The year 2020 felt like a long, dark tunnel with no end in sight. The world was held captive by COVID-19, and our small village was no exception. Life had shrunk down to the four walls of my room. Stepping outside was a dream, and days dragged on with an agonizing slowness. I was in the tenth grade back then—a time that should have been filled with laughter and memories, but instead, it was filled with piles of boring school assignments.
The school had partially opened just for us to submit our papers. One afternoon, the classroom was thick with boredom. My friends and I were sitting around, mindlessly tapping our pens on the wooden tables, creating a rhythmic, annoying clatter. We were just boys trying to kill time.
Then, she walked in.
The atmosphere of the room changed instantly. A girl appeared at the doorway, looking like she belonged to a completely different world. She was sophisticated, graceful, and had a certain "city charm" that we rarely saw in our village. She moved with a quiet elegance, like a soft breeze in the middle of a storm. My friends stopped their pen-tapping mid-air. We were all stunned. What was a girl like her doing in our village school during a pandemic?
As she walked toward a seat, I found myself paralyzed. My gaze was locked onto her, my eyes refusing to blink. It was as if the rest of the world had blurred out, leaving only her in focus. She sat down, and I knew right then—my tenth grade was about to become a lot more interesting.