the trees swayed in the wind, like nature was happy for us two. It was then when I realised that I would not trade our midnights together for anything in the world.
Written By: Julia
Edited By: Hoe Yan
