*Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz*
My phone rang. I shut it off, annoyed.
"It's only 6 a.m.," I remembered the alarm I had set last night, still half asleep.
"15 more minutes won't hurt." I thought to myself and dozed back to sleep.
I woke up to my mother yelling at me from the kitchen, asking me to get up as I was very late. But I brushed it off and snuggled back into the blanket.
Until Aisha came and shook me vigorously.
"Are you mad?" I blurted, smacking her hand off of me.
"It's 7:30 a.m. You don't want to go to school, or what?" She spoke, facing me while I still lay on my bed.
"Get up, dude. You should've woken up early today, but whatever. Now, be on time at least." She spoke while snatching the blanket away from me.
"Huh? What's today?" I said, now sitting upright on my bed.
"Your test. Forgot?" She spoke sarcastically and exited my room.
"But the test is tomorrow.." I muttered to myself as I looked at the date on my phone.
'7 June 2023' it read. The test is supposed to be held today, and it has completely slipped out of my mind. I had not prepared anything other than a simple derivation, which had less than 10 percent chances of coming.
"What am I gonna do?" I said, realizing a bit too late that I'll be failing the test.
I then looked at the time. It was now 7:31 a.m. That meant that I accidentally shut the alarm off earlier instead of snoozing it.
I frantically got out of bed. Ran to the bathroom while my mother yelled at me for being an irresponsible child.
I walked out of the bathroom, in my school track suit, remembering how punctual and an ace I was before I entered my teens. Oh, those days!
Many things have changed since then. So, never mind.
Surprisingly, I finished with everything by 7:50 a.m.
I ran downstairs to the dining hall. I tucked my lunchbox into my bag along with my water bottle.
I bowed and thanked god, then touched my parents' feet before exiting the drawing room.
I kissed Poco goodbye before leaving for school.
"Another tiring Monday it is!" I thought to myself as I went on my way.
~
"What's up with your face?" Krisha asked me while snacking on the peanut butter toast her mom made for breakfast.
I caught up with her on my way to school.
"What do you mean?" I asked her, half knowingly, that it's probably my red eyes and dark circles that she noticed.
"You studied all night or what?" She asked me as she gulped the toast down her throat.
"No, dude. In fact, I completely forgot about the test!" I whined.
"Wow, great." Her tone was sarcastic.
"Then, you scrolled reels the entire night?" She said, her left hand raised to smack me.
"Naah. It's just the biology notes. I was too busy completing them that I barely slept, bro." I replied half-lying.
I was done with my notes by 1:12 a.m., but I woke up 2 extra hours to write my diary.
The emptiness I bear didn't let me sleep.
I think she believed me because she then lowered her hand.
"It's still not done yet; I still have another half unit to get done with," I spoke, and she probably sensed the exhaustion in my voice.
"My elder brother did my notes last night. He did them himself, though." She chuckled.
My stomach grumbled, begging for some source of energy.
My mother cooks us breakfast every morning, but I am late almost every day and forget to eat.
"Why don't you ask your sister for help?" She asked me, as she tore her toast in half and offered me one side of it.
I held it and took a bite. It was delicious.
"Good for you, Krisha. Your brothers are very supportive of you, more because each one of them is older than you." I said.
"I don't ask Aisha to do any of my stuff. Neither does she, unless it's urgent." I continued.
"But I just can't, as it won't be responsible of me to ask my younger sister to do any of my work. Even if I did ask her, she'd take away more than half of my pocket money for only a few 10 pages, and also our handwriting is way too different." I said and took another bite.
"Well, she's still younger than you; her handwriting can't possibly match yours." She said.
"That's exactly what I mean. I'd rather do it myself." I said, wiping my hand with a tissue from the tiny tissue pack I carry with me always.
She rolled her eyes.
"Why don't you just pay someone to do it for you then?" Her suggestion struck a chord with me.
"Do you know someone?" I asked her hopefully.
"No, I don't. But Hridaya does." She spoke, wiping her mouth with the tissue I offered her.
"She told me that she paid someone and got her work done by them a few weeks ago. Oh, and she also said that the work was neatly done, in good handwriting." She spoke, her gaze once on me and then on the road ahead simultaneously.
I heard her intently and spoke after a few seconds.
"Name?" I asked her while dodging the dog poop I almost stepped in.
"I didn't ask for the name. I didn't need help back then." She continued. "But if you need it, maybe you can ask Hridaya about it."
"Yeah, sure. I'll catch her during recess." I replied, feeling relieved that I might have less work to do now.
We reached the school gate in about 4 minutes and went to our respective classes.
~
After school
The students of the school were heading out of the school gate — a few on foot, many by vehicle.
"Our physics teacher has changed for the third time in a row already. Not even half the semester has passed! How do these guys expect us to study in such conditions?" Everyone agreed to Yashna's statement.
"Looks like only self-study and tuition can help us out of this situation. This new teacher is something else." Poorvi said, exaggerating the last two words of her sentence.
"Nah, finally a real 'shitty' teacher has entered the league." I heard Kaavish speak. That 'shitty' didn't mean anything bad for the teacher, but that we were doomed for real this time.
Kaavish Rawat, a troublesome student. He has a great mind, and he can easily be counted among the bright students of our class if he wishes to, but he seems to already have some different plans for his future, according to what I heard him say many times.
Even though he causes problems for the teachers sometimes, he's surprisingly still liked by every teacher; almost every person he talks to, due to his charismatic personality and charming smile, they say. He's one good poet, too.
The two sections of 10th grade merged and were also divided into the 11th grade last year, once we chose our major subjects for the next two years to come. In that sense, this is our last year in this school, if we all pass, hopefully.
"Yeah, Right." Krisha's sarcastic tone brought me back to reality.
Even though I had zoned out mid-conversation, it didn't matter if I heard any of it, anyway.
"By the way, when are you leaving for home?" Yashna asked Kaavish.
"Next Monday, if the principal lets me." He replied.
Kaavish walked off with his friends a few minutes after.
I snapped out of my thoughts when Krisha smacked my shoulder.
"Ow." I groaned in pain.
"What are you thinking?" Poorvi asked me, and I knew she had gotten some sort of idea in her mind.
"Nothing." I tried brushing it off, but Poorvi didn't look convinced.
"Did you ask Hridaya, by the way?" Krisha asked.
"I completely forgot, shit," I replied, throwing my hands down the gravity.
"I'll call her instead." A nod of Krisha's head, her reply.
We all continued walking while my friends talked of Kaavish.
All I did was listen, as my participation wasn't necessary because Kaavish and I are not friends. And just why would anyone budge into a discussion where they are not needed?
We walked out of the school gate finally, and wished each other goodbye.
Poorvi and Yashna went the opposite way from ours to their home.
Krisha and I started back home when she informed me, "I won't be coming to school tomorrow, and tuition today. I have my Kathak exam, and I still have a lot to practice." She let out a huge sigh.
"Okay. But don't stress, bro. You'll do great." I wished her and we parted ways as she reached the road that headed to her home.
I took the longer route home to stop by the park for some peace of mind. My mood had already been spoiled by the class test I took, which I appeared for unprepared. Maybe spending some time with myself at the park would make me feel better?
As I was about to reach the park, I was passing down the street when I heard someone call my name.
"Navya!... Navya!.."
I looked around to see who it was when my eyes landed on the same old lady, to whom I had handed the umbrella.
She was standing in front of her shop, facing me, her hand waving weakly, signaling for me to walk back to her.
I started in her direction, opposite to where I was going earlier.
The nearer I got to her, the more clearly I could see just how pale and sick she looked, with wrinkles all over her face. Once I reached there, she held me by my arm gently and handed me a brown packet.
"My child, can you do me a favor by dropping this off at that house there?" She said, pointing across the street at a slightly visible three-storey house, very much hidden by the trees in the way.
I then looked back at her. The old figure she portrayed and her restless eyes, too, made me feel obliged to do so out of respect, probably sympathy, even if it took 10 minutes of my time at the park.
"Sure, aunty. Anything else I can help you with?" I asked her to step down the stairs of the shop.
"No, Navya. Such a sweet child you are. God bless you." She smiled as I greeted her and left to complete the task assigned to me.
"I'll quickly go and hand this over to whoever comes to open the door." I planned and reconsidered going to the park after this, as I would definitely be late for my chemistry tuition.
I reached the doorstep and was about to ring the doorbell when I heard someone shouting inside. It was a woman.
"I gave you one thing to do, look at what you have done! You can't perform a simple task properly, and you plan on being an architect? Hah! Look at you, you are nothing but a good-for-nothing loser!" She screamed.
These words hit me hard, even though they weren't meant for me. There was silence for a few seconds.
"What?!" I heard her once more.
I didn't hear the other person speak in defense, but footsteps that came closer to the front door with each second.
I decided it was best for me to hide behind the fence covered with domestic bushes, to not be a part of this family drama, also I didn't want any of these people to think I had been eavesdropping.
But before I could react, the door creaked open. I felt a sudden push on my left arm and fell hard on my butt.
"Ouch!" I screamed with pain.
By reflex, I looked at my hands, just to realize that my left palm had been cut from the tiny glass container, which was inside the brown packet. The tablets inside the container spread everywhere.
I looked up at the front door to see a beautiful girl wearing a baby pink kurta pacing towards me with a worried look.
"Are you okay?" she asked me as she helped me to my feet.
I stayed quiet and looked back in the direction from where I was pushed, but there was no one there.
"What just happened?" I thought to myself, as she took me inside to clean the wound.
She made me sit on the sofa and asked me to wait there until she came back with the first-aid kit.
With immense pain in my left palm, I got my mobile phone with the other hand to text my tuition teacher that I was going to be late. As I looked at the time, my phone's battery died.
"Not again! I only got it fixed two weeks ago." I murmured, then kept it back.
I looked up at the wall adjacent to where I was sitting and saw a clock hanging on the wall. '03:45 p.m.' It read. I had been here for 10 minutes already.
I was scanning the room when my eyes fell on a picture in a photo frame, kept on the bookshelf.
I went closer to have a better look at it, and what I saw made my heart skip a beat.
A group of kids, smiling at the camera, and a child caught my eye. Something about that one child was different. I leaned in closer and realized he had those same pair of eyes. My stomach churned.
~
I thanked her, Mira, for fixing my wound and stepped out of the house. For some reason, I could feel that this wasn't the last time I'd be here.
Upon reaching the gate, I could see a few droplets of blood in the entrance of the house heading somewhere. They weren't mine, but probably the person who ran past me earlier.
Whatever Mira had said rushed through my head.
"None of my business," I thought, and got my phone out.
I tried switching it on; luckily, it worked, and I informed my mother that I won't be attending tuition today.
I walked past the park to go tell Aunty about the packet first. When I saw her giving someone the umbrella I had handed over to her, she then went inside the shop.
I found myself running as fast as I could to see who it was.
As I came closer, I noticed there was someone else standing beside him, facing backwards, who was not so visible from afar.
A guy with a yellow sweatshirt on, along with a pair of black cargo pants. I could see sideways that he had a buzz cut, talking with someone on his phone.
Upon reaching the guy holding the umbrella, I spoke almost instantly, "Excuse me? Is that yours?" Knowing that it clearly didn't belong to him.
"Navya? Hi."
I turned my gaze to the guy next to him who spoke, and my heart skipped a beat upon seeing him.
There he was, Vivaan Dixit, after ages, in front of me with the same pair of eyes that had been haunting me for so long.
All I did was look at him, knowingly.
Then, almost instinctively, we shared a warm, knowing smile, a silent acknowledgment that said, I remember you.
Who had he become, and why did that simple smile make it feel like there was a lot more to it?