Warm fingers of the golden sun tore at Karan’s neck, hissing at it to form a crude sun burn. His forehead vomited sweat with all the heat hitting his head, unforgiving by nature, just as the boys he was trying to hide from. All his middle school he had been paralysed with their fear. He would hide behind bulky books in the classroom and between the wide bodies of the pillars that supported the school’s buildings.
Now, his high school was at stake. The only days that he heaved a sigh of relief was when school was off and he lounged within the safe boundaries of his village, where no city boys would ever dare to come. Because apparently, his village was a place for “dirty scumbags that lived off the charity of the rich.” A place where only “leeches grew to do the laundry of the city boys.”
Dishonest, idiot, lunatic, and stupid were just a few words that their wide vocabulary harbored for Karan. Karan, on the other hand, once passionate of studying, hated going to school. What could a thin, dark boy from the village possibly say to them? Even if he ever tried, he would be beat to a pulp and parceled as a bruised and bloodied package to his village. That had happened once.
Karan just mustered the courage to look up at them from underneath his long black lashes and curly hair that clung to his large forehead. Then the next thing he knew, his vision blurred and thick voices that swore and abused made their way to his ears. For once, he wished that he had ears as large as an elephant that he could fold to block the noises that woke him up in the middle of his night till date.
Now, Karan avoided any contact. He had no one on his back as well. Some kids didn’t befriend him because of his accent, others were scared that if they even exchanged a glance with Karan, they would become victims of the bullies’ wrath. That didn’t bother Karan. He was sure that the city’s bullies would crush anyone who tried to defy the school norms that they set. It was just how things ran at the City Public School.
Teachers never interfered. An all-boys school population meant that fights were supposed to break out. It was only nature. And every boy learned defense at this stage. What they forgot was that a villager from a small house had no means to defend himself. Let alone offend. Or, specifically, in the words of the city boys, “he had no right to voice his opinion because his voice came from the money that their parents gave to parents like his.”
So, now when the boys were in the vicinity, it was only natural that Karan’s heart raced to a speed that skipped beats and his muscles turned to noodles. Nervous butterflies fluttered fearfully in his belly but there was nothing that Karan could do except for hiding behind the school building’s pillars and the trees in the school courtyard.
