Chapter 3||Alone

It was an uncomfortable night, I still couldn't take the passage away from my head. It was stuck their as if it was glued to my head. My dream woke me. It was Sunday morning and the sun shone in my room. Everything seemed to happen so fast, Saturday, the girl, the book and the passage. On Friday I was randomly chosen to represent the school for an oratorical speech. Everything seemed to be happening to me, It didn't make sense at all.

The Oratorical Speech was this evening.I got ready to go to, but I remembered something. I didn't make or even practice my speech. I was screwed, I didn't know what to do, I couldn't tell Doctor T that I didn't have a speech ready but it was too late. He picked me up on that day, he even picked up Eve, he knew that she was my best friend, I guess he also knew that I needed support.

"You ready Josh?" He asked me, he gave me a look, I could definitely tell that he knew I didn't have anything done. I though for a while, I looked at Eve, she smiled at me, I smiled back, there was something about her smile that comforted me, I felt more confident over myself.
"Um...yes sir, I'm ready" I answered.
"So Josh," Eve said, still smiling at me, "you nervous?"
"Hell yeah, course I am." I said.
"Well, Tell us what you have so far." Doctor Taggart said.
"Ahhh... just wait till get there." I answered back.

It was a pretty long trip, I wouldn't expect the meet to be at the Convention Centre, it must have been something big. When we came in, there was a mass of people. Near the end of the hall was a stage, I counted the seats, they probably for the speakers. There was about 20 of them. It wasn't a lot. I was told to go to backstage, which I did, but I had Eve to come with me. Backstage I saw a lot of students there, some were my age and some were older. Left and right you can see them re-reading their piece in their head, some we're saying it to other students, but there was one particular boy that me and Eve seemed to have noticed. He wasn't with the crowd of student. He was by himself in the corner.

"Josh, Let's go talk to that kid, he seems alone." Eve said, looking all sad.

Seems alone, I thought to myself, He is alone, but politely we did go to him.

"Hey there," I said, "What's up, I'm Josh."
"Hi, I'm Eve." Eve said, holding out a hand.

The boy turned around, he looked like our age, about my height. He turned around, he looked tired, afriad. His eye's didn't meet ours, instead he was looking at around.

"Oh-hi there. I-I'm...Jeremiah." he stuttered.
"Nice to meet you Jeremiah." Eve said and she shook his hand.
"How come your all by yourself? Why aren't you with the others?" I asked him.
"Uhh...It's nothing, I'm used to being alone. I like being alone."

It was time now, they called for all the speakers. Everyone went out, Jeremiah was waiting for everyone to go out, so was I. He stared at me, I knew he wanted me to go out first, I did and he followed. It didn't matter anyways because they already chose to see how will speak first. I was second, as for Jeremiah. He was first. Eveyone stared at him and slowly he walked towards the podium. He had no paper to read off from, just like me, it took him a while to settle, he looked very nervous, you could tell from the look of his face. When he got there, of course, what would you expect from someone who was as nervous as Jeremiah? I mean, wouldn't you stutter or even leave the stage and run away? What do you think he did?

I guess its always nice to be alone, gives you a time to reflect. Everything is everywhere. Nothing ever exist being entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else. He was never alone, not once and we both knew that, but he chose not to know that he had that knowledge. There was only one thing he needed to recognize, just one thing to make him complete. He wanted recognition, he wanted to be noticed. He wanted a sense of belonging. I guess I figured something else, It was similar to a book I once read. I had to do something for Jeremiah, but I didn't know how.

I looked up at the audience, then to Jeremiah, he was sweating, looking more worried, he was staring at someone at the audience, I figured it was his father. Since only parents and guardians were allowed to sit at the front row, I figured that since Jeremiah was the only asian, aside from me, but since none of my parents came, I noticed that he was staring at his father. His father looked strict and tough, you wouldn't want to cross him. But his stare scared the living hell out of Jeremiah, and Jeremiah ran off. Everyone was astonished, some poeple were standing off wondering where he could have went, some of the co-ordinators ran after him, some of the contestants were just whispering to the people beside them, I looked at his father he still kept the same face. I shooked my head in disappointed and I ran off to look for Jeremiah. Eve and Doctor T saw me and decided to follow. I met them backstage, the co-ordinators were there but Jeremiah was not in sight. I went outside and went looking for him. I guess I knew what to do now.

"Josh where do you think he went?" Eve asked.
I shook my head. " I don't know Eve," I looked at Docotr T,"sir do you think we could look for the kid?"
"I guess there's no problem with that, I'll just go talk to the co-ordinators and ask them to give you a later time. Now go Josh. Go with him Eve." he answered.
"Thanks sir." and Eve and I ran off.

It took us a while to figure out where he could have went, He shouldn't have went far, we didn't know him well so we didn't know where to start and find him. All we did was follow our instincts and in my mind, I thought about what Jeremiahs father was doing, he was still probably sitting (typical strict asian parents) he knew his child better than we did, I guess maybe Jeremiah would come back in a while.