MARIEEE!

Marie woke up the next morning with a weird feeling. She was excited to meet Jean after the holidays in which different feelings were experienced between both of them. A few of the things that they had done were big enough to create a lasting expression for life. They were not the little things but quite a lot according to their age.

Besides, they were both unsure of who they actually were. They liked being together but also to the level that they didn't need anyone else, and not just figuratively but also literally. Being with the boys stopped appealing to them even though their friends and other people their age were crazy about talking to the opposite gender and being friends with them.

Marie was in the best school, and her parents pulling her out of it was not easy for either party. But because of the doubts that appeared in their minds about her liking some other girl, forced them to take such a step. The society wasn't really accepting of the modern ways of life. They were conservative and not very broad-minded to understand that their definition of love could be understood differently by others. Humans at least have the right to choose their love partner.

It would have been a problem if their daughter, Marie, grew up contradicting the beliefs of the people living in that society. It would have been a matter of pride for them to have kids who would be looked up to by others in the society. And something like that which they were thinking about might happen had been disrupting their peaceful sleep at night. But they were happy about the decision to move out of that place being happily accepted by both their daughters, especially by Marie even though she was well-known to retaliate in such matters.

Despite Maria asking them if she could go back to the hostel with Jean, her parents did not agree to it and said that they would drop her to the hostel. Hostelers had to report one day prior to the school opening in order to settle their stuff back again and be able to reach school for the first class just in time and comfortably.

Not only was Marie a little upset about not being able to meet Jean sooner by going back to the hostel with her in her car, but she was also disappointed in herself for having failed to convince her parents for that. She had all kinds of plans already made up in her mind for the back-to-school trip which she had planned in her mind without thinking that her parents might not allow it because that is what happened in the end.

When her parents got ready to drop her to school so that she could spend one last day with her friends in the hostel, she also walked out of her room without saying a single word to them. She responded to everything they asked with only a subtle smile. She was lucky that the few questions asked were such that her smile adequately answered all of them.

They got into the car and for the entire trip, Marie did not talk at all. Her parents were talking to each other about having to do the shifting which had to happen and how they would be managing everything, which is why they were also too busy to pay attention to their daughter who had suddenly become so quiet. But it did not matter to Marie either because she had different things which were going on in her mind.

As of now, she was only thinking about her bond with Jean and the way in which she would tell her about her family moving to a new city. She chose to speak to her in person and not tell her on the phone through a message or a call. Hence, she was more worried imagining the reaction which she would get from Jean once she got to know about all this.

She was excited to go to her school. That was because being in the school hostel was more comfortable to her than being at home only for the reason that in the hostel no negativity was cultivated in other’s mind for her. Whereas, at home, her step-mother and step-sister were constantly fighting with her most of the time about some lame thing that she did.

Having to give explanations every now and then for each of the things that you do gets monotonous after a period of time. It irritates a lot, making the other person want to just set free. That is exactly what happened during each vacation Marie spent at home. Continuous nagging about certain things which was not even necessary used to piss her off enough to get away from that place. She would then wait for her school to reopen.

And now that she was going back, she had mixed feelings towards the other side. She was not sure if she would be happy or sad knowing that it was going to be the last day for her to live in that atmosphere in which she felt independent and otherwise satisfied.

Just when her dad drove past the main school building after entering the main gate, he parked the car in the parking lot which was for visitors and looked in the rear-view mirror to see what his daughter was doing since it was time for her to get off the car and walk to her hostel. Marie was not carrying big suitcases with her this time because she knew that she was not going to be there for long; just one day.

While she was alighting from the car, she heard Jean’s voice from the front. In a fraction of a second, Jean started running towards Marie after she yelled her name out loud. Marie’s face bloomed suddenly and because she did not have any other bag other than the backpack which she was wearing, she also started to run in the direction from where Jean was coming.

They hugged each other very tight the instance they stood in front of each other. Both of them were smiling from ear to ear. Jean’s driver was taking care of her two bags as he was removing them from the car. He continued to do his job even though Jean ran away from there.

Marie’s parents had their eyes glued to her while they were seated in the car expressionless; unable to believe what they were seeing because it seemed to them that Jean was a guy because of the way she carried herself, but she had taken their daughter’s name in a feminine voice. That was causing confusion to them because Marie had never had a friend like that before. Her father finally turned off the car and got off from it to go to talk to Marie.