Life of an Indian Teenage Girl

Surprise!

We were in our school dance class when the teacher informed us about a dance competition.
It was a competition with various categories like folk dance, different forms of classical dances, music, mono-act etc.
Since she was our dance teacher she was asking for names of the children that would like to participate for the dance part of the competition.
There were three forms of dances that our school was participating in. I gave my name for thiruvathira.
Thiruvathira is a dance form originated from Kerala where the females dance around a lamp. I thought it was really pretty and gave my name for it even though I had not tried it before.
I was selected and I went for the first day of practice along with the other seven girls that were selected. We were told that our teacher will not be teaching us and another teacher would be coming from outside the school.
We were really excited. We stayed in the auditorium which was below the dance and music room and goofed around while waiting for the teacher along with the seniors dance group.
The teacher finally came and she greeted all of us.
The first day was fine I guess. But I don't know why but I felt like the teacher had a certain...how do I put it...dislike?....no confidence?....in me.
After a few more days she called me. "Sansita"
"Yes ma'am." I replied
"Why do you always look so tired?"
"Umm.." I said looking shocked by the question and suddenly remembering the doctors appointment I had a few days back and the medicines I had been taking.
"Do you have some problems? Like nutrition deficiency or something?"
"Oh ya, actually I have iron deficiency."
"Oh..ok. You need to eat more then."
I replied with a smile. And I thought that was it. She didn't talk about it after that.
The day just before our dance competition we were practicing in the music room, since the dance room was occupied.
"Girls, I have a surprise for you." The teacher said, carrying in a huge bag, while we were having our break.
We all looked at her eagerly. She came to me and reached into the packet. I was really excited to know what it was that she wanted to give to me first.
She pulled out her hand and showed her surprise to me. It was a glucose biscuit.
She gave it to me and distributed it to everyone else. They are it while I sat there staring at the packet in my hand with disappointment. Why couldn't you be chocolate covered?
I opened the packet anyway, because I thought it was sweet of teacher to give me this.
I was and still am the kind of person that doesn't really eat much at school. I was called the food supplier in class for a reason. I almost never bought back my tiffin full, the way it was in the morning, but I also almost never ate it.
So I took a bite off one biscuit thinking about how nice the teacher was and how every teacher should be like her, when the taste of the biscuit finally set in. I left it's taste in my mouth and did my job as the food supplier and gave the rest of the biscuits to the others in the room. Thankfully, the teacher wasn't one of them.