Freshmen Rules

A moment of Truth

                     Chapter 4: A Moment of Truth

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind. And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”  ― William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

Sir Shakespeare, could your words of wisdom be more specific than that? When you crush at someone, his/her look will attract you at the beginning no matter what. You can find a really gorgeous girl that deep inside is ugly, full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. It is how the universe goes; those people will teach you life eventually. They will teach you to trust your words, mean them, and never utter them unless you’re 100% sure of them. They will teach you to never judge a book by its glowing shiny gold cover. They will teach you that life is full of surprises, mistakes, and errors to be fixed. They will teach you that no matter what you do, mistakes will always be engraved beneath your name.

Chats with Angela have increased rapidly these days. We were close as peanut butter and jelly stuck in really small sandwich buns. We had told secrets and laughed at each other. We had some awesome deep moments too…

“My uncle just died because he was very sick in his bones. I’m not coming to school tomorrow. Sorry”

 The next day I arrived at school I saw her completely freaked out. “RAGHID! Are you alright? How are you? “

“Well… Yeah I’m fine-I guess”

“You miss him I know that.” She said that as her eyes opened and was almost ready for Niagara Falls. “I do. I really do. Yesterday tears have gone though. It’s the circle of life; we are born to survive this cruel but fair world. We eat to survive. We study to survive. We work our asses hard just to survive. AND we know deep inside that nothing is eternal, not even us.” A moment of silence was held as we entered class. Then she quickly said:”You are absolutely right…Only abstract stuff will be eternal like Love…Always remember that If you're alone, I'll be your shadow. If you want to cry, I'll be your shoulder. If you want a hug, I'll be your pillow. If you’re happy, I'll be your smile. But anytime you need a friend, I'll just be me. Never ever forget that.”

 I heard eulogies from everyone in class and I appreciated them all, especially hers. It was a very difficult day, yet I tried my best to live it away from the drama.

Results escalated so quickly that the next day we had to meet with Mrs. Gail and the school director, along with the other 21 candidates to declare results.

“Attention pleases students! I am very proud of you all, each and everyone one of you. Each second you spent while researching is considered valuable and highly precious. All of you guys should participate in this year’s MUN. However, we only need 12 students, so we’ll have to choose who’s the smartest in English and who can nail the language. I’m going to read the names of the accepted students alphabetically. And here it goes:

Kade, Raghid, Jane, Nathalie, and Rose from the two freshmen sections.” The moment I heard that my heart started skipping. I was happy and sad at the same time. Joy was coming out of my soul but then it was splashed by grief every time I tried to give it out.  Yes, Angela was out. And so as that, my plans to discover her more during the training sessions were out, too. I compensated her as we went out and changed the subject later on after five minutes. She showed complete sportsmanship and congratulated me for my awesome win. She was happy that I have reached this far and told me something I could never forget:

“If you want something, you can get it. Besides, you’re Raghid Bsat, No?” I was glad to hear these words coming out of her small mouth and confident enough to finally ask her out.

Finally, I made my decision. Sometimes in life, you have to give in and take a risk. “When life gives you lemons, make Lemonade!” And so she was my sour juicy lemonade that every time I drank made me ecstatic and so vivid. However, I didn’t want it to be very lame. I wasn’t the type of guy who gets related to a girl with neither a text message nor a phone call. I wasn’t that type of the guy who just takes her aside and gives her a warm deep heart to heart talk. No, I was a man full of surprises, and Angela was awaiting some big surprises ahead. I planned that my love to her should be a great one. I planned that my love to Angela shouldn’t be a normal mainstream average teen love. I was very sure I can get this right.