Allen had always considered himself to be very liberal and non-judgemental. But, in reality Allen had never been asked for his views and his views were till now only known to him. Unbeknownst to Allen ‘Woodbridge High’ had evolved in the last decade. It was now home to the ‘trendy’ and to the ‘edgy’ in addition to the ‘jocks’. To whom, let’s just say Allen was allergic to.
Allen had never seen the senior wing of Woodbridge High, he was impressed but that was only a fleeting feeling. Allen, had till now lived a disciplined life. His older school was the embodiment of the ‘archetypical disciplinarian institution’ and our good friend Allen was the quintessential ‘Mr. Goody Two Shoes’. Even the slightest bit of insubordination and transgression was detrimental to him.
The entire school was in assembly. So, far so good Allen thought; If only he knew what was in wait for him. The entire School took more than twenty minutes to assimilate; nearly nineteen more than what Allen would have thought was optimally required. There was no order- there was no discipline! Allen was aghast! It was as if he was in the middle of the “Wild West”. By the time the assembly was over Allen had already written off his last years of school life as filled with anarchy and chaos.
The bell rang, Fist period. Ah! Allen thought now he could rest, but what’s this…. He saw solitary guys talking to lone girls and no one was staring at them! Everyone was too ‘friendly’! This can’t be right Allen thought! True Allen had studied in co-educational institutions all his life but this kind of unabashed conversations were only till now seen on racy TV dramas. Allen could only think of the bad and assumed the worst about everyone and everything. All this was happening too fast, one minute it was like he was in Taliban controlled Afghanistan and the next minute he was at a carnival in Rio de Janeiro.
The first period was Economics, this Allen liked and it was the only thing till now that Allen was familiar to. The teacher gave the Class a pop quiz; needless to say Allen was ecstatic. Almost too ecstatic by Woodbridge standards. He was jumping around in order to answer all the questions, ten minutes into the class and Allen had already branded himself as the Geek. No one was going to be nice to him. Actually no one should be nice to ‘know-it-all’ guys like Allen, who spoil all the fun and are always sucking up to the teachers. It is then that Allen met with resistance from a group of students sitting at the back. He just thought that they were being rude to him since he was the new guy around. This was his first brush with the indomitable rogue-cum-jock Sam Gianni. He was their charismatic leader; he was the very embodiment of all of our dear Allen’s fears and loathsome opinions. Even though his visage was disarming, Allen knew he had on his hands a formidable foe.
Allen’s knowledge of useless trivia is only rivalled by his sarcasm. His sarcasm comprises of 90% under-handed comments and 10% wit. What Allen was oblivious to was the fact that people hate ‘smart alecks’ everywhere with uniform animosity. Needless to say, he is not the guy who makes friends easily. And for what he had observed till now he was in for a bumpy ride ahead…
The classes rolled on and just as Allen was settling into routine, he saw something. He saw a couple take notice of him, they seemed to be intently discussing about him. The guy seemed harmless and handsome the girl… well she was something else. Allen knew instantly that she was special, but it being the first day and all he ignored it. As has been established Allen was not the talkative type and viewed any friendly advance as potentially injurious. But, then the girl introduced herself she said, “You, were good in class today. You seem pretty intelligent. Oh, by the way, He’s Neal and I’m Rachel.” Allen, dumbstruck that anyone spoke to him uttered some intelligible words. To which Neal replied, “If you need anything, just ask, man!” Ah! Some decent people at last. Allen thought.
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