After the hot summer vacation was over, Monami and others became second most senior students in school, and the school also welcomed a group of energetic newcomers.
The old trees planted in the school gave plenty of shade, and golden sunlight came through that greenery, creating a warm feeling.
In the shade of a tree, a young girl with a braid sat discreetly holding a water bottle, glancing in the direction of the basketball court.
She lifted a strand of hair behind her ears, pointed the little fan on her hand at herself, contacted the switch capably, and squeezed it. The breeze from the little fan tenderly slapped her cheeks.
She moved her hair around her neck, and the blue hairband on her pigtail vacillated in the breeze, very much like midsummer.
“Wow, udhar dekh wahan Jo ladki baithi hain.. she looks great.”
Someone discovered her sitting underneath a tree.
“Yaar, woh akeli baithi Hain wahan.. pls tere Bhai ke liye puchna woh konsi class me hain.”
Anirudh’s classmate pushed him. He rolled his eyes and said, “Tu already 11th class me as gya hain.. mana ki harmones badhte hain abhi.. but aise bhi behave Mt kr ki pehli baar koi ladki dekhi ho. Can you stop like this bro?”
“hey.. I can look at pretty ladies, and it’s okay.”
The girl looks really pretty. Upon further examination, Anirudh felt like he had seen her before.
“I think I’ve met her before.” Anirudh thought hard after saying that.
Mayank, who was standing beside him, gave him a friendly tap on the shoulder and said, “Hey, you were watching her for a while.”
Before they could start talking, someone had already shown up.
A boy with short hair stood in the sun and thought for a long time. Finally, he couldn’t resist and walked up to the girl.
They didn’t understand what the two people were talking about, but the boy left quickly and shook his head.
Similar to not being accepted.
After the boy went away, another one came up to her, talked for a bit, and then left feeling very sad.
The girl was sitting under the tree, not moving, and just looking at a specific spot without noticing anything else.
The playground was really large, and when she looked at it, it appeared she was looking at the basketball court.
‘Is it very interesting to sit there and look at the basketball court?’ Anirudh thought after observing the girl for a while.Then he touched Mayank’s shoulder and said, “This is interesting.”
“Pretty ladies are very interesting. Ani.. kya tu jaa ke try Krna chahega.. confession hi h.. afterall.."
“Oh.. haan and why to be rejected like them.”
“Arre.. bhai.. Since you’re the leader of our class, you have ability nahi.. reputation hain..”
“Class is over, all right.” Anirudh didn’t care about having a fake reputation.
“But kya pta.. ho skta Hain isli stream aur class dono humari Hain wahi ho”
When the two were having a friendly fight, another boy came running towards her.
However, this time, the ending was not the same as before.
***
Karan arranged to play basketball with Faizi and Sid, but Monami wanted to wait for him at the playground. So Karan found a good spot under the tree because there was no shade in the basketball court area.
Monami just said, “It’s too far from here; I can’t see well.”
“This is the only place where we can find shade. It’s okay if you can’t see well.”
“Okay,” she said. Then she sat and held the bottle of water while she waited.
***
When Karan came over, she handed the water bottle out and said, “Karu, drink some water.”
The little girl got a wet tissue from her schoolbag and carefully wiped the sweat off his forehead. After she wiped his sweat, she asked quietly, “Karu tumhara basketball match khtm ho gya?”
“haan, let’s return to the classroom.”
They both turned around and went up to the school building together. Sadly, one person was on the third floor, and the other was on the fourth floor.
Karan took her to class by himself. Now, there were over twenty friends in the classroom.
When these two showed up, everyone turned to look at them.
“Monu, come here and sit next to me,” said Sanjana, pointing to the empty seat next to her.
Monami went to sit, but Karan decided to stay with her for a while.
Seeing that, Sanjana laughed and said, “Class leader, aren’t you in a different class? Why are you here?”
Nandini was shocked when she heard what Sanjana said as soon as she entered the classroom.
‘This person is not very smart.’
Karan only came to the class because of Monami.
“Monu I asked the teacher to check the class schedule in advance. Your two previous roommates are in the same class as you. You can sit with them. I’m in the first class upstairs. Agar tujhe kuch problem ho ya kuch bhi kaam ho toh, come to me anytime.” He then gave her a serious look before commanding, “Also.. Don’t forget to drink water every day and walk slowly when you go downstairs at noon. Also, be careful not to squeeze with others. Don’t forget to pack some bread and milk in your bag for school every day.”
Monami kept nodding and said, “Main sab samjh gayi... You said it already three times today, Karu.”
Before Karan left, he told Sanjana, “Make sure to take good care of her, and remember, you can come to me anytime if you need anything. Thank you.”
Sanjana kept waving her hands and said, “No problem, I understand.”
Then he walked past Nandini and then suddenly stopped. “Please look after her,” he said.
Nandini gave a small nod as a reply.
“Hum log bahut lucky hain nahi... teeno same class me aaye.” Sanjana has a roommate on the left and a roommate on the right, so she was very pleased.
Slowly, the classroom began to fill with students.
Many people in the class knew each other, but some were unfamiliar with others.
The two friends saw the little fairy right away because they had good eyes.
“Ah, it’s fate.” Mayank said this, patting Anirudh on the shoulder and gesturing to him.
In order to shorten the distance, Mayank chose a seat and deliberately sat in the row behind them. He wanted to say hello directly, but he heard the girls in front of him chatting heatedly, so he couldn’t interrupt casually.
“Are we going to move to a different room?”
“Haan, the paper has been printed.”
“Can the three of us still be friends?”
“Yes, why not?”
The things were not important, so Mayank couldn’t resist saying, “Hey, let’s introduce ourselves to the classmate in front of me.”
Sanjana saw someone familiar and said their name, “Mayank?”
“Tum Sanjana ho haina?” Mayank remembered her as well.
Both of them play sports and had met before, but they didn’t know each other well because they didn’t train together. Luckily, these two people were friendly and could talk to each other easily after just a few words.
They each said their names, and then Mayank and Anirudh said theirs. He pushed his glasses up and quickly said, “I’m Anirudh.”
Sanjana happily told Mayank, “Your friend is very good-looking.”
This was like giving compliments in front of Anirudh.
Afterward, there were only two girls remaining.
“I’m Nandini.”
“My name is Monami.”
When she said her name, Anirudh looked at her deeply.
Monami didn’t want to make new friends, and neither did Nandini. They didn’t like talking to people they didn’t know well, so they turned around in a tacit understanding.
Nandini took out her Introduction to Psychology, and Monami got out her math homework.
Sanjana looked at them with a pout. “Nahi, tum log sach me abhi Tak new session ki class start bhi nahi Hui aur padhna bhi start kar diye."
Monami and Nandini did not agree with Sanjana.
Nandini looked at the cover of Monami’s book and asked, “Did you buy this yourself?”
“During the summer vacation, I saw these books.. and I was confused between two books and at the end Karu helped me choose it.”
“It feels pretty good. I’ll buy a copy later.”
Sanjana and Mayank talked about many things, like names and sports. Anirudh sometimes spoke a little and then asked, “Did you have a classmate named Karan before?”
“Yes, our previous class leader, what’s the matter?”
“It’s fine; I’m just a little interested.”
“Hahaha, Tum humare monitor kr baare me curious ho... Agar tumhe uske baare me questions Hain toh tum Monami se puch sakte ho.. Nobody can know Karan better than Monami ever,” she said, pointing at Monami.
Monami loved to read, and she thought she could ignore distractions, but the name they talked about was Karan. She looked confused and saw Anirudh shrug his shoulders and not say anything else.
*****
Some of Monami’s classmates from the previous class stayed in the science class. The science class was also divided into two classes according to their marks, and Karan ended up in the class with the highest average score.
Faizi used connections and reluctantly squeezed into that class as a sports student. Seeing Karan again, he seemed to see his relatives. “Karan, I’m so touched that we can still be together.”
Faizi was covered in sweat after the sports practice, and when he was about to pounce on Karan, he stepped back and moved as fast as lightning, scolding him, “If you dare to touch me, I’ll beat you!”
Faizi stopped and immediately put away his miserable look.
Koel and Sid were selected to be in the science section. Even if they didn’t get higher marks, they were lucky to get into Karan’s class.
Their class had sixty students who got the highest marks on the test. Therefore, being in this environment, the atmosphere was inexplicably tense.
They were all racing against time, not daring to waste a minute or second. Even the class teacher arrived early.
“From today on, I will be your class teacher.”
“Our class is different from other classes. Our competition is fiercer than anyone else. We must be motivated to be ahead of everyone. We can only make progress, not retreat.” A movitated speech that boil the blood came out of the mouth of the class teacher and made people excited.
He told the boys to distribute books and then began to talk about classroom rules.
“You have to come to the class twenty minutes early every morning to do early reading.”
Everyone could only agree with being a bit hesitant.
And then he reminded students about selecting a class monitor, which was very important.
“We have to arrange the positions of the class monitor and the deputy class monitor first. And of course, the subject monitors will be arranged by the subject teachers. So, are there any volunteers to be the class monitor and the deputy monitor?”
Koel subconsciously looked at Karan, only to see that he was holding his arms firmly this time, leaning his back against the table behind him lazily, as if he had no intention of competing for the position of class leader.
At that time, someone commented, “Karan should be the monitor of the class. He is the first in the grade, and he was the monitor of our class last year also.”
When Sid heard this, he also felt that he should support Karan, and he echoed, “Yes, we hope that Karan will be the class leader.”
The head teacher felt happy hearing that. Which teacher wouldn’t like a student like Karan, who was excellent in all subjects? “Karan, you…”
“I’m sorry, I want to spend all my time studying.”
Karan rejected the position of class leader with just a few words.
Faizi felt confused as well. ‘As such an excellent person, how could he not be the class leader?’
Just when the head teacher was in trouble, a girl stood up and said, “Teacher, I can try.”
“Are you Yukti?”
“Yes.”
Yukti had ranked in the top 10 of their grade.
“Okay, from now on, you will be the monitor of class one.”
Gradually, a number of class committee members were chosen, and the head teacher called a brief meeting to ask everyone to check out the new book in the classroom.
Sid, who took the opportunity to sit at the same table with Karan, asked in a confused tone, “Karan, why don’t you want to be the class leader?”
And Faizi who was sitting next to Koel was also confused, looked at Karan for answer.
With a sympathetic expression, Koel said, “Our Karan wants to become the monitor of Arts A.”
Monami was enrolled in Arts A.
Arts classes were starting in classes Arts A-F, the same way science and commerce were divided.
Monami was also in the top class of arts.
After listening to Koel, Faizi understood. “Oh, then this class division has really wronged our Karan.”
Not only did Karan not respond, but he also did not dispute.
However, their new class leader looked back from time to time.
*****
On the second day of school, the teacher made a list of the students in the class. Then, the teacher asked everyone to stand outside the classroom and go in one by one, picking a seat based on their ranking.
Some people liked this method, and some were concerned about it.
Karan was the first in the grade, so he could sit wherever he wanted without competing with anyone. So he didn’t need to stand up.
Karan was still sitting in the second-to-last row. He was used to sitting in the back since he was a kid. When he was young, he had to sit back because of his height, but now he wanted freedom.
Yukti, the new monitor, chose her seat and walked down to where Karan was sitting.
Faizi’s eyes suddenly widened. “No, no, no, Yeh monitor second to last row me baithne wali hain.. my seat.. my throne will be taken away!”
“Ha.” Koel next to him sneered, “The three of us can only pick up the rest.”
Sid ruffled his hair and asked, “Do you think if I ask Karan nicely, he will save me a seat next to him? Or if not then I have to think about other seat. He won't mind right.”
“Yes.” Koel didn’t want to disappoint him, but she had to be honest. “But you need to make him believe it.”
Yukti decided to sit beside Karan and be his desk partner.
Faizi and Koel sat in the back this time and sat together at the same table.
Yukti looked at Karan sometimes. She saw that he was always looking down at the book he was holding. She got a new ruler from the drawer. It was a type with two pieces joined together.
Yukti gave a ruler to Karan and placed it on his table.
Karan looked up and quickly glanced around, feeling unsure why.
Yukti said, “Don’t you remember? I sat in front of you during last semester’s final exam. I needed to borrow a ruler from you but accidentally broke it. I didn’t think we would be in the same class, so I got a new one yesterday.
“No need.” He had forgotten it a long time ago.
Karan quickly picked up the ruler from the table and put it back without any hesitation.
Yukti didn’t give up. She said, “Please take this; otherwise, I will feel guilty.” She sounded like she really wanted to give him something.
“Do you need to give it to me?”
“Here, take it. I owe it to you.”
“Can I use it to do anything I want?”
“Ah.” Even though she didn’t really get what Karan was talking about, Yukti still agreed.
Karan took the ruler and threw it to Koel, saying, “Here, keep this.”
Koel was surprised when she saw something unknown on the desk and looked at Karan with surprise.
Karan said, “You can use the ruler to have fun. You don’t have to give it back.”
They had known each other for a long time, and he knew that Koel had a hobby that would never end. She enjoyed drawing small grids in notebooks and then playing backgammon with her friends.
To make a grid, you needed a ruler, so it was best to let her use it to play.
Koel felt happy and thanked the person many times for giving her the ruler.
After she got the thing, she quickly started drawing grids in the notebook and then called for Faizi to play backgammon with her.
Yukti felt a little uneasy when she saw this. “I gave it to you.”
“Didn’t you say it was okay and let me do it my way?”
Yukti said, “…”
How could she have known that Karan had taken her stuff and given it to other girls?
After school, Karan gave Koel a plastic bag from his backpack. The two spoke quietly to each other for a moment.
Koel kept nodding her head.
Yukti felt awkward watching them talk.
She randomly picked up a former classmate from the first and second classes of high school and asked, “Do Karan and Koel have a good relationship?”
When the classmate heard this, he didn’t think much about it. He just said, “Yes, they grew up together, so it’s natural for them to have a good relationship.”
When Yukti heard this, she felt very upset.
‘I thought they were good friends because they were in the same class for a year, but I didn’t expect that we would have many friendships over the years.’
If Koel listened to Yukti’s thoughts, she would be very surprised and shocked.
Only Koel knew that Karan had been able to become closer to her, the opposite sex, with the help of Monami for many years.
********
Another day, when Monami went back to school, she left her underwear on the bed at home. This caring “Karu” brought the item and requested that Koel give it to Monami when she came back to the dorm. Besides that, there were also three presents.
Karan said, “Give the green box to Nandini, the purple box to Sanjana, and keep the orange one for yourself, but don’t tell Monu.”
“Sure, I’ll finish the task, no worries.”
Karan bought three gifts to bribe them and let them take care of Monami.
Faizi had just come back from the toilet. When he saw the gift box, he suddenly felt unbalanced. “Karan, you are partial. You gave Koel a gift. Why don’t you give it to me?”
“You big mouth! Shut up!” Koel almost couldn’t help but slap him in the face, covering his loud voice. “If you fail to succeed, you will fail.”
“Bah, bah, bah.”
The two were about to quarrel again.
Yukti guessed in his mind. “Karan doesn’t like Koel, right?” she asked a classmate.
The classmate next to her gave her a strange look and expressed surprise at her question, “Tumhe aisa kyon lagta hain?”
Yukti was puzzled. “Isn’t it true? Karan treats her very well.”
“No, that’s not the truth.” No one in the high school had ever seen Karan really treat someone well.
Seeing Yukti’s confused expression now was the same as when they first met Monami.
The classmate suddenly became interested and said, “This is really not good; just wait and see. If nothing unexpected happens, she should come over.”
“Who is she?” Yukti asked.
*****
Till the next one,
Ta-ta
Signing off
Kriya