My teacher didn't reply immediately. Those few seconds were enough to make me regret what I had done. But it was too late to go back. Everyone was looking at me. I wanted to run out of the classroom. If she refused to fulfill my request, my self-respect that was already at the ground floor would fall below the sea level. Worse part was that everyone would see it.
I was still devastated from not getting that smartphone so, I was in no condition to go through another bad experience. I already hated most things and if things didn't my way once, I was afraid that I would lose interest in everything. It had been only few seconds, but those few seconds felt like eternity and with each passing second, I died inside. She finally spoke up and said that I could be the narrator. I sighed with relief inside. If she had refused, I couldn't predict how my life would have turned out.
I went and stood next to other students. Only few students were left sitting on the benches. They were those who had no intention of participating. My teacher didn't force them or even ask them about why they didn't want to participate. Like I had expected, all of my friends were still glued to their seats. They had no intention of participating. Perhaps, they didn't want to leave the seats they had warmed after sitting on for too long. It was winter after all.
Nothing else happened after that. My teacher just wanted to see the number of students interested in participating so that she could figure out the topic and how to plan out the play. After telling us to go back to our seats, she told us that she hadn't decided on the topic of the skit. She told us to look for the topics and if she found any of our suggestions good, she would design a play on that topic.
I went home and didn't try to search for a good topic for the play. I was just relieved that I could be the narrator. Nothing else mattered to me for then. The next day, during our social studies' period, my teacher asked us for the suggestions. And some students had indeed done research unlike me. But it didn't matter. It was clear from the look on the teacher's face that she didn't like any idea. I thought either she already knew what to do or she didn't like any idea.
It turned out to be the former because after all students were done giving their suggestions, she told us that we were going to do a play on something that no student had recommended. Why did she even ask us to give her ideas when she had something in mind? Perhaps, she was waiting for someone to say what she already had in mind.
From that day onwards, most of our time was spent on preparing for the play. Well, only for participants. Nonparticipants which included my friends just sat in the class and talked and laughed. They could do anything as long as they weren't too loud. And that was when I began regretting my decision of participating. I also wanted to be with them. But it was too late. I ended up being one of the four students who were chosen as narrators. Others were Autumn, Patricia and one more girl. My ego didn't let me go back on my decision. It would mean they were better than me. Also, if I get backed out, I knew my teacher wouldn't like it. I was the one who had asked her to make me the narrator in the first place.
The play was simple. Students from my class would act and a narrator would narrate the story. The play consisted of 4 parts in total. Students who were going to act had no dialogues while narrators had to memorize a lot of lines. While preparing, I asked myself multiple times about why I wanted to participate. The problem wasn't that I had to learn a lot of lines but that I was going to have to perform in front of people. My social anxiety and shyness were screaming at me to not participate. But I had spent all my courage when I asked my teacher to make me the narrator. Not only that, but I was also going to gain nothing from participating in the function. I had to do things I hated for literally no reason. I hadn't thought that one impulsive decision could bring so much trouble for me. Even after doing the things, I used to hate passionately, I was still on the losing side.
Left with no other choice, I tried to focus on doing my job. I tried to look for a way that could help make it easier for me. Other narrators were very good at their job. All three of them did not seem even a little nervous. I thought it was because they were all girls, and I was a boy. It turned out to be good motivation for me… I took it as competition to try and be better than them which helped me forget how much I hated what I was doing.
Days passed and finally, in the second week of December, the annual function took place. While my section was doing a play, other classes were doing all sorts of things like activities, quizzes, etc
Each class was given space to set up a stall in the school's playground. Guests, who were apparently pretty important people and parents arrived, walked by each stall, and stopped at the place they found interesting. I was not a big fan of this arrangement because we had to perform our play many times without stopping. If even one person stopped by our stall, we had to perform. It was nothing like this in previous years. Everyone would gather in one place and each class would do their thing once and that was it.
I am not a big fan of change. My mom also came and watched me perform. I felt most nervous in front of her. For some reason, it was embarrassing, and I hoped that none of my classmates recognized her. Fortunately, no one knew her except Autumn. For the first time, I was glad that my friends were not there.
The function ended during the day at roughly around 2 o'clock. After that, we had to go back to our classrooms. Like previous years, students couldn't leave with their parents. Either parents could wait until the function was over or come back again if they had left or they could let the school buses take them. My mom had left, and I hadn't paid for bus facilities so, I was on my own. I was a little worried because I remembered very clearly what happened a year before.