The Ocean

Chapter 5

After all that had happened, I cut all ties with Peter. Don't judge me now. Like what else do you expect from me? First, Mrs. Brooks lectured me in the bus in front of all the kids from my class. Second, Stella stopped talking to me, which was kinda odd cuz I was not at fault. Third, Mrs. Brooks lectured me again in front of other teachers. And lastly, my parents were called at school.

By now you must pretty much have an idea about how strict people are regarding dating in my country. It sucks. So, coming back to the point, I was grounded for like a month. They didn't let me use my phone (which I still don't know the purpose for, cuz what's the point of not letting me use my phone over THIS issue?) and my reputation among the teachers was pretty much... ruined.

I was so pissed off at Peter for this. The bastard didn't care in the least bit about what happened to me. He was busy with his own life. Like what the f*ck.

Well, Iris was the one to lecture me too you see. Iris was one of those typical obedient, neat and tidy girls and she, for god knows what reason, fully supported the idea of not letting kids date.

"Ray... I didn't expect this from you." she said, looking at me with a disappointed face.

"Look. Firstly, it's not my fault. Secondly, Peter was the one who made me write that shit and said he would sign it as himself and give it to her. Stop blaming me for this!" I almost yelled at her. Over everything, I hated false accusations the most. NEVER blame me for something I did not do.

...

Well, things got pretty much back to normal after what seemed like a month or so, and I was back on track.

It was a fine winter day. At evening, as usual, dad dropped me off to Mr. Becker's, and I climbed up to the 3rd floor to our class. Between all that had happened in the past month, I had completely forgotten about Serena. You can't blame me. How much can a 12 year old keep track of at a time?

I took my seat in the class. Alex and I... We were sort of having some arguments lately. He had joined the group of the so called 'bad-guys' and I was the topper, so I had a reputation to maintain, because of which, I wasn't a part of that group.

You see, this is the typical age where kids start learning new things. New in the bad sense. Hormonal rushes, p*rn videos and the newfound knowledge about sex, using slang words, stuff like that. I was the 'good-guy' type so I never got involved in such things.

Well, so that cut Alex off the chart. I had really few friends left now. Iris was sort of cold towards me. Peter, nope. Other kids were not too close to me. I felt lonely for some reason.

So when I took my seat in the class, I saw that Serena was sitting right beside me. She looked at me and said, "Sup?"

"Huh?" It took me a while to realise what was going on. "Uh? Oh, yeah. Nothing much. How bout you?"

"Same here... Just studying for this JSS (Junior Scientist Search) thing." she replied, cheerful as ever.

"Oh. Cool."

"What's up with you? Why are you always so cold?" Serena asked, suddenly sounding concerned.

"Well, what's it gotta do with you?" I said, nonchalant as ever.

"Fine. Don't tell me." saying so, she turned to the other side.

I could tell that she was kinda hurt cuz she didn't wave her usual bye-bye to me before she went off with her dad. I kinda felt guilty but I had a lot of things on my mind.

The next day, however, I approached Serena at school. She turned her back to me and refused to talk. Man, you sure pissed her off... I said to myself. Yet, I talked to her.

"So um, hey Serena! What's up?" I asked.

"What's it gotta do with you?" she replied, trying to be rude. But she couldn't. She just wasn't made to be rude. She looked so adorable, trying to sound all angry when she did actually want to talk.

"Well, thing is, I wanted to say sorry about yesterday.." I said, moving a little closer.

"Oh! It's alright! How are you doing now?" Serena said with a sudden burst of energy. Her fake anger was gone.

"Wanna sit and talk somewhere?" I suggested. She agreed and we went to the Library upstairs. I watched as she playfully climbed the stairs, jumping over each one like a little child.

"So, what was up with you yesterday?" she asked me as we seated ourselves near a table far from the Librarian's desk.

"You see," I replied, "with all the things that have been going on with me lately, the teachers think I'm some jerk, the kids are all going bad and they think I'm a jerk as well, I don't have many friends left and no one believes me about what happened on the trip night."

"Well, I believe you." she said.

"You what?"

"I said I believe you. I know how much of a dork Peter can be. I hate him for doing that to you."

At this point, I was kinda overwhelmed. Cuz Serena trusted what I had to say. This was the start of my friendship with Serena.