Who Am I?

I was sitting on my usual seat somewhere at the back of the school bus on the way back home from school after a very exhausting day. The fact that I am usually invisible (that doesn’t mean I’m an unpopular jerk) in the bus was sometimes an advantage because I am a very quiet person – okay, I’m not really quiet or it is not that I don’t like to talk, but I can live without talking for hours around a lot of interesting people, unlike some who can’t even bear to keep their mouth shut for even a minute, like the 10th grader sitting right at the back surrounded by a lot of freaky, attitude-ish girls just like her. The only two people I talk to in this bus is Riya, an 8th grader like me (but who talks more than me), and her sister Rini, a 12th grader. I had the seat for myself, so I had kept my big, red school bag and my blue lunch bag on my seat. The bus journey was never smooth but was always bumpy and my bags looked like they were on the verge of falling off the seat. The bus was as noisy as always and most of the noise came from the very back seats. I wasn’t feeling well and the noise wasn’t helping either. One of the attitude-ish girls had just sat on the seat besides me by pushing my bags on the floor.

“Excuse me?” I snapped at her, “Get off the seat and pick the bags up from the floor!”

She looked at me for a moment, like I was something weird and nasty and as though she had never seen me before, and said, “Who are you?? I didn’t even see you sitting here.” and turned away to continue chatting with her friend again.

My temper was rising, ‘Who am I?? I’ll show you who I am’ I thought to myself, and this time, much louder I said, “I think you didn’t hear me, I said get off my seat and put the bags back on the seat properly.”

“What will you do if I don’t get up?” she said, now laughing at me not bothering to look at me.

The next thing I did was something I didn’t really mean to do, but it just happened. I simply kicked her off the seat and she fell to the ground with a thud and a moan. I picked my bags up and kept it back on the seat.

“I’ll have to use force” I gave a late reply as her friend threw me a dirty look and helped her friend to get back on her feet.

Now I knew that I was going to be in trouble because I had just kicked a senior bus monitor. But I was happy and nothing could spoil my satisfaction. She went straight to the bus driver and began her rant. For one second I felt sorry for the driver because the look on his face suggested that this must be the umpteenth time he must be listening to complaints that day.

At last my (bus) stop came and I was going to get down, when the bus driver said, “I know it wasn’t your fault that you pushed her off the seat but please try to control yourself because I am the one who will be getting into trouble.” It was more like a request than a complaint. I just nodded and got down.

‘Who am I?’ the words replayed in my mind and I let out a sigh. This is one reason I hate being invisible at times. But I am not an unpopular person, I'm just someone who prefers to be left alone most times but still doesn’t mind the company of friends, so I don’t give a damn, as far as I’m happy!