MAKING FRIENDS

MAKING FRIENDS

 

Yes, she had a great difficulty making friends. Ever since she had taken admission in the new Community Swimming Pool, Lyza had a great difficulty making friends. Lyza was someone you would most certainly call popular, for she had many friends. She had never been a loner. But for the first time in her life, she found herself to be lonely, extremely lonely. She might have been lonely for all her time there, had it not been for a very important event which took place in her life during her time there. But first, for the backdrop and for the ultimate situation in which Lyza found herself before she clambered up the steps to popularity.

The new Community Swimming Pool was a pleasant place, (Although, it did not appear so to our heroine.) if not artistic and pretty. It had red sandstone flooring in the middle of which lay a 25-metre long, 12feet deep swimming pool. On the left side of the swimming pool, was a big red sandstone pavilion with 10 long wide sandstone steps. I t was surrounded by yellow walls on both the sides. The steps of the big pavilion were matted in blue Vinyl looping rubber mats, otherwise known as spaghetti mats. They felt very comfortable to a swimmer’s feet and easily prevented them from slipping. The changing-rooms were good in their own way, if not luxurious. There must be twenty comfortable changing rooms there, with toilets attached. Each changing-room had a shower, with a tap underneath. They also had marble flooring with white walls a rod each for hanging towels, clothes, etc. the gallery in between was again matted in blue spaghetti mats. The gallery led to a locker room which had 40-50 lockers, all in a good condition. All these comforts and privileges meant nothing to Lyza who as soon as she entered  the main office located to the left of the front gate, whispered to her mother that the ‘New Swimming Pool’’ was going to be a ‘Rot’.

“How I wish I could go to the old one instead!” “You very well know that you can’t, dear. So please stop grumbling,” her mother had quietly instructed. ‘Pretty easy for to say so, after all it is me, who has got to do all the work,’ she thought and sighed dramatically. The instructor sitting in the office looked quite stern as he inspected her from head to toe. “No vacancy madam,’ he said, rubbing his upper lip with his index finger. “Couldn’t you just adjust it?” her mother requested. “Sorry, but no,” the instructor said firmly, adjusting his spectacles. “Please,” she again requested. “No,” was the firm answer. “But she is a swimmer,” her mother made one last attempt. “And she is certainly not going to give you any trouble.” “Oh! Is that the case? Thank goodness you mentioned this fact to me for the girl doesn’t look like one and I expected her to be just another burden on our already  worked-up coaches,” he replied, jumping up to sit straight on his chair. “Well, in that case we will surely admit her here.” Taking out two sheets of printed white paper from the drawer of his table, he said, “This is the form and,” he looked at Lyza, ”I’ll need your medical certificate, identity card and two passport-size photographs.”They took the two sheets of paper and left the office. Lyza looked at the sheets and shuddered. “Mama, so many rules! What am I to do with them?!” “Keep them, of course,” replied her mother, chuckling as the two of them walked their way home. The very next day, Lyza submitted her form along with all that was needed and became a member there. Unfortunately she did not enjoy her time there in the least. Everyone was so prim and proper and there were so many rules to be followed that she simply could not stand it. “Mind where you are going,” a big girl had said to her when she accidentally collided with her. She didn’t say anything but made up her mind to if that girl was going to be rude to her again. She also noticed a very queer thing that took place there. All the girls were very much in awe of the big girl whose name was Leah.”I’d rather die than face her,” she heard one girl confiding into her friend. No one really liked her, and she was fine with it, for no one dared to confront her either. She was a bully and bullied the other girls there to such an extent that many of them even stopped coming to the pool altogether. But Lyza was different. She was a bold character and could not stand any sort of bullying. And so, when everyone cleared the way for Leah and always obeyed to what she said, Lyza was defiant. Leah was a bit irritated with her and told the other girls to ‘Knock some sense into that Lyza- girl’. “Listen Lyza, Leah is the oldest girl in the swimming pool and the best swimmer here, so you`ve got to do as she says,” said Pamela, one of Leah’s pet minions and the most popular girl there. “Honey, I really don’t understand that how can you put up with your so-called ‘Best swimmer’ and her whims and fancies, but I can’t and won’t,” Lyza replied and got out of the pool to change. This was certainly a most sarcastic conversation between the two and the last one Lyza had with the other girls, for they were instructed by Leah to ignore her. Secretly, most of them liked Lyza and her spontaneous ways and would love to be friends with her. But they dared not confront Leah for they were extremely scared of her.

And one day something really very exciting happened and it lead to a very strong friendship between the current bitter enemies.

It all took place on a dry June day. Leah had it in her mind that she would swim 200-mt that day and she had told the coach about.  The coach was don`t care, self possessed   man who was usually teaching the beginners. So he did not pay much attention to what she said who was usually busy teaching the beginners. So, he didn`t pay much attention to what she said.  Thus irritated, Leah decided that she would swim the desired length without anybody`s supervision. And so without telling anyone, she started swimming. She didn`t even have her regular dose of glucose that day and so she started feeling very tired after her fifth length. But she did not stop. By the sixth length, she was so tired that she just could not swim anymore and started feeling giddy and sleepy. All of a sudden, she felt as if she did not have any control over herself and in a hazy way, she found herself sinking.  Some of the girls who were watching Leah`s graceful style of swimming suddenly realized that the girl had suddenly gone below the water and showed no signs of coming up. At first, they assumed it to be some trick but almost five minutes passed and she did not emerge they thought that something had gone wrong.

Word spread quickly and very soon Lyza came to know of it. For a second, she took it very casually but then suddenly, she stopped dead.  “What do you mean by drowned? Is she still under the water?” she asked, almost shaking the girl beside her by shoulders.” Yes, of course. I mean, where else could she be?” replied the girl Emily. “Oh! You muttonhead? We`ve got to help her,”she cried and after shoving Emily real hard, she started swimming the length of the pool so that she would spot Leah real soon. She kept looking for her fervently till she finally spotted her. Leah must be at least five feet below the water. She had thought of calling and had even sent a girl to fetch him but that nitwit of a coach hadn’t arrived yet.  So she decided to pull her out on her own. She was not very good at doing underwater and only knew its basics but she decided to take a chance. So taking her position along the side of the wall, she took a deep breath and charged under the water. She could not succeed in the first attempt, so she tried again and wohoo! She succeeded in pulling Leah out of the water as she could scarcely feel her weight down below.  By the time she hauled the unconscious girl out of the pool, the coach finally decided to arrive. Leah had obviously fainted but after sometime, thanks to the efforts of the coach, regained her consciousness. She came to know how it was Lyza who had rescued her and she apologized to the former for her misconduct towards her. They both became good friends, and as for Lyza she was once again popular!

Reviews

[Shabeeh Haider]

You are very particular with your descriptions. You have given a very detailed description of the swimming pool.
It was very sweet of Lyza to rescue a girl when she was not even on good terms with her and they did not like each other.
An interesting tale.

[Akshita]

Thanks a lot. But this was not my story. I am trying to write one, but this is not mine. It is written by a sister of mine and it was she who did all the work, typing and all. So, I think that it is she who deserves the credit.

[Shabeeh Haider]

I find this strange. Did she ask you to post her story here? You could have mentioned this fact in your author's note.
Anyway you have given her due credit albeit a bit late.

[Akshita]

Yeah she did. In fact, it was she who typed all of it. She even did the author`s note, which she did not do very nicely, I should say.

[Akshita]

I think that I might as well mention it now!

[tanmay7551]

Good work. All the build-up of the story and enemies turned to friendship looks realistic and gripping.

[Akshita]

Thanks! : )

[Mifa]

An interesting read. Typical of any rivalry but quite unique in the voice of the narrator. I noticed a few errors but won't say nothing about it cause it seemed too little to matter. I also noticed from the other comments that this story was written by your sister. Well, give her a hi-five for me. She is on her way to becoming a great writer.

[Akshita]

Thank you!!