Friendship Cause Heartbreaks Too

Chapter - 2

It was the third day of the school.

The day I finally met Vickie. She entered the classroom and sat with Alice. We interacted and got to know each other.

It's a very vague memory of what had happened back then. Come on, it's been 8 years, cut me some slack.

All the students were provided with a diary in which we were supposed to write the homework and then get it checked by the class coordinator.

While checking our diaries, Ms. Brown appreciated my handwriting. And that was when I got to know about Vickie's bad handwriting.

"Vickie, you did a great work in improving your handwriting during the break" Ms. Brown had said to her. 
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Everything was going very well. I started interacting with more people, with boys and sometimes with seniors as well.

And then soon it was time for unit tests. Each test was of 30 marks and we were supposed to prepare one unit for every subject.

Our teachers were helping us with everything. Everybody was busy with their studies.

We took the tests, performed our best and were finally waiting for results.

Our class coordinator was a science teacher and while announcing results for science, she said, "There are two students who have scored full marks this time. Any guesses who?"

Everyone started guessing and a name came forward, Ryan. It was the name everybody was guessing.

"Yes, one of them is Ryan, but who's the other one?" Ms. Brown said.

When nobody was able to give the answer, she did.

"It's Emily!"

All the students started staring at me like I was some sort of alien or something. Ms. Brown appreciated me and I was so happy to know my result.

I must admit, I had always been a star student. I always scored good marks.

And I got to know about the mysterious Ryan as well. Just like me, he too, was a topper... And Ms. Brown's Nephew.

Though, being related to the teacher didn't give him much advantage, since Ms. Brown was a nice teacher and she treated everyone equally.

I was happy back then, to have a competitor. It made studying fun and excited.

It was a batch of smart students. All the students were good in academics and other curricular activities. And I, too, was happy to be a part of this school.

_______

Days passed with me still trying to make new friends and maintaining the balance between studies and other activities.

My friendship with Vickie was getting better. We started hanging out together with Alice, Pia and others. 
It was good to finally have someone to sit with at lunch and discuss things.

______

One day, our Computer teacher, Ms. Summer, told us to prepare a poster on 'the generations of computers'.

I put a lot of efforts to prepare it. Ms. Summer was checking it one by one. It was my turn and I showed it to her. She was impressed and appreciated it in front of all the students.

I was on cloud nine. Being the favorite student of all the teachers and getting appreciation every now and then, would do that to anyone.

After me, it was Vickie's turn. She went to show her poster. 
Ms. Summer looked at it but she didn't like it, "Vickie, this is what you've made?! Everything is... mixed. I can't read a single word properly" 
I felt bad about that. She didn't have to be so rude. But I didn't really care much. I was happy with her response to my work.

After that period, it was a spare period. Everyone decided to go to the auditorium to pass the time. 
Vickie, with other girls, got out of the classroom first, without waiting for me. 
I didn't think of it much at that moment. I just tried to keep up with them and go to the auditorium.

After 10 minutes of trying to involve in the conversation, I realised I was the only one she was ignoring. 
She didn't talk to me for at least 20-25 minutes.
She tried to hide it, though. That she didn't want to talk to me. But she wasn't doing a good job at it. 
It was clearly written on her face, the jealousy.

That was the moment, I was forced to think, what have I gotten myself into? 
She stops talking to me over such a silly thing? Is this how friendship works? What is it? What am I supposed to do about it? It's not like it was my fault that my poster was better than hers.

I didn't know the answer to any of those questions then. But deep deep down in my heart, I did know, she wasn't good for me.
Unfortunately, that part of my heart was deeply buried under my desperation of having friends, need of having someone close to me in this new, unfamiliar world.

I didn't listen to that part of my heart then. But after 8 awful years of trying to figure out the answers to those questions, I now know exactly what it was.

This incident was the sign. I knew she wasn't good for me. But I still ignored it. And I ended up with a broken heart, broken faith, broken friendship, and broken me.

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