I was back in my room before the thunderstorm hit,
"I expected you to be completely soaked in the rain," Aisha said, sitting on her bed as I entered her room to get my clothes.
"Yeah, me too," I replied, as I opened the closet and searched for some dry clothes to change into.
I found a good pair of pajamas to fit into.
"The assignment's safe or not? It was still drizzling." She asked me.
"Yeah, probably." I paused to look at an old T-shirt of mine.
It was a very old clothing that an old friend of mine gifted me years ago, before she left for another city. I never gave it or threw it away, because that was the only thing given by her that was left with me, other than our childhood memories.
I clicked out of the nostalgia upon hearing Aisha, "Whose is that?" She said, pointing to that rigged T-shirt I held in my hand.
"Mine. Ruchi gave it to me." I said, folding it neatly.
"Ruchi?" She asked, confused.
"Leave it," I said, realizing that explaining it to her won't help, as she still won't remember a thing.
I also don't expect her to remember anything, since she was only a little kid at the time.
"Anyways, school was so boring," I said, keeping the T-shirt in my memory box.
"And you know what? Ashish sir took our games lesson. We barely get 2 days in a week for playing games, and they don't even let us do that properly." I whined, changing the topic.
"So sad," Aisha spoke mockingly.
She leaned back and asked after a few seconds. "By the way, where did you meet Dad?"
"About 10 minutes from the football ground," I answered, trying to think of the exact distance.
"You would've been completely drenched by now if Dad didn't pick you up." She spoke and passed me a towel to dry my hair.
"Probably. Anyway, how was the event?" I said and sat down on her bed.
Her face lit up. "It was epic! And you know what?" She spoke with excitement.
"What?" I asked in reply.
"Guess, guess.." She said with a sly smile spreading across her face.
"You guys won?" I asked, half sure.
"Yeah! First place. And I scored the most points for my house!" She said, her voice bubbly.
"Wow! Good job, kid!" I grinned and smacked her back.
"Ow, bro. Chill." She groaned, trying to rub the spot on her back.
I dug into my bag and pulled out a dark chocolate. "Here," I said and tossed it to her from the table where I kept my bag. She caught it, surprisingly.
"Thanks, dude. What for?" She asked me as I walked back to her bed.
"Nothing. I stopped at the shop near the park to drop something off and bought two." I said as I sat back down on the bed.
"Ooo, what was it though?" She asked me, keeping the chocolate aside.
"Just an umbrella," I said.
"What? But you had no umbrella with you." Her eyebrow raised.
"I didn't say it was mine," I said, and she gave me a mixed look of confusion and suspicion.
"It wasn't mine. I don't know whose it was, but that person was sitting on the same bench as me in the park, and he probably forgot it there. So, I gave it to that nice shopkeeper aunty near the park, just in case he comes back looking for it." I finished my explanation.
"I see." She was thinking about something and spoke after a while.
"What was the need? You could've left it there, dude. Who cares about an umbrella?" She spoke with a frown on her face, ignoring the part where I mentioned the bench and the park. I, too, decided to let it go.
"Point. But it looked pretty expensive, yaar. And I don't think people like losing something like an umbrella. Unlike you. You forget or lose at least one thing anywhere you go." I said and giggled.
"Whatever." She said, rolling her eyes.
"But if he doesn't come to grab it, get it home." She chuckled.
"What? Why?" I laughed.
"I'll be using the 'expensive' umbrella then." She spoke teasingly, highlighting the word.
"Okay, done," I said and raised my hand in a thumbs-up up jokingly, and we both burst into laughter.
~
Next Morning
My sister was banging her fist on the bathroom door. She had been doing that for the past 30 minutes with a 10-minute break in between.
"Come out fast, no! How much longer will you take?!" It sounded less like a threat to me, with her squeaking voice, at that moment.
"I'm still washing my hair," I replied, trying to condition every inch of my still tangled curly hair.
"You've been in there for almost an hour now. Be quick, no!" She spoke, irritated.
"15 minutes more and I'll be out, Aisha," I said, struggling with my shoulder-length hair.
I took five minutes more than that, as per my sister's timer.
"Don't worry, I won't be using your bathroom once mine gets fixed," I told her as I stepped out of the bathroom.
"Don't worry, you'll be out of this room completely once you shift entirely to your new room." She spoke sarcastically, gathering her stuff and making her way towards the bathroom.
"That'll take time, kid," I replied and made my way to the closet.
"Then, I'll finally have a room all to myself." She said as she entered the bathroom.
"Me too," I said, exiting the room with my school uniform on.
I hurriedly got ready for my physics extra class as I was pretty late already.
I tied my wet hair in a bun, as it was the last and only option left for now. I then bowed and thanked god, then touched my parents' feet before leaving for school.
~
"Magnetic flux is represented by the symbol Φ. It is called 'Phi', children." I heard Mr. Ashish speak.
I rubbed my face with my hand and looked up at the board. He had been repeating the same topic for the third time today.
I turn my head to the right to see Yashna dozing off. I gently woke her up.
"What's up with you? Did you not sleep?" I asked her, whispering.
She rubbed her eyes, "I'm hungry." She said.
I looked back and saw Poorvi, struggling to keep her eyes open. My stomach grumbled from hunger.
"Poorvi!" I whispered to her.
"What? Let me sleep." She answered, slackly.
"Did you bring lunch? My stomach's grumbling!" I frowned.
"Even I am hungry." She said, pouting, while laying her head on the desk.
"We should've stayed back home, he's only repeating the same topics," Poorvi said, rubbing her forehead.
"Good for Krisha. She didn't come on purpose." I added.
After around 10 minutes more of studying, the class was dismissed with the teacher informing us of the class test that would be was to be held in two days.
"Give me the keys, I'll drive it out," Poorvi said, asking Yashna for the key to her scooty.
Yashna handed the key over to Poorvi. "Fine. Let me talk to Kaavish by then." She said and sprinted off.
As I turned around to see if Poorvi needed my help, I saw an umbrella similar to the one I had seen earlier. The same weird feeling of familiarity hit me again. It was then that I realized I had to tell her about this.
I turned to Poorvi, "Hey, listen. I need to tell you something." I spoke in a low voice.
"Yeah, what is it?" She spoke while driving the vehicle out of the school gate.
I followed her track and stood a meter away from where she parked the scooty, and then she walked towards me.
"Maybe I am overthinking, but I think I saw V-"
"Let's go, guys!" Yashna was back.
Poorvi looked at her and then back at me. I could see that she was pretty tired and hungry, so I let it go, thinking I'll catch up with her some other time.
"You saw who?" She asked curiously.
"I'll tell you later," I said and gave her a warm smile.
"Sure, who wanna eat momos? My treat!" She exclaimed as we made our way back to Yashna, already sitting on the scooty.