I peered out of my classroom, checking if the coast was clear. I looked right, left, then right again. I closed my eyes, letting out a sigh of relief. I opened the door and quickly went into the crowd of kids. I thought for sure I was safe given I was blending into the crowd. I was using the same pace of walking, head down staring at the ground. But somehow, they found me.
I yelped in surprised when I felt a sudden tug at the back of the collar of my sweater. I was jerked backwards and lifted off my feet. Turned around, I met my captor, more specifically, captors. The Musketeers looked at me with the same identical grins. Declan was the one who was holding me up by the collar.
"Why, hello there, Naomi," Jordan said cheerfully.
I sighed in defeat. "Hey."
"Y'know..." Jordan mused. "We haven't seen you all day. And if I didn't know any better, I'd think you were avoiding us."
I let out a laugh. "Me? Avoid you? What are you talking about?"
"That's the same thing I was telling the guys," Jordan pointed out. "There couldn't be any possible way that you would avoid the three of us."
"Until we saw you in the hall and you began to walk the other way," Bennett said.
All three of them nodded in agreement.
I sighed again in defeat. "Fine. I am avoiding you guys. But don't take it per- Okay, take it personal."
Jordan crossed his arms and shook his head in disappointment. "Oh, Naomi. You should know better."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "Know what?"
He grinned mischievously. "You can't run away from the Musketeers."
"It's not possible."
"Not. At. All."
For the third time, I sighed in defeat. "I figured as much."
Declan set me back on the ground and pat me on the head, giving me a small smile.
"Now the question on our mind is..." Jordan said, as he circled around me, "Why were you avoiding us in the first place?"
"You didn't seem to mind hanging out with us Saturday," Declan said.
"And you told us we could pick you up today," Bennett reminded me. "But when we got to your house, we were waiting for you almost an hour until we figured that you must have already left."
The three of them looked at me with the same questioning look.
"I take the bus to school," I said matter-of-fact. Though, not the way you're thinking of.
"But that doesn't explain why you're avoiding us today at school," Jordan said.
"W-well it's because..." I trailed off and looked away. "It's because I didn't want to be such a bother."
"Such a bother?" All of them asked in unison.
I blinked. "Do you guys rehearse that?"
"No," they said simultaneously.
They looked at each other. "Stop that."
"No, you stop that."
Bennett sighed and looked back at me as the other two continued to argue in unison.
"I'm telling you to stop that."
"Not me, you."
"You!"
"Why do you think you'll be a bother?" He asked me.
Declan and Jordan stopped midway of yelling another thing in unison and looked at us.
"I don't know why," I said honestly, feeling a bit embarrassed. "I just- I just didn't want us to be seen together. It's already bad enough that we went to the party together in front of the whole school. But now that we are in school, it's best we avoid each other."
"And why should we do that?" Bennett asked.
"It's because we have popularity statuses to begin with," I told them. "You guys are more popular than me. Just being seen next to me is dropping your statuses by the minute. I just thought that if we just were seen together at school, it'll be alright."
Jordan snorted. "That's the stupidest thing I have ever heard."
"Well, it isn't," I said hotly. "That's not the only reason I'm avoiding you. I never had friends before, okay?" I snapped, making them flinch in surprise. "So don't blame me if I don't know what to do with this friend thing. Do we walk to classes? Do we hang out? Do we eat together in lunch? I just don't know."
They were all silent for a moment.
"I'm sorry, Naomi," Jordan said, lowering his head in embarrassment. "I shouldn't have said that."
I crossed my arms and looked away. "Well... whatever. It's alright, I guess."
"How about this?" Bennett said. "We just do whatever seems right to you. You don't have to worry what it's like to be a friend with someone. It really comes to you naturally when being with friends."
"Yeah," Jordan agreed, ruffling my hair in my annoyance. "I mean... when we first met each other, we hated each other's guts."
Really?" I asked in surprised. "Then how come you're friends now?"
He shrugged. "Let's just say we were forced to under certain "circumstances", and we later became pretty close." He paused and smiled back at his friends who wore the same smile. "But that's another story."
"Okay," I said. Then I looked down at my imaginary watch. "Well, look at the time." I turned around on my heel and began to walk away. "I should be going to my next-"
Once again, I felt another tug on my collar, having me drag back to them.
"Nuh-uh-uh," Jordan said in sing-song. "Friends don't avoid each other unless they did something unspeakable. Then you should avoid them if you value your life."
"Yeah, like losing their earphones," Declan offered.
"Yeah, like losing their-" Jordan looked at Declan in surprise. "Wait, what?"
Declan shrugged innocently. "One moment it was there, the next it was gone."
"You said I must have misplaced it," Jordan said.
"Well it was really me that misplaced it. You should have just changed the pronouns, I guess."
"Why you little-" Jordan was about to jump Declan when Bennett grabbed the back of his collar and pulled it, making Jordan crash backwards onto the ground.
"Guys, no fighting," Bennett said. "Especially when-" He paused and looked around. "Wait, where's Naomi?"
But I was long gone.
-
I was able to successfully avoid the boys the whole day. The last two periods were tricky of course, given I had Jordan for fifth period, chemistry and Declan for sixth period, P.E. But we girls have a natural excuse for skipping class that Mother Nature gave us...
The time of the month.
Thanks to this, we are able to skip class if we feel even a little cramp. Of course, it isn't really my time of the month, but no one has to know that, much less want to check if I'm lying or not. I'm supposed to be in P.E right now, but with my excuse, I was in the nurse's office, but not for another bully-made bruise. I have service as an elective, meaning I usually am an assistant to any of the offices, doing the boring work like filing, sweeping, that sort of thing. I'm usually stationed in the nurse's office with Mrs. Matthews, a pretty nice lady. This isn't the first time I've done this sort of thing. But she doesn't mind this. She's just happy she has some company.
Of course, it's weird enough having a nerd actually skip classes. But with my bullying, this should be an exception. Besides, I could skip school for weeks and my grades wouldn't be scratched at the least. Also, it's not like anyone would notice that I was gone, unless they wanted a punching bag or to steal my homework. But there are other nerds to use.
I'm just the most popular nerd to do those things, that and the most hated.
Soon the bell rang, marking another end of a school day. I waved goodbye to Mrs. Matthews before walking out of the nurse's office. I was worried that if I left the school now, the guys would be waiting for me. So I thought it would be best to out-wait the waiting. Instead of walking towards the exit of this prison, I walked the other way and went deeper into the prison towards the only sanctuary.
The library.
It was the safe haven of nerds alike. Not only for its peace and quiet, or even the endless number of books waiting for you. But no one would ever dare to step into this place. No one would just go into a library for the fun of it. Only nerds do that. This is the base where no one could go through. This is where I usually hide to when being chased by bullies, well there's also the west wing of the school, but this is the most preferred place for a nerd. The west wing is the most preferred place if you want to value your life. This must be the last place the guys will find me, this is my territory.
I have decided to wait here for a couple of hours until I decided that it was safe to leave. A couple of hours may seem a lot to you, but it's honestly a small amount of time to me. I could spend the whole day in this library, or the city's public library, just being surrounded my piles of books of my choosing. And if I finished with those, I still have the endless rows of books the library has in store for me. Well for the public, but mostly for me.
I was already done with all my classwork, homework, and studying for Friday's English test. But as a certified nerd, there is no such thing as done. So instead of doing nothing, I did the classwork and homework for the next week and the week after that. I usually ask the teachers if I could have next week's work so I could be ahead of the class. Plus, I want to be able to study further into the subject that I could do the tests blindfolded.
Sitting at the table at the back of the library, I went to work. I hung my canvas bag on my chair, opening my binder that held my school essentials. I had taken out all of the textbooks necessary for today's study session: previous notes of my various classes (I keep all of them, but usually just carry last week's notes and leave the rest in my room), a stack of three hole punch paper, my favorite purple pental pencil, with a spare gray one if I lose it, including 0.7 lead if it runs out of it, with various writing utensils such as highlighters and pens. And before I forget, I also have the most important school essential, my brain of course (tapping my head).
I clapped my hands together. "Let's get to work," I announced proudly.
"Shh," the librarian told me.
"Sorry," I muttered in embarrassment. "Let's get to work," I said more quietly.
Already an hour or two, maybe three had passed by. You can lose track of time here. And like they say, time goes by when you're having fun. Though, I have a different definition of fun with most people. I had finished all of my homework and classwork for AP literature, AP chemistry, calculus, then last but not least, history.
For history, we were currently learning about population diversity and human rights. Of course, human rights isn't just the right to be human, it's a whole set of articles giving the rights of humans. We learned that we were supposed to make an essay about this last week, and I had already finished writing it. But I still want to write down more notes of books about it in the library, writing down my sources, and edit my essay itself with a red pen. Once I was finished, I began to rewrite my essay with a black pen. Mrs. Davis always wanted essays to be hand-written in pen. You wouldn't believe how many times she refused to grade essays that were either written in pencil or typed and printed.
I read aloud in concentration as I re-wrote my essay. "'All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.' An excerpt of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights..."
I paused to massage my hand which was already getting a cramp (laugh if you get it), then I went back to writing."...This article means all humans are born equal and free in pride and rights. We're worth the same and have the same rights as everyone else. We are able to know right from wrong, and should accept one another... The whole reason, the whole purpose of human rights is for humans to be respected to each other not because they have to, but because they are human. Discrimination don't matter as long as you're human, we are all human, and that's what counts. This article doesn't just stand for human rights, it stands for humanity..." I suddenly trailed off and was left staring at my essay.
I couldn't help but chuckle at the irony of having to write an essay about human right. My bullies don't respect me. They don't treat me equally as themselves and others. In human rights, they say that violating any of the articles will put you to jail.
Then how come bullying isn't being stopped?
I shook my head and continued to write. I was almost done with the essay, just a few more sentences and then I'm free to read any of the books in the library.
"Hello Naomi."
In surprise, I accidentally broke my pen under my hand. I let out a sigh as I watched the ink drip off my hand and onto my paper. The ink then began to spread throughout my essay like the plague. What a waste of a good pen...
I looked up from my essay and saw the Musketeers. They all sat opposite from me on the table. Declan looked rather bored, tapping a beat on the table as he tried to balance his chair on one leg. If he wasn't so far away, I would be tempted to give him just one little push. Bennett leaned against the table, reading my copy of my assigned book for AP lit with one hand, the other hand in his pocket. He looked engrossed into the book, easily turning the page with his thumb. Then there was Jordan, who sat directly across from me. It was him that took me by surprise and having me ruin my essay. His head resting under his hand that was propped on the table. He looked at me in amusement, actually enjoying watching me studying.
"Hello boys," I greeted back in a dull tone.
I leaned over the table and swatted Jordan's arm under him. His chin hit the table, making Declan burst out laughing and for Bennett to slightly look up from the book before returning to it.
"What did you do that for?" He whined, rubbing his chin.
"Paper," I simply replied, grabbing a few pieces of paper from the stack that was under his elbow.
I moved the inky paper away and wrapped it around a clean piece paper. Then I used another sheet to clean up the leftover ink. I crumbled all of the papers together into an inky paper ball. There was a wastebasket a couple feet away from my table. With the ball in hand, I held my arm back, aimed then threw the paper towards the basket. It made a clean shot into the wastebasket.
All three of them made a low whistle in unison, even Bennett paused from reading to do that.
I wiped the rest of the ink from my right hand on my jeans, and then held out my hand to Jordan. He got it and handed me a clean sheet of paper. I got a spare pen and began to re-write my final draft of my essay from scratch.
"Here we see a nerd in its natural habitat," Jordan noted, writing it down on an imaginary notepad with an imaginary pen. "As you can see, she is re-writing an essay..." He began to continue saying aloud notes as I did my writing. "... with her furious writing of her will to write- Oh wait, she's setting her pen down on the table. She's grabbing a hardcover book, quite bigger than the average book. Oh look, she's lifting it into the air, and-"
He was cut off when I hit the spine of the book on top of his head. Jordan's head hit the table with a small thud, quieter than the thud when the book hit his head.
"Ow."
Declan burst out laughing again pointing at Jordan, almost falling off his chair. Bennett looked up from The Odyssey, and I saw a hint of a smirk he thought he was hiding from behind the book, before going back to reading.
"How long have you been here?" I asked distractedly as I continued to write my essay.
Jordan had recovered from my book attack, sitting back up on his chair. He thought for a moment then shrugged. "Long enough."
I scoffed. "But what are you three doing here?" I asked them, not bothering to look up from my essay. "I thought you'd had left already."
"On the contrary," Bennett said, lowering the book to look at me. "We happened to be looking for you this whole time."
I paused from writing, the pen suddenly freezing mid-sentence. But I caught myself and continued the sentence. "You have? How come?"
"We obviously wanted to spend the rest of the day with you," Jordan said. "And if we couldn't, then we could have at least dropped you off at your house."
"It took a while to find you here in the first place," Declan said, pausing to yawn. "This school is bigger than it looks. We had to search everywhere, and when I mean everywhere, I mean everywhere."
I paused for a moment, letting that sink in. They wasted their own time just to find me. I thought they had already left the school, not giving me a second thought. When really they were looking for me.
"It wasn't until we realized that you could have been in the most obvious and last place we'd think of going," Bennett said, shaking his head a bit for their stupidity. "The library."
I couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Yeah, this is my safe space. Anyway, I just wanted to work on this essay and I didn't want to keep you guys. I'm sorry that you wasted your time looking for me," I told them, turning the first-draft essay over to continue copying. "You should have left once school ended. If you want to leave, the door is right there-" I said, pointing to the library door with my pen.
The guys didn't follow the direction of the pen, they didn't leave their gazes on me.
"That's the thing," Jordan said as he rubbed at the spot he was hit with my book, "we don't want to leave."
"We'll just stay here once you're done," Bennett told me, now taking a seat on the table.
"Don't mind us, take your time," Declan assured me, then going back to tapping to a beat on the table.
Honestly, I don't know what to do then. The three of them had already wasted their time looking for me in this school. And they're willing to wait some more until I'm finished with my work. Is that what friends do for each other? Do they willingly waste their time for their friends only for the hope of hanging out with them? I thought that they would ditch their friends the first chance they get to do things, leaving their friends behind. Maybe I was wrong about them, which is a good thing.
"What's this?" Jordan asked as he picked up the notes for English.
"My notes on the The Odyssey, the book that Bennett is reading," I said, snatching the papers out of his hand. "They give you a better understanding of the-" Bennett suddenly plucked the notes out of my hand and began to read them.
"What about this?" Jordan asked, looking down at a worksheet. "Ooh, this looks hard."
"Well, you better hope it's easier than it looks," I told him. "That's next week's classwork."
"This?" He asked in disbelief. "Can I copy them?" He pleaded, giving me a small pout.
"Nope," I said, grabbing it back. "You can do your own-" I was cut off by the sound of a camera click. I looked at Jordan as he turned my hand, having it turn the page so he could take a picture of it. But before he could, I swatted his hand away and stuffed the worksheet into my bag.
"So..." Jordan said. "What'cha doing?" He asked me, cocking his head to the side.
"Writing an essay," I answered.
"About what?"
"Human rights."
Jordan frowned. "Is that the right to be human or is it that humans are always right?"
I couldn't help but chuckle at the last part. "No, it's not the last part. It's..." I paused and sighed, knowing I have to explain this. "But it's close to the first one. It's really a set of basic rights and freedoms given to all humans."
"I know."
I blinked. "Excuse me?"
"I said I already know," Jordan said, smiling at me. "I just wanted to hear you explain it."
I glared at him, but let it slide. I don't know why someone would want to actually hear an explanation they already know.
"But what I want to know," Jordan mused. "Is what's the use of human rights, when most people don't acknowledge yours?" I knew he didn't mean yours as a person themselves, he meant me literally.
I opened my mouth to answer, but no words came out. That was the same thing I was asking myself. What is the use of human rights? If I have them, how come no one cares about it?
"The whole point of human rights is for everyone to be treated equally, regardless of any discrimination. Not only do human rights stand for humans, but for the individual human. It's the idea that all humans should be respected the moment they were born. Not because the rights tell you to, it's because that's just what we're supposed to do. You treat someone with equal respect, period," I said. "But in my case, no one does. People are breaking practically three, maybe four articles bullying me-" referring to articles one, five, six, and seven "-They shouldn't be bullying me in the first place because I have rights, but they don't care about that."
"We do," Bennett said, setting the book down with the notes between the pages as a bookmark. "We care about your rights. We treat you with equal respect." I couldn't help but smile at this.
"And lots of other people must too," Declan pointed out. "Like your parents, family, or a stranger on the street."
I shook my head. "Sure, they count. But what about everyone else? Not just me, but other people in the world. Some countries don't even recognize human rights, and even with the countries that do, people still violate them. What's the worth of human rights when they aren't being used properly?"
The three of them were silent, not knowing how to answer this.
"It's so simple to get human rights," I continued. "The moment you're born-" I snapped my fingers "-you have them, just like that. It's because you're human, having a complex brain, walking upright, having opposable thumbs, using a language, using tools, wearing clothes, being human is simple. But acting human is different. If someone violates human rights, whether known or not known, do they still have those rights? Of course they do, that's because they're human. But do they deserve those rights? That depends... That person is still human, so yes, they still deserve those rights. But what that person did was still unforgivable, inhuman, and shouldn't deserve those rights. In the end, they still have it. I think that's the only flaw of human rights. Sure, the whole point of it has a good reason. But no one can control whether someone can have those rights or not, that's the whole point. It would be unfair if someone were to control if someone could have human rights or not, and that power could easily be given to the wrong hands."
Jordan rubbed his temples. "But it still doesn't explain what the point of having rights if you're not respected for having them."
"Maybe it does," I argued. "Maybe human rights really depend on the person individually. It depends on the person if they both deserve those rights, or to respect someone else's rights. To them, those kids think that I don't deserve human rights or to be respected. But to them, those kids think you guys deserve those rights and should be respected. To me and you guys, we think those kids don't deserve those rights, and that we shouldn't respect them. But to them, those kids do think they deserve those rights and to be respected. So that only means one thing."
"What is?" Declan asked me.
"That in the end, popularity triumphs all," I concluded, not satisfied by this. "Popularity should have never been thought to be connected to human rights, but it is. The upper class would never give a second glance to people of the lower class, they would think those people are beneath them, that they don't have human rights and shouldn't be respected. The same goes for people of the lower class. They would think they are all the same, that they don't deserve to have human rights or to be respected for not even give them respect."
"But there would always be that handful of people of either class that won't care about that," Bennett told me. "An upper class person would give charity, or a lower class person would admire a celebrity. Also you can't forget about the middle class people. They could think either for the two classes.
I nodded at this. "Yes, you're right about that, like the three of you for example. You guys are in the upper class, and you shouldn't give me a second glance, but you did. Also I would think all upper class people are the same, but you guys proved me wrong. We are an exception," I said. "But even if we are the exception, we still can't forget about the others. Popular kids don't respect unpopular kids. Few unpopular kids don't respect popular kids, the rest do respect them, but it's either out of jealousy or fear.
"What's the whole point of this conversation when nothing changes?" Jordan demanded, frowning. "You're not respected when you should be-"
"-is only your opinion," I finished. "Popularity doesn't just control human rights. What really does matter is the person itself. Human rights don't only mean all humans, but the individual human. What matters is when the person themselves respects you, not the majority that is or has to be respecting you. What counts is when you respect that person and they respect you back. Not when it's a one-sided respect or mutual disrespect. I don't care about those people who don't respect me, because I don't respect them. I respect you and you respect me. That's what counts in the end, right?"
Jordan grinned, "Right."
"Yup," Declan said.
"Of course," Bennett agreed.
Suddenly I said, "Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno."
The Musketeers looked at me weirdly when I said this. Obviously, they wouldn't know the meaning of this. I was about to translate the meaning of the phrase, but they cut me to it.
"One for all, and all for one," they said in unison, translating the Latin phrase.
The three of them wore identical smiles. And I couldn't help but smile back.
Jordan's smile grew. "We know that phrase anywhere."
"It's a motto we live by," Bennett said.
Declan finished, "And now it's a motto you live by."
Sharing a final smile, we went back to what we were doing. Bennett went back to reading my class copy of The Odyssey. Declan went back to tapping to a beat on the table, now humming to it. And Jordan went back to reading my finished work. I took a new sheet of paper and titled it as, "The Right to be Human Essay".
I guess I'll have to start from scratch.
I came up with a library scene, but I knew it wouldn't work at the middle of the story. So I decided to add this chapter here. I hope you all enjoyed it.
The excerpt Naomi was writing as her essay is actually from my own essay of human rights. The whole conversation actually came from my essay, but I added a few things. If any of you are curious or just bored, be sure to check out my essay if you want. It's called, "The Right to be Human: The Purpose Behind Human Rights". If you have the chance to read it, I hope you all enjoy.
It was a nice change writing this chapter when Naomi barely knew the guys and was still getting used to them. I like this chapter, it was both meaningful. And it has a foreshadowing somewhere. Let's see who can find it...
Now go on and read the next chapters, it's waiting for you.
RubixCube89201