The Delhiite Lover

Class 5 - Adventures begin...

Class 5-C was heaven with pretty angels that sat around us. I had numerous crushes in the same class that year. Bhavya, Ria, Tanisha, but there was a girl, Avanti and she lay deep in my heart for a considerable period of time. By that time, we had started to talk about our crushes with our close friends. I too had a friend called Anirudh. He was taller than me and used hard gel and his hair stood up as is he had just been given a shock. He disclosed his heart matters to me and I, in turn, disclosed mine. He liked Bhavya and I liked Avanti. Quite simple. One day before Valentine's Day, I made a Valentine's Day card for her and the next day, I showed it to Anirudh. I had expressed my feelings for her in all ways a 10 year old kid could.  He pointed out a serious mistake in the card. I had written my name on the backside of the card. "Abhinav, are you mad ? You are going to get into a serious problem with your name written over there.", he said. He made me realise the consequences if I didn't remove that name from there somehow. I just tore a piece of paper and stuck it with glue where I had written my name and when the coast was clear, I put it inside her locker that was just behind my seat. I expected her to see it when she would open her locker to take out her books when the classes began, but she didn't. When she went to her seat, I opened it again and kept it vertically in such a way that the card would be the first thing she would see when she would open the locker. As expected, she came back after some time to take out another book from her locker. My heart was pounding inside my chest. I could feel my heartbeat. She bent down to open her locker. Me and Anirudh exchanged glances and then looked at her from the corner of our eyes. She was just behind me. She opened the locker, saw the card, took it out and started reading it there only. She hadn't finished viewing all the contents of that card before ma'am called out to her. She rushed back to her seat. I could see that she was a little confused and shocked. Then something happened which neither me nor Anirudh had imagined. The teacher was teaching, everybody was busy, but we both had our minds somewhere else. Avanti was actually telling about the card to other girls that were sitting around her. I had a feeling I was gonna die anytime now. Much to our expectations the whole gang of four girls including Avanti came back to the locker and Avanti showed it to everyone and now they were all reading it. "You are gone man!", Anirudh said. "Help me bro", was all I could whisper. We couldn't even look back. But I mustered some courage and looked back. They had seen the piece of paper stuck onto the backside of the card and they were peeling it off. This was the end of the world for me. 'From your lover Ab', this much was visible now. They had read the first two letters of my name and were still peeling it off slowly. Just then ma'am called out to them again, angry this time and ordered them to got back to their seats. I knew inside my heart that this was the last chance I had. I opened the locker, took out the card, stuffed it inside my pocket, went to ma'am and asked her," may I go to the washroom ma'am?" She granted me the permission I desperately needed and I rushed to the washroom. I threw the stuffed card in the bowl and flushed. I heaved a sigh of relief and went back to my class. When the class got over, an even bigger gang of girls came back to the locker, but to their utter shock and surprise, they didn't find the card there and the news of the mystery card inside Avanti's locker spread like fire. Me and Anirudh signed a contract on a sheet of paper torn from from his notebook that we would never disclose each other' secrets to anyone.