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Authors: Ananya Ritwik; Verma Mallik

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BOOK: Anyone Else But You...
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Looking at those people laugh, Rishav felt nostalgic but tried hard to not remind himself of his friends in his alma mater. It was the first day of Class XI and like any other new kid, it was his first day and all
 
he wanted to do was observe. Observe the body language of the students, to hear the slang that was used out here, to see the way they behaved with the teachers. He wanted to fit in as soon as possible. He didn’t want to stand out for the wrong reasons.

 

Loud thuds on the wooden flooring of the hall echoed in backdrop of immediate silence. The new principal of DHS had arrived,
Bindu
Kalsi
closely followed by Madhuri, Veenu and Neeti walked
 
into the Hall in a haste. The students, a minute ago unaware of the uncommanding presence, stood up to greet the new
 
princi
.

 

“Please be seated,”
Kalsi
took the microphone as everyone sat down with a noise of the moving chairs.

“Good morning…” she began with what was supposed to be her ‘short’ introductory speech.

It was the first time she was addressing the students of
 
her
 
school. She planned to make it an impressive one.

 

Yeah not as impressive as Meena Singhal
,
thought Rishav
.
 
She had a weird charm of sorts. She had an aura. A good one. Of respect and awe.
 
 
And that is what exactly the students were thinking. They noticed
 
 
every minute detail of her attire, her hair, her sandals, her height, the indents on her cheeks, the deep- badly- applied- kajal. They couldn’t help but laugh at the way she was stammering. The students of DHS weren’t shy to comment on any of the peculiar things about a person. The person who first saw it and pointed it out was the one who got everyone’s at
tention. And much to the picked-on-
person
’s
chagrin,
the person who pointed it out was the one who also got everyone’s approval.
 

 

When her speech finished, the people clapped more out of gratitude for finishing with the speech rather
 
than applauding her
for her incoherent tone and over-repeated statements.

“She is not that bad,”
the guy
 
sitting next to Rishav said.

“Yeah. Not that bad,”
he replied.

“I am Siddhant by the way
.”

“Rishav,”
he said, extending his hand.

“I have been here for
two years only. I hope the new P
rincipal does something and
doesn’t just sit around,” Siddhant said.

“Why?
The previous one?
Didn’t she do anything?”
Rishav
asked.

“Well,
she was
pretty relaxed. Not much was going around.”

“Oh. I thought otherwise
.”

“Anyway, let’s see what
this one
is
like
.”

“Okay then. Which stream?”

“Commerce
w
ith Maths
.
And you?”
Siddhant
asked
.

“Humanities it is.”

 
“Move
out of the MP H
all in a single file
,

a teacher shouted on the microphone

“Let’s go then
.”
Rishav said.

“Okay. It’s break time. You wanna see around?”

“Yeah sure, why not? I’d love to!” Rishav replied with enthusiasm.

 

Rishav was pleased that he had made atleast one friend on his first day. It’s never too good to be alone.

And he was doubly happy that that friend was genuinely nice.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FOUR

 

Sahana was late.
When was she not?
She asked herself. But just because you are one freakin minute late doesn’t mean you close the doors on the face of a person. She stared at the guard, making a face. She had zero tolerance for people who did not understand logic. And she couldn’t bother to explain people things because; well it was too much of an effort.
And plus she had no patience. Not even a teensy little bit.

 

She yawned with her mouth totally open, just as a black car stopped by her.

She looked at it with surprise, but was ready to fight with all her might in case someone was trying to kidnap her.
Haha
, she thought.
Kidnapping me? I am not even a penny’
s worth.

She chucked the idea and waited for the tinted window to slide down. A woman with a squished face and mouth in a pout looked up.

“You are late on the first
week of school,”
she said.

Sahana raised her eyebrows and just stared at the woman. She couldn’t think of anything to say to a woman whom she didn’t know and who pointed to her that she was late.

After a minute she just managed to shrug.

 
“Let her in
,”
she said to the guard.

Okay, then. Must be a new teacher, I guess.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A few minutes later she dumped her bag on a desk. She took out a hair brush and kept it into a pocket and rushed to the washroom.

 

She saw all the girls chitchatting and
immediately spotted her friend,
Vanya.

 

“I don’t know why strange things happen to me” she said as she opened her hair to comb.

“Hieee!! How are you?” Vanya jumped.

“I am good. What about you?” S
ahana replied.

“Nothing much. Just that I went to Indonesia
and saw the cutest guy possible
.”

“Whoa, woman!
Why do you always see hot guys and I whereas d
on’t even come near on, EVER?” S
ahana exclaimed.

“Well, that’s called bonne chance. And what strange thing
,
by the way?”

“This stupid ugly woman in this strange
black
car stopped next to me. I got scared
 
ki pata
nahin kaun
 
hai
. I was ready to put up a fight when the window slid open and this ugly lady with
kajal
smeared over face said “Y
ou’re late for school on the first day” I
toh
couldn’t say anything. I just shrugged and she ordered the guard to open the door and he did. I was so relieved that she was a teacher. Phew!

Sahana explained.

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