Students were still divided into groups, and we didn't realize how stupid it was. We weren't a part of bands or gangs or anything or sort. I used to be a member of Dirk's group. Or at least, I believed so. That didn't mean I wouldn't talk with those who didn't belong to our group. While it was different for girls, all boys used to talk with each other. Girls were scarier even as kids. There was one easy way to determine which group you belonged to. Whoever you sat with during the lunch break were your friends and the members of your group. Hmm, as for who would be the leader of the group, I didn't know how it was decided. There were no elections. Sadly, it wasn't a democracy
Members of the group I belonged to were those I have already mentioned. Prat, Paul, Steve and lastly, the 'leader' Dirk. There were others as well, but I wasn't good friends with them. They were Dirk's childhood friends. I guess that's why he was the leader. He was the leader of his friend group and others joined it later.
The point I am trying to make is that it was very easy to throw around the word 'friend'. But just because you talked with someone didn't mean you were friends with them. It should have been obvious, but I was naïve. Fortunately, I did learn my lesson before it was too late.
I used to think that Dirk was one of my few true friends. Out of all of my friends, I had gone only to his home. I also took him with me to distribute candies on my birthday even though he didn't take me on his. I had his phone number and I even sat with him for a while. We participated in several skits and plays together. For me, if you ticked all these boxes, we were friends. While he was not good looking and not as smart as me, he was still one of the smartest boys in the class. Not to mention, he was loaded. Overall, I had no doubts in my mind about him being a good person and friend. Until… I found he didn't like me. That was precisely why he didn't talk to me that much in seventh grade.
How did I find it? It was just few days before the first term exams. During one of the periods, out of nowhere, Paul asked me if things were fine between me and Dirk. It caught me off guard because I didn't know what he was talking about. While we hadn't been talking as much, I didn't think there was something wrong. I asked him what he meant. He told me that Dirk had been saying some things about me to all my friends behind my back. I couldn't believe it. For a moment, I thought he was just joking. It did sound like something he would do. But he sounded serious and when I asked him, he told me that he wasn't lying. I couldn't think of a reason as to why he would lie. He wasn't the type who would instigate a fight between friends just for fun… then again, he might have been a psychopath for all I know. There was nothing for him to gain from lying about such a thing. I decided to trust him and our friendship… It just piqued my curiosity.
During lunch break on the same day, I confronted Dirk and asked him if I had done something that hurt him. For whatever reason, I was nervous. I guess I did care about him. But he didn't hesitate for even a moment and told me straight to my face that, I was weird. My eyes widened and my brows shot up. He had me shook! He told me that he didn't like me and had also complained to the teacher about me. He never wanted to sit with me and had asked teacher to change his seat, but she didn't. I didn't know how he said everything without stopping to take a breath. It was as if he had been waiting for me to ask him. There was no hesitation in his voice, and he didn't take a pause while saying all those mean and hurtful things about me right to my face. He had made me speechless, and I just left after apologising.
I understood nothing about what he had said. How was I weird? You would think that after what he did, I was hurt. But no, it really didn't affect me. As much as I hate to admit it, I didn't care about what he thought of me and if he wasn't my friend. Paul didn't lie and the person I thought to be my friend hated me. I had gotten answers to old questions and the only thing I cared about now was why he hated me and what he found weird about me.
I came up with multiple theories. Most likely one was that he hated me because he was jealous of me. I was the smartest student in my class, and teachers liked me. I had been the top scorer in most tests and exams in every class. But him hating me for such a reason didn't make sense. Then, suddenly, some things came to my mind. Many times, when we would get our tests and exams results; Dirk would ask me about my scores. I would tell him, and his expression would be of anything but happiness. Maybe he didn't like how I used to score the highest marks without much effort unlike him. Before I came to section A, he was probably the smartest boy in the class. Although I was certain it was Nolan, not him. In the end, I couldn't convince myself that it was the reasoning even though it made the most sense. It didn't explain the weird part as well. I don't know why I trusted his words.
Another theory was that he just hated me for who I was. It didn't make much sense either, but I didn't have much data to form a theory. All I knew was that he hated me, and it was because he found me weird. I had no clue about what I did that weirded him out. It wasn't enough information and I realized that I was just wasting my time thinking about him. Exams were right around the corner, and I should be studying.
I had lost a friend, but I couldn't care less which wasn't weird to me at the time. I believed if he didn't care about me, I didn't need to care about him either. However, we didn't stop talking completely even after he told me he hated me. We were classmates and it was impossible to not see him or ignore him. We would just share greetings and talk only when we were with our friends. If we didn't have any mutual friends, I would have never even looked at him.
Few days after that incident, we had our first term exams and after exams, we got a week off before the second semester started.