i started typing last night but it suddenly became a five page document on Word so here you go haha

There was this girl in my class way back in the days, I remember her like I just saw her yesterday. She was one of the..quiet ones, as the rest would like to call her. She was not particularly pretty, just an average looking teen trying to fit into the crowd.

How did I know she was trying to fit in? For one thing, the way she spoke around people.  She was being terribly cautious that it was misunderstood that she was being reserved or even shy. She was in this group in class, the brainiacs , I would classify them as. They seem to mind nothing but their books even though we had no tests or assignments due. They fought the teachers regularly for extra marks if they were unsatisfactory with the ones they were given during a test or a quiz. But she never did any of those things.

No, she was quiet, as she was depicted. She was with the group but I am not sure if she ever felt like she belonged in that group. She was unlike the rest, I could tell because while the rest were arguing for extra marks she merely sat in her seat, quietly reviewing her mistakes and then would occasionally look up at her friends and sometimes she would shake her head at them and then continue to review her mistakes. I can tell she was satisfied with the scores she got most of the time. It was written all over her face. It showed contentment mostly, and if she broke into a grin it would simply mean that she did better than expected.

Compared to her group of friends, she was rather average, though she could very well beat half of them if she had put in the effort. She was a smart kid or else she wouldn’t even have been in our class. I asked her before, once I don’t remember when, how she studied and she said she didn’t and merely waved it off as she was just lucky to be sitting here. I peeked at her report card once in sophomore year, you don’t get grades like those based on luck. She was smart, but she didn’t want to draw any attention to herself.

I had my own group of friends but our groups crossed paths pretty often while hanging out. Our town isn’t very big and there were only that many hang out spots back in the day. Surprisingly those brainiacs know how to hang out and let loose once in a while. They can laugh and joke, who knew? We didn’t talk to them much, they seemed rather inapproachable since, you know, eyes glued to the book and all. But she was different. In class she would stare up at the board in front and day dream, with or without the teacher in front. She got called pretty often by our Math teacher since she almost always day dreamed in his class and he also almost always caught her day dreaming. She got called into the staff office once because she screwed up her homework pretty badly.

It was Algebra, I remember asking during lunch when she finally returned to class with her book in hand. Her face was unreadable. She quietly slipped into class while everybody was happy about the break and took her seat. Being seated a few seats a way, I crossed the room and took the seat in front of her and turned to face her. She was rather surprised but was poker facing as usual. She had a very good poker face, practically unreadable if she wanted it to be that way. I asked what did he want with her and she showed me her book. Red marks were abundant, needless to say. I scanned her book quickly and returned it to her. She slid it into her bag and sighed.

She said it wasn’t that she didn’t get what went on during that class, it was that her concept was wrong from the beginning. We also studied Algebra the year before and she had misunderstood completely what the teacher was trying to say and so the wrong concept had been embedded into her brain and so she got the whole exercise wrong and was called to the office for some one-on-one tutoring session. She said itso animatedly and with so much horror in her face I burst laughing. I apologised afterwards but she said it was ok. It’s been a while since she made anybody laughed she said. I felt sorry for her. It was pretty obvious that she was the quiet one in the group, one of the members even called her Miss Invisible, which irked me to no end.

How could you call your friend a name like Miss Invisible? You’d make her feel bad, as if she didn’t already feel bad enough that you guys were having most of the fun and did most of the talking while she just sat and listen like a dumb block of wood. I saw her twitch once when her friends hollered at her from a distance. It made my blood boil a bit because it was degrading to call a person that. I wanted to punch him for her because clearly she did not like that name one bit but was too reserved to say or do anything about it.

During one of the holidays I bumped into her after having dinner. We both ate in the same shop but we never saw each other in the bustling little shop. We were both with our family but I decided to ask if it were ok if the two of us hang out for a while and our parents agreed. She seemed happy about the idea of us hanging out, mainly because none of her friends had scheduled any meet-ups at all and it was three weeks into our three month long summer break. I asked her what had she been up to since break started and she told me a repetitive cycle of eat, computer, book, jogging and sleep.

“Wow you guys are boring..”

“Well, not my fault they’re boring…” she said and shrugged and left me rather surprised. I never knew she could speak in such a tone of voice. A tone that suggested that she was sick and tired of her so called friends but had decided to just bear with them since we only had a year left till we graduated.

That night was the turning point for her. We started hanging out more during that summer break, turned out that her circle of friends didn’t meet-up at all. She said it was ok since it was like that every summer. They’d go off to some place on their own and she was an oversight. I felt sorry for her but she told me to stop because she didn’t want or needed my sympathy. I can still remember her eyes. They were filled with numbness because she was so used to it she didn’t feel a thing. All she wanted to do was to graduate and leave their sorry butts.

I also invited to her to come hang out with us. At first my group were a little bit hesitant since they didn’t know her that well. Heck, I didn’t know her that well but we agreed anyway. She hung out with us a couple of times and got the hang of it pretty quick. The rest also started to talk more with her and for once, I saw that her smiles actually reached her eyes. That summer was the first time I’ve seen her throw her head back guffawing. It was refreshing, in a way. The rest of the group agreed that she’s pretty fun to hang around with. She cracked us up with her jokes, laughed till she cried and was so lively, completely opposite from the girl we always saw in class.

That summer, for her, was the best. That was what she told us. It was the first time since she stopped going to summer camp that summer was fun! She said her parents commented on her new found cheerfulness and were very grateful to the eight of us for helping her. Her parents even treated us to pizza a week before the school reopened. They were nice folks. They owned the spectacle shop half of us went to get our glasses at. Who knew? They said if they’ll give us a nice discount for our subsequent pairs. That was really nice of them. They said it was the least they could do for helping their daughter find her smile and laughter again. Apparently she hasn’t been smiling or laughing much the past couple of years. I noticed, but I think the other seven didn’t. Couldn’t really blame them though, she wasn’t exactly the most noticeable person in class.

Before the summer was over, we made a pack to continue being a group. We were a pretty big group, there were nine of us if we include her. She was hesitant at first, giving reasons like she wasn’t sure how we were like in school. Summer was a time to let loose and forget about school but in class, it was different. People changed, even the most laid back will become intensely serious. We understood and I assured her that we were different. We were a group that studied hard and played hard. It took a while to convince her but she agreed in the end, a few days before we returned for our senior year.

First day of senior year, the sad part was, her old group didn’t even notice that she wasn’t sitting near them anymore. She was with us toward the right side of the class. We made a bet on when they’d notice and all of us lost. By the time they noticed, it was already almost half the semester. All our bets were roughly within the first week of classes. She was a bit hurt at first but then, it happened, confrontation. It was the softest confrontations I have ever seen, volume wise.

It happened during lunch. She kept her voice in control, soft and calm as usual. One of them came up to us and asked why wasn’t she with them anymore and pretty soon, the rest came to back that person up. Slowly she stood up and it began. She calmly told them that she was done with them constantly taking her for granted and making her feel left out almost all the time. She was tired of them not caring what she had to say. When we felt she needed some backing up, we stood and backed her up. It was more intimidating that it seems, having eight people backing somebody up and all eight were glaring. She finished it off rather humorously, if memory served.

“So, why don’t you guys make like a tree and leaf.”

It was a classic pun. The group nodded and left. One of them turned around and apologised and hoped that they’ll still be friends or something. She nodded in acknowledgement before she took her seat and resumed eating. We congratulated her on a job well done and she gave us a gracious smile, with some hints of tears in her eyes but she sucked it up. That there, was one brave and strong person.

The year passed in a blink, ok maybe a few blinks. Ok, maybe in a whole lot of blinks. In no time at all we were all cramming for our college entrance exams. We gathered at my place since I had a relatively big dining hall with one of them long rectangular dining tables for twelve seaters. For about two or three months we were there, with our books scattered all across the table. My dad even loaned us one of his portable whiteboards, the ones you can find in school, for us to have an easier time discussing topics.

One of us was actually the first in class, having stayed on top for so many semesters we all lost count. She was really proud that none of the brainiacs managed to beat her scores after finding out what they did to our new friend. So she used the board most of the time, taught us how to solve questions, drew mind maps for us to help us remember things easier. Studying in a group was really fun, our new friend admitted. Before this she had always studied alone. None of the brainiacs had initiated a group study and she told us all of them studied separately as well, each too stingy to share any info that they had. Jerks, we all agreed.

During our study sessions she was really helpful, too. She had her own tricks of remembering facts and wasn’t afraid to share it with us. We had an unwritten agreement that we were all working towards the same goal which was getting good grades to enter the college of our choice. So why not help each other to achieve that same goal?  The results were more than satisfactory.

After every paper we wore bright smiles and were happily discussing that we were spot on in guessing which topics would be tested and laughed out loud when we agreed that thank goodness one of us made a joke about those few important facts and we could recall the jokes easily, helping us write better in our paper. The brainiacs constantly looks constipated with their serious looks on their faces. Brows furrowed and lips pursed. It was not a pretty sight and she was glad to not be one of them, fretting and worrying about what had happened and what was coming up next.

We aced our exams. All of us got into the colleges and/or universities of our choice. That would also mean separation. On the last day before everybody had to leave we had a party. A farewell party, no alcohol involved of course. We agreed that it would not be smart to hung over the next day and miss our respective flights or trains. You’d think that in a group as big as ours, at least two would be going to the same place. No, all of us were headed to different parts of the world. Some stayed back in the country, but went to different states while others flew out to the continents. We purposely booked our tickets on the same day so that we would not have to go through so many potentially tearful goodbyes. We sent those who went by trains first then the rest of us parted in the airport.

Goodbyes were never easy; she cried the most out of us. We understood. She probably went through her whole schooling life wanting to belong and she did with us but the time we spent together was short. She gave us each a bone crushing hug and each kisses on the cheek and of course, the mandatory group hug. And slowly, one by one we boarded our flights and left.

We kept in contact over our years in uni and tried to meet up whenever we had overlapping breaks. Our mission to keep in touch throughout uni life was a huge success. We met up once every few months and during the four Christmas we had as Uni students, we went on trips to anywhere in the world, usually to somewhere warmer than our freezing winter.

The last time I saw her would be a few weeks ago I think? She moved back to our hometown and I bumped into her in the store. She was with her husband. Actually I saw her husband first, wondering the aisles frantically looking for his wife. I helped him search and we found her walking aimlessly with a box of raisins in her hand. It was her favourite snack. When she saw me her face lit up and she greeted me cheerfully.

“Hey!! I haven’t seen you in the longest time!” and she gave me a hug while her husband went to return the box of raisin to its respected shelf somewhere in the store.

“Yea, how you’ve been?”

“I’m great! Are you excited for your wedding? I bet you are! Weddings are exciting and fun but also nervous at the same time.” She allowed herself a little chuckle before she continued “what are you doing out here? 

Shouldn’t you be preparing for it? Isn’t it later in a few hours?”

“Yea, don’t worry about it. I have time.”

“Really? That’s great.”

She was about to continue when her husband came and said they had better go.

“Oh right. I’ll see you at the wedding later ok?” she beamed at me and I smiled back at her as I saw her 

retreating figure.

I choked back a sob as I hurriedly made my way back to my car where my son was waiting for me.

“Mom, I thought you wanted to buy something?”

“Oh, I don’t think I need it now.”

“You sure? Do you want me to go back in and get them for you?”

“No, it’s fine dear. Let’s go home.”

“Ok…wait..mom are you crying?”

“I saw an old friend in there. I guess I got a bit sentimental.”

“Aw” he gave me a hug and showed me to the passenger seat. He kissed my temple before closing the door and jogged to the driver’s seat and drove us home.

There was no wedding later. My wedding was well over 20 years ago. She met an accident years ago and she cannot remember anything for more than a few hours at best. But the only thing she remembers as clear as day was that summer and our senior year in high school.

END.

Author's note: so what you guys think?