Dhruv Pandey - 8IG-A - 2018-19

 A Friendship of an Awkward Kind 

It was a chaotic Monday morning at Timberly High, New Jersey. Why wouldn’t it be? It was the first day of school after the summer break, the day that parted friends met again, the day that teachers got to know about what the students had done over summer and of course, the day that pesky teenagers got to judge the newcomers. The school was large and had all sorts of amenities for the students. The warm sunlight was firing up every soul in the school as the students went to check their allotments. Leo Cruz, the most popular boy in all of the eighth grade. He had brown hair, green eyes, good height and he was lean. On that Monday morning, he received a couple hundred greetings. He checked the list of people in his homeroom. All the names were familiar except one: ‘Shawn Bolter’.

Leo thought to himself, “Must be a new kid. I hope he’s cool.”

With that thought, Leo went to homeroom with his two close friends, Bryce and Jake.

He entered the class and immediately felt like turning around. He had Mrs. Laney as his homeroom supervisor.

“Why couldn’t I get anyone else”, Leo muttered under his breath.

“Could you repeat that Mr. Cruz?”, she asked him.

“Nothing”, he replied, “Also, please feel free to call me Leo, the name ‘Mr. Cruz’ makes me feel a little awkward”.

“No problem Leo. Please take your seat”, said Mrs. Laney.

He went and took a seat next to Shawn. Shawn looked cool but Leo had to get to know him better.

“As I was saying, welcome back eighth graders, I hope you had a great holiday! Now I would like to introduce you to the latest edition of our class, Shawn Bolter. Shawn, would you like to come up here and tell everyone a little about yourself?”

Shawn headed towards the front of the class and said, “Hi everyone, I’m Shawn, I’ve recently moved here from LA and so far I like Jersey but I really miss the beaches back in Los Angeles. I like basketball, soccer, chess, and singing. I’d like to get to know you guys and looking forward to an action-filled year. Thank you.”

Leo observed his blonde hair, blue eyes, and beautiful voice and was impressed but their first period was recess.

“Let’s see if he performs at the level he talks”, Leo said to Bryce and Jake.

Leo and Shawn seemed to dominate every time they played a sport against the other children. It was almost as if they were two masters versus the rest of eighth grade. Leo wanted to see if he was better than Shawn at basketball and challenged him to a game of one - on - one basketball. Being a sport, Shawn immediately accepted and said,

“Game on”.

As he said so, these two players began their game determined to be the champion. The score didn’t elevate even by a single point as none of them were able to shoot against the other. With the whole grade watching and picking sides, the game ended nil all. It was the most tiring game Leo had ever played as he actually had some serious competition. Right there, after the first period, a rivalry had begun.

They had a free period where again Leo and Shawn challenged each other but this time, it was soccer. Once again, there was no victor but the game ended with each of them scoring two goals.

After a couple of other classes, the students had to pick an elective activity which they would participate in twice a week for the rest of the year. The options given were dance, music, art, drama, and debate. Leo knew what he was gonna pick from the beginning of the year and put up his name for dance. All of Leo’s friends were expecting Shawn to pick dance as well considering the rivalry that had been formed. Shawn, on the other hand, picked music and had everyone startled. He was expected to give Leo competition in everything.

Bryce wondered, “This guy’s got such a hoarse voice. How on earth does he expect to be able to sing.”

Jake followed Shawn to the music room where everyone was giving their trials to get into the choir. Shawn’s turn came up he started to sing ‘Mercy’ by ‘Shawn Mendes’. Everyone in the room was quiet and the only voice that could be heard was the melody of Shawn’s beautiful voice. Without any second thought, the teachers chose him for the choir.

Jake went back to Bryce and Leo and said, “Guys. That kid knows how to sing really well. You should listen to him sing!”

Leo didn’t have to audition for dance as he had proven himself as an amazing dancer in the past.

He said, “Well there’s one difference between both of our skill sets. I sure hope he proves himself as the best singer we’ve seen.”

“Wait but shouldn’t you be hoping something bad happens since you’re his rival?”, Bryce asked.

Leo answered, “I’m his rival, not his enemy. It’s natural for me to wish him luck in whatever he does. Don’t you think so?”

Bryce said, “I guess.”

The period ended and so did the auditions. Some people got in, and the rest chose a different elective. The students went to their different classes and the crowd was cleared.

During dispersal, Shawn went to his locker to keep some of his books when the tenth graders entered the hallways making a fair amount of noise. They spotted Shawn who wasn’t a familiar face in the hall and decided to take a swing at him.

“Hey little punk, you new here?”, John said as he pushed Shawn away.

Shawn was scared out of his skin, and he had all reason to. He had never gotten bullied before and had no idea what to do. He was trying to find out a way not to get beaten up when a voice yelled from behind, “Leave the poor guy alone John. Stop acting so insecure by abusing your strength against weaker people. Take on someone your own size and try to get a life.”

John’s friends persuaded him into backing off and they went away. Shawn looked back to see who it was and was surprised to see Leo standing at the end of the hall. Leo helped Shawn up and said, “You better get a hold of yourself and fight back against these morons. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

They said goodbye and headed towards their buses.

A few days passed and Leo and Shawn only seemed to make their rivalry greater until the annual chess championship came up. This was the competition that Leo and Shawn had been preparing for a week. The day came and these two were unstoppable throughout the tournament until they met each other in the finals. They played a very interesting game with Leo as white and Shawn as black. They played a classic Sicilian Defense as the opening and moved on to their mid-game with multiple attempts at capturing important pieces but all unsuccessful. They went down to having only their kings left on the board and they match ended as a draw due to insufficient mating material. Both of them were given a gold medal for winning the tournament and the got a spot on the school chess team but they weren’t satisfied. There is only supposed to be one winner they thought, but they went home with that thought. Leo spent all night contemplating about how he could have won the game. Shawn had been doing the same but both of them knew that the other person was smart enough to defend anything smart they tried. After this tournament, Leo and Shawn’s rivalry had grown up to higher heights and they were ready to prove themselves as the better player or the higher skilled boy.

   

A month had passed since the tournament and at the intensity, Leo and Shawn competed against each other, you could hardly tell the difference between them being friends or rivals. It was homeroom when Mrs. Laney announced to the class, “Tomorrow, we will be visiting the Rockies for a studying trip. Make sure to carry water, snacks and a cap. No electronics are permitted. We will be providing you with lunch. I hope to see you all tomorrow.”

There was chatter all around the ground the grade about how fun the trip would be and what all they would do together with their own friends. Leo and Shawn were looking up to it as well since they both loved rock climbing as well as trekking. The next day, students went to school, got on the bus that would take them to the site and had a 2 - hour ride. The bus was full of interesting conversations and everyone was talking about the NBA, MLS, school and their teachers. Finally, once the bus reached, everyone got out, listened to the instructions given by the leader, and took off. The students were about a mile into the trek when Shawn tripped. He fell and just started to roll down when Leo came and caught a hold of him.

“Thanks, you might have just saved my life”, Shawn said as he got up dusting himself.

“Don’t mention it. It’s cool”, replied Leo.

They caught up with the group knowing that they both had made a new friend. The only question was, how long will this friendship last? Leo and Shawn were the first two to reach the end and they celebrated with a perfect hi-five.

Leo and Shawn’s friendship seemed to thicken over time and then Shawn asked Leo one day, “How would you feel about doing a duet with me for the talent show?”

“I’m not a good singer”, Leo replied.

“I meant that I sing and you dance. Come on, it should be fun.”

“You know how to sing Uptown Funk?”

“You got it”.

Leo and Shawn practiced for hours and then finally on the day of the performance they killed it out there. Everyone was cheering loudly and the crowd loved it. That had them completely satisfied with their performance. At the end of the show, they had received the prize of the second best competition but that didn’t matter since the bond between them had deepened and they were truly friends now.

The year went on and instead of facing each other while playing sports, they teamed up against the rest of the children and dominated sports. They took part in school events and became best friends over time.