The Ocean

Chapter 10

The next day, I was determined that I would meet Serena the first thing in the morning. As soon as we reached school and got off the school bus, I rushed to my class and put my bag beside Snakey's. Then I went straight to class B.

There she was, sitting on her place, beautiful as ever. She still has that cute smile of hers as she did something with her bag.

I approached her, "Hey! Long time no see, eh?"

Serena looked up at me. Then she stood up and said, "Oh yeah, where were you yesterday?"

"You see, I was busy helping this new guy from my class. I wanted to meet you, I really did, but just couldn't get time." I said, trying to sound convincing.

"Well, you had time to meet Samantha." she said with a smug look on her face.

"That's not it, I just bumped into her and so just talked with her for a while." I tried to convince her. How the hell did she know that I met Samantha?

"Oh well, nevermind." she said as the cheerful tone returned, as if some button had been switched on, "I missed you.."

"Yeh, I missed you too."

Then the bell rang. I waved bye to her and left the class. I think I saw her smiling. Well, she's always smiling.. no big deal... I thought.

...

Days went by and it was kinda hard to stay in touch with Serena. We couldn't see each other much at school because of the changed classes, and hence didn't get to talk much. With time, we lost contact of each other.

Sad to say, but I wasn't much bothered by this. I was kinda too busy living my life, I guess. Snakey was one of my best friends now. We were kind of inseperable.

...

One night I was just chilling in my room when mom came in. She gave me her phone and I saw that Mr. Becker was on call.

"Hello, sir?" I said.

"Hi Ray. You see, we have a Foundation Course going on here."

"Um... Sir, what's foundation?" I really had no idea.

"We basically teach you more stuff and prepare you for higher classes. I have talked to your mother about this. Would you like to join?"

"Oh well, of course I would!"

Mr. Becker then told me a few things and hung up. Mom was happy to see me ready to go there.

...

A week later, it was my first day to attend the foundation thing. It was around 5:30 when I washed my face and got ready for class. Dad dropped me there at around 6 pm. The old feelings came rushing in as I saw the same building again. I had spent a lot of time here, and now I realised how much I missed all of this.

I climbed the stairs and entered the classroom on the 3rd floor. I could see a lot of kids sitting there. I went among them and grabbed a seat. I looked at all of them and recognised pretty much many of the faces, but couldn't remember anyone clearly.

Mr. Becker then suddenly came in and saw me. He gestured me to take my bag and come near him. I did.

"Kid, you're as clueless as ever, aren't you? This isn't your place to sit. This is the JSS batch for this year."

That's why I couldn't remember them clearly. These kids were from my school, but from class 6. One grade lower than me.

"Oh, alright." I said and followed Mr. Becker to another class. There were just 2 more kids. None of them seemed interested to talk with me, so neither did I. Mr. Becker taught us something about chemical reactions, and I liked it well.

After class, when I went downstairs, I saw all the kids from the JSS batch getting ready to go home. All that chit-chat reminded me of my time there. Suddenly, one kid looked up at me and he seemed kinda surprised. He then whispered something to the guy standing beside him and he too, looked at me with a surprised expression.

I was starting to get nervous now. Like why the hell are you staring at me, weirdos?

As I walked down the stairs further, almost everyone was looking at me. Then one of them approached me and said, "Hey... Are you Raymond Sycamore?"

"Um.. yeah I guess? What's up?" I said, as clueless as I had been a while ago.

"You mean you're the one who won the Silver Medal in JSS last year?" a girl walked up to me and asked.

I was starting to get what it was all about. "Yep. That's me. How can I help you?"

"Dang it guys! It's Raymond!" one of them shouted.

They were making it look like I was some sort of celebrity or something. They all gathered around me and started asking me things like how I studied and what my routine was and stuff like that. Around 15 minutes later, everyone had calmed down. It felt awesome though, not gonna lie. I kinda enjoyed it.

Then one of them, a boy, he came to me after almost everyone had left, and said, "Hey! You're so cool!"

"Haha, nah.. I'm not as good as you think. Besides, it's no big deal." I said, trying to hide how much I was enjoying this.

"Wanna join me and my friends? We can go home together if you like. We're gonna get some ice-cream on the way." he asked me. I agreed and he took me to his friends. They were happy to have me there. We bought ice-cream from a shop nearby and started walking towards our houses.

"So hey, what's your name?" I asked the kid who had brought me there.

"Ishaan." he said.

"Nice to meet you, Ishaan!" I said as I gave him a high-five.