The Back Bench Pact
This is a story about noise—the kind that fills classrooms, cafeterias, group chats, and living rooms. About chaos that looks childish from the outside but quietly keeps people alive on the inside.
At its heart is Rhea, sharp-tongued, observant, dramatic in her own head, navigating school days packed with surprise tests, ridiculous debates, sibling wars at home, and friendships that feel louder than the school bell. Through her eyes, ordinary days turn into spectacles—teachers roasting students, friends losing battles to notebooks, lunch tables becoming debate stages, and laughter becoming a survival skill.
Around her is a group that doesn’t try to be perfect:
Kabir, calm, sarcastic, steady—feeling more than he admits.
Yuhan, quiet, thoughtful, carrying the weight of past loneliness and slowly learning what it means to belong.
Samar and Neel, walking disasters with golden hearts—overacting, bickering, losing games, winning laughter, and turning every moment into a scene no one forgets.
There is no dramatic love confession here. Just glances held a second too long. Comfort in silence. Care disguised as jokes. Feelings that exist before anyone is brave enough to name them.
This story isn’t about toppers or backbenchers, heroes or villains.
It’s about friendship that feels overwhelming in the best way, families that tease because they love, birthdays that matter only because of the people around you, and school days that someday become memories you miss without realizing when they ended.
A chaotic, wholesome, funny, and deeply human slice of growing up—
where love hides in laughter, and belonging sounds a lot like noise.