The High School Years: Part 7 - A Simple Misunderstanding

Forget or missed a part? Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6


(Editor's Note: While I originally meant to post this morning but just forgot, upon my realizing my forgetfulness, I realized I would be better off posting it today. As you may have guessed or figured out, Anna and Alura are currently seniors and assuming the weather holds up, today is their last mock trials trial, unless they advance to the 2nd round. So in honor of them and in wishing them the best of luck, here is Part 7 of The High School Years, even though this particular part does not have much to do with mock trials competition)

The summer came by and the summer went. Did Anna, Alura, and myself still email? Yes. Were we emailing less now than we did our last blowout? That would depend on who you ask, probably. Was my crush on Alura a constant thought? No. I had pretty much come to terms with the fact that I would never be able to score a date with her, but I still wanted her. It’s a contradiction in a way, yes, but at the same time, reality does not always click with my desires. However, we did like to talk about one crush: Yes, Anna’s crush on Tom Riddle of the Harry Potter series and other celebrity crushes was a frequent butt of my jokes. Hey, she made fun of my crush on Jodie Sweetin before, I can rib her for liking Tom Riddle, Robert Pattinson, Tobey Maguire, and Orlando Bloom, among others. In other words, things were par for the course.

A week after my 18th birthday, Anna sent me (and several others) an email about a project she was doing. She was looking for people to help her out, seeing as it was a big project (not a school project, but kind of like a community service type deal). I emailed her back and said yes. I really didn’t think much about it, other than what was actually there. I just thought that I would be helping her with her little project. I did not realize that this would be one of the catalysts of a huge argument between us.

So I arrive at school the next day, with her project one of the last things on my mind. Anyway, I arrive in physics class, and two of Anna’s friends that received that email about her project, Kait and Kelly, are in that class. And as I am walking in, I hear them talking and I hear them mention Anna’s name. I stop dead in my tracks. It was kind of like one of those things where you couldn’t help but listen but yet you didn’t want them to know you were listening. I was trying to pick up what they were saying, not getting much, but I heard Anna’s name along with some giggles and other things that I thought sounded negative. I am trying to act as natural as possible, going to my seat yet keeping an ear on their conversations, while trying to fend off the sweat. Whenever I’m in an uncomfortable situation like this, the temperature always seems to ratchet up to 150 degrees. I couldn’t pick up much more, just enough that I had a pretty good idea that what they were saying about Anna was negative, the key word being idea.

I went through the rest of the day debating whether or not I should tell Anna that I was pretty sure I heard Kait and Kelly mocking her and her project. I arrive home that day, still unsure about what I should do. I decided to ask Alura, of all people. Just like I turned to Anna for my problems with Alura, I went to Alura with my worries about Anna. I tell her my story and ask her, “how tight is Anna with Kelly and Kait?”

“Um, just tell her, I guess, and see how she reacts. But just be, you know, light about it. Like it's not a really big deal”, she replied.

I take Alura’s advice and decide to tell her. And surprisingly, there isn’t much of a problem. I tell Anna the whole story, truthfully and honestly, like I told it above and her response kind of caught me off guard.

“Kait actually really likes the idea, she’s said so to my face. What you probably heard was them talking about me telling a friend of mine who told Kait that another friend of mine called him gay and that I spent an hour with him on the phone last night. You could be right though. Thanks. Keep listening to their conversations, please?” I wasn’t quite sure what I was expecting but this certainly was not it.

A few days go by with no mention to this problem whatsoever. Naturally, I think that it’s all water under the bridge that Anna was just keeping a closer eye out on them. I didn’t really anticipate her asking them about, which of course is exactly what she did. So a few days later, something really strange happens.

Our physics teacher had a Jenga game in the corner of the room that we can play for extra credit before class starts. I was going over there to play Jenga (and in the process I have to pass the desk of Kait and Kelly) and Kelly came up to me and asked, “if I knew Anna?” I was startled. I had no idea if they were just asking around (Anna had told them about the physics class part) or had they known it was me. Once again, the temperature in the room ratcheted up to 150 degrees. I fumbled around in my mind thinking of an answer. Since I didn’t really have much of a lie planned out I just answered yes. Big mistake on my part. They then proceeded to cross-examine me as if I were a witness on the witness stand.

“Did you talk to Anna recently?”

“Yes”

“How often do you talk to her?”

“Pretty much everyday”.

They then ask me the question that I was hoping they would never ask. “Did you tell Anna that we were saying bad things about her?”

The answer that came out of my mouth was the most awkward “no” I have ever spoken in my life. I was about as startled as an old lady after she wins the lottery.

A few days later, Anna helped clear things up for me. She spoke to Kelly and Kait and her hunch about what they were talking about was right, thus making me look even more of an idiot. But she wasn't mean spirited about it at all. Or at least I thought it wasn't.

As I’m thinking this thing is all over, Kait and Kelly approach me (in physics again) and they got in my face and told me that they knew it was me. More trouble. Alura had told on me. I just ignored them at first but when I realized they weren’t going away I was short with them and replied, “Anna is my friend. I am loyal to her. I have no loyalty to you”. It wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination the nicest reply or maybe the best thing I could have said in that situation, but I just wanted the thing to be over seeing as I had already been embarrassed enough. And really. Anna was someone who helped me get through one of the biggest hurdles in my life. Kait and Kelly were just two random girls who I had never even knew existed before this incident.

Throughout this whole entire thing Anna did remain supportive of me and never got mad at me. As I walked into the door for mock trials, our first meeting of the year, I am startled to find Anna with Kait in the room. She was not in mock trials last year at all. What the heck was she doing there now? They came up to me and in a very snooty way Kait told me

“See, we’re best friends”.

“Okaaaaaaay,” I thought to myself, especially considering the stuck-up way in which she said it. However, there was not really much doubting it as both Kait and Kelly both knew the story about me and Alura, and guess what folks, I was not the one to tell them!

Anyways, Anna was nice enough to apologize for that and admitted that Kait did that so that she could be right. And Kait was not actually joining mock trials either. She just wanted to shove that in my face. Congrats, Kait, job well done!

That gave me an idea, though. I was willing to let this whole thing go, but Kait’s snooty comment and the way she walked into Mr. Zu’s and our mock trials meeting just to shove something in my face really pissed me off. Even though Anna apologized on her behalf, I was still mad at Kait so I hatched a plan to apologize to them just to make me seem better. Now yes, I was sorry for the incident, but because of the way they approached me all the time, I really didn’t feel like I had to apologize. Anna was still my friend and that was all I had cared about up to that point. Now it was time for me to show them off. I told Anna and Alura what I was planning to do, which in hindsight was probably one of the bigger mistakes I’ve made since knowing Anna and Alura.

I arrive in physics class that day and I waste no time and going up to them and saying,

“I am really sorry about this whole thing. It was a simple misunderstanding. I thought I had heard something that I clearly didn’t and I think we can start over”. I then proceed to offer my hand in friendship. First to Kelly and then she called over Kait.

“Wait, what?”, Kait asked.

“He said he’s sorry”, Kelly stated.

“I’m really sorry for everything that happened”, I reiterated to Kait.

“Wow, I really did not expect this”, Kait replied in her typical slightly stuck-up and her sarcastic manner as she shook my hand.

I thought to myself, finally this nightmare of a simple misunderstanding gone totally awry was finally over.

Boy was I wrong.