But I had to admit. There was one thing good about that class which I found as the days passed. There weren't a lot of bullies or bad kids there. Most of the students were good at studies and I took that as a competition to study more. Fortunately, just few days after me, Paul and David came to section A as well. Finally, I had some old friends in the new world. I was no longer alone, I had companions. However, my happiness didn't last for a long time. Both of them didn't talk to me that much. I neither had a fight with them nor had I done something to make them stop talking to me. The reason was simple. They had found other friends.
See, at that time, almost whole section was divided in groups. Obviously, I don't know about girls. But boys used to have 3-4 groups and almost everyone belonged to a group. It was like wildlife. The criteria to be a part of a group was simple. It depended on where you lived and how well you knew each other. One boys' group was far bigger than others. And the students of that group were those who lived in the city and whose houses were close to each other's. I don't know if it was my bad luck or something else, but Paul's and David's houses were close to houses of the kids of that group. So, they became a member of that group and talked amongst themselves mostly.
Since I barely knew anyone, I wasn't a member of any group. I could talk with anyone, but no one was interested in talking to me.
If someone wants to know how being left out is like, ask me.
I was a shy and introverted kid. I wouldn't approach anyone, and no one approached me either. Why would anyone care about someone they didn't know anything about? Everyone had friends and best friends. It was as if there was no place for me. It was just like when I had first come to that school in 2nd standard.
I had only two ex-friends in that class and whenever either of them would talk to me, the leader of their group, Bob would stare at them, and they would leave. I wondered he could shoot lasers that only chosen ones could see. I could guess what he would tell them. He would tell them to not talk to me. It was quite sad. But once again, what could I do? How could I go against someone like Bob. I was a like a lone wolf while he was a leader of a lion pack. I was like a leaf caught in a violent stream, just barely holding on. I didn't even know why he would do something like that.
Students of section A didn't seem to like me. I didn't know why. If possible, I was sure that no one would even want to sit with me. It was only because of the sitting arrangement that kids would sit with me. They were forced to not that they wanted to. Funnily enough, kids who did sit with me weren't that different from me.
Whether it was because of my looks, my behaviour or my history or something else entirely, it was pointless to guess. No one just didn't give a damn. The only choice I had was to act like I didn't care and accept the truth. I liked being alone, but I didn't want to feel lonely. I also wanted friends. But there was only so much I could do and before I realized it, I had given up. I decided to just focus on studies. Friends were useless anyway, I thought. My friends from section B rarely talked to me after my section changed. I assumed they didn't miss me or care about me. I convinced myself that I didn't need or want something like friends. I believed that even if I cared about them, it didn't matter.
If you can't get something, devalue them. That's what pathetic people do.
Once again, I blamed others for my own faults and shortcomings. I didn't know that most kids didn't actually hate or wanted to avoid me. I just assumed it. They just didn't care because they didn't even know me. I was a stranger to them. I should have been the one making effort since I was the one who needed friends. As for my friends, not talking to me wasn't something they did intentionally. They weren't ignoring me. It just happened because we were in different sections. It was unavoidable. And the fact that we lived far away from each other made it worse. It hadn't been long since I had become friends with him, so it was natural that they didn't care for me a lot and moved on with their lives. I was wrong for expecting something I didn't deserve. If I had made more effort in making new friends or at least trying to preserve the ones I had, I wouldn't have been alone.
Like they say, time fixes everything... most things. It turned out to be true. Because I got used to the new environment pretty easily and quickly then I expected. It wasn't only due to the adaptation skills of humans. In the new section, things were surprisingly normal. Nothing was that different from the previous classes. Everything was exactly like what you would expect from a normal class and normal students and teachers. Teacher taught and students studied. While I was good at studies, I didn't like it. I studied because I had no interest in anything else either. I didn't want to waste my energy in trying other things which I might not even be good at. It's not like my family would have supported me. My mother used to brag to literally everyone about how smart I was. I couldn't imagine how she would have reacted if I had told her that I didn't want to study and wanted to do something else. She would have freaked out… like every other Asian parent would.
Apart from studies, every now and then, we would get free periods with a substitute teacher being in charge. They would allow us to do anything as long as we weren't loud. Sometimes, they would ask students to come in the front of the class and sing. Why would anyone do that? Unless your voice was blessed by the heavens or unless you were stupid, no one would done that.
I would do that. I would sing in front of the whole class… Don't wonder why I would do something like that because I don't have an answer either. Where did my confidence come from. My voice was far from angelic. I guess I have always liked singing. It's interesting though, isn't it? I didn't like attention and I didn't have confidence either. Adding this to the fact that no one in the class really cared about me just makes me wonder about why I would do something so stupid. Was it an attempt to make everyone notice me, relieve myself off my stress through singing or maybe I simply liked it… I guess we will never know.
The only problem I had with my new class was that we had very few physical education periods now. We didn't have a lot of those in previous class and now they were reduced even more. As much as I hated sports, it was nice to have a break every once in a while. I loved sitting on the grass doing nothing. Staring at the sky while sitting under the shade of a tree as the light breeze touched me... It was nice except during the hottest days of summer and coldest days of winter.
Overall, teachers were a little stricter and most students were on a nerdier side compared to other sections. It was intentional. It was as if the sole purpose of our class was to give good results to the school which they could use to lure parents. In a way, we were making up for the other sections. We were kind of like factory products and only those who had potential to be good products received good care while others were... They put all good students in one class and gave them the best teachers just so that they could get the best results. By they, I mean whoever was pulling the strings behind the scenes. I really made it sound like evil villian scheme, when it's just reality. But just because most kids in my class were good students, it doesn't mean there were no problematic students
No matter how many flowers there are in a garden, you will find some weeds as well.
Among Bob's group, there was one guy whose name literally meant God. But let's call him Dic (pun intended) because he was a demon. He was a textbook definition of a bully. Fat, stupid, impulsive, and arrogant. He used to brag about himself for having friends in upper classes. His cousins were gangsters and bad people or so he would tell everyone. Apparently, his dad was scary, and he knew bad and big people. And just like every other delinquent, he was only interested in sports and nothing else. And just like every bully, he was good at nothing except at using his size to scare the other kids.
While I doubted everything that came out of his mouth, it was indeed true that he belonged to an upper middle-class family and his dad did have some connections. Maybe that was the reason behind his confidence. Money is powerful.
He bullied me and other students like me occasionally during the whole year. No, how could I say that? He wasn't bullying us. He was just playing with his friends. He was taking full advantage of his size. But it wasn't serious, and he never hurt me since I was a smart student and teachers liked me. At least unlike in movies, teachers were nice. Stereotypes aren't always true. Lesson learned. Also, it sounds corny, but I had terrible temper. Every now and then, he would try to over do it and it would make me extremely angry. At that point, the size difference between us wouldn't matter to me. I would become like hulk… without his powers and attack him. Still, it was enough. His friends wouldn't help him either, not that he needed help to fight me. Maybe they also didn't like him. Like I said, stereotypical bully.
Now, I don't know if it used to scare him or something else but after that he would stop messing with me for a while. He was scary and strong only when someone didn't stand up to him. Hmm, I guess he wasn't as strong and powerful as he claimed, and we thought he was. In the end and inside, he was just an insecure weak piece of shit.