Tragic Boys

The bell rang and woke Awful in the middle of last stint of his school sleep. He was from Libya and therefore, his English wasn’t good. He was also lazy and often tried to seek opportunity to sleep during the last lesson of English. He sat up and looked around; students were picking there bags and making their lines.
His friend Terrible, who was thin and tall and had freckles, picked up Awful’s bag.
‘Hey! That is my bag’ cried Awful
‘I don’t know! I forgot! But the books and home works are the same. It doesn’t make any difference to be your or my bag’
‘You’re right Terrible, that’s why you’re my best friend. You’re a genius’ said Awful happily ‘Let’s join the line’ he said picking up Terrible’s bag. They both moved from their places and joined the line.

‘Don’t forget your test Awful, and you too Terrible. If you’ll not get good marks, there’s a punishment for both of you. Your grammar is too weak....’ said the teacher, ‘Off you go’. The students’ line moved forward.
‘How many marks did you get?’ asked Awful.
‘Me...I don’t know....fine, but don’t tell anyone, OK, it’s....it’s only six out of forty five’ Terrible whispered hastily ‘And how many you gained?’
‘You’re a genius...I’m undoubtfully right’
‘How much have you gained?’ repeated his friend Terrible.
‘Its zero’ said Awful with the impression of sadness on his face.
‘That’s’ awful’ said his friend

‘I know my name is Awful’.
‘No not that-’
‘Oops. My stomach hurts’
‘You have a stomachache....I’ll call the teacher’ said Terrible ‘Miss Nories Awful had a stomachache!’
A teacher came to them lazily ‘What’s the problem boy! Don’t say anyone had a stomachache again. Every day you have the same problem Stomachache’ she said idly.
‘Well! Awful have it right now’ said Terrible as all the line in front of them stopped.
‘Every day in this time he had the stomachache....what’s his problem....have you got a constipation?’ she asked.

‘No’ Awful said in a low voice.
‘What did you eat this afternoon in the school?’ she asked firmly.
‘Pizza’ replied Awful
‘PIZZA!’ the woman said in a shock ‘Don’t lie! The pizza was totally rotten’
Awful said nothing.
‘You have to be ashamed of yourself. Yes you have to be. Haven’t you heard me declare in front of the whole school not to eat the pizza? Off you go there’s no problem in you except the block ears and stomach ache problems. Go’
They moved and joined the line. Awful heard the teacher cursing him.

‘Never mind.... it’s because of the pizza you ate this afternoon’ said Terrible.
‘It’s gone!’ said Awful happily ‘My stomach is not hurting anymore’
‘What did you do in the home yesterday?’ Terrible said ignoring his happiness.
‘I studied hard for the examination but I could not get good marks’ said Awful. They got out of the school and headed to their cars which were fortunately side by side.
‘You come to my house to study’ said Awful.
‘Ok! I’ll ask my father’
‘You can ask my father. Father is a father. Which every father it is but the father remains father. Your father is my father and my father is you father’ said Awful.
‘You’re a genius too. I could tell you that’

They reached Awful’s house which was a far from the school few kilometers away. The car stopped at the garage and they got out of the car.
‘Go to the house while I call Terrible’s father that he’s with us’ said his father.
‘Let’s go Terri’ said Awful. They reached the front of the door and pushed it to open it.
‘Why are you pushing it?’ asked Terrible.
‘Its quiet old house the doors are totally jammed except my room’s one’ said Awful. At last he opened it and fell in the bin which was in front of the door inside the house.
‘That’s awful’ said Terrible as he saw him in the bin and tried to help him in getting up.
‘MAM! WHO PUT THAT GARBADGE HERE!’ shouted Awful trying to get rid of the bin. His elder brother came to him and laughed at him loudly.
‘What’s the matter awful boy? Has been fallen into the garbage?’ his brother said laughing at him.

‘Stop that Brovin’ said Terrible who was now dusting Awful.
‘OH-’
‘Who put that here? In front of the door’ said Awful furiously.
‘Don’t you know? It was your turn to throw the garbage’ said Brovin.
‘It was my school day’
‘Poor little brother. Mother told you to throw it before going to school. POOR!’
‘Don’t lie’ said Awful in disgust.
‘Cant believe your eyes POOR!’ said Brovlin hastily.
‘I could throw it for you if you say Awful’ said Terrible holding the dust bin which wasn’t heavy.
‘Leave it for him Terrible. It would be terrible for you HA HA HA’ Brovin laughed and went away.

‘I’ll throw it you go to my room’ Awful said to Terrible
‘I’ll throw it, you both go to the room!’ came Awful’s mother’s voice.
‘Let’s go’ said Awful happily. As they stepped on the stairs he was about to fall but was escaped as he sported his hands on the railing stairs.
‘Oh my God’ said Awful ‘Why it’s always me’
‘There’s a banana peal under your foot’ said Terrible picking up the peal and dropping it in the garbage.
‘Let’s go now’
They reached the upper storey of the house and entered the second door. Awful opened the door and they both entered it. It was very, very messy. You couldn’t even believe it.
‘Whaoo! Brilliant...you’re exactly like me’ said Terrible.

‘Lets sit down on the carpet and decide what to do’ said Awful. They both sat down on the carpet near the bed. On their back was cupboard which was bound by some clothe. On the side was a wire going across the bathroom door to the window where lots of socks were hung.
‘Let’s study or do our homework. You do my physics and I’ll do your physics. Got me’ said Terrible.
‘I’m proud you’re my best friend Terrible’ said Awful. He put the two copies and books in front and began to write.
‘You know. I think we should learn first at the moment’ said Terrible ‘cause I want to get good marks now’.
The door knocked and entered his brother Brovlin. ‘What’re you both, KID! Doing here?’
‘Don’t you have eyes to see? We’re studying so don’t disturb us’ said Awful.

‘That’s a miracle! WE’VE GOT A MIRACLE IN OUR HOUSE TODAY’ said Brovlin.
‘What’s your problem? Why are you here? Get out from my room’
‘This is my room too. Oh yes I remembered. Where’s my trousers, gut?’
‘Why are you asking me? It’s yours not mine’
‘Oh there it is. Who knotted it with the handles of the cupboard?’ said his brother going towards the cupboard and trying to get rid of his trousers from the handles.
‘Was that your trouser? I thought that was mine. Your print is just like mine plus your size is only one size bigger than mine’ said Awful trying to get rid of the knotted trouser that had closed the cupboard door. They both tried hard to remove it from the cupboard’s handles but failed. Terrible got up from his place and reached them.
‘I know how to get rid of it’ he said.

‘Do anything I want it in a hurry. My friends are coming and I haven’t anything to wear except this. Do anything’
Terrible nodded and tried to untie the knot using his teeth.
‘Is the knot opening?’ his brother said. Terrible didn’t say anything. At last after a minute the knot was opened. All the stuffs in the cupboard got out from it. ‘That’s it’ said Awful carelessly.
Brovlin opened the trouser in the air and saw there were many holes because of the teeth.
‘What you’ve done to my only trouser!’
‘Thank God that he got it off from the cupboard’ said Awful.

Brovlin went out of the room abusing Terrible of what he had done to his trouser.
‘At least he should thank me of getting rid of the trouser-’
‘Let’s study now. We should get good marks’ started Awful
‘You’re right’ said Terrible.
They both sat down and opened their books.
‘You do my physics homework and I’ll do your physics home work. Agree?’
‘Absolutely’ nodded Terrible. Once again the door opened and his brother appeared.
‘Go away’ yelled Awful
‘No. Give me my socks’ Brovlin said
‘Why should I?’

‘Shut up my friends are waiting for me outside. Quick I got to go. Give them’
‘Fine. Take them and don’t come back’ said Awful taking off socks from his feet and tossing them to his brother. At that moment his father entered the room too.
‘What are you doing with my socks?’ his father said looking at Brovlin.
‘Er...’
His father came to the wire where socks were hung and touched with his hands each of the socks hung and picked up a pair from them. ‘This one is dry’ he said and went out of the room.
His mother entered after his father had gone and said hastily ‘Where is my shirt which had flowers on it? The yellow and green one?’
‘Was that your shirt-?’
‘Hurry I want to go to the neighbors. Where is the shirt?’
Awful tossed the yellow shirt towards his mother.

‘Why is this so dirty like that?’
‘Er...I dusted the TV with it. It was filled with mud’
‘You’ll see afterwards Awful’. His mother went away.
‘Let’s play something. I’m bored of this work’ said Terrible.
‘Like what? What could we play?’
At that moment his father entered and said ‘Let’s go now for an outing to the nearby city’ and went out.
‘That’s good. Let’s pack some clothes’, said Awful and he picked Terrible’s bag and began to pack. It took nearly half an hour for him to decide what to put in his bag, whereas Terrible kept on writing about the subjects. His father entered once again and said ‘We’ll not go. It’s too late’ and went away.
‘What a news? Let’s play something’
‘Have you forgotten the test?’ said Terrible
‘Oh! I want to get good marks’ he ran to the corner of the room to pick up the English book.
*
The next day they went to the school together and enjoyed each others’ company today, English period was the first one.
‘Time for test!’ said the teacher ‘put out your test copies. And do not cheat especially for the two who are sitting at the very end, Awful and Terrible’
‘We’ll not cheat this time’ said Awful putting his copy on the table.
Terrible froze at his place.
‘What’s the matter with you?’. Terrible didn’t say anything. He just pointed towards his bag. Awful closed his face on the bag for a better look and froze too. What will the teacher do now with him? She’s very strict. Was she going to expel him?
All the class was doing the test when the teacher caught sight of Terrible standing beside his bag.

‘What are you going? Do your test’ said the teacher.
Terrible didn’t move or said anything. At last the teacher got off from her seat and came to him.
‘What are you doing?’ she said to him and peeped inside the bag and began to laugh heartily. ‘How did these clothes enter your bag boy?’ Terrible didn’t say anything which made his teacher furious. She expelled him form the class the whole week and ordered him to get out of the school immediately.
Awful saw him going out of the school from the window which was near him. This made him very sad because Terrible was his only friend in the school and the remaining kids didn’t like them.

He got up and gave his test to the teacher. At the moment the bell rang and they all got out of the class. At the same place his stomach hurt but he didn’t say this to anyone. If there were Terrible he would have called the teacher.....
The next day at the last English period his teacher distributed the copies one by one to the entire class and the last one to Awful. He couldn’t believe he had got full marks in his least favourite subject. The teacher was impressed by his good performance in the test and called him to the desk and asked him to make one wish.
‘Make a wish; you’ve got full marks for the first time. go on boy make a wish’ she asked him.

‘I wish Terrible to come back to school’
‘Really. Ok tomorrow say to your friend to come back. He is only excused because I’m happy with you because you’ve got full marks without cheating and Terrible wasn’t with you either’. This made Awful very happy.
The next day he told Terrible to come to school because the teacher had forgiven him. They both decided to study hard in the future and not to cheat in the examinations or tests in any case. Finally they both got the fifth and the sixth position in the class instead of commonly failing or scoring low marks in all subjects. Sometimes small events bring in vital change in your life.
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