SCHOOL
What's worse than having the entire class ganged up against you in a never-seen before unity? To enter the classroom only to see the drama subsiding into hushed-up tones, fidgety eyes and awkward body movements? Or to see a bunched-up circle suddenly disperse in an unspoken compliance?
So that's basically what I witnessed in class today. The victim being a fellow classmate. Apparently, he told more lies than The Boy Who Cried Wolf, and was finally exposed by another fellow classmate.
Well, as you all know, rumours spread faster than wildfire, and soon our classmates were all talking about him and his lies. Buddies turned their backs against him, and his attempts at striking up a conversation with fellow classmates were either met with silence deadlier than a tombstone, or an emphatic 'no'.
Hardly two days passed, and soon most of the class weren't speaking to him. But, boy did they speak about him!
So, I was sitting in class today minding my own business as usual, and an informal gathering formed behind me.
They started updating each other about his lies, the tales he spun that had the naivety of some of us tightly warped around his web of deception. Not forgetting modern technology, they chalked up bandwidth space searching for his not-so-elusive nick on the web. Then, they laughed with maniacal glee and called him "dumb!" for not able to conceal his lies adequately.
They talked about trailing him, and speculated about his home address. One of the guys in the class said that no one had ever been to his house before, and they always said their good-byes at a bus-stop. Is this his own pathetic way of concealing his lies? They wondered.
Another opined, "Haha, everyone that I'm not close to and never talk to last time, like XX, YY and ZZ, suddenly all come up and talk to me. (Laughs)"
"Haha, what a way to bond the class together man!"
Isn't it ironic? It takes a lying, deceptive fellow classmate to bond the class? Like how a near-death accident suddenly reconciliate you to the fact that you should be thankful you are even alive?
And, this guy suddenly sprung into the class and jokingly quipped, "Quick, everyone disperse! He's coming!" before breaking out into a series of delirious laughter. "Hahaha, just joking!"
Do you know how I felt through all this drama? All I felt was a crushing sick feeling that compressed the insides of my stomach. All these people, who were good friends with him, whom stuck to him like super glue just days ago, whose friendship were for all to witness, suddenly turned their backs against him! Ganging up with people they've hardly spoken more than two sentences to the whole semester to gossip about him, poke ribbing fun at him, and helped to uncover his lies, peeling off the layers and layers of his deception, until they saw the true self that lay beneath that charade.
People whom he had hung out with, spend countless nights catching movies followed by dinner with, THESE WERE THE FUCKING SAME PEOPLE WHO WERE SENDING SMSES TO FELLOW CLASSMATES WHO WERE VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT TO THEM JUST THREE DAYS AGO, SHARING THE LATEST UPDATES ABOUT HIM, SPYING ON HIM, THEN GLOATING OVER THAT EXPOSED LIE AT THE EXPENSE OF HIS DIGNITY.
AND, SOME OF THESE FUCKING PEOPLE (THE RARE FEW, WHO STILL BOTHERED TO TALK TO HIM AT ALL) WERE TALKING AND SMILING TO HIM MINUTES AGO, AND THE NEXT WHEN HIS BACK WAS TURNED, THEY CONGREGATED AMONG THEMSELVES. DEBUNKING HIS MYTHS. HIS LIES.
Listening to their relentless mocking of him, I had a sudden urge, a temptation to scream my lungs out at them, but my cowardice made me swallow my words. My fear made me withdraw those words that jostled to meet their acquaintance with the airborne atmosphere, like an ostrich burying its head into the sand. Instead, I screamed inwardly, until I lost all sensory images and all I could see were despair. despair. despair.
And, I was thinking to myself, I wouldn't EVER take part or have anything to do with their plans of exposing him further. And, when they asked me stuff, all I did was shook my head. Couldn't speak. Didn't want to speak. Didn't want to have anything to do with it. Then, this two-faced 'friend' of mine went up to my friends and filled them in on their involvement in their so-called ingenious plan to expose his lies, by supposedly staging a 'fight'. And, I were thinking that me and my friends would be the LAST to get involve in this deceit. But, apparently, the truth is further from reality. I wouldn't know if me myself would succumb to peer pressure to get involved in questionable morals antics.
Of course, I wouldn't say that person is TOTALLY innocent. Yes, he told more lies than the boy whose lies caused him to get the sheeps that he reared killed. But, if I were them, I wouldn't trail him and spy on him. I would go up to him and confront him. Would he admit? Would he not? I wouldn't know, but his stunted facial expressions may tell more than any amount of Google-ing you spend in front of that computer.
HOME
Went home, thought that shit had happened to me. But, apparently, shit can strike you TWICE on the very same day.
I was surfing the net when my cursor accidentally clicked on a button from the top left hand corner. A browser opened and I saw that it was my sister's website. I was curious, because I had seen her building up that website from scratch, and thus wanted to see her forum postings.
So, I was just leisurely browsing through the website, when I chanced upon this drawing that looked VERY SUSPICIOUSLY FAMILIAR!
And, then it dawned on me that it was a drawing of my super talented artist friend!
OK..THIS IS WHAT FUCKING HAPPENED. MY SISTER 'STOLE' MY FRIEND'S DRAWING, PUT IT ON HER OWN WEBSITE, AND PASSED IT OFF AS HER OWN!!! AND, ON TOP OF THAT, MY SISTER HAD SIGNED HER OWN SIGNATURE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PICTURE, THEREBY 'CLAIMING' THAT THE PICTURE WAS HERS...!
I was outraged at this sort of blatant plagiarism by my own sister! And, so I confronted her...
ME: Hey, did you see my friend's drawing? The sketches that she drew for me in a black book?
HER: Yeah, it's upstairs.
ME: Oh, so did you use it for anything? Any purpose?
HER: (adamantly) NO.
ME: Really?
HER: (looks at me quizzically) NO.
She was very insistent, and no matter how much I pressed to make her confess before I blew her cover, all I got from her for a reply was an emphatic 'NO."
ME: (finally exasperated) So you are saying that you DID NOT take my friend's drawing, post it online and passed it off as your own?
HER: (looks at me shockingly, followed by indignation and finally, anger) You were snooping through my stuff?
ME: No. I just accidentally clicked on the button that led me to your website. But, that's not the POINT! THE POINT IS THAT YOU TOOK MY FRIEND'S DRAWING, WITHOUT HER PERMISSION, POSTED IT ONLINE AND CLAIMED THAT IT WAS YOUR OWN DRAWING! HOW COULD YOU DO SUCH A THING?!!
My sister burst into tears and started crying non-stop, which for an outsider looking in, could mistake me for the bully and her the innocent victim. So, as tears streamed down my sister's cheeks, I demanded an explanation.
Finally, after repeating things like she knew she was in the wrong, but how could I snoop through her stuff...I've just ruined her life, it's not like she wanted it blah blah blah and all that shit...she finally told me why the fucking hell she did it.
"BECAUSE IF I DIDN'T DO IT, I WOULD HAVE NO FRIENDS!"
ME: "So what does that say about your friendship?"
HER: "I WOULD RATHER HAVE FAKE FRIENDS THAN NO FRIENDS!"
OK, this is her explanation. Apparently, it was her friend's idea that she ripped my friend's design and pass it off as her own. I think it's to garner more hits or something. So, according to her, if she doesn't do as her friends say, they wouldn't be too happy and my sister risked losing their friendship as well. Which terrified her to the extent that she did as they suggested. Proto.
"Besides, only 6 people saw the design. And, I thought you wouldn't find out about it!"
"Yes, but whether it's 1 person who sees it or a million, ripping off people's designs and passing them off as your own is still not right! My friend could sue you and you could go to jail for plagiarism, you know!"
My sister wept and said that she knew she was in the wrong, and then said, "Please don't tell your friend about it." And then, more grudgingly, "I will take down the design and explain the situation to my friends OK? So don't tell your friend about it."
My reply? "But, wouldn't you risk losing your friends?"
"Yeah!" she spat. "But, since now that you've found out, I don't have a choice."
ME: "So, what would you do if you were to lose your friends?"
HER: "Commit suicide."
ME: "Yeah, so see? Don't tell your friends, no need to take down that design, just keep your friends OK?"
HER: "Argh...(Sighs) But, it's not like I will REALLY go and commit suicide RIGHT. But, I'll take a chance and tell them about it, and maybe they will still be willing to be my friends."
ME: "And, if they don't? Then, tell me, how important are your friends to you?"
HER: "VERY. MY FRIENDS ARE MY LIFE!"
ME: "More important than.....? Who or what?"
"I see them more than I see you!" was her reply. So I'm supposed to know her answer..
ME: "OK. So, let's say that tomorrow school is closed forever. Would your friends still be your top priority, more important than anyone else and everything else, or would they fade into nothingness to you?"
HER: Fade into nothingness."
Well, halfway through the argument, I asked her why instead of all those phony friendships she surrounded herself with, she didn't make friends with those nice people in her class.
She said that most of the people in her class were phony, and there were only a grand total of THREE nice people in her class, according to her.
"So, why don't you make friends with those nice people in your class?"
"Because they don't talk! They hardly say a word, how to make friends with them? The most they speak like -what?- three sentences, then they go back to their desks."
"WTF?!!! You mean there are people around who can give me a run for my money ar?!!!"
And to think I thought I was FORMIDABLE.
