2.

Aditi ran towards the door. She assumed it was Anu knocking. The loud rap at this ungodly hour, it had to be Anu. One look through the peephole and she had been proven accurate. Even as Aditi opened the door, the chatterbox Anu started off.

" Dude! What were you up to? I almost evaporated in the heat".

" I was taking a nap as usual. It is the best way to kill the afternoon heat. Why are you here at this time? Something up?"

" Ooh yes! Ashi called me up sometime back. She is really bored sitting at home. Frankly even I am. We decided to go for a movie in the evening. You in?"

" Fine by me. It is just one week into the holidays and I have already started hating this nothing-to-do routine. School seems so much better. I guess grass is indeed greener on the other side."

" Six o'clock show should be okay. Lets leave a little early. We can spend some time in the food court before the movie begins. We can check out which movies are running at 6 then."

" Sure. Regal right? We should be there in fifteen minutes. Lets leave at around four thirty. We can meet Ashi at the bus stop. Just inform her when you go back."

" Okay. Regal it is then. I will be here at 4. I will wait while you get ready. I can't stew in my room any longer. It feels like a torture chamber - heat and solitude! I will be down in fifteen minutes. Cya."

"Cya".

Aditi closed the door and jumped back into her bed and was fast asleep the next moment. Anu would have to wake her up if she wanted her to go for the movie. Anu was going to do that anyways, she was used to it by now.

1.

Arnav was not the love of her life.


Aditi knew it only too well.


At the age of four she had found what people search for all their lives. She would be pulled out of the valleys of sadness and uplifted to the pinnacle of joy. She would forget every inhibition in the world. She experienced her true self, pure and unblemished. Her fantasies filled flights and she felt free.

She remembered the first time her mother had walked her to that beautiful hall room. She had been awestruck by the beauty of the place and with the colors that people had adorned. Everyone had seemed so big and tall and she had felt insignificant and small. Her mother often teased her. She had been scared and hidden between her legs like a mouse. But those were old days. She was unaware that she was about to experience the strangest and strongest feeling in life. His first move, the twist of that hand, that subtle hand gestures had made her fall in love. Deeply. Little Aditi experienced what was to be her passion for life. As she auditioned for the role in the grand auditorium of Aashray Bhavan, her trainer saw the innate talent in her. After that day Aditi didn’t look back. Her flair for dance multiplied day after day.

Epilogue

It was ten minutes to eight. She was still struggling to find her Chemistry notebook. Where did she keep it last night? Aditi knew Mrs. Ahuja would go berserk if she failed to turn in the lab report on time. Not on the table, chair, her bed, under the couch. Not hidden below the pillow covers. St. Anthony's was ten minutes drive from her home, and seven odd-minutes with her dad behind the wheels. A few minutes late to the school were manageable. As the head-girl of the school, she could afford to bend a few rules here and there without any action being taken against her. That is why she wasn't exactly worried about the clock ticking eight. It was only the report that was on her mind.

Frantically searching for the brown covered practical notebook, Aditi knocked the vase of the table. There was no time to collect the million pieces, maid, would do it later. Anju! Oh God! She must have picked up the notebook and kept it somewhere.

"Anju! Meri koi kitaab uthai kya?" Aditi yelled as she hurried towards the kitchen where Anju was busy cleaning the dishes.

"Kaisi kitaab didi? Hum to roz safai karte hue saaman theek karte hain"

"Arey shaayad table pe thi subah. Kahaan rakhi Anju? Bahut important hai. Jaldi de de."

Anju rushed out of the kitchen wiping her hands dry on her faded ferozi salwar kurta. She opened the wooden bookshelf Aditi's dad had bought for her last month. It was beautiful mahogany, and matched with Aditi's taste now that she was growing up. She was now asking her parents to replace for wrought iron bed, with a similar designer piece. Fishing through the top shelf, Anju produced the notebook for Aditi.

"Ye lijiye"

With the notebook under her arms and her bag on her back, Aditi rushed out of the house. Mr. Mehra had been sounding the horn for past ten minutes now. What with the driver taking a leave at the last moment and his meeting with clients at nine, he was in a rush already. Aditi jumped next to his dad in the front seat. Before she could fasten her seat belt her dad had put the car in gear.

Seven minutes later Mr. Mehra stopped the car outside St. Anthony's. It was a prestigious school and he was proud he could send his daughter there. As Aditi kissed him goodbye and stepped out of the car, he pulled away concentrating his thoughts on his meeting.

Aditi did the usual, a hello to the guard at the gate and flashed her badge. The guard liked this cheerful girl and her dimpled smile. Few students even glanced at him- Aditi did. She had a good heart.

Two leaps and Aditi was in her classroom. Mrs. Ahuja, her class teacher was already on the job of marking the attendance. As she entered the classroom, Aditi could see the pile of notebooks on the teachers table. "Phew! I am saved today". She couldn't begin to imagine how Mrs. Ahuja would have reacted had she failed to produce her notebook this time around too. Last time she had let her off with a warning.

"Aditi come in. You are late for the second time this week. Things are not going to work like this". Ah! Aditi had become used to the battering that she so often received from her class teacher. She was right in her place to correct her student, but she did it too often and with little effect. Aditi took her place in the second row behind Arnav. She loved her seat. It was next to the window overlooking the beautiful front gardens. It was a corner seat in the second row, so she was generally out of her teachers' gaze. It often came in handy when she could doze of against the cool glass or over her textbook, stressed from her studies and duties as the head girl.

Still, the best part about this seat was Arnav. She had fallen for him without even knowing it. She didn't know when she had started feeling for him. That didn't matter anymore- she felt for him now. It was always so good to come and sit behind him every morning. This was one reason why she had kept her attendance well above the normal mark.

What was so special about Arnav? This was a question she had often mulled about. He was good looking, but nothing great. He was intelligent, but nothing exceptional. Maybe it was the way he talked- smooth and polished. It could have been his eyes too, which lit up at the smallest of excitements in life. Could it have been his lop sided smile or his grin which so often reached his eyes? Guess it was it eyes after all. The whole of him?

A loud bell announcing the end of zero hour brought her out of the reverie. She glanced at Arnav once. He was pulling out his notes from the bag, and to Aditi he looked better than ever before. Ms. Kaul entered the class and everyone opened there notes. It was going to be another uneventful hour of differentials and integrals.