Anonymous Part 1

Chapter 5- Wishful Thinking Of Two Nutjobs

Chapter-5 WISHFUL THINKING OF TWO NUTJOBS
The hallways were full alive this morning. Next three months of this session were going to be quite eventful. Chess tournament was almost round the corner. The school was holding a few Olympiads too. The Christmas holiday. And then there was a Football Championship coming soon. But what was causing the real excitement among the students was the Prom Night.
The group of cheer leaders and the football team followed by a considerable crowd came to the hallway. The students cheered for the team. Harry and the other guys laughed, high fived the students. Kent could see the banners of his team. The main banner having his picture in his jersey right in the center with his team flanking him. And then the team finally saw their captain watching them from a distance. They all smiled broadly and proudly at their captain. The cheerleaders woohooed for him, inviting him to join the crowd. Kent raised his eyebrow at the lot. It was quite a dead panned stare. Like, seriously? They were inviting him? The crowd kinda getting his clue soon dispersed to the other direction resuming their parade.
Kent shook his head at this hopeless flock. What is there to be so excited about? This happens like every year. Students passed him in the hallway as he took the books for his next class. They were all so hyped up about all of this. Kent could feel a smile creeping to his face. Soon they would be brooding and sulking. The faculties were about to put notices of the upcoming tests, their courses and schedules.
There were still 10 minutes before the next class. He thought of going to the class early to have some peace but suddenly his phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and cringed seeing the ID of the caller. Taking a breath to calm his nerves, he answered it.
“ Hello Dad.”
“ I heard there’s a chess tournament in around 20 days. Why aren’t you participating in it?” Kent sighed a little defeated. Of course his father knew about the events in the school. His family was one of the names whose donations helped this institute up and running.
“ I am already engaged somewhere else Dad. I’ve my tests coming soon. Then I’ve participated in the Physics Olympiad coming next month. And out Football Championship is also in the schedules.”, Kent tried to reason with his dad although to no avail.
“ This still doesn’t explain why aren’t you in the tournament.”, his dad replied sternly.
“ The school gives priorities to the Chess Club for such tournaments. They already filled the entries. I couldn’t enter even if I wanted to.”, Kent found his voice shaking a bit.. It was quite the same as always. No matter how hard he pushed himself, he just couldn’t live up to his father’s expectations.
“ Do you know I’ve been invited to present the trophies and medals at the tournament. Can you imagine how embarrassing it’d be for me to see you sitting there on the bench while I give them to some one else! You are a disgrace Kent.” His father hung up the after that. Kent’s eyes widened a little. He was almost choking by now. The bell ringing for their next class snapped him out of his fazed state. He pushed down the lump that was forming in his throat and walked towards his Maths  class. Many students passed by him but not one could understand the loneliness he had behind those cold eyes.
He sat on his fixed seat among the last rows of the class. He opened his book and started reading the lesson they were going to discuss today. He had already read this last week. So right now he just couldn’t concentrate on those numbers. His father’s voice rang in his ears. His shouting echoed and Kent had to close his eyes tight shut to make the voices go away.
Finally his father’s voice did go away. The shoutings in his head stopped. But peace didn’t come to him. Rather a laugh penetrated his mind. He opened his eyes and saw Sean entering the class. He laughed and joked with yet another group. Kent tried to recognize them. They were probably the music group, but he wasn’t sure.
Soon they separated and he noticed Sean searching the class. As his eyes found Kent, he grinned broadly waving at him. Kent dropped his gaze and tried concentrating again on his notes.
“ Hey Pete, Ir, what’s up guys?”, Kent again found his attention diverted by Sean. He was around 5 rows away from him. He was probably coming to sit with him but stopped to talk to the Chess group again.
“ I know right! That was freaking awesome!”, Sean high fived that Pete guy and the group laughed with him. Kent couldn’t understand it. Sean has been in this school for like what? 2 months! And already he has such a busy social life. Kent could remember how socially awkward Sean was in his initial days but now he sure seemed like a smooth talker to anyone he met. They all smiled and laughed with him like his euphoria was infectious.
Someone cleared their throat from the front of the class. Their teacher had arrived and was now glaring down at Sean. “ Settle down Class. And find a seat Mr. Evans.”
Sean grinned at his teacher mock saluting him before turning to walk towards Kent. But Irene stopped him, “ Why don’t you sit with us today Sean? We’d really like that.” Kent noticed the beautiful smile twinkling in her eyes.
Sean opened his mouth to reply as he turned to look at Kent’s direction but suddenly flinched. “ Err... you know what? I think its probably a good idea.”
Kent frowned at the weird reaction Sean gave him. He turned around and saw Kate sitting right behind him passing flirtatious smile in Sean’s direction. A small smile crept to his face as he shook his head. But soon enough that smile dropped when he noticed the empty seat right besides him.
This shouldn’t bother him, should it? He groaned. He was seriously loosing his ability to ignore the people around him. No matter how hard he would try and hear the lesson but his ears could still perceive two laughs among all the students, Sean and Irene.