I love you... more (published)

Chapter-1

I sat on the cold steel bench in the reception of my new school-
DELHI PUBLIC SCHOOL. No doubt, the school was as grand as it
sounded, with greenery around, a football ground, a furnished
basketball court, clean and shiny corridors buckled up with a
peaceful environment. That was all that attracted me and I chose it
over other things. I am the type of person who likes a quiet life, not
because I am a nerd, I just like melancholy, a pinch of sadness and
deriving pleasure out of nature. I detested being around people.
They and their useless talks.
Hi, I am Imran, five feet eleven inches, medium built, wheaty
complexion and not-so-handsome type. My life was not interesting
at all. My caring mother, a domestic engineer, my father with his
own business and two younger brothers to fight with- that was all I
had. I had a perfectly imperfect life. Perfect because I had all the
amenities anyone would wish for an imperfect because I had no
interest in that.
I was bored to death sitting alone. I cursed my mom for waking me
up so early to get here and for making me eat that heavy breakfast.
My stomach was squirming. I looked at the bald care-taker who was
coming towards me.
‘Your class-teacher will be arriving shortly. Wait for some more time
please’ he said in his low pitched voice.
I nodded and sighed.
To kill my time, I began looking around- the spotless reception floor,
the ceiling, the principal’s office. My eyes threatened to shut down if that damsel didn't hurry.
A woman in her early thirties came to me with a smile plastered to
her face, showing her teeth, looking more like a person from a
toothpaste commercial than a teacher.
‘You must be Imran, I assume?’, she asked.
‘Yes ma’am!’ I answered with equal fake enthusiasm.
‘Good. Follow me’, she ordered.
I took my bag and followed her to my new class. Staring at the
ground I walked through the hall. Nobody seemed to care that I was
unfamiliar. Nobody seemed to care that I was unusual. Nobody
seemed to even notice me as I walked through the corridor behind
her. I had to take a glance down to make sure I was still there; that I
hadn’t turned invisible. We reached the class. The children were
already seated with their books open and were jotting down
something from the blackboard. The class was already started. I was
late on the first day of my school just because this lady made me
wait for her unnecessarily.
She introduced me to the class.
‘Everyone here, this is Imran, your new classmate. I hope you all will
co-operate with him’, she put her throat out.
‘I wish you have a good time here. Take a seat’, she said turning to
me.
My face felt like it was on fire. It was burning from inside as I saw
everyone staring me.
‘Excuse me, I don’t have horns on my head’, I whispered in my
mind. I quickly rushed to the safest place in the class-the last seat. I
had not brought my biology book, so I shared one with Drishya.
Probably that was her name as it was written on her book.
The bio teacher was explaining the first chapter about how
organisms are classified.
‘Yeah ma’am, I am the most recent example. Your students just
classified me as an alien’, the feeling ran through my mind. They
were still staring or may be it appeared to me.
Bored, I put my head down. I heard someone entering into the class.
It was a girl. She was fair, short-heighted with ebony-black hair
teamed up with some curls at their bottom. Her waist was tapered,
she had a sculpted figure. Her pouting lips perfectly suited her milky
skin. A pair of arched eyebrows looked down on sweeping eyelashes.
She mumbled sorry for being late and came in. She sat next to
Drishya. She was silent for a moment and then she whispered.
‘Who is he and what the hell is he doing in our class?’
‘New student’, Drishya whispered back
‘New student?’
‘Yes’
‘A new one in class?’
‘Yes’
‘Oh! Do we have a new student in our class?’, she squealed.
Irritated, I straightened and cleared my throat. She stared me the
whole period. Creepy.
The bell rang and the teacher went out. Keeping my notebook in my
bag, I turned and asked Drishya about the time table and from the
corner of my eye, I saw that girl again. She was still looking at me
with her face red.
‘Hi, I am Kajal’, she finally put her hand out to me.
‘Hello, I am Imran’, I said and we shook hands
She smiled.
The English teacher came inside from nowhere. All sat back on their
benches like decent, well-mannered children who just had been
shouting like goons a minute ago.
The day passed and nothing much happened. Drishya and Kajal
wanted to talk more but I avoided them, my nature being so. I
reached home, studied a little, played games on the laptop and
drifted to sleep.
****
Next day, I sat on the very same seat. The children sat in two rows. I
was left alone. I put my bag beside me and started reading about
that biological classification crap.
Kajal came followed by another one.
‘Hi’, the new girl said.
I nodded, not taking my eyes off the book. They both sat on the
bench adjacent to me. Manish, the cheerful guy came to me.
‘Wow! The nerd is studying. Bro, do you plan to impress the bio
teacher or what?’
‘There is nothing like that’, I smiled.
We both laughed. The girls next to us also laughed. I stole a glance
to my right side where Kajal and the new girl were sitting. She was
beautiful. I would give her a rating of eight on her looks.
The English teacher came in. Manish sat beside me. He spent the
whole period telling me all he could about the class, the teachers,
who’s-who’s crush etc. He confessed that he was trying to set up with Kajal. What had happened to his choice? Probably he wanted to
be stared at for the rest of his life.
The English teacher went out after the bell rang so did Manish, to
the washroom, leaving me in suspense if the English teacher was
indeed a gay.
I knew Manish won’t come back till half the period was gone, so I
pulled out my novel to pass my time. Completely engrossed in book,
I did not notice the two girls fighting beside me in hushed voices.
Their voices rose. Irritated, I stopped reading and turned my head
towards them. They looked at me for a second, wide-eyed and they
both blurted simultaneously-
‘Can I sit with you?’
I was reminded of the movie Seeta-Geeta. I was amused, but
concealed it. I turned back, buried myself in my book and said in an
indifferent tone, ‘Yes, anyone’
After some more argument, the girl with the spectacles sat with me.
The teacher came in, so did Manish and walked towards my bench
avoiding eye contact. He saw the girl sitting at his place. Before she
could open her mouth, he said ‘Oh! Megha, that’s okay. I can sit with
Kajal’ and instantly grabbed his new place. Nice move, I thought. He
got to sit with the girl he liked. He was flashing a smile so big that a
car could pass through his mouth. He was looking like a clown at
birthday parties of kids.
‘There are seven fundamental units of measurements, I taught you
yesterday. Today we will study the fundamental forces in nature’,
the physics teacher shouted with his full potential.
I frowned at his back. I had already done first three chapters. I had
nothing to do at home, so I found refuge in books. I opened the
fourth chapter and began to read.
‘Are you this far? I am still struck upon second!’, she whispered in a
soothing voice. I had completely forgotten about that girl sitting
with me.
‘Yes, I was a bit bored at home and I don’t like watching T.V., so….’ I
stopped myself, probably I had said too much. I recalled one of my
fundamental rules- speak as much you are asked to. To-the-point.
‘Oh! That’s good. I too dislike T.V.’, she smiled. I looked at her. I saw
her properly for the first time. She was not just good-looking, she
was beautiful. Her complexion had an impeccable, ochreous hue.
Her pencil thin eyebrows eased down gently to her black, beetle’s-
leg eyelashes. A sculptor could not have fashioned her dainty nose
any better. She had mesmerizing dark brown eyes pairing up with a
tinkling laugh. Her eyes were the color of hot cocoa, sprinkled with
tiny flecks of gold like mini marshmallows. I could see her smile. It
was shy yet pretty, confident yet tragic. Somebody was standing with
a blower nearby to get her streaked hair to cover her face so that she
could look sexier managing it. Shiny, halo-white teeth with flawless
pink lips added beauty to her melancholic gorgeous face.
I nodded and went back to my book. She waited for me to say
something but got nothing in return. Defeated, she spoke again
‘Imran? Oh! Sorry, I never introduced myself. I am Megha’
‘Hi Megha’, I replied without getting my eyes off my book.
‘Where were you before coming here?’ she said in an exciting tone. I
wondered what was so exciting about that.
‘St. Paul’s’, I murmured.
‘Wow! You have dumped so many schools. Why did you leave your
last one?’
‘My parents shifted here. That’s why.’
‘You two at the back! What are you murmuring? Tell me which is the
smallest force?’, the physics teacher blurted out.
‘Gravitational’, I replied
‘Largest?’
‘Nuclear’, I said arching my eyebrows
‘Sit down and next time both of you will be out of the class’,
defeated, he cleared the board to write something. We sat down. I
avoided her gaze. The class ended and I turned away from her. I
expected an apology.
‘You don’t talk much. Why so?’, she asked
That was…umm okay…nobody bothered me to ask that. That was
disarming. I couldn’t tell her the real reason about my ex girlfriend
who had died in an accident. We fought and she was upset, crossing
the road she was hit by a speeding car and died on the way to
hospital.
‘I am new to school, so that’s why, perhaps’, I replied
‘You can talk to me, anytime. Okay?’
‘Yeah, thanks’ I smiled briefly
Kajal came red faced or probably she was like that only.
‘Oh! Megha. You made friends’, she said like a nanny. She smiled an
oh-isn’t-it-obvious smile.
Manish came and asked Megha if he could get his seat back.
She nodded.
He sat down with me and began to whine about Kajal. He was crazy
for her.