Loner (5)

This a story about racism I wrote when I was 14 years old.

Previous Chapters:

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - cont

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

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I had Maths after English. I walked out of the classroom and realized I don't know where the classroom for Math is. I looked around for a fellow classmate but couldn't find one. Instead, I found a swarm of older students pass by me. They were all staring at my face, some laughing and pointing me out to their friends. I rubbed my nose, looked at my hand and found nothing. Again I looked up and still people were staring at me.

"Oh no!" I thought to myself "What is wrong? Do I have a bogey stuck on my face!?"

I remembered Corrine telling me where the toilets were. I dashed in and up to a mirror, checking my face for anything that wasn't supposed to be there. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary.

I walked out of the toilet and along the corridors, looking in on every classroom through the door's window to see if my classmates were in any of them. Just when I thought I was going to cry out of frustration, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and saw a large, rosy cheeked, blond haired, middle aged lady with soft blue eyes staring back at me. She smiled, and asked what was I doing wandering through the deserted corridors.

I told her that I was a new student and that I wasn't able to find my Math's class. She asked me why none of my classmates showed me the way. I shrugged and she clucked her tongue. Five minutes later I entered the class with the rosy-cheeked lady behind me. The teacher, Mr. Gibbons, didn't seem happy that I was fifteen minutes late for his class. He told me off , and I heard some sniggering as I walked to the back of the class and sat down. Miss Heather ( the rosy-cheeked lady) told Mr.Gibbons that it wasn't my fault as I was a new student and nobody showed me the way to his class. He merely nodded his hand and sternly thanked Miss Heather.

Math is my favourite subject. I soon found myself lost in numbers and calculation, my embarrassment at being told off on my first day of school gone. Math does not rely wholly on memorization, but a deep understanding in order to answer questions. A character in a novel I once read said that no matter how different the world's culture and language is, Math still stays the universal way to communicate as it is the same in every language. I believe that maybe one day numbers will be our tool to communicate with extraterrestrial beings. We took simultaneous equations today, and I aced the principle to solving it immediately.

the bell rand and it was time for the lunch break. Everyone filed out into the playground and I followed last. I walked out, looked around, saw Corrine walking a little ahead of me and I ran to catch up with her. She smiled and asked me how I liked the school until now. I said it wasn't bad but it was confusing to get around. She laughed and said that I'll get used to it in a week. We joined a group of girls and boys from our class whom were picking teams for Red Rovers.

Red Rovers is a two team game. Each team must hold unto one another hand, creating a chain. The opposing teams face each other. One side starts by picking a person from the other team to try and break through their chain. The chosen person will rush headlong into a link in the chain, and if they manage to make the link break (the people holding unto each other's hands let go) then the person can go back to their team and choose someone else from the opposing team to join them., making their chain longer. However, if unsuccessful in making the link break, the person must join the opposing team.

Two captains were chosen, and each began picking people for their team turn by turn. I was picked last. To my surprise and confusion, none of the teams wanted me. Why? Do I have some type of disease that they are trying to avoid or do I look like a monster with eight eyes and six hairy legs?

Or worse! Maybe this time there defiantly is something stick to my face!

Immediately my left hand shot up to my face and I began to rub at my nose. A murmur of disgust rose from the crowd surrounding me. Too late, I realized the oddness of what I was doing, and I dropped my arm limply to my side, feeling utterly embarrassed.

Finally, after much arguing about which team should choose the snotty nosed girl, Corrine convinced her team's captain to choose me, and reluctantly he agreed. I stood on the left end of the chain, and I held unto Corrine with my right hand, not daring to use my left in case I frightened her off.

It was a fun game, and everyone had a go at trying to break the link, except for me. Corrine's turn came and she was chosen to try and break the link of the other team. She didn't succeed and so had to join them. The girl who held unto Corrine's other hand wasn't too keen to hold unto mine and said she will on one condition: that's 'd pull my shirt's long sleeve over my hand. This was a bit too much, and I thought to myself that if I'm not wanted somewhere then I might as well not be there.

I walked off, mumbling that I am feeling tired and don't want to play anymore. There was still a few minutes left until the end of the the morning break. I walked over to the benches. I noticed heads turning in my direction, and whispers behind me saying "... yeah she's new, only just arrived ... what a strange color, so like chocolate, definatly not the bronze color of tan"

I sat down and watched the kids strolling around the playground. There wasn't much going on, mostly people strolling around and talking. I pondered the reason of why my classmates were behaving so strangely. Back home, I was rather liked by everyone. Even strangers instantly got attracted to me because of my charm and smile, as my Mother would put it. Here, I used all the charm and smiles I could muster but still it seems that no one cared about being my friend. Well, I can't really say no one Corrine sure is trying to make me feel at home I guess. I tried to find a reason for why that girl didn't want to touch my hand. I guessed it was because of me rubbing my nose. To tell the truth, if I was in her place I wouldn't like to touch the hand of someone whom might have some snot on their fingers.

Happy with my conclusion, I made my way back into the school's building as the bell signalling for the end of the morning break clanged loudly.