Young Stupid Love

Siddharthranjith

He was an average student studying in the 6th standard in Merryland secondary school, due to lack of grades in the former school, his parents transferred him to the St George international located at chennai. In the former school he was ragged by a lot of girls , eversince that events ….. he hated the opposite sex , he continued his hatred till today even after he left that city behind.

First day at St George , he did not want to be late ,he entered the school block and asked for his classroom at the reception and then he gave sendoff to his parents who had come to drop him.

The receptionist gave him directions to his class 7c ,which means 7th grade c section , so he followed the direction and he reached the class, but to his surprise the class was empty, he asked the attender who had just passed him about the students in 7c. Attender said that they had gone for an art class and asked him to stay in the next class for that period. So, the attender took him to 7b section and said to the teacher that he was a new joiner and the teacher welcomed him and asked to introduce himself to the class , which he did …… the teacher asked to take a seat in the middle column first bench , there were 3 columns of benches the 3rd column were the girl’s. He noticed that the class room had 4 girls and 16 boys , 2 in each row , he noticed that 2 girls of the 4 were from Tamilnadu , because any south indian can be distinguished by their looks and hair. He was not sure about the other 2 girls and he did not bother anymuch longer because even now he has hatred to opposite sex .

The teacher started the geography class by asking students various questions about the india map , to his surprise he answered one of the questions , he felt confident , the teacher cheered him which encouraged him to answer any question , either he knows the answer or not , and the teacher clapped for him for trying , he started to like the school already . 30 mins had passed , he noticed that the girl in the first bench was eyeing him ,he turned to look at her , she shifted her eyes to the teacher who was right next ahead of him , he turned back to listen to the teacher . Again he caught her eyeing at him , he turned this time she gave a smile to him ,he did not like it because the fact he hated girls , so he just gave a weary smile to not to be rude , he did not like what he did but he ignored her after that incident . Finally, the class was over the teacher said to him that by now his class would have returned and can go to his class. As he left the classroom she giggled at him , he got a little pissed. But he was happy he would not see that girl again since they were in different section.

He entered his classroom he made new friends and he noticed that his class had 18 boys and 2 girls , both are south Indians who looked very conservative ,he smiled and was happy he would never see that b section girl again.

The next day

He took French as his 2nd language and all the students of all 3 sections had it at the same period so all who chose French would come together in one class, to his surprise that b section girl was in his French class , she noticed him and she gave a smile at him ,he gave a weary smile back , he felt angered that he has to take French classes with her, the girl who made him uncomfortable on the very first day in this school . One of his friend in class told him that her name was Suzanne Shelby , she came from Canada , he even got to know that she was a topper of b section. He did not like her at all .

Days passed as water passed from a waterfall , he started to ignore her completely and concentrated at his own work . He still did not know her intension because he never spoke to her . He had a very strong motto of despise against girls . So, days passed and unit class exams were going to start from the next day.

The unit exam

He sat in the very first bench studying for the exam , the time was 9 am , which was time for the girls to come to class from their hostels… and the exam started at 10 am . Just before the morning prayers at 9.15 , Suzanne entered c section , he didn’t notice her ,he was studying for the exam . she walked towards him and he was shocked to see her , she came towards him and asked “ how is your preparations for the exam ?” he nodded in shock and said "well, Not so bad actually" and she continued “study well and perform well “ she smiled in the end , her eyes sparkled and in a spontaneous reaction he replied “ thank u” she looked satisfied and she left the class . he was completely in a shock and froze , one of friends said to him that she never spoke to any boy since she joined school , that very minute his friends started teasing him with her name and teasing him that he loved her , and infuriated him and he felt angry but he had to stay focused since the exams were about to start in 30 mins and he had to perform well since that was the very reason why his parents transferred him from his previous school.

Exams ended well for him , he performed pretty well in all the subjects , in his surprise he had actually been ranked 4th In class ,he was awestruck because in his previous school he hardly managed to get 25th , he even learned that Suzanne ranked 2nd in class, which angered him ,from that day he mentally made her a rival , he promised himself he would bet her in any event, competition etc in school. During the recess break , he saw her come out of her class , she noticed and gave him a smile and this time he gave similar smile, a smile which meant that he was going to bet her.

The school cultural

The school cultural events had started , sid was interested in dancing so he joined the school dancing team , he danced very well so he was one of the lead dancers among his teammates . the teacher who head of dance team explained us the entire dance theme and various moral of the dance. suddenly the girls dancing entered the auditorium , and among them there was Suzanne who jumped onto the stage as she saw sid on stage . He felt angry and satisfied as this would be chance to compete with her in talent. She gave smile of excitement to him , he gave a smile of rivalry to her .

The cultural had started and he and his friends totally shaken the audience and all of them cheered at their performance and the next was the girls team performed , and the audience cheered them in a similar way, the girls had also given a extraordinary performance , as they got down the stage , he saw her get down and she walked pass him and she looked at him , he said to her “ nice performance “ he gave a angry rival smile to her and she replied ” thanks” , before she could say any further he went away from her in a hurry as he felt defeated , but still he never gave in, he had hope he would show her one day …one of his friends noticed speaking to her and they all started teasing him with her name ,which infuriated him and angered him.

Days passed and the mid term exams had started and sid performed very well this time but still he got 4th rank and Suzanne got a clash of marks with 1st rank which angered him, so he again started ignoring her even though she looked at him.

Days passed and 7th grade came to an end and they all left home for the summer leave for 2 months . sid’s parents were very happy with his performance and they all were happy for sid. Sid had completely forgotten about her and his stupid childish rivalry with Suzanne , but sid hates the opposite sex still.

Starting 8th grade…..

8th grade had started and sid came to school 2 days late, he entered 8c class with teachers permission and he noticed that new students have joined this year and now his class strength was 30 , 24 boys and 6 girls, sid hated the increase in number of girls In his class and he cursed the parents who had joined their daughters in his school and hated the administration for assigning them in his class. He walked pass the class and took a seat in the last but before seat, he waved at his friends who greeted him back and the day passed and he got along with the new students in his class. sid’s friends explained him about the new girls, 3 are from Thailand and 1 from Bangalore and the other 2 are south Indians who had been from previous year. Sid learned that the Bangalore girl’s name was sandhyaramaswamy aka sandy who happens to be the girlfriend of one of his friend rajeshnavieda , sandy had joined this very school for rajesh all the way from Bangalore. Sid felt annoyed to listen to such love story but still he respected his friend rajesh so he endured it. Sid had learned that among the 3 thai girls 2 of them already had boyfriends both the boys were from 9th grade and slowly his friends started to realize and started teasing him with Suzanne’s name which sid totally forgot during the summer.

Sid went to 8b section during the recess ,where he noticed that there was a increase in population his b section too. He noticed that there were 9 girls an 22 boys. He searched for Suzanne , there she was in the 2nd row , she did not notice him enter the class, sid did not have any rivalry towards her anymore, sid went towards his b section friends and played with them until the break. As sid passed by her to leave the class , still she did not notice him. Sid when he left the room he felt happy and free from her eye traps and then he went back to c section.

Days passed by, it was all normal and boring, sid got along with all of the new students but at first new hostel students cried being homesick but all of them consoled them and they all got along .

One day after the French class , sid has been told that one of the new students named Mahesh Millan was flirting with Suzanne , and sid thought that she never spoke to any boy before him and now it looks like she had found a guy and sid finally thought she had freed him out of her system, sid felt very happy for himself and slowly friends stopped teasing sid with Suzanne’s name and they started teasing Mahesh, unlike sid Mahesh felt nice as everyone teased him, sid didn’t understood what was mahesh’s motto. And days passed after every French class as Suzanne and Mahesh started chatting with one another , it was more like flirting.

One day French class got over a bit early so all of them remained in class , sid went out to drink some water as he did not like to sit simply in class. As time was almost over sid was 40 feet away from the class door and Suzanne and Mahesh came out of the class , they were the only one out of the class ,the rest were seated in class other than sid who was already out at a 40 feet distance, suddenly Mahesh took hold of suzanne’s hand, got Infront of her and proposed to her, Suzanne was facing towards sid, she looked devastated and she was looking at sid instead of Mahesh, Mahesh noticed her eyes elsewhere and saw In her direction , Mahesh didn’t care, didn’t see much . Mahesh again turned towards her and proposed again “I love u suzzanna and don’t u feel the same way…” , she got angry and threw his hand away and slapped him on the right cheek. Mahesh became red with watery eyes and suzanna burst into tears and ran towards b section , she passed sid but he didn’t notice. Mahesh with his right hand on his right cheek turned to see what suzanna was actually looking at he saw it clearly now , it was sid who she was looking while Mahesh proposed. One of the PT masters saw suzanna slapping Mahesh , and the PT master came to Mahesh to talk to him , sid was not aware of any of it , he came to c section and sat In the 2nd last row in the middle column and sid started preparing for the next class.

Mahesh entered the c section class after a few minutes ,after washing his face along with a PT master who was consoling him , he entered the class holding his right cheek and sat in his seat which was a seat ahead of sid’s ,the entire class started wondering what happened to Mahesh, most of them assumed that one of the PT masters slapped, everyone started to ask Mahesh what happened . Mahesh’s eyes started to fill with tears and he still did not remove his hand from his right cheek . Eight mins passed still no answer .

Suddenly suzzanna entered the class, everyones eyes were on her, her face was full red and her eyes filled with tears , she was looking Mahesh and she even noticed sid , she looked straight into sid’s eyes and who was sitting right behind Mahesh, her sight of contact had both sid and Mahesh …..now she started shouting in crying tone “ what do u think of yourself ?!!!! , just that I talked to you and started being nice, does not mean u can take advantage of me” the entire class froze in astonishment and started looking at Mahesh and she continues “ I never expected this to happen , I was completely foolish of opening up myself to someone, just that we started talking personal stuff does not mean that I wanted a relationship, how could u have ever felt that way and just that I smile…. ” She stopped and looked at sid and she started to cry and she ran out of the the class no one noticed that the last sight she gave was for sid, only sid noticed it but he didn’t care about, the PT master followed suzanna and another PT master came towards Mahesh, who had kept his hands folded around his head and his head on the desk the PT master asked him what had happened even though he knew it all ,Mahesh did not answer anything he remained silent with his head lied on his desk.

The teacher who was supposed to take class had not come yet, so the PT master had to go and find out. Just after the PT master left the class, Mahesh got up and stood and turned towards sid and started shouting at sid“ she rejected me because she loves siddharth” sid was shocked and infuriated.

Sid replied “ what !!!?”sid was completely bewildered by his reaction ,

Mahesh said “ shut up asshole , she was looking at u the entire time” he wiped his face which was covered In tears and he continued “ I saw her looking at u ….after French class…”

Sid completely frustrated “oh … now u are pinning this nonsense on me , when I am not even involved in any of this ….what do u think of yourself , just that u were embarrassed infront of everyone by one of your own mistakes does not mean u have to pin it on someone else…”

The entire class fell silent after sid shouted at mahesh ,as a matter of time the entire class sided with sid and asked Mahesh to shut his mouth and sit down.

The PT master again entered and took Mahesh outside to meet the principal , while English teacher premkumar sir entered class like he doesn’t know anything what happened in class , because he was right outside the entire time watching what was happening , he even pretended by asking one of the first bench students what had happened.

So the classes continued till 3.30 pm and Mahesh did not return to class , everyone prepared to go back to hostel since school had ended , sid just before he was about to leave rajesh called him and asked him to stay for a while .

Rajesh asked “just stay back for a while”.

Sid replied “ why?”.

Rajesh said “ sandy wants to talk to u in private” .

Sid who was stunned by rajesh’s statement said “ sandy ,why does your girlfriend wants to talk to me in private” .

Rajesh said “ I don’t know , why don’t ask her yourself”

Sid replied “ u will be here by my side right”

Rajesh replied “ yeah … I will be by your side , by the way its just sandy”

Sid replied “ still , hey did I do something wrong”

Rajesh shook his head symbolizing as ‘I don’t know’

Sid and rajesh waited till the entire class cleared and soon even the girls left , except for sandhya, she stayed back pretending to arrange her books in her locker and when everyone left she walked towards rajesh and gave him a kiss ,which rajesh gave back to her and then sid realized that this was the private time rajesh and sandhya got together.

Sid felt a bit uncomfortable and moved away towards the door to give them space ……… right when he was about to go out the door

Sandhya called out “ sid you come now we are done here” saying with a chuckling smile..

Sid walked back toward them ,while they were semi hugging holding each other’s waist and her hand around rajesh’s neck sid still felt a bit uncomfortable but he ignored it.

Rajesh looked at sandhya and asked “sandy what is it that u wanted to talk about to sid , that even I don’t know”

Sandhya replied “ hold on dear ,you will find out soon” she kissed him holding his face and turned towards sid , so that he can see that her entire concentration was on him rather than rajesh.

Sid asked completely restless “ okay sandhya , what is this all about …just get it over fast”

Sandhya replied “ okay baba …. Fine by the way call me sandy u don’t have to stress on my name sandhya all the time”

Sid who was completely pissed said “okay SANDY, will u please get to the catch …….”

Sandy replied “ okayokay baba… don’t get pissed . ……this is all about u”

Sid confused “ I am sorry what ……..”

Sandy replied “ Mahesh’s incident and all it was all connected to u”

Sid again confused “ what?”

Sandy “ ookay lets begin with ,how much do u know about suzanna”

Sid “ not much , I know that she is the topper of b section”

Sandy “ suzanna knows everything about u , she is your secret admirer , she is connected to u from your very first day of school”

Sid “ wait how do u know about that as u joined in 8th grade na?”

Sandy “ahahaa no… this is one thing u should know, all girls are connected, each girl’s secret is known to all girls , and I happen to be close to suzanna , that’s why I am opening up to u”

Rajesh confidently said “she is right bro all girls are connected” reaching her waist to grab her while sandy stopped him ………..

Sandy “let me tell u the entire story which was happening to u from day 1 …which u never noticed”

Sandy started narrating suzanna’s story

“Suzanna was a very conservative girl ,she never spoke or opened up to anyone since her parents got divorced , her grandma took care of her, her grandma brought her to india from canada and joined her in this school ,away from her parents who fight with one another everyday .. she joined school in 5th grade , she never spoke to anyone for 6 months ,but she started getting along a few friends but she never opened up herself to anyone , she had no emotional concerns so she studied most of the time this happened till the starting of 7th grade until u siddharth happened to her …. She felt u safe than any other of her girlfriends ………she started having feelings in her for u ….. she wanted to connect to u the very first day but u never seemed to notice her . she tried to come to a lot of times but u never seemed to even notice her ……one day during the unit exams she took full courage and came to u and to wish all the best but she panicked infront of u and just said ‘study well’ even today she remembers that day , she also remembers the reply u gave to ‘thank u’ she treasures those moments till today , she keeps saying how stupid she was that….. slowly she started opening up her feelings and shared with other girls …… were the reason for her emotions to run in her system again…. She used to look at u half the time in french classes but u don’t even notice her , and the days u give a smile back to her makes her happy… she tried to talk to u lot of times that u cannot imagine , but u used to be busy or escape before she could come forward to her , during the culturals she wanted to talk to u when u appreciated on her performance ,she blushed by the time she turned to talk u vanished …… she never got a chance to speak to u …..

So this year she wanted to somehow connect to u so she started speaking to other boys meaning , Mahesh , she opened up to him to make u jealous but u never even noticed her she felt devastated and today the unexpected happened to her when Mahesh proposed to her she never looked at him but u who were a distant away from her , which angered her and she showed her anger on Mahesh , even she never expected Mahesh would actually think that she had feelings for him but the sight of u made her completely disturbed even when she entered the class she was actually shouting at u indirectly not completely to Mahesh after that she regreted what she had done and she didn’t even eat her lunch , she did not even come to the afternoon classes ,she kept on mopping , we all consoled her that u might not have understood whom she was scolding …she actually didn’t just want ur smile but she wanted to share with u her love……. she is completely disturbed she does not even listen to any of the girls …….”

Sid was completely speechless

Rajesh was shocked “wooh bro even my girlfriend wouldn’t go that far man…” cracking a joke ,

Sandy seriously “ shut up , what do u understand a girls heart” and sandy punched his hand

Rajesh “ okay just kidding dear” he held her tightly

Sandy emotionally “ don’t kid about such things …….”

Sid still completely speechless

Sandy “ so sid what is your call”

Sid “ I don’t understand why me , what did she see In me”

Rajesh replied with a smile “that my friend is in love …..” holding sandy’s waist tightly , she smiled back at him.

Sandy looked at sid and asked “ are u okay ,actually I am not supposed say any of this to anyone but I happen to care for suzanna”

Sid stayed still thinking what to do , he did not understand what to he looked at the couple sandy and rajesh who were close to each other , he closed his eyes and thought of himself while he was occupied with his thoughts

Sandy interrupted “ sid I don’t know what your decision is but I care for suzanna and u are the only one who she will listens to right now”

Sid cleared his head and asked boldly to sandy “ where will she be right now ?”

Sandy looked at the clock above which showed 5.30 pm and replied “ whenever she feels lost or sad , she goes to school church for church service”

Sid replied “ okay , I have never done this before ,ever in my life but what the hell……..” he looked down and asked “ would u guys accompany me ?”

Rajesh and sandy in a sync replied “ sure ,why wouldn’t we” they smiled towards one another after they realized their syncronisation

Sid , sandy and rajesh left for the school church ……..

At the entrance of the church sandy and rajesh stayed back and asked sid to go alone …. They were a bit excited for sid.

As he entered there were a very few people seated in the church

He searched with his eyes for suzanna and finally he found her in the 5throw , he went silently and kneeled right next where she kneeled , she was praying very peacefully with her eyes closed.

He waited until she opened her eyes , when she opened her eyes she did not realize anyone beside her

Sid looking straight with bold tone said “ I am sorry” she turned and she was shocked to see sid and now sid turned towards her and continued “ I am sorry , I should have realized it earlier”

Suzanna started to blush she turned red

Sid continued “ I have to thank u , because it was u who encouraged me to study well and get a good rank in class, I was a average student from merryland , my teachers called me hopeless back home , I lost hope in myself and u were the one brought hope back I managed to become one of the toppers in my class just because u wished me on the first exam day, at first I took it as challenge to compete but in the end you were the one who changed me, u are my inspiration ,so thank u……”

On listening to sid’s confession suzanna was moved and made her feel proud

Suzanna replied “ thank u ,…. U were the one who made me feel the joy of having friends and relatives”she wiped tear which rolled from her eye and continued “ even now , I would have shut myself from the entire world , but your presence and the fact that I was your inspiration make me feel a bit proud” she giggled with a smile and continued “ your words made me forget about isolating myself from the world ……thank u very much”

Both sid and suzanna smiled at each other and this time sid smiled from the bottom of his heart……

Both of them now stood as they finished their prayers and slowly walked towards the entrance ,while they were walking. Sid said “ u gave hope to me and I gave hope to u ,so that make us even …..” they smiled towards one another as they walked towards the entrance sid continued “ u do realize where I am going with this right….”

She looked at sid gave a smile and replied “yeah…….. I know” and sid gave a smile back.

Sid and suzanna understood what would happen as they reach the church entrance

As they reached the entrance suzanna grabbed sid’s and hugged him and said to him “thank u for saving for me”

Sid patted her and said “ thank u for understanding” and hugged her and after a few seconds , they left one another and they walked out of the church as if nothing ever happened

There as they came out they saw sandy and rajesh eagerly waiting for them ,

Now they had spotted them and the ran towards them , sandy went to check upon suzanna and rajesh towards sid.

Sandy asked suzanna what had happened and similarly rajesh asked sid what had happened

Sid and suzanna looked at each other and shook hands formally and gestured eachother.

Sid with formal smile said “it was nice meeting u suzanna”

Suzanna replied “ it was nice meeting u too” and she smiled back and then they left each other hand.

Sandy and rajesh were shocked by sid’s and suzanna’s responses to one another……

Sid gave a wave towards sandy saying " bye sandy "

And then sandy and rajesh gave each other a good bye hug and then they all parted ways

Sandy and suzanna parted towards the girls hostel and Sid and rajesh parted to the boys hostel

As they walked rajesh asked sid, " what exactly happened in the church?"

sid smiled and said “ hope happened bro ,……HOPE”

--------By N.LOKESH

Special thanks to all my friends and peers who encouraged me In writing this story ……

Thank you one and all……