Mrs Caitlin used the standout technique as a means of discipline for her students.
"Pist...pist," whispered someone behind Oliver. He turned around to see who it was, only to discover Jasper sitting on the seat behind him. Oliver didn't notice him sitting there when he was on his way to his seat.
Jasper had on his face, a happy grin from cheek to cheek, exposing a good number of his badly arranged set of teeth. Oliver quickly looked away from him after detecting some other kids giggling. They were probably laughing at the both of them, he thought. This was the wrongest of seats. He had no choice, he was going to be stuck with him the rest of the year.
"Now let's carry on with our lesson," said Mrs Caitlin, as the class bounced back into its previous mode of absolute tranquillity and silence. Oliver brought out his notebook and started solving the problems on the board.
Classwork was given by the teacher now. She shared the scripts chair by chair amongst the students. Getting to Oliver's sit, she looked at him thoughtfully and said,
"I don't know if I should give you this test. I mean, you just came here, and you weren't fully present during the lessons".
"But I feel like I should, it would at least, let me know your abilities," she said, at last, handing them to Oliver.
Everyone became so busy at once, unloading numbers on the sheets. When the time elapsed, they all submitted their scripts to the teacher, who began the marking. After marking, she returned the scripts to their owners, writing the corrections on the board before doing so.
"Well done Olivia, but I think you should work more on your calculations," she said, as she handed Olivia her script.
When she got to Oliver, she held the sheets, curiously staring at him.
"Er... Oliver, how old are you?" she asked.
Oliver was quite puzzled by the question he was being asked. Why would she ask such an absurd question? he thought.
"You're... you're asking me my age?" stuttered Oliver. He wanted to be sure he hadn't misheard the message.
"That's right, I just want to check out something, not really necessary though," said Mrs Caitlin.
"Oh... right, I'm twelve plus," answered Oliver.
"Meet me after class," said Mrs Caitlin, still withholding his script.
Oliver looked around him, they were all staring at him. He quickly fumbled out a book and fixed his eyes on the bare page. He felt a little privacy being busy.
By eleven-thirty Am, the bell was rung, and everyone started rushing out of the class. Oliver checked his timetable, it was time for PE class. Felicity was sitting on her chair lines ahead of him. He noticed he had been unconsciously staring at her since. Now she looked back at him, but he was fast in looking away. His eyes were down at his desk when he heard a familiar voice.
"Hay Oliver, it's time for PE, wanna come?" asked Felicity.
He lifted his head, it was actually her.
"Um... yeah, I'll be there later," said Oliver.
"Alright. Just don't get lost," said Felicity jokingly.
"I won't," replied Oliver.
Felicity left for the gym hall.
The class was noisy and hazy. They were all moving about, hurrying to go to the gym hall. Jasper was curiously looking around, he was looking for the new kid. He had seen him earlier that day, and he just wanted to see him again. He pushed purposely through the crowd, searching earnestly for him. He couldn't see him anywhere in the class. He guessed that he might have already gone out to the gym hall. He headed towards the door. Even with his glasses, Jasper still had tampered vision. Oliver, however, was still seated in his seat, arranging his books.
A hand shoved him from behind, and Jasper's balance was distorted. He could feel more hands reeling him, probably five or six boys, working together on him till he came to a stop, crashing his shoulder hard into the sturdy doorpost.
"You're not gonna leave the way, are you?!".
He received a deafening slap against the side of the face, sending his glasses flickering through the air. His vision bounced off immediately, into blurry swirls of colors, and moving blobs.
"Whoa..., looks like someone's gonna be blind a couple of days," someone said.
Jasper could recognize their voices. He knew it was Drake and his friends. Jasper has long been to them, a target of intimidation and humiliation. He was a typical wimp, easily picked on by most kids.
Oliver soon realized what was going on at the front. He went there quickly and saw the boys surrounding poor Jasper. He was helplessly on his knees, feeling the air for his missing glasses. The way other kids passed by, and minded their own business, surprised Oliver. He hated bullies all his life, and all along they've always had the upper hand, and they went away freely like it's their right to taunt and victimize the weaker. Oliver knew that feeling when you're being beaten down by a bunch of jerks, he's been there before. Now he stood at a distance, contemplating whether or not he should go ahead and stand up for the boy. He definitely had no intention of evening the odds, because that would only bring disaster. He only wanted to try and talk them out of their acts.
"Hay, what's happening here?" asked Oliver, stepping a little forward.
He was getting more infuriated about how nasty the boys behaved. They gained pleasure watching poor Jasper search blindly for his specs, completely blind as a bat. They had no compassion.
Some other kids were also standing around, watching him suffer. Others were on their way out, minding their businesses. Oliver considered all of these as pure cowardice.
"Why are you guys doing this?" he said, with his eyes glaring wide.
"There's nothing to worry about here," said Drake, "Just giving this looser what he truly deserves," he added, kicking him hard against the midsection.
"Enough!" Oliver demanded, but Drake wouldn't stop.
"Leave the boy alone," he insisted.
"Well well, looks like Jasper's finally gotten himself a spokesman," teased Drake. The other boys fell into a roar of laughter.
Drake stopped hitting him now.
"Your little friend is not enough to save you from us next time. We'll come back for you soon," said Drake
"And you, Oliver Twist, or whatever you say your name is, bear in mind that you're next in line," he referred to Oliver, giving him a slight shoulder tackle as he passed. Another boy brushed over his hair and passed too.
Drake padded away to the hallway with his gang, laughing and mocking.
Oliver spotted Jasper's glasses in the corner of the room. Luckily enough, it wasn't damaged. He picked it up at once.
"Here," he said, handing it back to Jasper.
Jasper witnessed his vision bounce back to normal as he put on the glasses.
"Thanks," he managed.
"Don't mention it," Oliver replied.
"I guess we're late now. The truth is I don't even know where I'm to go," he said.
"We're not that late, the late bell goes by eleven-thirty-eight," explained Jasper.
Oliver nodded. He looked at his watch, it was eleven thirty-three.
Jasper wanted to stand to his feet, but the pain in his lower back couldn't help but counter his every effort. Oliver carefully helped him to his feet and led him to a chair.
Jasper grunted.
"I think I'm going to be sick," he muttered.
"I'm sorry about what they did," said Oliver, "I knew Drake would be a bully the second I saw him. I'm fond of them".
Jasper managed to will himself up to his feet.
He grunted with a sickening voice.
"Can't let you come late to PE class," he said, limping ahead, leading the way.
"Can I ask you something?" he asked Oliver when they were already halfway through the hallway.
"Sure," replied Oliver.
"Have you been billed before?" asked Jasper.
Oliver was a bit nervous about what to say. He didn't want anyone to peep into his bygone life, he wanted to start a new chapter for himself in this new school, and he wanted a new identity. Telling this boy that he's been bullied not only once, but as often as always, would only create a bad impression.
"No way, I've never been," he lied.
"Do those boys pick on you more often?" asked Oliver.
"As often as always," answered Jasper, "Too bad though, but I bet I can live with that".
"Sometimes I wonder, why do they do that?" asked Oliver.
"I don't know. The world and its system are so unfair. For some reason it doesn't just accept things that are different," said Jasper.
Oliver thought about what he said, it meant that there was something strange about him. And like him, he too was different.
When the two boys arrived at the gym hall, most of the kids automatically shifted their gazes and attention to them. Their eyes glared at them like flashes of torches.
"Got to go now," Oliver said.
There were many kids there. He started searching around with his eyes, to see if he could see Felicity in the crowd. He told her that he would meet her.
"Hay Oliver," called someone from afar.
Oliver thought for a second, this wasn't the voice he was expecting.
Expected it to be Felicity calling him, but then he could see Max Robert, his roommate, walking towards him. Max was with Drake and two other boys who were among the bullies.
"Where have you been buddy? I've been searching all the places for you," asked Max.
"I... I've been around," said Oliver, with a slight stutter.
Olivia and three other girls came towards them now.
"Well I know where he's been," declared Olivia, with a nonchalant look, "He's been hanging around with a couple of losers".
"So it's true," said Max, with an irritated look of disappointment.
Oliver was quite puzzled.
"Sorry I don't get it, what's true?" asked Oliver.
"Oliver you got yourself hanging out with high-level losers," said Max.
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Oliver.
"You know what, let's just forget about all of that," said Max.
"We all make mistakes right guys?".
The rest of the boys replied individually,
"Right".
"And yeah, meet my friend Olivia," said Max, introducing Oliver to Olivia.
"Met her already," mumbled Oliver.
"You have?" asked Max with a surprised look.
"He has," answered Olivia.
"Alright then. Meet her friends, Jess and Melissa, these three are the hottest," boasted Max.
Oliver looked at them with thoughtful eyes, like he recognized them from somewhere.