Comparing Friends

The final bell rang. The teacher's eyes automatically ran to her wrist watch, as if to make sure that the bell rang at the right time.

"All right, class. We'll leave this here for the day. Read today's portion in the book when you get home and you will find that you'll like it better.", she said before turning to collect her belongings.

"And don't forget to get your score cards signed by your parent.", she added, looking back up at the class.

The teacher had just distributed the scores of an exam and the students were expected to inform their guardian how well they are doing in studies. The signature was proof that the score card was graced by parent scrutiny.

The students noisily swept their stuff into bags and started toward the school bus.

James was one among them. He got inside the bus and picked a spot where he could save a seat for John, his friend and neighbour.

James put down his heavy bag, which was getting increasing heavy theses days, and made himself comfortable. He watched the bus getting filled by kids while also making excuse for the vacant seat next to him.

"Sorry, my friend's here."

James waited some more time while running his fingers over the chocolate packs that he had in his pocket. John is late. He took the packs out and examined them.

"Well, I suppose I'll have to start without him.", said James in his mind and took one of the two chocolate packs and started enjoying it while looking out of the window.

After a couple of minutes, John came in with his own heavily loaded bag on his back.

"Thanks, mate", John began after grabbing the remaining chocolate pack that James had left by his side.

"So.. you got it today?", John enquired. He had got the result of the same test whose score James had just got the last day and had warned his friend.

"Yeah.", James replied.

"And....?", said John in a sing-song tone.

"Same as you.", said James with a grin.

"Ha. Ha. I told you so. I told you, man.", said John with glee.

John and James lived in a neighbourhood of well-educated, middle-class families which placed a high premium on the academic performance of their children.

This meant parents took pride if their child happened to be a top rank holder in their class or something.

But the comparison of the children's academic standings often resulted in one parent's child looking better than the other's and this often culminated in exchanges which were venomous though downright explosive.

The jealousy that such a culture gave birth to was prevalent in the children as well.

So, had either John or James scored less marks than the other, they would have parted for the day with heavy hearts.

"So, at least this time we will be seen as equals in the neighbourhood.", John continued cheerfully.

Being of the same age and at the same school, 'comparison machines' of the neighbourhood often trained their guns on them. And this often worked their parents up who, in turn, worked their kids up.

The friends talked about other things for the rest of the ride home. They lived in houses opposite to each other. Houses separated by a road narrow enough for James to hear John calling him from his house during the summer holidays, which was almost only time they were allowed hang out as much as they wanted since the busy adults were not keen on having noisy kids in the house all day.

James and John got down at their stop and walked in the direction of their homes. James bid John goodbye in front their houses and went inside to be greeted by his Mother sitting on the Sofa reading the paper.

"Welcome back, my boy!", Mother greeted him.

"Hi, Ma.", said James.

Then he hesitated. But decided to break the news anyway.

"We got the results of that test, Ma. I passed.", said James.

"Good, good. That's good.", Mother chimed.

"And what about your friend? John?", she added.

"He passed too.", James replied.

"Did you score more than him", Mother asked, her eyes narrowing. The comparison impulse had kicked in and James was painfully aware of it.

"Not exactly.", said James.

Mother did not bother to hide her disappoinment. She wanted her son to know that he should score more.

"Well, I will keep the score card here. Teacher told we got to get it signed by a parent.", said James, keeping the score card on the table.

Mother did not answer. She continued reading her paper. She could not bear to have a look at the score card of a test where her son scored less than her neighbourhood rival's son.

But had she looked at it, she would have seen that James had a perfect score. And he would not have gone up to his room with a heavy heart.