The High School years

In school, 12th grade I think, this girl transferred to my class, she was obviously uncomfortable being the new girl, didnt help that she was quiet and wasnt those instantly popular girls who magnetically attract people towards them. So anyway, I'm no friendly bug either, there were the occasional Hi's and bye's, but I never made an attempt to know her, I would soon be finishing school and was looking forward to not having to meet most of these people who so obviously did not recognize my brilliance.
And then we were made to sit with each other, I was cheesed off because your bench mate is almost like your partner in crime, the thelma to my louise and my thelma was moving to some corner of the class while I was saddled with some girl whom I had never heard speak (not that I was a big talker either).
So, first there was the uncomfortable silence, then the awkward small talk then the common bitching about the world, woe is me and all that stuff that people stuck in shitty places bond over. I realised soon though,that she was bloody cool (and there are very few people who I think are bloody cool).
She had this mad snarky sense of humour which came along with a deadpan delivery. I was impressed. Painful physics lectures werent so bad anymore, because we could laugh at our failure to understand anything about fluid dynamics...yes, we were equally stupid about these things. I introduced her to my set of friends (wasnt a set so much as a ...umm..ok, it was just one person) and we hung out, or as much as you can hang out in a fascist nazi school, that restricted all free movement.
But there was something wierd about her, she seemed sad always,unhappy...and once in passing, she told me she sometimes thought she'd rather die...stop, hold the phone, kill herself?? I didnt know what to say,was she joking? sure, after a particulary bad day, I too am known to say stuff like "somebody shoot me", and it would be just like her to throw in something shocking like that. I asked her about it, and she brushed it aside , making a joke out of it. I went on about how she had no reason to think such a thing, school wasnt so bad , we'd only have to study physics for the next 5 months and she laughed that off and that's when it hit me, she seemed lonely, that was the word I was looking for.
And so I wondered, here was someone who was so obviously smart, witty, incredibly funny and interesting and no one knew about it besides a few of us. Nobody bothered to talk to her (myself included). To me, she was the coolest person I knew in school by then, others barely noticed her. It made me mad to think that she would be ignored because in the fickle world of high school, she didnt make the cut of Pretty girl/jock/super genius/ass kissers etc.
So we all graduated, exchanged addresses, promised to be soul sisters etc, I left for Mumbai, she left for hyderabad and we lost touch.
I have no idea what happened to her, but I suddenly thought of her the other day.I certainly wish I had been a better friend.
And mostly I wonder, how many really wonderful people are hidden amongst us, lonely people who no one bothered to talk to. I'm just glad I met one of them.

And that concludes my most gay post ever.