by Bassam Sidiki

Created on: January 17, 2009

Some are crazy, some are nerds and some are simply born rebels. I guess I was a combination of all three during my years in Junior High.
Entering Junior High School is synonymous with being at the threshold of adolescence. It is a slight peek into the real and cruel world out there, hence, it is also the first step of a million miles journey of limitless obstacles and challenges. Especially for us "O" Level (Ordinary Level) students in Pakistan life was nothing less than Hell.

Remember, dear reader! No matter how many people you know at school, fifty percent of them are bound to be pioneers of sheer diplomacy, forty percent are using you and nine percent think you suck. A tiny one percent are your true friends, which I believe is also an overstatement.
Nevertheless, Junior High was like New York City, where you can't get to the top without contacts. Even though ninety-nine percent of your "friends" will be what I have mentioned above, they will come in handy at times because events such as the Annual Prefect Elections were actually popularity contests - surveys designed to investigate the school's intricate social ladder. The 'survival of the fittest' theory can be very well adopted here. Those on the top rung of the ladder succeed while those at the bottom are squashed under the weight of the bourgeousie and the elite. Those belonging to the blasphemous underclass were always considered insignificant, no matter how many pictures they posted on Facebook to prove that they had a social life. Popular culture brands them as "Wannabes".
Things got bad when the elite oppressed the middle class and when an eleventh grader bullied a ninth grader - "Phadda", or what we Desi folks call fights. As I recall, situations like these erupted in breaktime or home time, when clusters of pupils forming the fragmented student body dotted the landscape of the playground. Fights usually began on the pettiest excuse and were simple arguments at first, but gradually they snowball into major evidence of teenage delinquency. Typically, the big guy picked on the small guy and they start to abuse each other. Then impertinent phrases turn even worse, comprising of swear words for the mother and sister. Then one guy pushes the other, the latter repeats the action. The whole world gathers to see the bears fight like in a circus. It is usually the teachers who intervene while the others happily witness the two boys kill each other.
As I remember, we all showed our rebellious attitudes in different

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