THE WEEK

All the days of the week that the students were having an introduction to the first year of senior high school to help them choose a stream they would be comfortable devoting their lives to had been interesting with everyone involved in deciding which stream they were willing to build their careers in.

For Marie it had also been extraordinarily interesting with so many things that had been happening in her life all at the same time, especially with Jacob having shown extra interest in her. The first day of the new academic year he had asked if he could join Jean and her for lunch at the cafeteria as senior high students had the liberty to eat with the boys on the few tables that were assigned to them specifically for this purpose.

The whole of the week similar things happened. Whenever anyone would try to get close to Marie, Jean would be the barrier they would first have to clear. And that seemed too much of a task to all the youngsters as none of them were ready to show perseverance for pursuing Marie till she agreed to go out with them which wouldn’t have been any other place than either the cafeteria or the tuck shop.

None of them were also matured enough to put up with so much drama that might have been thrown at them by Jean because they never really wanted Marie in the first place. It was just that she had been a loner, and the impression that they had about such girls was that they are quick at starting to love somebody. And in spite of the fact that the boys were not ready for true love because they didn’t even know the meaning of it, they wanted to have a girlfriend to show her off to their friends.

Out of every other girl who was too smart and cunning to fall for their plan and then take their cases on a bigger scale either by getting the teacher involved or by spreading demeaning rumors about them, Marie was the most innocent amongst them all. All the boys at least had a little idea of such a decent girl she was who would never do them wrong.

An entire week for the teenagers who newly graduated from junior high to senior high passed by in deciding which girl they wanted to try hitting on as every one of them wanted to have a girlfriend now. That was because they wanted to make the most of the coed years of their school life, which was very new to them.

It was that point in life for the teenagers to believe that this was their entire world and nothing much bigger than their present time followed later in life. They wanted to do everything in these two years when they actually couldn’t have done anything more than just building castles in the air by talking about petty things in a big way that made it look as if there was never going to be something which was bigger than any of that.

Nothing very productive happened for them throughout the week as they were all very busy in making sure that the girl they had in mind was noticing them too as they did all kinds of stunts in the study hall. Writing messages on paper and making airplanes with them to fly them across the room targeting the girl they had started liking had become a very popular stunt that almost all the guys started doing from the second day itself.

More than that, they were making sure to somehow write the house addresses of their batchmates to make sure they meet each other outside the school at least once during the summer holidays. This was going to be another way for them to keep a track of where their crush stayed; all the students were looking forward to the month-long vacation.

It was the last day of the one-week introduction that the students were having, and all of them were expected to get all their doubts clarified because after their holidays they were to start with the classes of the respective stream which they would choose. The usual stuff that had been happening in the study hall with Jean and Marie with both of them finding chances to maintain a touch with each other no matter how it happened.

After their classes on the last day before the summer holidays, as both of them were walking to the hostel, Jean asked, “Which stream are you planning to take?”

“Arts, you?” Marie responded and asked her the same question.

“Awesome! I am also planning to take art,” replied Jean.

“That means we would be studying together for these two years!"

"I will always sit behind you to make sure no one would ever play a prank on you.”

Marie felt extremely protected when Jean said that to her. It was completely something unexpected for anyone to tell her that because of the way that she had been in school. She was so indifferent that nothing really bothered her and got to her no matter how intense it would be. She was looking forward to inviting Jean to her home during the summer holidays so that they could have their first sleepover if her parents allowed it because Marie’s parents were never okay with her sleeping at any of her friend’s house.

Both of them had also taken the addresses of each other and planned to meet at the park which was almost at the same distance from their house. They decided to have a little fun outside their homes before calling each other home and spending time in the four walls that were guarded by their parents.

They did not want to feel caged at home as there were many things that they wouldn’t have been able to do at home. Hence, they decided to meet each other outside just to have a little fun by doing things that they couldn’t do at school, and some of them they didn’t want to do at home and risk being caught by their parents.

None of the things were any less than the closeness displayed by friends, but because both of them had mixed intentions which were not pure, they just didn’t feel comfortable doing them around anybody. Something that was as simple as holding hands or putting their hands on each other’s shoulder gave them doubts of being questioned by anyone in their families.

Everyone was so excited and looking forward to a beautiful time at home after doing well in their junior high final examinations and being promoted to senior high school. Making new friends and being able to finally invite them over to their homes was considered a big achievement among each one of them because they were waiting for a long time to be able to earn this achievement.

Things are not that simple at that age for teenagers. People take them as kids, but it is not right to categorize them because the adults are definitely not aware of what they put up with in school by dealing with the peer pressure and yet balancing between the things that are right and the things that everyone else their age is doing.

It takes a lot of time for them to decide the common ground between something that they want to do and something that they must do. It is not easy for sure, and most of the times it results in a spat with their parents at home which spoils everybody’s mood because it may either upset them or make them angry depending on the side that they are on.

Now that the holidays were approaching, and all the young boys and girls who had been living independently in the hostels with the freedom to do whatever they wanted to within certain boundaries, of course, were all set to go home to their parents. It was certainly going to be interesting to know what was going to happen at their homes.