WONDERING WANDERER: A Day from my School

I don't even remember what day it was that I am writing about now. One of the school-days however.That's how I distuingish between'em. Ofcourse, I will grow up to become one of the biggest school-haters there ever were.

Anyways, it was the kind of the day when nothing went good. I don't write 'everything went bad' because I wasn't humiliated or embarassed or laughed at but my conscience failed to show up the spirits it had promised to, which resulted in the day not being normal. But whoever heard of school going to be normal for a teenager like me?



         The car stopped outside the barcadded area of the school. Mind you, the infrastructure of the school is unlikely to impress anyone. As far as I believe, there is nothing about our school that impresses me. I got out of the car and banged the door shut a little hard than I had meant to. Oops. No, that wasn't because of the everyday-school-blues. My driver stared at me. I think he's typical. But sometimes I feel sorry for him.

                             I didn't utter a thing and and started walking fastly to avoid my three-year-younger cousin sister's company, something which is neither bright nor interesting but very boring. She did catch on me a few seconds later, jabbering as usual about things I really didn't know or care.

"So, what about that movie, sis?"

"Er- "

"Did you finish downloading for it?"



Ofcourse, her stupid of a movie that she wanted to see so badly after it's fresh release just because her best friend now wanted to watch it too. Downloading that movie demanded extra one or two hours on the computer and that too, somewhere between 2'o clock and 6'o clock in the morning. These are the hours that I am supposed to be downloading anything big because these are the free hours of my internet.

It was easier to download anything I liked in the holidays ( I could wake up early, much to my mother's surprise, for the pleasure of watching movies and stuff that I heard jealously from other girls of my age ) but as school started again now, it became more and more difficult. I deeply detested waking up early now and it was more hard to be up all night. I am a morning person, as a matter of fact.



Now I was facing a proposal in a very non-polite way from my sister to download a movie of her kind which I knew too well to watch. She doesn't gives a damn if I am to be deprived of a few hours of sleep (something that every teenager adores more than their crushes ) and take her orders .



But my wonderful sister won't and shan't understand that.

I tried to persuade her that it's too hard now but with her constant irritable "PLEEEEEEASE!" and " Can't you do that for your sweet little sister?" I gave up. And so, here I was, walking with her and thinking of some short answer to give her because for the sake of my so-poor-health, I had not given a try to turn nocturnal and fulfill her wretched wish.



"I haven't. I told you, it's out of question if you have school six out of seven days and that too, so much early."

"Yes, but what will it take more than just being up for 2-3 hours in the morning for that?"

One Billion Pounds from your side and a punch aided with a kick from my side.





"What will it take? I hardly get time to dress up and have breakfast in just half an hour. And that work needs more than 1 hour alone. Incase, you haven't noticed, I am the one who makes you all late by five minutes almost everyday."

"OH! Just one day and then it's all over! Simple as THAT!" 

The impatient girl.

I said nothing. Now we were a little way from entering the building. I glanced up to get a sight of some classmate of mine. (I usually walk with my head down, like my spirits, on the way to my class.) Fortunately, I spotted Dylla, someone with beauty and brains. Exactly how I'd define her. She's excellent in academics as well as in looks.



"Dylla!"

She looked up and said hi.

I was relieved to have an excuse to get away from my sister and walked with Dylla.



I asked her about the maths homework dully. Then, I asked how she managed with time and some other kind of useless stuff, just to keep talking with her.



We walked in silence for a few moments till I entered our block. It didn't cheer me a bit when I looked at it. We climbed the stairs. I noticed that she looked far more smart in school uniform than me. I sighed silently. What did I expect myself to be? Perfect-Tween-Queen?



"So, what about that Chemistry Lab Manual and the Apron that sir told us to buy? You, er, bought all of it?"

"No, though I went to the shop yesterday but they said it'll arrive some 4-5 days later."

"Oh."

Saved me the trouble to do the same.

Reaching the second floor, we turned right. Our section was the second-farthest.

Right outside the first class on the way, there were the girls standing in the corridor I hated the most.

You would hate them too if they'd exactly fit the description of someone with a mixed character of London Tipton and Draco Malfoy and did nothing but spoil your life to the fullest. They had been doing that ever since from my sixth grade. All due to some misunderstanding. But every Diva wants an enemy of her to be made that is poorly coward to say anything, right? I think very low of them as they are not what you'd call 'polite' in general terms.



Two of them glared at me as I walked past them. Their common behaviour. Why are they all a 'seven'? Supposed to be a family number, as far as I think. But every one of them repels the definiton of 'innocent'.



One of them : my ex-best friend. Easily, I loathed her the most, partly because of what she had become now and partly because it was she who made the other six girls more easier to make my life worse by ditching my friendship suddenly at the end of December. Too long a story to tell. Why did it matter now? Most of the girls love this kind of dramatic life. I was one among them too until I encountered the real horror of it.

I couldn't think of any good feature of her that made her so much popular around our grade apart from the fact that she was good in sports and she talked rudely. I knew I was not Keira Knightley but atleast I looked better than her.





Dylla won't want to know about all that. She turned the talk to our coaching classes. Unlike in school, she wasn't in my section or 'batch' as they call it there.

"Who teaches Physics in your batch?"

" I don't know his name but he's not stern for one thing."

"Ours is a bit strict."



There came the Economics section. Outside sitting crowded on one single bench were some five-six boys. One whispered something and they looked at the pair of us. I hoped Dylla was their cause of whisper. I suddenly realised I had three pimples on my face which showed no signs to alter and I hung my head down again.



Finally, I reached my good-for-nothing class and entered.

There, already were two girls huddled around my bench, one of them that wore spectacles and shouted when she thought she was talking and one of them that was too formal on anything.



I sat with the formal girl Briana. She looked pretty, atleast she didn't have pimples growing on her face.

The one who wore specs was called April. No need to remind of the nth time that her name was really weird.

I smiled weakly at them and put my bulging bag down.

"Hi Stacy!" shouted April happily.

So enthusiastic. I couldn't think of any reason to be so happy in such kind of uninteresting morning.

"Hi." I replied in a tone so very different from hers.



I noticed the Physics Book in her hand. Something stabbed me in my stomach.

It was Physics in the second class.

I groaned and looked at the blackboard. There were still leftover signs of Dimensonal Formula on it.

I could be good in subjects when I wanted to but Physics took away my patience very often. Moreover I never fancied it much.



"What's the matter, Stacy? Had a row or something?" shouted April, seeing the expression on my face.

"No, Physics today. I still haven't studied that first chapter and I don't get what that Zombie Mam teaches us."



Our Physics Teacher wears specs too. Her eyes are so big and because she wears glasses that make them look over-large, she resembles a zombie. From her first class, I deduced from her eyes as if she had never slept for years which makes her look even more like a zombie.



April looked happy to hear that. "Well, neither did I. But now I seem to understand bits of it."

Just in day before yesterday's class, she was frantic while formulating the dimensions of Gravitational Constant and kept Braina and me interrupting and asking whether we got the answer.



You see, she sits just behind us and she sits alone. To a girl, sitting alone means something so much.

Especially for people like April, partners are necessary to gossip and laugh about silly things. I can't imagine her to sit alone for one full day without shouting and not disturbing others willingly.



So, she forces Briana to sit with her in most of the classes as Briana is the only good friend of hers in our new class.

Which leaves me to sit alone for 6 out of 8 classes instead. I really don't mind ( though it used to mean a lot to ME also, sitting alone in the past days ) infact, I feel almost glad to be alone. Away from their silly chattering about April's sisters and Briana's Tuitions.



It's not like I behave like Bella Swann but my best friend is in the other class and it's rather difficult to adjust with the newer students as it had always been she and me for the past five years. Everything changes in the Eleventh grade, like my elder brother tells me. And so it has been lately.



I tried to talk with them a few more seconds and after failing in the attempt, I went to my BFF's section to meet her and thinking of what to talk with her the way April and Braina used to. Actually after the classes started, I realised how much I missed her but in the intervals, it turned out, that we could find of nothing whatsoever to talk to. Just the new foreign students and some weirdos in them. I had no idea how the exciting atmosphere between us had started to evaporate. Still, she was the only one that I wanted to talk to now.



It was just beside my section as it was the farthest. ( Told you, my section is the second-farthest.)

My legs were not ready to move too quickly after climbling up two floors and walking a good distance. So, after drinking some water I went to her class to find her standing with a group of girls.

"Hi Skyler!" I said brightly. She just smiled.

Fine, I can be that lethargic too.



"So where are you in Maths now?" I asked her unable to keep numb after some time.

"Well, Sir is going rocket-fast. Completes one chapter in one day-"

"You already told me that."

"- and now we have arrived in Trigonometry."

"Good, I love Trigo."

"Hmm."

"You look tired. Didn't sleep all night?"

"I did."



Such short replies and I might as well go back to my class without even biding her goodbye.

I looked around at her class and noticed some girls doing homework probably, of -

"What are they all writing?"

"English. And that reminds me! How is my hair?"

"Er... It doesn't looks tired like you?"

Was that was she asking for?



"Tch, I meant it ain't untidy, is it? Our English Teacher is such a pain. Says I need a good trim after having a look at it." Sklyer said pointing at her pony.



Honestly, her hair was as okay as mine. Their English Mam must be fussy.

On my way back, I tripped and a couple of girls laughed at me.

Not at all flushed, I went up to Briana and stood next to her till Our Class Teacher arrived.



Physics wasn't that confusing. But still I couldn't understand no more of her teaching than her language. Honestly, teachers don't understand the way they speak can be alienable?



It was Maths actually which went bad. We were doing Trigo too, but unlike Skyler's class, Sir had directly arrived in that chapter.

Sir didn't ask again about the formulae like he did in the previous class. And hey, I hadn't learned them that much easily! But instead, he jumped to some new ones and asked us to prove them all.

I looked down in my notebook and read and re-read the formula I was supposed to prove on my own.

Two times I tried and twice I failed.

I was sitting alone so I couldn't even ask for help from Briana. Five minutes passed, still I could make no progress in it.

And there were students writing furiously fast in their notebook and some shouting "Proved, Sir!" and here was I thinking of saying "I love Trigo" to Skyler the same morning and not able to prove one of its formulas currently.



After few more minutes, Sir roared, "How many managed to do it?"

Less than half of the population raised their hands and I sat helplessly looking at them all. Sir was trying to look at the unsuccessful students now ( after looking at my face, he craned his neck for the last-benchers ). It was suddenly then Dylla looked directly behind from her row at me and I simply don't know, what kind of an expression it was, but it struck me as something rarely did. And suddenly, I felt ashamed of myself. I wasn't usually a dim student like this especially in Maths, so what had happened to me? But still I wasn't like Dylla.



Sir didn't stand me up or ask me about any formulae but I felt as if that look of Dylla had done it all. I kept thinking as if her expression meant "What? She couldn't?.. Oh well- she's, yeah, no more interested in studies"



Once again, I say, I really don't know what her face meant that time ( I even doubt if she thought like that for real ) but it looked as if I had let her expectations down. I felt an unpleasant feeling caught inside me and that's when I decided that I would put myself to long hours of study. I would study and study maths the following evening until I crack.

                   During recess, I ate my lunch. By 'ate' I mean trying to gobble down my lunch while talking and laughing at the same time. But I couldn't give a match to the kind of noise the girls right outside our class were making.



It was seconds after I came to know that they were having a row with some guy. Undoubtedly, someone good-looking or else it will too unpopular an argument for them to discuss later on. Who else would they mess with? I wanted to roll my eyes but at the same moment, two girls of our class entered.



One of us asked them about the chaos they were making outside.

"What's with them?"



The girl named Christie answered it. I think she looks very cute.

"Oh, they are annoyed at that guy you see standing over there." She pointed at the boy whose back was all I could see. " Ann's specially. She says that guy, Trey or whatever, cancelled her name on purpose from the competition."

Ann Bramson. The girl with so much of front teeth and attitude. I recalled that she had braces. I also recalled that she was liked by very few and had a really rubbish behaviour. I mimed her instantly.

"Oh mwy gwawd! You didn't dwaw my bwaces in the poster, did you?"



I got shoves from both of my friends standing there and Christie and her friend's eyes widened.

Uh oh. I got the feeling of doing something sheepish.

My friend dragged me away from them as quickly as I had mimed Ann.



"Shut up, you! Why the hell did you speak infront of them like that?" She seemed tensed and angry, both.

"Are there any restrictions?" Man, I still was trying to pretend I know when to use my large mouth.

She tch-tched, a really long one.

Ok, no pretendence now.

"Is- Is one of them a friend of hers?" I asked feeling a bit low.

"That one." My friend pointed to the girl with Christie.

I suddenly felt sick. So probably Christie must be their friend too.

I looked at them again. They were talking in whispers which deepened my worries.



"Will they tell Ann about it?"

"I dunno. Maybe. But if she does comes to know about all this, you'll be fore-warned."

I looked at her.

"She's in my class, you forgot?"

"OH! I forgot, yeah. Why do you all guys have to be in one class? You and Skyler both?" I said suddenly.

"Think like that? We've got Ann too. Such thrills." She said, making a face.

"Whatever, every class needs a joker. Anyways, if she and her friends find out about all this, they'll not turn an arguement like they did with Trey, will they?"

I guessed she was doubting whether to answer that correctly or not.

"I really don't know. They love stuff like this. You know, barking like mad and all. Don't worry, if something happens, we'll turn something into nothing. It really shouldn't matter to you."



I couldn't think of what to say to my friend.

"Umm...Ok. Well, tell Miss Busy Fussy all about this. Anyways, I am going to call her tonight." Skyler, it seemed sure to me, was not in a condition of eating as I was already told that she was busy doing her English notes this very moment in her class, missing her lunch.

"Fine, catch you later. Bye, have fun!"

"Yes, bye."

And off she went.



Certainly, Christie and her friend had stopped whispering now but none of them were looking at me. I wanted signs to know that I hadn't messed up with them.

The fact is that I had had enough of humiliation from those Divas. I just couldn't have anymore of it. It makes life unbearable, believe me. Somehow, you'll always be out-voted and out-numbered in cases like this.



Forget about entertaining your friends, when others don't forget HOW you did entertain them.

I really shouldn't think this much about such a small thing. But oh damn, didn't I tell you!

I think too much, more than anyone and about almost everything.





Two classes of non-confusing Chemistry, one on Computer ( Wow, programming isn't hard!) and one on English ( We're still in the first chapter ) and here the day ended.



I stood in a line waiting for the stupid younger students to move quickly. How can they be so slow at the end of a school day? I mean, I'd never be more happier to leave this terrible place. Like the school-traitor I am.



Someone tapped on me from behind. "Stacy!"

I turned. Some girl I had never talked to but it was no mistaking that she was Ann's friend. I froze.

She was laughing for one thing.

"Oh Oh Oh! I meant, that girl!" She said and moved her menacing eyes to a girl with a mouse-like face.

I didn't say anything. I doubted if their idol would be more sensible than Sharpay Evans.



So, she doesn't knows about all this. Not yet. My eyes searched for Christie. She was way ahead of me. I could see her pony moving as she was talking non-stop. I scanned the area for Miss Braces.

But finally the line moved. And I had to turn my head as that menacing girl behind me shouted " Move, Stacy!" and giggled.



One quick slap and she won't talk anymore. I thought angrily.

I arrived slowly at my car and glumly, went inside and sat.

My sister was already there.

"Hey sis! How was your day? You look sad, what's the matter?"

I NEVER am in a mood to chat merrily to someone an eight grader about how my day went. Especially, my sister. She bores me to the core. Am serious!



I ignored her as usual.

She ignored my silence as usual.

"Well, we had three free periods today and you know, this boy of our class cracked such a dumb joke infront of our History teacher. I mean, dumb as I didn't think it was a funny joke at all but you know, the whole class laughed."



What's the point? Can't she just tell the joke and think how brilliant she is by making others laugh?

Without looking at her I said, " I think am sick. I don't feel like talking" And I really did feel sick, deep inside.



It seemed to lighten up her mood more. No interruptions and she could carry on with her nonsense.

More than her endless poor jokes, more than reaching home, more than anything, I wanted this day to end.



Nothing good and nothing bad. Neutral, that's how I should have been. The worse will be waiting tomorrow, no doubt. So, I think I mentioned that school days would never be normal for me, huh? There you are.



As the car moved into the clearing on the road, I gazed non-pointlessly at the passers-by thinking of Ann Bramson and Dylla's look.





So, here I finish my typing. You'd be probably bored and won't want to know what Ann did do and how I did in the next Maths class. Anyways, am off now.



Long Live The School-Traitors !