Dorm Norm - 3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The next day buses from the campus took everyone to a nearby hill for trekking.

“Each group is being provided with a map and basic trekking equipment. You can take pictures if you wish but please do not harm the insects or birds in any way. Move around as much as you want but everyone make sure to get back to camp right here by 6pm. Please regulate your water intake and…” the trekking instructor said.

“Disperse!” he instructed and the students went off in the direction of the dense growth.

“Come on Sam!” Mark said.

“Ya lets go,” Sam said.

Sam and Mark, Michael and Daniel and the others collected their maps and equipment and went into the forest.

“Hey Sam check this thing out!” Mark said clicking a picture.

“What?” Sam asked when he saw nothing.

“Oh man! It flew away,” Mark said, “Oh! Look there it is,” he said running towards a nearby tree.

It was a butterfly that had caught Mark’s fascination. The butterfly flew away from the other tree too when Mark accidentally jerked the branch while positioning his camera. Mark continued to run after it and continued to drink water (running up and down a hill would make anyone thirsty!). When the water he was carrying was over he began drinking from Sam’s bottle. So by the time Mark succeeded in getting a god picture of the butterfly he had been chasing, all the water the two of them were carrying was over.

“Sam lend me some of your water,” Mark said.

“No,” Sam replied.

“Why the hell not?” Mark asked.

“Because there is no water left. You drank all of it while chasing that creature,” Sam said.

“Then go and get some water Sam,” Mark said sitting down on the ground, “I’m too tired.”

“Go get it yourself. Even I’m gonna have to suffer without water on this hot day just because you wanted to get some butterfly’s pic,” Sam said.

“This is how you treat a friend, Sam how can you do this?” Mark said.

‘Oh man! I better get some water for him or else he’s going to continue with this drama and I don’t wanna be accused in case something happens to him,’ Sam thought.

“Sam, this is how you treat your friend?” Mark said dramatically.

“Stop your drama dude. I’ll go get some water. So chill and don’t move from here,” Sam said as he started to walk back in the direction they had come from.

Sam continued to walk and walk and walk and soon he didn’t know where he was.

‘Shit! I left the map with Mark,’ Sam thought.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………....

Michael and Daniel were silently walking through the forest. Michael was a little too silent and a bit creepy, even for Daniel, so Daniel thought of talking with him for a bit.

“Mark is a cheerful guy,” Daniel started.

“And very irritating at that,” Michael replied.

“It is Samuel who is the irritating one,” Daniel said.

“But Mark is a nice guy. He talks to me—a bit too much but ya, he talks to me,” Michael said.

Daniel looked at him quizzically.

“Back in high school and even middle school I had no friends. He’s been the first person apart from my mom to even speak to me properly in so many years.”

“I’m the one with no friends—never had a friend. I know that people have behaved very selfishly towards me but what is your story?”

“I was very weak as a child but I became very strong as I hit puberty. I hit puberty much earlier than anybody else in my class and so everyone started behaving with me like I was some alien. Now around this time if I playfully hit someone he or she would get seriously injured. Once what happened was that a guy from my class tried to pick a fight with me. My mom did not like the idea of me fighting so I didn’t fight back but he continued to hit me on my back as I was walking out of my class. At one point of time I got really angry and gave him a push. Now although I didn’t have any intention to hurt him badly, I accidentally pushed him too hard and the boy fell down and fractured his arm. That started rumours about me being a delinquent and soon everyone started avoiding me. And so I ended up not having any real friends in middle school. Some people from middle school joined my high school too and before I could make any friends the rumour had spread there too,” Michael explained.

“That must have been rough,” Daniel said.

“Sorry. I must be boring you with my story,” Michael said.

“No. Not at all. I used to think that I am the only one without friends,” Daniel said.

“Now you know better,” Michael said.

Daniel opened the map given to them to check out where they were. The wind was blowing really hard and as he turned to talk to Michael the wind flew the map away.

“Oh no! Wait here. I’ll go get it,” Daniel said as he started chasing after it.

The map kept moving farther away as Daniel got closer to it.

Daniel collided into someone while running after the map—it was Sam.

In the meanwhile Michael began to look for Daniel seeing that it had been a while since he had been gone. After walking for a while he found someone passed out on one side of the road. On closer inspection he saw that it was Mark.