This story is based on a real life incident. Name of the characters and settings have been manipulated for privacy reasons.

••••

Isha, a nine year old kid, stays in Nepal with her small family of four members which include her parents and a little brother, who's almost two years younger to her.

She's in standard four, just like any normal kid, she's also not fan of going school. She's below average student and working hard to atleast achieve the average rank.

Her efforts were giving her good results, she was doing fine until summer vacations arrived.

Her mother planned to visit her sister's house during this vacation.

Isha wasn't very pleased by her Mom's decision because she doesn't like her Aunt's husband as he's pure torture and never leaves a single opportunity to scold her.

Still, she consoled herself saying it's the matter of only few days, but she wasn't aware that how wrong her assumption was.

They, Isha including her mother and brother, left for her Aunt's home that's situated in India.

She travelled from Nepal to India, in order to spend her holidays, but these few days vacation turned into her never ending longest nightmare.

Suddenly, her parents took one more decision that turned little Isha's life upside down. They decided that from now onwards they'll shift in India and will stay at her Aunt's house for the rest of their lives.

Isha didn't even get chance to bid farewell to her friends back in Nepal.

Her parents got her enrolled in one of the finest schools of town, this school was huge as compared to her previous school.

It's her first day in new school, being a little girl, she didn't have much knowledge regarding how to deal with this sudden change of environment.

Her class teacher introduced her to the whole class and also guided her to grab a seat.

Isha had joined school in the middle of academic year so, the teacher made her seat beside an intelligent student, who can help her with studies, he's a boy, his name was Somya.

Somya was not only intelligent but also chubby and cute just like Isha, she's happy to have him as her bench partner.

Three periods passed in a blink and then arrived recess time, all the girls came to her to introduce themselves and Isha being transferred from another country gave them one more reason for taking extra interest on her.

Isha got to know that in this class girls were divided into two groups, one that consists of all smart girls and another one consists of all the dumb girls.

Both the group leaders offered her their friendship, smart girls boasted themselves and explained all the benefits of being their group member.

Isha was confused, she wasn't able to decide which group would be appropriate for her to join so she said, 'It's my first day, let me get to know you all.'

She shared her tiffin with all the girls and didn't join any group in particular.

She spend most of her time in school with Somya because he's her bench partner and the girls, she had to deal with them only at recess period.

Gradually, Somya became very good friend of hers but one day he started acting weird, he asked her to stay away and also to stop talking to him.

She was confused because of his sudden change in behaviour, she asked, 'What happened Somya?'

He said that entire class is talking about them and thinks that she fancy him.

Isha didn't understand his words, she asked him to elaborate and he shouted, 'Stay away from me because everyone says that your character is not good, you're a slut. Listen! I'm not that type of boy, your dirty tricks won't work on me.'

It took some time for her nine years old brain to understand whatever he said. She remain stunned by his words because he questioned her character infront of the entire class.

All the students listened their exchange of words, it was recess time, no teacher was present in class to stop their argument.

Since that day, school life became pure torture for Isha.

Girls of smart group began to make fun of her, they never leaves a single chance to bully her.

Meanwhile! Approached a helping hand towards Isha, which belongs to the leader of dumb girls group.

As we know that a drowning person is always ready to clutch a straw. Similarly, when the entire class was standing against her, the dumb group came as a straw in her life and she clutched it enthusiastically, but was it her right choice?

No, it wasn't because those girls treated her as their personal slave, they blackmailed her by saying that they will also break friendship if she doesn't do whatever they say. They made her do their homeworks, they asked her to beg class monitor, on their behalf, to erase their names from board whenever they get caught while talking.

Because of The Anxiety of Being Alone, she kept on doing everything, she kept on fulfilling their every demands, she kept on bearing every torture came to her.

She showed great resilience to cope up with the situation, she was in, she tried hard to change the prospective of all her classmates, which they had made regarding her character.

Gradually things started getting better, she also made a true friend in school named Ankita.

Ankita was in same class as hers but in different section, Isha met her regularly during recess and shared tiffin with her.

Isha's focus towards education increases because of lack of friends and she became the topper of her class.

Now all the students including Somya looked at her with respect and reach out to seek her help in academics. The girls of smart group roam around her like butterflies do with flowers.

She never dodges anybody because of their past behaviours and helped them selflessly.

Somya understood his mistakes and tried many times to get back into her friend list but she always smiles and went away from him without answering.

•••

Written to take part in 'World of Words challenge.' held by WattpadESL

Word count: 1000 words.

_______________________________________

✳️What's your opinion about the entire chapter?

✳️Have you ever been through such situation like Isha did?

✳️What's your opinion about Somya's reaction?

✳️What is the message you get from this story of Isha?

✳️Do you also have the anxiety of being alone?

✳️Did you enjoy reading?

✳️If yes, then don't forget to:-

❇️Vote

❇️Comment

❇️Share

(Your response means a lot to me.)