Since I didn't have any friends and there were not a lot of people with whom I even talked to, all I did was studying. Because of that I usually scored the highest marks in the class. No boys and only few girls could get close to me. One of those girls was Bob's twin sister, Patricia, which was quite surprising. Not only did they look different physically, unlike her sister, Bob was not so good at studies. Other girl was from my village, Autumn. Whenever I was absent, I would go to her house to get the homework. Aria was still in section B in 5th standard.
Fun fact about Autumn, no one in my class teased me even though I used to talk to her and go to her home. The situation was completely different from what it was with Aria and Sasha. Well, not just me, if any boy and girl made contact with each other, they were declared as having a thing for each other. I don't know the threshold you needed to clear that determined the final relationship, but it was probably not too high. Just talking was enough. Again, why were guys my age so stupid?
I don't know if it was because Autumn was very good at studies and that's why no one thought that she was even remotely interested in something like that. Or if it was because she looked like a boy herself… she had short hair and wore boys' uniform. The first time I saw her, I also thought she was a boy. She also participated in several boxing tournaments. It wouldn't be wrong to say that she was stronger than most boys from my class. You are free to reach your own conclusion.
I met a lot of other guys for the first time in 5th standard. While I rarely talked with them in 5th standard, some of them will become important in this story later. Remember their names if you can, although even if you don't it's fine.
Gary, Victor, Austin, Dirk, Nolan and Arian.
I might be forgetting a few names but let's just move on. If I forgot, they were not important in the first place. Also, I have changed every name for obvious reasons… no one likes to hear bad things about themselves.
While I was not friends with them, I started talking with Gary, Dirk, and few other guys a lot more as the time passed. Dirk also had a group of his own and I used to talk with everyone from his group. He belonged to a pretty rich family, but he wasn't exactly the best-looking guy in the class. Gary was a part of Bob's group, and he probably lived the farthest away from our school. Our school was still the best one closest to him which was… interesting.
Victor and Austin were also members of Dirk's group, but they talked with everyone including me. Especially Austin, he was a such a naughty kid. He was the definition of a class clown. If it meant making students laugh, he would do anything which includes but is not limited to sacrificing his self-respect and getting punished by teachers. Literally every teacher was tired of him and because of that he was constantly sent from one section to another in hopes that he would stay quiet in a place where he didn't have his friends. Impossible. I was quite jealous of his extroverted nature and carelessness. He was friends with everyone. While I wouldn't hate the same, I could never do what he used to do. I used to think that all of my classmates were good people, but I would only find about it later that people are not always what they seem like.
As for Nolan, he was Bob's best friend. He was the only boy in the class who could come close to me in terms of marks. He was a quiet kid and kind of a nerd, but unlike me he had great friends and belonged to a good family. Apparently, he and Patricia liked each other or so the rumours said. While the authenticity of those rumours was suspicious at that time, they were not complete lies. But no one could talk about it openly because of Bob. Not only was he her brother, but he was also the tallest boy in our class which meant he was also the strongest boy of our class. It was stupid to say that when we didn't have a competition.
Also, Bob and Dic were good friends. Just like his friend, Bob was friends with students from higher classes and his dad was a scary man and had connections to big people. They really needed to work on their story writing skills. There was no way to confirm what they used to say but kids believed them anyway because they didn't want to mess with them. Who needed proof when they had fear? Bob and Patricia were the unchosen leaders of our section. Patricia was the class monitor so, she kind of deserved it.
I do wonder sometimes about how he would have reacted if someone had said that his best friend and sister liked each other to his face. Well, considering how stupid he was, he would have just laughed and ignored it. That was it for our class politics. I hated Bob, didn't I? Dic was a bully but Bob didn't do anything bad to me. I still hated him because... it's not the right time.
After spending almost half a year in section A, I made only one friend. Not a lot but like they say, one true friend is better than 100 fake friends… or something like that. He was like me except that he didn't wear glasses, and he wasn't good at studies. We were weak, small, introverted, lonely and socially awkward. Even though he had been in that section for past few years, he also didn't have a lot of friends and the ones he did have were not his best friends either. But our similarities weren't the reason why we became friends. In fact, we talked only a few times even though it had been months since the beginning of 5th grade.
Then, one day, in the beginning of second semester during a physical education period, I stumbled and fell on the ground while walking. It was not a normal fall because for some reason, my right foot hurt a lot. The playground was not made of concrete, it was a grass field. I was neither running nor did I fall too badly. It was strange. I tried to stand up but couldn't. It hurt so badly that I was about to cry. Many kids saw me, but he was the only one who helped me. He wasn't a powerhouse, but he gave me his shoulder to lean on and helped me walk to the benches. That was how we became friends. His name was Kevin.
Even I find this story pretty heart-warming and fortunately, it's true. I didn't deserve him either.
After the bell rang, I just went to my class since there wasn't much time left until the final bell. I could not walk properly. I couldn't even put my right foot on the ground. There was something wrong with my right ankle. Weird part was that there was no blood and yet it hurt so badly. That was why I didn't go the infirmary. It hurt even when my foot was still, and the last I wanted was anyone to touch it. To check my foot, nurse would have to remove the shoe and even the thought of that gave me goosebumps.
But my pain and worries soon disappeared. My uniform had become dirty from the fall, and I was limping. Everyone stared at me as I walked. It was embarrassing. When I didn't even like positive attention, negative attention was enough to give me a panic attack. But what could I do? Run? Fortunately, Kevin was there to help me. He helped me walk to our classroom. After school ended, my cousin carried my bag to the home. At home, when I took off my shoes, I found that my right foot was swollen. My grandmother, mom, uncle and aunt, none of my family members were too concerned. All of them thought that I had sprained my ankle while playing. My foot just looked worse than it actually was. We went to a doctor and found out that I had suffered a ligament tear in my right ankle. Oh, how I enjoyed the look on their faces when they found they were wrong. Yeah, I was stupid.