No one gets love

Chapter One: The First Day Again It was the year 2017. Today wasn’t her first day at school. She had been there since childhood. And yet… today felt like a beginning. An unfamiliar start after two long years. She had returned in the middle of 8th grade, but she wasn’t the same girl who had once walked these corridors. Only she knew what had happened in those two missing years. Years that had aged her beyond her time. Years that had carved silence into her voice and maturity into her eyes. Had those two years never existed, she would’ve been in the last months of 9th grade — just like her old friends. Maybe she came back thinking everything would be the same. Same school. Same faces. Same friendships. Maybe that was her biggest mistake. She didn’t know then that from this day till 2019, everything would change — piece by piece, heartbreak by heartbreak. That morning, she walked to the assembly with a few familiar girls — girls who were once her closest friends. But now… everything was different. New faces. New rules. Even the old ones didn’t feel the same anymore. When she entered the classroom, she stood still for a moment. Her eyes scanned the benches. Some faces she vaguely remembered. Others were strangers. And yet, all of them were now her classmates. Once, they had been her juniors. Now, she was one of them. There were no friends. Only memories. The teacher began the lesson, and the day moved on in a blur. At one point, the teacher asked her, “How do you find the class?” She wanted to scream, "I was supposed to be in 9th grade. I fought to be there. But the principal said no.” Instead, she muttered, “I don’t like it.” Someone from the back chuckled and said, “Then don’t come from tomorrow.” Without even looking back, she replied, “Did your father pay my fees?” And just like that… silence. But in that moment, she understood something very clearly — the teachers here wouldn’t say anything. This school wasn’t the same anymore. The day passed. During the break, she tried to sit with the 9th grade girls — the ones she had once called her friends. But they weren’t really with her anymore. They had their own friends now. Even her best friend did. The bond they once shared had thinned. Now, there was distance, even in the same room. When school ended, she walked alone to the bus stop and took the bus home. She had never been the top student, but now she was trying. Coming back mid-year meant she had to catch up on an entire year’s worth of studies — all on her own. That evening, old memories came rushing in. No matter how hard she tried to forget the past few years, they wouldn’t let her go. Her father was no longer at home. Or perhaps, it was better to say… he had left them. It wasn’t money she missed the most. It was something else. Something deeper. Something broken inside her. She had dinner in silence and went to bed early. For the next few days, she would have to go to school without the van. But this time… she was prepared to walk alone.