Fluttering Hearts

Chapter 1

"Arav "

".."

"Arav "

".."

As there was no response from arav that person started shaking arav. Arav slightly furrowed his brows and diverted his attention to that person and yells annoyingly "what?"

".."

His friend just stares at him. Then Arav noticed all his four friends were looking at him. He becomes tense but instantly recovers and just asks again casually "what? why are you not talking?" to avoid their suspicion.

Raghu loses his patience and breaks the staring contest and questions him, "Arav, what happened to you? What are you thinking about? I have been calling you for sometime but you are not at all responding"

"Nothing" arav replies.

"No, I have just noticed you were looking at the girls" harsha tells them and they all nod their heads in unison at arav.

"What are you talking about?" arav instantly denies by questioning back.

"Yes. Even I am observing him since yesterday morning, he just stares into space and doesn't talk though we talk to him" Sandeep says and narrows his eyes at him to see what answer he has for this.

Before arav could answer him, Adithya interjects "you didn't even come to play cricket yesterday afternoon and said you were not feeling well.what happened to you?"

Arav knows his friends have already started doubting something so he tells them with a casual tone, "You people are simply exaggerating things. I really didn't feel well yesterday so I didn't come to play with you people. Just now I am thinking about the scolding I got from my father this morning. thas it, don't imagine the things"

Adithya wants to say something but raghu stops him from getting the hint from harsha by grabbing aditya's shirt. Adithya understands and doesn't talk back because they all know he is just making an excuse.

"Okay, just leave it. We are asking as the next two days are holidays. We are playing cricket tomorrow, so are you coming to play with us or will you suddenly get any health issues?" Sandeep teases him and they all start laughing at him.

Arav knows his friends didn't believe him before he could say something to convince them but P.E.T sir whistles at them to assemble in line and then they notice all students in the ground had assembled for the morning prayer so he just tells them "I will come tomorrow" and stands for the morning assembly.

Arav and harsha stand in one column and Raghu, Sandeep and Adithya stand in their beside column respectively because they all are from the same class but different sections. Arav and harsha belong to 9th-B section and the remaining three belong to 9th-A section. So, 9th-A and 9th-B students stand in their respective columns.

Prayer starts, but arav can't help himself by searching for the girl he is eager to see. He just stands there physically but his brain starts running many thoughts like 'did she not come today? Is she not feeling well? Is she late today? does sh...' he comes out of his thoughts when he listens to the whistle sound and just stares at stage.

Suddenly he listens to something and snaps his eyes towards the voice. Then he feels his heart start fluttering, his fingers clenches due to the nervousness and his lips slightly curve upward by noticing her. He doesnt know she has such a sweet voice. He stares into her black doe eyes and listens to her voice.

Arav doesn't know the moment he smiled, Sandeep who is beside him, notices him and starts observing him. Sandeep notices the brightness in arav's eyes while staring at stage and he looks at the stage to see a girl is telling pledge on stage He again looks at arav to see the brightness in his eyes is gone and replaced by an annoyed expression so sandeep don't know why suddenly arav became annoyed and looks at stage to see that girl is not there and she stands behind the head girl and unable to see her.

Sandeep understands something and questions harsha who is in front of arav "hey harsha, do you know the name of the girl who said pledge today?"

Arav snaps his head to see sandeep but sandeep ignores him and looks at harsha. Raghu who is in front of sandeep doesn't look at him but listens to him. Adithya who is behind sandeep also listens to him. Harsha answers him lazily. "I am just waiting for how fast this prayer ends and move to the class and sleep. Why will I listen to these things?"

Sandeep thinks about how harsha can be top in every exam being this much of a lazy person he is, but now the main goal is to test arav. So he turns to look at arav to see who has a disappointed expression on his face so he understands that even arav doesn't know her name so starts to think of a way to help his friend then hears a voice from behind "Her name is nithya"

Arav has a delightful expression on his face to know her name, looks at her dreamily and whispers her name to himself until he listens to sandeeps next question "how do you know her name?" Even Arav doesn't think properly in happiness how his friend knows her name then he listens to Adithya "do you have any hearing problem? you should visit a doctor and know if there is a diagnosis."

All his friends stifle their laughs except arav because he wants to know how Adithya knows her name when he doesn't know her name.

Sandeep gets angry, turns back and yells at him "do you have a death wish?" and looks at the front and says "harsha,raghu, do you two need a beating? even you two don't know her name"

Harsha and raghu become silent then raghu says "what about arav? you are not saying anything to him"

"He didn't laugh" Sandeep replies. Raghu turns back and looks at arav to see if it's true he notices arav is looking at him by raising his eyebrows and turns front to save himself because he knows if he still annoys them he will get it from both arav and sandeep.

Sandeep again asks Adithya "How do you know her name?" because they all were always together but how does he know her name.

Adithya still annoys his friend "why are you asking so many questions, do you like her?" when arav listens to it immediately his expression changes and looks at sandeep. Sandeep looks at arav and immediately said "No"

"Then why are you asking about her?" Adithya asks again.

Sandeep becomes irritated and turns back, signaling him to look at arav.

Adithya gets the message and looks at arav who has no change in expression and turns to look at sandeep and mouths 'what' then he winks and mouths 'later' at him then adithya complies with his friend and answers "just now Aditi announced her name to say pledge who is nithya from 8th class and you people know i only have my eyes on Aditi so don't start doubting me now. I am not a two timer. I just listened to what Aditi said that is how i know her name"

"Ohh.. okay but Aditi is in the tenth standard you idiot. She is our senior." Sandeep teases him though he knows they like each other.

"So what if she is our senior, she is same age as us and she studied in the same class with us up to 4th class. She is too good in her studies and her father made her sit in 6th class instead of 5th class" Adithya says.

"Why don't you say you are dumb" teases sandeep.

"Even you people are the same age as me, if i am dumb then the same goes to you people too" says adithya sarcastically.

"You just convince yourself in that way.see now she doesn't even look at you" Sandeep gets back at him even though everyone knows Aditi likes Adithya.

"I know you are just making me angry because just now I annoyed you. She likes me. I know that just shut your mouth" Adithya says annoyed.

"i already said what i need to to say" Sandeep annoys him again.

"Just shut up" Adithya whisper yells and it continues. Their friends doesnt even care about their banter because they doesnt stop even when they tell them and the person who interferes will get a scolding from them both.

Prayer comes to an end and they all leave for their classes. arav notices Nithya who descends the stage stairs and joins the 8th-A girls class line. He just stares until she disappears from the ground and can't follow her because boys will leave for their classes after girls leave. They all settled in their respective classrooms.

*****

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