Clash of the Titans

I know it looks a little weird title for this post. But looking at the severity of the war(s) waging in school, this seems apt.

I am a proud ninth standard - "A" section girl student. You shall understand the reason I am stressing on  belonging to a particular class once you read through the following upcoming lines. Let me first explain the importance of being in ninth standard. Being just year below the highest standard in the school, made us sort of powerful. That was because, we already had started commanding the "senior" respect from all the students( the tenth standard people were too busy in the upcoming public examinations and had little time to deviate from studies; so we were the uncrowned queens and kings of the school). And unlike the tenth standard students we had ample time at our disposal, which we effectively utilised to show our "seniority". Though they could not do anything to help it, this was scorned upon by the standard ten students and they demanded that we accept there seniority( and their so - called superiority) at each possible opportunity. Though we respected our seniors, we could not always stand their "we-know-all'' kind of behaviour. This lead to clashes between the two standards- which, thankfully could not grow big due to their studies pressure.

And within standard nine, there were two sections- based on the preference of second language. I am in section A. There is always rivalry between section A and Section B students on whatever possible competition it be. It may be anything from scoring highest marks in all subjects, or coming first in the sports or winning the affections of the school beauty queen(of course this applies only to boys). When between Section A girls and Section B girls - the war would only be verbal. But when boys get involved it becomes nasty physical fight.Interesting thing to note is that even though there is always clash between girls vs boys in the same section - when it comes to clash between sections, this rivalry is forgotten and the whole class of a section stands against the other as one. These raging wars between sections always ended us up in uncomfortable circumstances - like mass punishment of the whole classes, stinky letters on bad behaviour to parents, scoldings and caning from teachers, awful visits to the Principal's room; but the war was on; there was no stop to it. Only a small incident was required to rage it again and again to a furnace.

As I mentioned earlier, our dear seniors(the tenth standard students), were ever busy with there studies and had delegated the participation in inter- school competition to us.These competitions are usually held during holidays.That is holiday for standards other than standard nine and standard ten.This was the practice in most of the Schools in the city, including the strawfort school.This was also the period when the cold war between the two standards would be at peak, fuelled by the feeling that we had to come to school when our your brothers and sisters are enjoying their holidays.The burden was on our young shoulders to represent our school in the inter school competitions and ensure that we win decent number of medals for our schools.In addition to our standard students,a few tenth standard students who were too good in athletics and were sure- wins, also were to participate in the competitions. The gem among them - Swetha, who is a sure shot win in any sports activity, and who also is one of the top five rankers in studies, and to add to it who was drop down gorgeous, was also participating.Swetha was an exception to our hatred towards our seniors.All of us respected Swetha and admired her.

It was during these competitions that a guy from the strawfort school taunted her. When one of her classmates tried to talk sense to that guy, he was slapped, insulted and beaten. These stawfort guys were aware of the waging wars in our school -  standard nine vs standard ten, and in standard nine - section A vs Section B, and also girls vs boys. That was their reason of their courage to taunt Swetha.

Some of the tenth standard guys seized up the strawfort guy who had insulted their classmate and beat him. They were in turn surrounded by the strawfort guys.Since the competition was happening in strawfort,our seniors, who were just a handful, stood a small chance to live. We still do not know how the information had passed on to students of our school.What happened in next few minutes happened so fast that it looked like a whirlwind. Around two hundred students from both ninth and tenth standards crashed their bicycles in strawfort and formed a bigger circle around the strawfort students.None of us imagined that this incident would trigger some dormant feelings within us - the feeling of oneness. All the enmities were forgotten. We were one. We were - "Our School". There was such a fight that if had been shot through a camera would have been no less than any bollywood movie fight. All of us were injured. But the strawfort guys lost in their own ground. We did not fight - we defended.That was one of the reasons why we were injured more that the strawfort guys. But we over powered and cornered them to a corner of the auditorium. By then our school principal and strawfort school principal arrived. Our Principal delivered a lecture on good behaviour. Strawfort's principal appreciated us for having handled the situation without fighting back. We were asked to disperse immediately. This incident made us one.Once we came out of the auditorium, to our bicycles, everyone was laughing, patting each other and appreciating each other.There were no clashes - no A section, B section; no boy,girl; no ninth and tenth standard.

P.S. :- In the second term of the school, Swetha joined strawfort as her mother got a job as a teacher there. This bridged the gap between the schools and  students of both schools together represented our city in inter city competions. All is well that ends well.