Second day of class, nothing out of the usual.. or that’s at least how it seems, Lev’s late… and so is Claire, there’s only 30 minutes left till the bell rings. And.. well, Andrew is sitting in his chair… we are a seat away from each other, and he has a nervous expression…. He looks kind of sick.
I grabbed my book and started reading, it’s named “The place where miracles happen” it’s a long title, I know but it’s an interesting story about this girl who’s almost perfect with the downside of a deadly disease, I know it sounds cliché but it depicts a life full of bliss and calm despite all the troubles, I like it. Suddenly a brisk of wind passed me, and a presence was standing in front of me…. Andrew, It’s Andrew, saying hello in a shaky voice. I replied with a “Hi!” and then came back to reading… “ Can we talk?” he asked, “S-sure…” I replied, he sat back in his seat as awkwardness freely filled the air. I faced him as he faced me“I’m Andrew, Andrew Denver.. you’re , Stellawr Roseandstein right?” he said I, weirdened out say “Yeah, it’s Est-tel-lure Ro-sen-stein.” Then it came, the cold and scary piercing glares from his admirers… I went back to my book, because this seems a bit too dangerous. Then I felt him walk to the back with his friends, and the glares finally let off. I continued reading, It’s probably one of those stupid dare games, boys do.. in which they’re supposed to talk to a girl and see how their charisma works out or something, and earn bragging rights. “How juvenile..” I whispered.
Claire finally came, Lev is missing in action and I was hoping to be friends with him today, not that I’m that interested in him or anything… I just want to have a reserved teammate if ever Claire goes absent, well, maybe I am hoping to have him as the guy friend, whatever. “Good morning!” Claire greets me with her oh so gracious smile. “Do you know, that there’s a girl intensely staring at you?” she whispered “what?” I whispered back. “ 3rd row, middle column, in the same line as you.” She whispered again. “ Hmmm… that’s probably a hardcore admirer of Andrew” I whispered back. “Oh, I missed something?” she asked, with a grin. “Andrew, approached me… very awkwardly and introduced his name and pronounced mine inaccurately.” I answered. “Oh!” she exclaimed with a grin still stuck in her face. “It’s probably a dare by his friends, ridic right? Introducing to a stranger because of a dare, and failing at it on the way.” I said. “Hmm… are you sure it’s a dare?” she asked with a soft chuckle. “ Yeah, what else would it be?” I said. She stared at my face and suddenly goes “Whatever you say.” “And you know, just because someone looks good doesn’t mean that they would be bashing on every chance they get to catch attention… and it’s such a shallow thing to think that good looking people have rotten personalities, I mean it can be possible but not all the time.” She said, which pierced right through my thoughts… “Right… you’re the very personification of that philosophical statement.” I said, as we both chuckle. The bell rang, so everyone went back to their seats….
It’s homeroom and we were given an activity, which is to describe each other or do a mannerism of someone in a charade game, the class will guess who it is, we draw lots to see who will charade who. I got Lev, who is absent so there’s not much pressure for me, Claire got Alex Montgomery…
We are going to do the same sequence as the way we did our introductions…
My turn came and I stood awkwardly in front of the class, I took my handkerchief put it in my hand and then hunched, that’s all I did… then everybody knew who it was, and they shouted “Lev!!” in unison, then we all laughed. I was going for being “silent”, which apparently I did well… well they did answer correctly. Claire’s turn came , she stood in front, crossed her arms in her chest, and yawned… it took a while then the people in the back where Alex was sitting yelled “That’s ALEX!!” then she went back to her seat. It’s Andrew’s turn, he went in front, stands like a girl with a hand on his waist, then flips an imaginary hair…. Awkward silence filled the entire room, then we all started laughing out loud, even the teacher did… I myself was laughing so much, I had tears… he looked so weird, and funny, when everyone calmed down, again in unison we yelled “CLAIRE!!!” Obviously it was Claire’s signature move, the exact same thing she did with her introduction, hahahaha!! She was still laughing when Andrew took his seat and I and Claire told him good job, I added a thumbs up… then he looked flustered, I guess he was so nervous, although it didn’t look it when he was in front… then Claire tugged me with her shoulder then grinned…. I gave her a confused look, then she chuckled… she can be such a weirdo.
The girl who was staring at me earlier came for her turn carrying a book, she was staring at Andrew when she was walking towards the board, then she shifted her eyes on me and I saw a scary glare… It gave me chills. She opened the book brought it close to her face, covering her face. She just stood there like that very timidly, then Andrew suddenly yelled “ T-That’s Stellure!!”, the girl smiled with a very light expression as if she was a different person from the one who glared at me. Then she went back to her seat. I felt some glares after that, then Claire started chuckling softly.
Then a jerk-looking guy next to her seat went up and laughed with 3 other guys he was next to, he went in front, then started acting flamboyant, wiggling his hips while walking, and fixing his hair in a girly-manner, and he was calling out “brother~~”,we were laughing, but Andrew was silent and he looked uncomfortable… and was tapping his feet. The guy kept on doing it, we kept on laughing, but no one can guess who it was, then the guys he was laughing with shouted “That’s Walter, JEAN~~” Then everyone laughed except me, Claire and Andrew… Walter ran out of the room, he looked like he was about to cry. Claire gave him the stank eye, and said “You jerk!”, she ran out and followed Walter… I looked at Andrew and he was just sitting there… helplessly, he looked like he wanted to follow Walter but something was stopping him, the teacher was hopeless, he just sat there doing nothing… I followed them….
Their footsteps rang throughout the hallway, Then Walter stopped in a corner and sobbed, curling into a fetal position whispering “I’m not like that…” “I’m not…”. Claire was comforting him, saying “Don’t listen to them, they’re just jerks.” “Seriously, just because they’re bigger than you, they think they could do that.” I joined in and the three of us sat there…
When he finally calmed down, I suggested we go back to the classroom Walter insisted to go to the clinic and stay there till it’s allowed to go home. So, we went down to the clinic…
“Oh, hello Walter! Did it happen again?” The nurse asked. He nod and was rubbing his eyes, as if he was about to cry again. “Well, you have someone with you today… that’s nice” the nurse smiled at us with a very hearty and graceful face, I can tell that her kindness is genuine. “What do you mean it happened again? And why is it a surprise that he has someone he came with?” Claire asked, curious. “You don’t have time for now, you two should go back to class, I’ll take care of him for now.” The nurse said with a smile. We did as instructed, and went back to class… we asked the teacher for a permission for Walter’s absence in class and of course he was obliged to say it’s alright, then he thanked us.
We went back to our seats, as if nothing happened… doing something rash would only dig a deeper hole in the problem. Andrew was down on his desk, I can sense he feels bad about it.
We decided that we’d go to the clinic and fetch Walter…
We went as planned, then Walter was not there anymore the nurse said that his brother, Andrew fetched him already… He is his brother afterall…… We stayed hoping to learn about something about Walter. “I’ll answer your questions from awhile ago, but you would have to ask Walter himself about the whole story, I’m really happy someone finally wants to be his friend.” We sat and looked very eager to listen, we’re all ears on this one…
“Walter has always been bullied like that, he’s a usual target of it… it’s been three years, the bullying started when he was separated in class with his brother. You know what kids do, they make anarchies and the bigger you are the stronger you seem. Walter is a very frail kid from the start, his last friends betrayed him, they left him alone because he wasn’t close to his brother anymore… I don’t know why they became distant, but I guess it’s a sibling matter. Ever since he’s closed his heart to anyone, he didn’t want to feel the pain of being left anymore. And no-one approaches him, everyone gave up being his friend and more to that they also get threatened by the bullies to not get close to him… That’s all that I can say.” She said. Claire was in the verge of tears, I don’t know why… but it looks like the story struck her heart.
We decided to go home, so we thanked the nurse, and she told us “I feel you two have a very big potential to be able to help him.” I hope we really do, Claire looks like she really wants to help.. something’s weird about it, bullying seems to bring out sadness from her memories… I mean of course it does, it’s a sad and cruel thing…….
