Free The Corner by Shaine Lake Page B

Physics textbook for the
fourth year students. Wasn’t he in his third year?
    For the rest of the journey, we
hardly talked to each other. I found myself appreciating that
silence we had between us. There was no pressure to communicate
with each other. I didn’t have to constantly mull over what was the
correct thing to say. Sitting by his side was more than enough for
me.
    When the bus reached the bus
stop before mine, I got up to get ready to alight from it.
    Before I could, awkwardly,
request Anton to shift a bit to let me out, he stood up to make way
for me while dragging his guitar to the aisle.
    “Cya,” he said with a beam on
his face.
    My heart was beating in a wild
and crazy manner. “Bye.” It was the only word I had managed to
utter.
    I went on to get off the bus. As
I was walking to my school, I couldn’t contain the excitement I
felt at knowing the guy of my dreams. It seemed so unreal, just
like a dream. I pinched the fleshy part of my palm to confirm that
it did happen. After pondering for a while on whether to tell Mandy
about my encounter, I decided to keep mum about it until I knew
Anton better. I could give Mandy a pleasant surprise when I was
ready to introduce him to her.
    After assembly, my classmates
and I marched to our classroom as per our usual morning routine.
What was unusual was that the corner girl was nowhere in sight.
    ***
    For the next few days, Anton had
been coming up to sit with me whenever we saw each other on the
bus. At first, I was worried that he might avoid me on purpose
since not many people wanted to be associated with someone like me.
Well, he had vanquished my doubts. Maybe he empathized with my
plight of being a loner. Based on my demeanour, it was kind of
obvious that I had few friends. Even though we only chatted a bit
while on the bus, his presence had a calming effect on me. I was
unsure if he was the reason for the non-appearance of the ghost,
but the fact remained that she didn’t show up again after I had
befriended him.
    So I was in a considerably good
mood since then … until I heard the rumour that had been
circulating around the school on a Monday morning.
    It caused unrest among the
students, and many were discussing about it during the breaks
between lessons.
    “It’s unfair to us! I enrolled
into school because of the EFA program. Otherwise, who wants to
study in this stinking old school?” complained Kelly who was
sitting on her table and facing Mandy.
    I remained seated at my table,
listening to their conversation from a distance away. Since that
incident, I no longer hung around with Mandy’s group of friends.
They might not say it, but I could sense that they were suspecting
me to be the culprit who destroyed their artworks. I liked to be
alone anyway, so it was fine by me. I was surprised that the girls
were flustered by the possibility of Lawson Girls’ High opting out
of the Education For All program. It was initiated by the
Accastle government in the year 1990, in a bid to promote
meritocracy in our society. Thanks to the program, I could get into
Lawson, an aided school, based on my grades only and paid the
school fees at subsidized rate.
    Alice, who was sitting beside
Kelly, pointed out, “Maybe the facilities will improve after
independence? Donations from those super-rich parents will make
huge differences.”
    Kelly argued, “But it’s the
matter of principles. I’ve the expectations of paying this fixed
amount of money for the school fees. All of a sudden, I’m told that
I need to pay much more. Irresponsible of them to do this! Should
have told us beforehand that they’d this kind of plan in mind. Then
I can make an informed decision on which school to get into.”
    Mandy appeared to be in a
downcast mood. Throughout the break, she was just listening to
Kelly and Alice going back and fro about whether it was beneficial
for them if the school cut away the support of the government. Why
did she feel upset about it? I was the one most