From the way she looked, Betty was the darling of the class. She was the smallest in class, with a flawless complexion that had no blemishes. Betty was the class ‘baby’. Every time she was sad, it showed on her face everyone would get concerned.

As others continued to pour over her with concern, I would sit back and seriously study the whole scenario. Months passed and her cries increased with every increase in attention. Personally my attention for her just kept diminishing.

One rainy day she entered class, drenched from the rain. Everyone laughed at her. This made her walk miserably to her seat. While everyone else laughed and gave their pitying apologies, Betty burst into sobs.

She looked pretty messed up considering how soaked she was. I watched the monotonous drama. In my mind I was wondering how a senior three grown up student could crave for so much attention to a point of crying.

Enough was enough! I was so fed up I stood up and walked towards the group and told Betty to hold back her tears.

"You need to grow up. A little rain or laughter cannot make you cry so much,” I retorted.  

Interestingly, she heeded to my advice and from that day forth, Betty became strong and self confident. She even campaigned for a position as a Head girl the following academic term. Unfortunately she lost to another tough witted girl.

Ends