The Reunion

The old building loomed up ahead as David Popescu waited patiently at the pedestrian crossing for the traffic lights to turn green. A successful crime writer, David was nothing like people often imagined him. At nearly 6’5 feet tall, he towered over most people. Though built like an ox, he carried himself with an almost careless grace. His face was deeply tanned, his hair close-cropped and jet-black, and his blue eyes radiated with intelligence. He felt uncomfortable in the simple three-piece suit he was wearing and kept tugging at his collar.

There was a good reason for his nervousness. 20 years ago, right after he had finished high school, he ran away from home, ran away from his country, and hadn’t returned since.

Earlier that month, he had gotten an invitation to his high school’s 20-year reunion. He had categorically ignored the previous 3 invitations, but, for some reason, he felt drawn to return for this one. After thinking it over and over in the course of many days, he eventually boarded a last-minute plane and booked a hotel room. He elected to use public transport to get to the reunion, for nostalgia’s sake, and was not surprised to find everything was exactly the way he remembered it.

As the light turned green and David started walking, his gaze drifted upward towards the ancient-looking building. Built over 100 years ago, it looked more like a haunted mansion from a Hollywood movie than one of the most prestigious high schools in the country. The stone walls were cracked in several places and the roof was missing many of its once-red tiles. David couldn’t be sure they were there anymore, but, back in his days, the attic had been the home of a colony of bats.

Soon enough, he reached the massive oak doors that constituted building's main entrance.

Here, he hesitated. He remembered coming up to that very same door 24 years ago and lining up with the other kids to prepare for admittance into 9^th grade.

He was dressed in clean but rather tattered, second-hand clothes, the only one that hadn’t been accompanied by parents. The sight of the old façade sent shivers down his spine. He decided to look instead at his sneakers, when he heard someone talking to him.

“Are you OK?”

David looked up. The girl in front of him had turned around and was smiling, encouraging him to say something.

“Fine,” he mumbled.

“Where are your parents?” she asked. Now the girl’s mother had also turned around and was listening to the conversation with barely concealed curiosity.

“Home,” he said. He wasn’t in the mood for talking. Most people made fun of him because of the way he dressed and his situation back home. He didn’t want to admit it, but he liked this girl, he didn’t want her to make fun of him too.

“What class are you applying to?”

“Nature Sciences.”

“Hey, me too!” she said excitedly. “Do you know anyone else?”

“No,” David said. “I don’t know anyone.”

The girl sighed. “It’s OK. You know me now! I can be your friend. My name is Andreea, by the way,” she held out a hand for him to shake.

David smiled. “I’d love that. I’m David.”

David shook himself back into the present. He climbed the steps to the front door and walked in. The entrance hallway was exactly the way he remembered it, with pictures of famous people associated with the high school adorning every inch of its walls. He breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed his picture was not among the many. To his right, he saw a door leading to the Principal’s Office. Despite having gotten into trouble more often than most of his classmates, he had no idea what was behind it – their principal at the time preferred yelling at pupils in the hallways, where he could have an audience.

A door straight ahead let to the main staircase. David started walking towards it when a cough from behind made him aware of a little desk, stuffed behind the door, behind which a small, balding security guard stood looking at him, his hands crossed across his chest.

“Here for the reunion?” the guard asked.

“Yes,” David replied in his native language, which, after so many years of unuse, felt weird to his tongue.

“Sign the registry,” the guard said, pointing to and open book on the desk.

David sign and then went on his way. Instead of going up the stairs to the Festivities Hall, where the reunion was set to take place, he turned sharply to the right and entered a small dark corridor. The corridor opened into a much larger one, with classrooms lined up on one side of it and old, dirty windows on the other, through which one could see into the courtyard. David threw a quick look at the old football field and kept walking. He went down the stairs at the end of the corridor and came out in a demi-basement where 3 computer labs stood empty and rather forlorn. David didn’t pay any attention to these, but his eyes roved the opposite wall. They eventually found what he was looking for. Though plastered over, the hole he had punched into the wall was still visible. He placed his fist against it and grinned.

David pressed on and exited the building through a side door, which led into the courtyard. He walked along the football field and came to a massive old tree in the very centre of the quadrangle. An old bench ringed the whole tree. He found a spot that was relatively clean and sat down, closing his eyes.

It was a year after he had started high school. He was sitting on the same bench with a bloody nose, a black eye and a swollen lip, holding one hand tightly wrapped in his t-shirt to keep from bleeding too much. All of this was the work of Sebastian, a bully, whose favourite pastime was picking on David, and his gang of cronies. He was sitting behind the tree, out of sight of the school’s windows, should any teachers decide to look outside. He wasn’t crying or feeling any of his pain. Anger was replacing all other feeling, consuming his entire being.

Suddenly he became aware of footsteps behind him. He prepared himself for the telling off he knew would follow. When it never came, he looked around.

It was Andreea. She cringed when she saw his injuries.

“You should tell someone, David. You can’t keep going like this.”

David turned his back on her. “You should be in class,” he said spitefully.

“So should you,” she replied back testily. She sat next to him and pressed a wet cloth to the cuts on his face. He inhaled sharply, but let her do it.

“Thanks,” he said softly, now ashamed he had snapped at her. She was his only friend in the entire world, the only one that had ever stood up to him in front of his bullies.

“Don’t even mention it.” After cleaning up all his wounds, she noticed some older bruises that had not healed yet. “Your parents again?” she asked.

David covered his hands self-consciously and nodded.

“You should tell someone,” she repeated.

“I tried. Remember? They didn’t give a damn.”

Andreea looked at him sadly. “At least tell our head teacher about Sebastian. Maybe she could do something about it.”

From her tone, David knew even she didn’t believe those words. But he appreciated her trying to encourage him all the same. “She’ll take his side. She always does.”

Andreea nodded. Although David was the smartest in his year, their teachers loved putting him down. Their head teacher was the worst of the lot – she seemed hell bent on making David’s life more miserable than it already was. The fact that his parents never showed up to parent-teacher conferences only served to add fuel to the fire. The only teacher that seemed to like David was their Maths teacher, and there was absolutely nothing he could do in this situation, as he was also a bit of a pariah because of his refusal to physically punish pupils.

Andreea suddenly got up and pulled David by the hand. “Come on, let’s go get an ice-cream before someone sees us!” When he hesitated, she added with a wink. “I’m buying.”

David gave in and they crossed the football field, jumped the fence and ran out to the nearest ice-cream parlour.

David realised he had been staring at the spot where he and Andreea used to jump the fence and skip classes all those years ago. The stolen hours spent with her had been the happiest of his life. She often invited him over to her house where her parents treated him like a son. It hadn’t taken long for David to realise he had fallen in love with her. However, in their final year, she started going out with someone else and, after David failed to confess his feelings and then left the country, the two had slowly drifted apart. He had no idea what she had made of her life. The thought that he might be meeting her, that she might have been at that very moment only a few yards away, made him nervous.

He hurried back towards the school, through a door and up another staircase, in what they had once called “The Witch’s Tower”. He tried the door at the top, which led to the Biology classroom. It was locked. He leaned against it and sighed. His Biology teacher had never given him much of a chance, but at least she had never been mean about it either and, in his final year, he had managed to convince her to give him extra lessons. It payed off when, 3 years later, he got his Bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology.

He went back down the stairs and returned to the main staircase. Taking a deep breath, he walked up and entered the Festivities Hall, which had been adorned with silver garlands for the occasion.

Around 200 people were milling about the rather small hall, squeezing themselves between rows of chairs in order to greet old friends and swap stories. A few looked in David’s direction as he walked in. Some of the women smiled in his direction, but he ignored them. He spotted Sebastian, guffawing loudly to his friends from the old gang, and gave him a wide birth. The last time he had seen Sebastian, he had beaten him and his entire gang in front of the whole school. He wasn’t sure how his former enemy would react to seeing him.

David made his way to a table in the corner that was groaning under the weight of a mountain of food and drink. He grabbed a glass of juice and went back to scanning the room for the only 2 people he truly wanted to see. Neither of them seemed to have arrived yet.

People came up to David, some recognising him as their old classmate, some from his book jackets. Many wanted to shake his hand, while a few asked him for an autograph. He exchanged brief stories about his life with some and only half-heartedly listened to their own histories. He finally caught a free moment and quickly slipped away.

He went up to the front row and leaned against the stage where he had, on several occasions, preformed in plays written by himself. He looked up and admired the old balcony at the other end of the room and marvelled at the fact that it was still standing.

When he lowered his eyes, he came face to face with the person he detested most of all in the world – his former head teacher. She was looking up at him, almost as though she were analysing him. David thought she looked the same: short, skinny, with a hawk-like face that seemed permanently set into a scowl, the only difference being that her hair was now half grey. For such a diminutive person, David thought she had caused a lot of harm. Still, he decided to show her at least a modicum of respect.

“Good afternoon,” he said, extending a hand for her to shake. She did so hesitantly.

After what felt like minutes, she finally said. “I’m glad to see after everything I put you through you managed to make a name for yourself. I always knew you could do it.”

That made David’s blood boil. The smile he had plastered on his face was gone in an instant. “A little too late for that, don’t you think?”

“It is. But it’s also too late for apologies now. So I’ll only say this: I’ve made many, many mistakes in my time.” She hesitated briefly. “But what I did to you has probably been the worst of them all. I’m just glad to see you haven’t let it destroy you.”

With that, she turned on her heels and walked away, leaving David standing there, dumbfounded.

Other teachers came to shake his hand and congratulate him. Their words meant nothing to David. None of them had ever had any faith in him. When he finished high school with the highest grade in his year, many thought there had been some sort of mistake and even demanded a re-check of his results. His Biology teacher, who had grown to like him eventually, came over and congratulated him wholeheartedly. David could tell that she, at least, was being sincere. He blushed embarrassingly and thanked her.

Then, something else incredible happened. Sebastian walked up to him and, smiling nervously, extended a hand for David to shake. He did, and Sebastian said, “I’m sorry.”

No other words were needed. The 2 broke apart as everyone was taking their seats to listen to the speeches of their former teachers and some of their former classmates. Then, the assembly broke into their former respective classes and walked together in smaller groups to their old classrooms.

David’s had been on the first floor, opposite the main staircase. It was one of the most cramped classrooms in the entire school and often got hotter than the inside of an oven. David merely poked his head in and quickly backed into the hallway. He leaned against the wall where, 20 years ago, his life changed.

He was in 12^th grade and had failed a Maths competition spectacularly. Everyone from the headmaster to his head teacher had made fun of him. Not his Maths teacher, though. He pulled David from the classroom into the hallway and had a heart-to-heart with him. After many minutes of pep talk, when David’s spirit had finally started to lift, his teacher leaned in and asked.

“Have you thought what you’re going to do after you finish?”

“Not sure. I’ll stay here, see how things go.”

His teacher scowled. “That’s the first time you’ve ever disappointed me. What are you afraid of?”

David looked up. “Nothing! But everyone says –“

“Forget everyone! Everyone is not you!” His teacher poked him in the chest to drive his point home. “I know you’re in a difficult situation. But I believe in you. I’ve never been wrong before. So, if I believe in you, why shouldn’t you?”

David didn’t have an answer to that. He resolved to change his life around and, only a few months later, he finished high school and fled to England where he worked day in and day out to pay for his studies and get a degree. It had payed off and it was all thanks to his Maths teacher.

David only wished he had shown up.

He opened his eyes and saw, smiling from ear to ear, his Maths teacher. Tall, skinny and bald, he seemed as though he hadn’t changed a day. David beamed back at him and the 2 of them hugged. When they broke up, David thanked him for never losing his faith in him.

His teacher playfully poked him in the chest. “Told you I’m never wrong.” Then he turned serious. “I am truly proud.”

After they exchanged a few more words and his teacher asked David for an autograph (which David happily obliged), they went their separate ways: his teacher into the classroom to salute the other students and David back down the stairs and outside for a breath of fresh air.

There, he had another shock. Andreea was standing in front of the door, smiling at him as though she had been waiting for him all this time. David thought she looked even more beautiful than the last time he saw her. He also noticed no ring on her finger. He stumbled towards her and they hugged as though the past 20 years had never happened.

“I can’t believe you’re finally here,” she breathed in his ear. “I only came to these things hoping to see you!”

David was lost for words. “It’s great to see you too! How have you been?”

“Oh, fine, fine. I read all your books. They’re amazing!”

“Thanks.”

They quickly switched the subject. David learnt Andreea had never married, although she had been close once. He felt like a teenager again, standing next to her as they had done so many times before. To know she had been thinking of him, just as he had been thinking of her, made his heart do crazy things. When people started leaving the high school, David looked at her and smiled mischievously

“Do you wanna blow this party and go somewhere else?”

She raised her eyebrows at him. “Ice-cream?”

David held out his arm to her and smiled. “Lead the way.”