Savage Love

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Naya Santiago’s Point of view:

“Hey Rachel. What happened?” I asked her when I reached near her table.

“Actually, Naya, I needed a little help from you. You remember the homework that Mr. Thomas gave us today. Will you please help me with it, please?” Rachel asked me in a sweet tone.

“Umm… Yea, I guess I can help you with the homework that Mr. Thomas gave us. Actually, I have done it during the vacation itself. I can give you my book itself. You can just return it to me tomorrow.” I said to Rachel, and offered her my book in which I had done the maths homework. Rachel was sitting alone at her table, and I saw that her friends were just entering the cafeteria.

“Actually, Naya, I am a bit busy this evening, so I will not be able to do this homework. Can you please do it for me?” Rachel said to me and then asked me. She sounded so desperate, I did not know what to say.

“Umm… I,” I started to say, but before I could continue to speak, Rachel interrupted me.

“You will!! Thank you so much!! Here is my note book. Return it back to me tomorrow. Okay, I have to go now. Thanks again!!” Rachel says after interrupting me, then she hands me a note book and then gets up from the table and leaves, before I could even say anything. Seeing that I did not have any other option, I took her book and put it in my bag, after which I went and sat at the table where I was sitting before, and waited for Alice to come.

As I sat alone at the table, I kept thinking about what Alice had told me in the morning. I have been thinking about the things she told me about, and I think she is right about the bullying. There is bullying in our school, just like other schools. I may not have experienced any of the bullying, but I think I have seen others getting bullied. But I was just too blind to understand that it was bullying.

Let me just take Siana as an example. I used to notice that many students used to tease her for her braces and for being the quiet kid at school. When this teasing was happening, I did not think it was much. I thought it was just some innocent teasing. But now I can see it and understand it. It was more than teasing. They were constantly making fun of her, which is basically bullying.

How could I not see and understand this before!? I could have helped Siana. I just feel so bad that I could not do anything to help her. I wish I could do anything to help her. I wish I could have seen what was happening.

Why did I not see it?

Maybe because I had a wrong idea about bullying.

I thought that bullying could only be done physically, like beating up someone or physically hurting them. But now I think I understand what bullying actually is. It is when a bully torments a victim both physically, mentally and emotionally.

“Hey Nini!! What is going on in your mind?” I heard Alice say to me, which brought me out of my thoughts. I turned towards her and saw that she was seated next to me.

“Nothing, just thinking about Siana. I still can not understand how I could have been so blind. Like, there it was right in front of me and yet I did not see it.” I said softly as I took out my lunch box.

“Nini, nobody knew that Siana was being bullied. She did not say it to anyone. So, stop feeling guilty about that,” Alice said to me in a consoling way. I just sighed and took a bite of my lunch.

“Alice, how did you come to know that Siana was bullied?” I asked Alice.

“Well, when Sinan’s parents came to get the transfer letter, they spoke to mom and had a really heated argument. Until they came, mom did not know about this. She was actually shocked. Mom told me about this when she got back home. But I kind of had doubts about this before. I wish I had acted on those doubts sooner,” Alice said in a regretful tone. I did not know what to say, so I just kept quiet. We both ate our lunches quietly. As I ate, I remembered that Alice was speaking about some categories earlier. I need to know more about them.

“Hey Aliy. Earlier in the class room, you were talking about categories for students. Can you tell me about these categories?” I said to her and then asked her about these categories. She sighed and cleared her throat.

“Well, so. There are many categories among students. But there are 5 main categories in every high school. Nears or book worms, geeks, dumb kids, the weirdos and popular kids. So, the nerds or the book worms are the smart kids. They are the ones that are oblivious to things around them. They are smart at everything, but they tend to keep to themselves. Then comes the geeks. Well, there is not much difference between a geek and a weirdo, just that geeks are smart and know how to read the situation and they also know about everything that happens in the school. They are smart, but not that smart. Also, they can be really good at some fields of entertainment. Like, the kids who are obsessed with comic books are a certain subject. They are usually mistaken as nerds, but honestly they are more close to the weirdos. And if you ask about weirdos, they are just weird. And finally, the popular kids. Basically, the popular kinds are the ones that basically rule the schools. Many want to be like them, but many wish to go unnoticed by them, mainly because most of the bullies belong to the popular kids. Apart from all these categories, there are the nobodies. Nobodies are kind of average scoring students, who just want to be done with college. They always try to keep a low profile. I can also say that they are usually good people. But, the nobodies are the main targets of the bullies, after weirdos. The nerds and the geeks are usually safe from the bullies.” Alice went on, explaining everything. I was kind of shocked as to how much she knew.

“WOW!! You know a lot about these!! Why have you ever not told me about this?” I said, and then asked Alice. She just gave me a nervous smile.

“You always had a positive image about our school. I did not want to take that away from you. And knowing about these things makes matters worse. Trust me, people are safe when they do not know about bad stuff. Also, I think I am kind of a geek”, Alice says to me. I just nodded at her and took another bite of my lunch.

As I ate, I understood one thing.

I am clearly a nerd.

I did not know anything that happened in the college, among the students.