#1

Life wasn’t easy for me mostly, yes I was given everything I ever wished for by my family, but the expectations that weighed on me were crippling and my mother didn’t spare any chance to remind me of that.
Most of the town’s people were jealous of my dad and blamed him for their joblessness after buying out most of the businesses in Hawthorn Woods and replacing them with branches of his pharmaceutical company.
I also wasn't a straight A’s student in high school and my social status in highschool was barely hitting relevancy on the scale of popularity in school.
I could barely talk to girls without skipping my words or confusing sentences and sweating profusely. How I hated those days.
My mom was very good to me even though I was a troublesome kid.
She could go through any length to get me whatever I needed. Sometimes she would throw away her Christian ethics just to bail me out whenever I got into trouble.
There was a time another high society wife came to her to tell her that I had thrown eggs on her car the night before even though I didn't, but I was so easy to blame because I was tagged as the street prankster.

That was the first time I ever saw my mother throw a punch, not giving a damn if she might get a court restraint order. Oh, she could fight the world for me.
Even though our relationship wasn't always the best most times. We still found our common grounds for love and hope for growth between us.
I did find someone I could talk to and not care about the repercussions, that was Asia. Asia was my best friend in highschool. We got in lots of trouble together,
pranked so many teachers and got our parents pissed a lot because we always came back home with teachers requesting to see our parents. There was a time we mixed a large amount of chocolate juice in our school's water system.
For a week the whole school had to either drink chocolate water from the fountain or rinse their hands with chocolate water in every school basin.
We caused so much trouble to the principal and the teachers. There was a day when we got a lot of lab mice into our principal’s office and teachers lounge.
The principal could not use her office for a day. Because she was so scared of mice that she had to go home for that day and the teacher’s lounge was not in use for that whole day.
She called us to her office the next day . “ Who did this ?” she asked with a frustrated look on her face. “What?” I and Asia asked in unison.
“ You know what I am talking about, “ she said impatiently. “ Who put mice in my office?”
Asia answered for the both of us “ if you are trying to ask if we were the ones that put mice in your office. You have totally lost it , principal brandy”
“Well I wasn't asking you, smart mouth” she replied with irritation. “ Then who were you asking?” Asia replied. “ Well, I was asking james. I know he is the soft one in your duo”.
Asia immediately signaled to me with a stern look in her to make sure I didn't break under the principal pressure. Fortunately I didn't crack.
The following week We sneaked into the principal’s office at night once and sent a memo to all the teachers mails that there was an infection going around in school and classes shouldn't be held for a week.
It worked for a day cause everyone didn't want to risk getting infected. But the prank got figured out. Even though there wasn't much evidence. We were the first suspects everyone wanted to blame but due to lack of proper evidence, they let us be.
There was also a day I and Asia put laxatives in the dispenser in the teacher’s lounge. You can imagine herds of teachers fighting to all use the toilet at once.
It was a very funny sight to see. Some teachers that could not reach the right toilet went into the opposite gender's toilet in desperation. I couldn't deny that we gave the school hell.
The principal could not expel us because our parents were the principal sponsors of the school's events and budgets for school facilities, so they had no choice but to endure our nuisance.
Springwood high was a school for the elites and the high society. I and Asia didn't fit into springwood even though our parents were the richest in the school and were major shareholders in the school's finance budget.
We still didn't fit into the school. Every teacher knew us and expected so much from us. It was overwhelming and we failed to meet their expectations every time.

The month we came back home from school without any complaints our parents were scared, even the teachers were in confusion and always staring us down in the hallway waiting for the next prank to happen and quickly blame it on us. It was us against the world or you could say I and Asia against middle aged highschool teachers. I told Asia one “ I bet Springwood high school isn’t going to be so fun for the teachers without us around… I bet they look forward to our pranks to spice up their routined life”. I got through highschool mostly because of her. She was my best friend and we had each other’s back.

The moment I started falling in love with her, that is when our relationship went to shit. Sometimes I wish I never had feelings for her. Maybe we would still be talking still now.
I told her I loved her but she said she didn’t love me and did think she could understand what love means at that point in her life. But she did have feelings for me but didn’t know if it could be classified as love.
One other thing she pointed out is the fact that she was from a Muslim family and was sure our families won’t be happy with us being together or dating. we got in enough trouble as it is being friends .