FADED VIRIDITY

CHAPTER THREE

Now, let's go back to the beginning of my story where I give the reason as to why I started with this year, namely, Amelia. It was at the end of this year that I really 'met' her. As time progressed, I came to realize that it was not her personality that I detested. I didn't like the shadow she was, nor the attachment she had. So, how did this invisible girl confederate with this fabled mademoiselle? 

First, you need to realize that our non-exhaustive differences—not our similarities—were what ultimately drew us together. While I swam in imagination, she swam in tragedy, romance, commotion, and enthusiasm. And for some reason, deep down inside that ocean, we crossed paths. In contrast to every other person, she saw me. That is the response to my query. I wasn't invisible to her. She didn't view me as though my innocence were limitless and my ideas were nonexistent. She didn't simply knock; she slammed it open, jolting me out of my reverie. Gaze upon my subconscious for just a minute... A few weeks remained until that year's final exams. It was mid-November, so naturally the sun was out making a statement. 

Amelia and I were seated in our usual places on the bench in the schoolyard. I occupied the shady part of the wood, and she adjusted herself adjacent to me as the blonde sun stroked its pose across her face. It was challenging to ignore her because of her self-assurance, lack of need for affirmation, brilliance, and all-around relaxing demeanor. She was the oldest student even though she was the smallest and the shortest in the group. 

'Summer makes me so happy. She muttered to me, winter is just too depressing.'

'You're nuts,' I said. 

'You lose energy throughout the summer and feel drained and tired. You don't even have the energy to move. the present us. We have class to get back to after sitting here since break,' I said defensively. 

'Well, don't blame our indolence on the lovely sun,' she humorously remarked. 

I paused for a moment to process the hard truth of that sentence given that examinations were approaching before continuing, I looked at her triumphantly and said, 'Point noted. But I know we are always lethargic, but winter revives you.' 

'Revives you like the dead trees that winter brings?' She asked sarcastically.

'You just think you're so smart with your words because you have the English teacher's son running after you like a lost doggy' I threw back teasingly. 

Amelia was the target of our constant satire. We teased her with men of all ages and professions. It was a bottomless task, really.

'Wow, does the whole school know about that?' she asked with humor in her voice.

'No, Amelia, just a few hundred', I answered sarcastically.

'That boy is soooo confused.', she told me cryptically.

We both just starred at one another for a while stewing in awkward silence, and then finally decided to walk back to class. I was not fond of drama, and I didn't fancy conflict. I guess that's why I never asked questions about her love life, and she didn't bother explaining it. I respected that because I knew that everything she said or attempted to say was used as an ingredient for a hazardous potion concocted by everyone around her. 

Anyway, like this our days went on, debating about different food groups, husky men and annoying pets whilst walking up countless staircases and down large corridors. The staircases that took forever to climb mysteriously seemed to be a few bricks shorter when I look back from today. And the dark corridors that once felt as if dementors lurked, now seems quite normal. The time that was spent in my mental ideality for hours on end, suddenly, became vacant. And the foolish girl that hid deep within my head, so desperately trying to escape, finally had her constrained freedom. By the end of 2010, Amelia and I became the best of friends. Laughter and secrets became our basic bare components, and awkward silence no longer existed. Remember how I said that my best "buddy" varies with the seasons? Yep, this is what I meant. Naturally, I therefore believed that our friendship would come to an end as the new year, 2011, began. But this was untrue. Over time, our friendship grew...