Effects of a Rider

I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for one boy.

Alex Somethingorother. And neither would thousands of others.

Sorry, let me start again.

Rewind back 20 years or so and you would find me at school in set two for pretty much all my subjects. I was clever enough to be in set 1 with the better teachers, harder work and better end of school grades but due to the fact that I had been lazy and just coasted the last three years the school had left me there. In set 2. It was driving me mad, I was trying but the teacher was distracted by the other pupils so the chance of any one to one was nil.

Then remarkably over the term a space opened up. For some reason Alex- yes that was it - Rider, an good all-rounder, had gone off the rails. At first, everyone gave him some leeway because of his uncle's death but then he was struck down with a range of illnesses that sent him out of school again and again. With his grades dropping so badly the school had no choice to send him down, leaving as space in the overcrowded set for me.

I felt so guilty about it at the time, ashamed about enjoying some-else's ill fortune but then the rumors about him taking drugs began and I was too busy to worry.

Now, when I look back, I realize that I got As in my GCSEs and a-levels because of Rider, I manged to enter medicine at uni because of the a-levels, I managed to become a Doctor because of the course and I became the top of my field because of the effort I put in as a Doctor.

I am where I am because of Rider, I wonder where he is now?

AN: This is going to be a series of one-shots, mostly of minor characters. Feedback appreciated.