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After a few days, I could not tell Heidi from my own shadow.  Everywhere I went, she was a mere inches behind.  Now, a daunting word echoed in my mind. Friend. Is this what she was? My friend. My only friend. Would my life forever be consumed by the tiny demon and her irritating ways? Would Heidi be my only friend for the whole of Hell School? That I did not know, nor did I want to ponder upon the matter.  Yet, a speculation had been growing ever stronger in my mind.  There was a girl, one I knew not very well, that gave me hope.  I talked to her seldom, but she was almost friendly to me.  The question was, was there any hope of friendship?           One day that drop of light grew into a small puddle.  I had noticed we had two classes together, English and Math.  I conspired against the poor girl, but I knew if I tried hard enough, I could work up enough courage to speak to her! The possibilities of achieving my goal were virtually impossible in Math, as we sat at opposite ends of the classroom and the wicked witch of all cardinal points was our teacher.  I am forever indebted to Mr Swo, our miniature, yet highly energetic and organized English teacher.  On the first day of classes he systematically seated us in alphabetical order.  Luckily, my last name and the last name of the girl happened to fall next to each other, and so we were neighbors in that segment of our educational careers.  As it so happened, we would occasionally pass the odd comment or say something to each other.  I learnt of her name. Sesha I do believe it was.           I have often found that when words fail me, I will resort to cynical sarcasm.  It was, and forever will be, one of the few ways I ever manage to initiate a conservation in what I would classify as a "friendly" manner.  And so it was in this twisted way that I spoke the first words, as far as I can recall, to Sesha.  Mr. Swo was very partial to ancient Greek mythology and thus we started our English class curriculum on the subject.  We started with the basics of who everyone was, what they represented and how they were related to each other.  As in all Greek society as far as I am concerned, everyone seemed to be related to one another.  "Zeus is the brother of Venus who is also her father and she is the mother of the Boogey man who ate Aphrodite's magic gold fish and was thus hunted down my Hercules who was flung into the giant toilet in the sky..." or so the babble seemed to me.  Despite the mind numbing stupidity of it all, I managed to piece things together relatively well.  There were a few connections that struck me as quite odd and at the same time, extremely amusing.  Zeus, the most powerful of the gods, married his own sister, Hera.  With my fascinating discovery in mind, I sweetly commented to Sesha on the matter.  It was quite an innocent mention of my observation, but she laughed!  I could hardly believe it.  It was almost as if she regarded me as amusing.  Relating my pure and utter joy at the fact someone besides the exasperating Heidi actually laughed with (not at) me, is almost inconceivable.  So caught up in my moment of victory I was, that I took it one step further.  Perhaps this might have hindered Mr Swo's academic admiration of me, but it certainly furthered the growth of mine and Sesha's relation, so at the time it seemed well worth the degrading looks I received.  Though I have a feeling I have made this sound to be much greater of a venture then it actually was.  I merely put my hand up and asked my educational instructor, in a very knowledgeable and elitist manner, "Mr Swo, if Zeus married his sister and they had children, could it not be assumed that it was this inbreeding that resulted in such creatures as cyclops' and giants?  Everybody knows that inbreeding can cause birth defects so I was just thinking..."  Sesha laughed quite hysterically. Mr Swo did not. ***           Although the incident relating to the inbred's of mythology gave way to many more conversation in English class, mine and Sesha's near friendship never left the perimeter of the classroom.  I still spent many a lonely lunch hour in my beloved bathroom stall, hunted mercilessly  by Heidi, and she surely sat with a large group of adoring fans laughing and agreeing with her every word.  I longed beyond all the riches of the world to actual have the title of 'Sesha's Friend".  I would have endured a Hell School lifetime followed by Heidi if only I could have spent the dreaded 72 minutes of so called "relaxation time" with Sesha.  Often in my life, I will have a completely non sexual crush on someone.  It is an extreme admiration of a person and an immediate deprivation of vocal skills when being around the person.  At the time that is what I thought of my feelings towards Sesha as.  In retrospect, it really was borderline obsession.  I do not think it was so much Sesha herself, but more over the prospect of having a genuine friend whose name did not start with an 'H' and end in 'eidi'.  The main problem was I lacked all self confidence or means to initiate a conversation un-related to school, which was my area of expertise, with her.  Any time I passed her in the hallway, I froze.  If I was lucky I might muster a smile, accompanied by a small and an almost inaudible "hi".  Though those occasions were few and far between.  ***           As I was swiftly dashing to my third toilet stop, making my second daily rotation, I was forced to pass through the crowded and much dreaded Student Common.  It was a corridor of pure, relentless torture.  It was like walking through a valley of treacherous doom, packed with a number nearing a thousand detestable warriors, all sneering and jeering at my permanent misfortune.  On that very day however, I spotted Sesha.  She was seated at a table with a much shorter brunette and another girl, in a wheel chair.  I was considerably surprised not to see a large mass of gawking fans, but perhaps they were absent at the time.  But where her mob was I could not guess.  They were not in the washroom, because I patrolled those domains constantly, and I surely would notice millions of girls with the name "Sesha" constantly on their tongues.  Perchance they did not exist and Sesha was not the height of all Grade 9 popularity as I had imagined. Nah.           Whether or not Sesha was who I made her out to be, is completely irrelevant.  I must now focus on the story at hand.  I was lurking through the shadows of the Common, hoping to go unnoticed, when I spotted the three girls, immersed in conversation.  At that exact moment, an odd force took over me.  I was suddenly possessed my some sort of 'social desire' and I heard a little voice in my head.  It implanted an absurd idea in my head, one that contradicted all existing beliefs I held at the time.  It suggested actually speaking to them, instead of running away as quickly as my chubby legs would carry me.  And it my moment of insanity, I did just that.