Empty Spaces

For a while now Jay had realised that he wasn't the person everyone thought he was. On the outside, he was a happy, cheerful and confident individual, with what seemed to be a rather large group of friends. Everyone seemed to like him, and he really didn't have anyone that he couldn't approach. He never held grudges against anyone and was the type of person who got along with everyone. But deep inside, Jay knew this was all just a front. Within himself, he felt he needed to put up this front - a front to repress what he felt inside, to make it appear as if there were nothing wrong; to hide the guilt, shame and embarrassment. Noone knew.

It was the first day back to highschool, after the mid year break, and Jay made his way to his Maths class. Maths was probably Jay's most hated, yet most liked subject. Jay was a bright student, and breazed through Maths. He liked it because it was he understood it, felt it was logical, and found it easy and saw Maths class as simply a bludge lesson. Yet thats what he hated about it - he'd finish his work early and just sit around day dreaming. Today though, was a different. As the class settled down, Mr Young, the teacher, stood up in front of the class and introduced a new student to the class. Jay looked up, attempted to listen, but then resumed his day dreaming again. Apparently the new guy's name was Brenton? Something along those lines anyway. Brenton must have been new to the school, because Jay had never seen him before.

It was a double period today which meant the lesson was 90 minutes long. An hour into the class, Jay had already completed the assigned work for the day, so he went and asked Mr Young whether he should move onto a new chapter of the textbook. "You've done well today Jay, but I don't want you to get too far ahead of the class, so maybe you can just sit down and relax or do some quiet reading or something" Mr Young explained. "But Sir, I didn't bring a reading book with me," exclaimed Jay. "In that case then, maybe you could help out some of your fellow classmates?" replied Mr Young "Oh perhaps you could give young Brenton over here a hand. He seems to be struggling a bit with the algebra". "Alright, thankyou Sir."

So Jay moved across the room and sat in an empty table beside Brenton. He moved it over so that his desk and Brentons desk were touching. At this point Brenton was looking a little confused, and wondering why this stranger had decided to move in beside him. Jay turned around and introduced himself. "Hey. Im Jay. The teacher told me to come and help you since i've finished my work already. Your Brenton right?" There was a slight pause for a while before Brenton replied "Hi Jay. I don't need any of your help. I'm fine. I know what I'm doing. By the way, the names Brent, NOT Brenton. Geez get my name wrong why don't yah!! So why don't you move along and find someone else to help?" Jay was stunned. Really? Are you for real? Asshole was the first word that immediately came to mind. "Ohh....erm.. I'm really sorry Brent. Sorry to have bothered you. I guess I'll go and help someone else." Just as Jay was about to get up, Brent grabs him by the arm and pulls him back. "Jesus Christ man, I was only joking! Do you take things this serious all the time?". The boys looked at each other and laughed. "I do take things too seriously don't I?" laughed Jay. "Hey I need your help doing these stupid functions. They make zero sense to me. And I don't want to have to finish them off for homework. How about I do you a deal? If you help me finish these questions before the lessons over, I'll let you be my best friend for the day.. How does that sound?" asked Brent. "Keep me company for the last half hour and you've got yourself a deal" replied Jay with a stupid grin on his face.

It wasn't exactly a typical day for Jay. He made a new friend (well even if it was only for a day) and for once he didn't have to act like somebody else. With Brent he just clicked, and conversation just flowed naturally. For the rest of the day they each had different classes, but Jay took the time to show him around the school during the breaks. He also found out that Brent was also in two of his other classes - namely Business Principles and Word Processing. Brent also took the liberty of introducing Jay to two other people who used to go to the same primary school as him. Well it wasn't really an introduction, because Jay already knew these people. Wait thats not right.. Jay knew OF these people, because they were in the same grade, but didn't really know them personally. But thanks to Brent he made 2 more friends.