Timothy`s boarding school

Chapter 10 - Friends?

It's Tuesday and I'm literally counting down to when our mid-term exams start on Monday. I have created a chart for that. Unfortunately not only the examinations are at hand, the hockey trials come just a week after, just before the half term break. My plate was definitely full. I'm in class now surrounded by a group of my colleagues who I'm helping with their accounting corrections. I wonder why they never swarm around Theo also. I did like the attention but sometimes it got a bit too much as I now hardly got time for myself.

During tea break I decide not go out and just stare outside through my window. I look at how people are laughing, teasing and chasing each other, all in happiness and I think of myself. Why don't I ever do this too? I guess my introvert nature prevented me. Thinking I was all alone with my thoughts, I'm stunned when I catch Stacy's glare with the corner of my eyes. She seemed like she had been looking at me for a long time. I wonder what intrigued her so much about me that she had to give me such a keen look.

I smile and turn to look at her; she smiles back and says "What are thinking about?"

Using the world officially recognized response when you want no one prying into your thoughts, "Nothing" I say.

"Is that so? Then why do I see this sadness inside you? It seems like you want something but you keep yourself from having it." She says, looks aside and sighs. "I don't know, am I even making sense?" She looks me back in the eyes.

Wow I say to myself. It seems like she feels my inner pain. How does she do that? Did she read my mind or something, wait no, better yet read how my body felt. She never ceases to amaze me. I must admit I loved the way she seemed to understand me but there was no way I was going to try and date a not so pretty, skinny girl. My reputation little it might be was worth protecting; I was never going to toss it like that into the drains.

"Hmmm, I don't know where you are going with this but I'm lost. I don't understand what you just said" I say definitely lying, not wanting her to have the thrill of having successfully analyzed me.

"Hoo really sorry.......I.....I thought I had seen something there. Anyway can you please help me with this problem, the maths lesson is right after break. I don't want her seeing blanks in my work" she says whilst grabbing her books from her desk. I gladly help her pleased that this weird conversation is over.

Just as break was about to finish I look outside the window and notice Theo and Chido walking together. Chido is glowing; I have never seen her like this except when Marshal is around. What is happening? She can't be doing this to me now. That nothing she had talked about was definitely turning into something. I didn't want them to be anything. Feeling betrayed I stand from my seat and head to the foyer outside our class just to get a bit of fresh air.

Whilst I'm leaning on the rails that over look the stairs I notice Christine is looking at me. Or was she? But I think I saw her turn away the minute I looked her way. She was standing beside the entrance into her classroom and she was holding some flash cards, it seems like she is studying or trying to cram something to be specific. She is surrounded by a few of her friends, I go over. A few of her friends greet me as I was famous being the smartest in my form and all. She doesn't acknowledge me but keeps asking her friend questions from the flash card. She is kind of smiling a lot now.

I say "Hy" looking at her. She turns, looks behind, sees no one as there was only the wall and responds "Are you talking?"

I nod and she says "Ooh hie" puts a broad smile on her face "Didn't know people of your stature also talked to people like us." Her smile immediately fades from her face, the light in her eyes dips and calls to her friends "We should get in class; the siren will ring any minute now." She grabs one of her friends arm and goes into her classroom with the rest of her friends following her.

What had just happened I wonder in her departure? Did I scare her off or something? The siren signalling the end of break rings. I turn towards my classroom but I'm kept back for a bit. I'm astounded when I notice Theo looking at me standing by the rail facing our class as always he gives me his classic inscrutable look. I can't tell if he is angry, furious, sad or happy. He must have seen me with his sister no wonder she cut short. At this moment I didn't really care what he thought, he is flirting with my best friend and I didn't say anything. I pass him as I walk into class totally ignoring him and feeling unnerved by his look or presence.

In the last period just before lunch, Theo comes to my desk. I notice he is holding a book in his hand. I try to ignore him as he is talking to Jack who is sitting beside me. He asks Jack to help him with a maths problem. His is very clever I must admit. Several people who I do not play with or talk to used to do this move. They would come to Jack with a problem knowing that Jack would fail to answer and then he would refer it to me. The end point to it is that they skipped asking for my help or talking to me in the process. As expected Jack fails to answer the problem.

"Yoh Tim, can you work this out for me?" Jack says putting the book in front of me and immediately continues his soccer related dialogue with Theo. I work out his problem and stretch out my hand with the book towards Theo. I wait for his reaction, maybe this time I will get to see how he feels and not just anticipate. He meets my hand with his and grabs the book and says "thanks". He quickly moves back to his place. In all my years of being appreciated and getting gratitude, this has to be the lamest one ever. It was flat, like when you open a coke and leave it out for hours and then try to drink it after all the fizzy is gone. He showed no emotion neither in his speech nor body expressions. I wonder what I have ever done wrong to this guy. The problem he had come to ask was quite straight forward and with his level of intelligence I could tell he was more than capable of working it out by himself. What was the meaning of all this? Was he testing me? He had totally left my thoughts in disarray.

On Tuesday's we needn't have hockey practice to allow people to explore other sports as well. It was always good to have two or more sporting activities under your belt. Today I decide to go and watch the soccer boys after school. I sit in the stands and watch the soccer boys do their warm up. The bulk members of the soccer team were under a scholarship offered by a first division team from a neighbouring town and were therefore in very good form because when normal students who were not on the scholarship went for holiday they continued training none the less.

I notice Ryan and Jack running behind the crowd and I wave at them. They see me and wave back. They seem exhausted already; I guess they should focus more on training than arguing about already established players. Training goes on for another hour and I have to admit it was quite intense. Their coach really pushed them to the limit. No wonder they won so many games.

Jack and Ryan come towards me after practice with their soccer boots in one hand, sweat dripping from their foreheads and their t-shirts drenched. There were now wearing slopes, with their socks dropped.

"Pretty intense practice" I say when they are within hearing distance. Ryan tries to smile but the fatigue and dry mouth he now had stopped him short. Jack says nothing but comes crumbling to my feet after grabbing the water bottle that was in my hand. I feel pity for him. "You should try hockey" I say "we don't kill ourselves with such intense practice."

After several gulps of my water, Jack says in heavy breath "We are not girls like you." Ryan nods in support of Jack before grabbing the water bottle from his hands.

We start to walk back towards the hostel. Jack nudges my shoulder and points three steps ahead of me to where there is a crowd of netball girls. I look closely to where he is pointing and I take notice of Tamie. So he was looking at Tamie all this time.

"You need to help me dude" he says "you know she belongs with me."

I chuckle. "If she belongs with you then go after her". I say not really paying attention but he places his boots in my head and jogs toward Tamie.

"Wait I did not mean like now literally" he totally ignores. With all that sweat on him, I bet he is going to make an impression and not a good one at all. I'm therefore left walking with Ryan alone. It is kind of weird walking with him like this. We are never really alone together; there has always been a third person or more.

"Aah my man Tim wagwan, how is school?" he says smiling looking at me. It is weird him calling me man when he is clearly older than me. He clearly had something on his chest he wanted to tell me, he was just fattening the pig for the kill.

"Great" I say with a broad smile on my face trying to live up to the word. "Okay" he says and he is now rubbing the back of his head with his hand."Well, I wanted to ask for something".

"Well sure go ahead" I say now trying to look him in the eyes but he dodges my eyes every time.

"Will you please help me study? I know you are good at these things."

"Well, sure! So that is why you were all tense suddenly" I say laughing. He joins in my laughter and after says "You know it's kind of hard to ask for help, especially from someone who you are supposed to be at the same level with"

"Yah I guess but in my experience I think I have seen far worse people than you. You are not that bad. I'm sure I can teach you one or two things." I say patting him on the back. He gives me a bear hug lifting me off my feet and shouting "Thanks Tim". It feels kind of weird, not to mention the smell of sweat I was now engulfed in. I cry out "Okay okay you can put me down now, I can no longer breathe". He gently places me back on ground and tries to dust me up. "Sorry about that, I was just over excited". I nod smiling. He is smiling and I'm smiling, we are both looking at each other now in the middle of the road, it definitely feels weird. Jack breaks this pause in time when comes jumping off my back.

"What did I miss?" he says panting with his hands on his knees constantly changing his glare from me to Ryan. "Nothing much" I say giving him back his boots and he just shrugs his shoulders.

"So how did it go with Tamie?" I ask him, not minding Ryan's presence.

"Well.....we talked a bit and then talked some more, before I had to let her go to her hostel" he says scratching the back of his head with his free hand.

"Well that was a lot of talking. Was there anything worth noting in your conversations?" I ask although I already knew the answer to that. He had chickened out. He had talked about the weather for only God knows and never said anything about his love toward her. Although bumped at his failure, I can't seem to ignore the fact that him and I were so similar, both of us were scared chickens when it came to girls.

He says "Nothing" although his response was no longer needed. He asks us to race to the hostel. This reminds me of first term during our inter-zonal schools' athletics competition. I was running the 4 X 4 relay, that is, 400 metre relay. I had been given the button stick last and as the finishing racer I was devastated. On that day I totally ran my heart out. From last I managed to reach the second position on the last 100 metre stretch, everyone was excited and cheering for me out loud. I had to come first but the front runner was just too ahead and my legs had no juice left. To my amazement and everyone's astonishment the front runner fall, like he literally fell on his face. I think God was on my side that day. Having been given such an opportunity, I seized it with both hands and claimed victory. The crowds went mad with cheer when I crossed the finishing line. Even Theo who was on the finishing line helping the officials jumped up and down in happiness, cheering me on and shouting my name. That day people I didn't even know bought me drinks. I don't even notice I'm smiling when Jack slaps the back of my head "Wake up!! Let's race."

Ryan starts the race and we are off but both of us were at a disadvantage as I was still wearing my formal shoes and school uniform and he was a bit exhausted from his soccer practice earlier. We reach the hostel almost at the same time and start panting holding onto the fence whilst we waited for Ryan. These small things we often did together with Jack are what gave our friendship a whole lot of meaning. As I stood watching the sun set right behind Ryan walking towards us I began to appreciate the life I had. All these friends of mine had created a part of me that I didn't have before I came here, it would be sad if we were to break up after writing our O' levels.