Chapter 28

2017.05.21

"Jessica can I talk to you a minute?" Her friends looked at me. But Jessica came along with me. We went from the classroom to the corridor. We both faced each other. "Is something wrong Jessica? You all are acting weird. Did I do something?" "It is because of your guy friend" she replied. "Oh, is he troubling you again? I told him couple of times. Are you still dropping him texts?" "I am scared if I do not text him back. You know that he even cut his wrist. He will do something again if I do not reply." "I will talk with him. I think he is going overboard." We got disturbed. Sandra and the rest of Jessica's friends came to the corridor. "Sorry Anna, Where ever Jessica goes we all go with her too." Sandra spoke out harshly shaking her head. It hurt. It hurt really badly. Really badly that I wanted slap her. Slap her and cry on the spot. I controlled my feelings even after they all ganged me. I replied "As if I had something." and pushed myself through them before I break down and wail.

They all left the class. I sat behind row and cried. Sally cuddled me and told me not to cry. She felt bad of what happened. An old classmate said "Why would you go and poke your nose in their stuff." "I did not and you do not know nothing and you do not need to care any of it." I replied. I had no energy to yell at her. Why is she poking in my business anyways? Another classmate who joined the class this year said Sally "let her cry. It is better." But I wanted someone to tell me stop crying and say it is all going to be okay. I thought I did not have anyone to take care of me. There was Sally who did not stop cuddling me. Even though her hand hurt holding me. She placed her head on my back and held tighter.

I could not cry anymore. I lifted my head. Sally let go of me. I straightened up. She placed a hand over my shoulder tapping. I looked at my belly. I remembered what a classmate told me "Oh! Anna also have a belly" in a sarcastic way last Saturday after I got attention of Daniel. I let go of the thought and said "I do not know what happened. I feel wronged." Sally's friend's told me "We do not know what happened." Sally then said, "We saw Masha and Sarah talking to Jessica." I went numb. I did not change my expression. "That is odd." I replied. My eyebrows frowned. I sighed. It was odd because Masha and Sarah always avoided them. They hated all of them. Even though one of Jessica's best friend is Sarah's cousin, they barely talked. I tapped my finger. "I need to talk with Jessica." I said out loud looking ahead. "I think that is the only way you can know what happened." Sally added. Sally friend then told me "You are rumored to spread about Jessica's boyfriend." I was shocked. How? When? What the F***?

I stood up and left the class. How am I supposed to talk to her? All of them will gang up on me and I will break apart again. Mrs. Beth is not here either to ask for help. I need power. Power to break apart the gang for at least half an hour. They are travelling everywhere together. Mrs. Marinna! She will help me.

I went to Mrs. Marinna's class. I stood out of her class and looked at her peeping. "Madam?" She turned her head and looked at me. "Yes, child. Come in." I went in. "Can I talk to you?" "Go ahead." "In private?" She stood up and she went to the corridor. I followed her.

"Yes dear, what is it?" She started the conversation. A sense of security flushed through me. I teared up. I held back my tears told her. "Madam, there is something going in my class. I do not know what it is." I stopped and to breathe in and continued "Jessica and her team are mad at me for a reason that is false." "What is the reason dear?" She cut in. I replied "That I am falsely accusing that Jessica has a boyfriend and I am spreading a rumor throughout the school. And I hve no idea if she has one or not." Mrs. Marinna raised a brow. I continued, "I want to clear my name. I want to talk to her without Sandra and the rest barging in and saying hurtful words." I could not hold in my tears. I cried. Mrs. Marinna tapped my shoulder. "So you want me call her in. So you can talk to her about it?" I nodded in response. She called a student from her class and told to fetch Jessica from my class and that she is asking for her. The girl obeyed and left. I waited till she comes.

My tears had dried. But anyone could tell that I cried. Jessica came finally. Mrs. Marinna came out and bent towards Jessica, "Anna wants to talk to you. I do not want you to have a boyfriend. Better it not be true. She is a single girl. You should not gang up on her. It was wrong. As a team only you are powerful. Without each other you are powerless. Not like her. She stays alone most of her time. Both of you resolve the misunderstandings and tell me when you leave. Okay?" Jessica only nodded.

She turned towards me, "Why did you cry? I knew it was you when Mrs. Marinna called me. You can tell me what happened." She was worried. I normally do not cry. I am all gas. I no longer could cry.

"The way Sandra talked hurt me. I felt being wrongly accused. I do not know what happened and what you heard about to be mad at me."

"It is not your guy friend. It is that you are spreading a rumor that I am loving my guy friend." I looked at her shocked. "I already know that you are his friend. I too have a guy friend right? Even that day I told you to go and talk to him before others arrived. But you did not. Many of them saw and they talked about you." I told her the names of the girls who talked. And those classmates are very close to her team members. "Your two friends are the one who came and told me."

"Masha and Sarah right?" I sighed and rested my back in the wall.

She nodded and asked me "How did you know?"

"Sally and her friends told me that they talked to you in Saturday Physics class. With that thing only I knew that something was off. They never talk to you." I do not attend that Physics class.

"Yes, I was shocked that when they wanted to talk with me. And also there was someone who confirmed it. Kate."

"Kate also? I should not be surprised. I should have seen it coming. It is not the first time." I saw Jessica's friends going up and down the stairs watching us. Jessica laughed and pointed out.

"We all were upset when Masha and Sarah told us. Like you are not such a type that get jealous. We even wanted to come up with reasons. We though perhaps you were jealous of our friendship. But nothing made sense. Then I told them the reason Masha and Sarah told me." I was curious what they had told her. "They said that you wanted to get the School Captain."

"That is absurd." I told her. She nodded in return.

"Even (her friend's name who is in the Art class) got to know that I had a boyfriend and asked me that why I did not tell her. When I asked her she told it was Amy who told her."

"It was not me. You know that I barely leave the class. It has been weeks that I went to commerce class and the Arts class. And if it is from Amy, then it is from Kate and eventually it connects to Masha and Sarah." She nodded in realization that she had failed to connect the dots.

"I thought it was true because you even posted a story in the stargram about me. I do not know if you knew it was me or not."

"He told me put it up. And I just did it. I did not know it was you. If I knew I would have not." I lied. I wanted to tell her that I was mad and that she was putting me in a hard position. I did not because I wanted to clear my name now. No one knows that I did it on purpose expect for Masha and Sarah. And Jessica might think it is not true also for the mean time. May be I should have told her. I did not know why I lied that day. I just should have told her the truth. May be I was desperate to clear my name.

She continued, "You should stop being friends with Masha, Sarah and Kate. They are not good friends." We resolved our problems. We talked for a while.

We went to Mrs. Marinna to tell her that we were leaving. "You were talking this long? I thought you had left already. There might have been a lot of them. Okay, it is nice that you resolved it. Jessica tell your team to act accordingly. I know they want to protect you but sometimes you will forget to see the truth. Happy to see you both got along." WE were talking for a whole good forty-five minutes. We smiled and left. She went to update her friends. They sometimes were blamed for being selfish as a team. They usually do not care of others if they had any chances. They tend to garb everything to themselves. And there were some teachers who praised them. I wanted to be in their team three years back and they rejected me. May be it for better.

When I was getting back to the class, I met Jessica and her team. Sandra talked. "I am sorry to talk in a harsh way. I was mad that you were backstabbing Jessica." "I understand." I replied. Because you get mad when someone disses your friend. I am unlucky in that, I do not have such friends. Others also asked for apologies. Sandra continued "Even we were shocked when we heard about it. I had known you for a long while." I smiled. "Thank you for believing me." "Sure! We made ridiculous reasons!" Jessica's friend said and laughed. "And we saw you both going up and down the stairs." "You Saw Us!" We talked and laughed for a while and I went to the classroom and they went to the canteen.

Sally and her friends asked what happened and I updated them. The old classmate kept quiet after hearing what had happened. It was amusing for her. Sally started scolding Masha and Sarah. Her friends nodded their heads. I went to the Arts class and asked Amy and Jessica's friend. And I told them what had happened. They were disgusted. Also some of Masha's friends. Apparently all of them had stopped talking to each other. Amy cursed them badly.

I was relieved that my name was cleared. But then again, my heart was heavy. Heavy with betrays. I did not talk to Masha and Sarah and seems like they got to know about what happened. May be it was Sally's friends who had told them. (I did not know why I did not doubt Amy at that time)

2017.05.22

I waited for Sarah to come to the class after school. Masha was absent and Sarah was in the commerce class the whole day. She was scolded by our chemistry madam also. I wanted to ask her by myself. She came. I slid my bag to my shoulder. "Sarah did you tell that I am trying to get the School Captainship so that I was damaging Jessica's image?" She replied with a just 'Yes' "Thank you and we do not have class today." I did not want to hear anymore. I did not want to hear any reasons. We were supposed to have an afterschool chemistry but it got cancelled. I left home.