One with the birds

Chapter 5

Read AN at the end xx

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14 Years Old and onwards

I’m smiling. The feeling feels so alien to me, I don’t recognise it at first. I made my first friend! Crazy I know. Her name is Nisha, she’s new here. She moved here from England a couple weeks ago. For the first few weeks, she hung out with the popular girls, but for some reason, today she came up to me and started talking to me. We even had lunch together. It was awkward talking to her at first, because I don’t talk- period but after a while, I was actually giving more than one-word answers and contributing to conversation.

She’s walking towards me- the new girl. Why? Maybe she’s going to someone behind me. Yeh that’s it, I reassure myself, ducking my head so she doesn’t look my way when she passes me.

When I expect her to walk by, she doesn’t. She stops right in front of me.

“Hi! I’m Nisha- I’m new here!” She says cheerily. She sounds so happy. How?

I nod in answer, not eager to talk. She seems a bit confused and I think she takes my silence for rudeness.

“Err, I’m new here. It’s nice to meet you. What’s your name?” I don’t bother to tell her she repeated the fact she was new here twice.

I say my name quietly- so quietly I don’t think she hears it, but she does. She smiles at me largely and continues to chatter about random things, trying to make conversation. Little by little, my replies get a little longer and each time they do, her smile seems to grow larger. I quite like Nisha. She’s energetic and happy. Her enthusiasm is enough for both us.

Surprisingly we had our next lesson together, English, but we didn’t sit together as there were no free pair seats. At this I was filled with sadness because what were the chances she would talk to me again. Throughout the class, I’m in a constant bad mood and I’m not concentrating very much. Of course, I got called out for this, and got a detention for not listening. That was funny, considering the girl right next to me sat on her phone and the guy at the back sleeping who didn’t even get a second glance by the teacher.        

At the end of the lesson, I leave the classroom in a hurry, wanting to truly enjoy my lunch hidden in the library but I stop when I hear my voice being called by Nisha. I spin around beyond shocked that she still wants to talk to me.

“Do you mind if I stay with you at lunch?” She asks.

For the first time in such a long time, I felt normal, and that was a feeling I would treasure for as long as I love.  Lunch was good. It was the first time I ever sat and ate in the cafeteria. I had never seen it since now. It’s a massive hall with tables and chairs scattered around and places to get food along the outside edges. We sat in a table in a corner. Some people were shocked to see me- some threw food at me which luckily didn’t hit me. Nisha looked at me with pity, which for some reason frustrated me. I don’t want her pity. The guys in out grade are falling all over her- even some juniors are interested. They were all goofing around to get her attention. I don’t blame them- Nisha is stunning. I want to be her. She has lovely, long hair and a pretty smile. She’s funny too. Her life is just perfect. She has a little brother and lives in one of the big houses in town with her parents. Her dad owns a couple hotels, and her mum doesn’t work anymore but she used to be a fashion designer before she got married. That’s probably why Nisha has all the trendy clothes. She’s kind and funny too and social and popular. It’s a surprise she’s hanging out with me.

A group of guys (juniors) came up to us and started chatting her up. They ignored me completely. They finally left when Nisha gave them her number. Afterwards she told me she gave them Pizza Huts as it was the only number she knew by heart and she didn’t want to give her own.