Chapter 10

Batool Imran

@nav_bat

Arnav paced out of the classroom, with a confused Karan at his back, as he made his way into the ground and towards the bench he was earlier sitting on, trying to get his attention diverted from the events of what had happened earlier, her sickness, stubborn behavior, his care for her, show of affection, everything was hammering on his head so strongly, that he needed a way to get out of it, and escape into his earlier world of loneliness, silence and peace. Grumpily he sat on the bench, and picked up his book, busily trying to find the part, where he had last left the book reading.

Karan having had followed him all the way, without making much of a noise quietly sat next to him, looking at his flustered, tensed expression, which he knew only came when Arnav was busy trying to escape from the reality, or more precisely, failing to accept something odd that had been happening.

"Do you want to tell me something?" Karan asked him concerned, still looking at him, who refused to meet his gaze, keeping his sight fixed on the words on the book, which for now he could make little sense out of.

"No, why would I?" he replied back non interested, knowing what Karan was directing his way towards.

"Well then I can ask my question right?" Karan insisted back, with Arnav finally closing his book and keeping it on his lap, now meeting Karan's questioning gaze.

"What?"

"What were you doing there with Khushi?" Karan asked back straight, not wanting to go in round about's about the whole thing.

"I don't want to talk about it." Arnav stated point blankly, moving his face away from her, opening his book back again.

"You have to answer me Arnav. I know there is something troubling you." Karan informed him sternly, making it clear with his tone that he was in no mood for no answers right now.

"Why? Is it necessary? Who are you the President of America?",Arnav replied back angrily at him, passing him a deadly glare, never successful in having Karan flinch even slightly.

"No. Something even more important. I am your best friend, just in case you don't remember", he replied back evenly, shooting back at him the same glare that only earlier Arnav had given him.

"I remember", he remarked stubbornly, hitting his fist on the hard back of the poor book.

"So, are you telling me now or not?", questioning him in a more ferocious tone, Karan waited for him to respond, which seemed to be taking an eternity to do so.

"Fine.", Arnav finally gave in, and retold the entire event that had happened earlier, deliberately, trying to portray a mild affect on the kind of reaction he had given it to all of it.

"She still has fever?", Karan asked worriedly, at Arnav, whose expression seemed to have been a bit tense, and got a bit more uncomfortable at his question.

"Probably", he said quietly, trying to hide the worry and care for her that was shaking him, thinking of her well being.

"Is she claustrophobic?"

"I don't know", Arnav replied back, evidently surprised at Karan's sudden outburst of concern for her.

"Oh well, I hope she's fine". He remarked to himself, not really subjected at Arnav who still shot him an annoyed surprised look.

"Why do you care?"

"You don't?", Karan challenged him back, as Arnav turned to look away at the plants in the ground, that were nothing but green, without shade of any other interesting color.

"I know you do Arnav, stop hiding it from me at least. Accept it."Karan said, keeping a hand on his shoulder, which he, Arnav hurriedly shoved away.

"I don't." he said stubbornly, refusing to give in to any nonsensical thoughts that were invading his mind.

"Then why did you leave that water bottle of yours with her?",Karan questioned him back determined to find the truth behind Arnav's odd reaction.

"I must have forgotten", he tried to brush past the topic, hardly caring about the non chalant way he was acting, that had a fairly disturbing effect on his best friend.

"Gosh Arnav! How can you be so adamant in not giving in? Fine, don't accept, but let me tell you one thing, you never forget your stuff, specially not that water bottle of yours, aged 6 years", Karan burst out at him, and went away from him leaving a surprised, and bit shaken Arnav behind. His calm, composed friend, never used to get angry like this, not until he had something on his mind, or, had gotten into a fight.

"Wait! Did you fight with someone?", Arnav quickly caught up with Karan's fast paced moving steps, that were making their way towards the classroom.

"No."

"You did. Who was it?", he grabbed his hand from the bag, and held him still so that Karan was now in a position of answering his questions.

"Priyanka. That girl's one pain of a girl", Karan replied furiously, evidently angry at Arnav's non caring attitude, and the bossy self indulgent girl he just had gotten into a rift with.

"You know what? She's stupid. All girls are. Leave it, must have had left her brains in the refrigerator to fight with you". Arnav tried to calm his buddy, who was slowly on the path to restoring his calm. Karan gave him a one sided smile, having Arnav punch him friendly as they turned to attend the next class of the day.

**************************************

Anjali walked inside the crowded library, carrying her bag on her shoulder, making a face to herself, trying to find a seat to sit. Finally seeing one lone seat empty, she walked towards it and kept her bag on the desk, taking out one of the books out of it along with her broad framed red reading glasses from the case, fixing them on, and leaning against the back of the chair enjoying her book.

It had been half and hour, or so, that she felt someone had been constantly hovering around her, looking at her with a sheepish look, and then looking away.

"What?", she lifted her gaze away from the book and turned around to face a handsome, boy of wheatish complexion, looking at her in a most non chalant manner, however not really saying anything out of common etiquettes.

"What is it? Why are you hovering around me like a bee?", she asked back annoyed, because of his untimely silence, and of course, the blank look on his face that did not seem to offer much.

"Well, its my seat you were sitting on.", the boy answered back causally, looking at her out of disinterest, more interested in the place that she had occupied.

"So? You left it, so I took it.", she told him back straightly, surprised at his calm but at the same time firm attitude towards his seat.

"You might have not noticed, but I did leave my things behind, which you pretty conveniently shoved away to the extreme side of the table", he stated back at her in a matter of fact tone, forcing her to look at the table which obviously true to his words, was marked by his things, in an orderly manner, which she in her haste of finding a place had failed to notice.

"Oh erm, I am sorry, I didn't know", she stammered, embarrassed at her rude behavior, as well as her ignorant attitude, and promptly collecting her things, turned to stand from her seat, but he hesitantly kept his finger on her shoulder, urging her to sit down.

"No, there is no need to get up, I was just standing here to fetch my things for my next class", he said conveniently, collecting his things and stuffing them inside his bag.

Anjali looked at her own pink, studded with white diamond watch, to check the time, which said 5 minutes to her next class.

"I guess, I should be going too its 5 minutes to my class", she informed him, and collected her things following him out of the library.

"Which class are you going to?", she asked him casually wanting to know more about this new person she had come across, as they walked out of the library together. She had seen him before in some classes, away from the spotlight, escaping what they called 'popularity'. His reserved, side lined nature had always intrigued her, and with the respect he held people with, not really much of a mingle-r, but sure to come in handy when needed.

"Chemistry", he said stoutly, looking at her, growing a little fond her being around, as since the past 45 minutes, all he had been doing was patiently waiting for her to move a little, so he could get his things, but of course, couldn't find the guts to say that to her. He knew of her popularity in the school, the rumors that stated her to be the prettiest girl around, not that he as much though of them as rumors, but in fact as definite facts. She sure had the best features he had seen in young girls for a long time, and with his recent verbal encounter with her, it was evident that her nature went perfectly with her looks.

"Me too.", she replied back excitedly, "What's your name? I am Anjali", she said extending her hands towards him, who shook it giving in his own name, "Shyam", he smiled back at her pretty face, who gave him an even more welcoming smile, as they walked together towards their next class.

***************************

Khushi sat on her seat, furiously writing away in her diary, of whatever was in her mind, her most eminent supporter, who she could seek supporter when nobody was around. Be it night or day, her hand would scribble away her thoughts inside that little black diary of hers, helping her restore her positive attitude towards life. Pages and pages, that she flipped through were accounts that held nothing but depression, here and there some happy accounts, but at an average it has heavily populated with her sorrowful, and difficult emotional life. But today what she wrote, was neither depression, neither happiness, it was something lying on a fine line between the two, that she wrote, confusion that took over her, thoughts that did not intend to leave anytime soon, concentrating on one only source, the person of interest that he was, Raizada.

Hearing Vivek's step approaching her, she hurriedly closed the diary half way in between her account of endless words, and immediately propped it into her bad just in time, as he took his seat next to her, offering her the glass of water, that she had asked him to get, to briefly get him out of her way, finding some time with her diary. Alone.

She drank the glass of water, and thanked him, and he smiling at her went away to keep it back to where he had brought him from. As he exited, she looked around at the desolate class room, and at the cupboard once again that she had been trapped into with him. Leaning a bit closer, she accidently knocked the water bottle at her feet, causing her to look back at the tumbled bottle on the ground. Picking it up she wiped the dust of it, and looked at it smiling, remembering the hospitality he had offered to her minutes ago. He really wasn't that bad she realized, bad, but not that bad. This was improvement.

Her mind was brought back to the world, as the bell rang for the next period, and almost only 5 minutes later of so, she saw footsteps approaching and got up, to see a bit relived Arnav and a jolly Karan entering together. The first thing she noticed he did was look at her, keeping his gaze fixed until he was assure that she was fine, and then walked away, realizing she had caught this silent act of his. Thinking of it as her chance to say thank you to him, she walked over to him with his water bottle in her hand, as the two boys took their seat. Before anybody else entered the class, she went over to him, and handed over his bottle to him.

"Thank you", she said gratefully, and smiled back at him, which to her utmost surprise he returned back with a scowl.

"Gupta, you really need to stay away from enclosed cupboards, that is unless you are fond of turning blue", he rudely remarked at her, feeling hopeless about being like it, but really he couldn't let this two day girl take control over his state of mind.

She was baffled by the sudden change of behavior and the raspy tone he was using, which to her seemed very deliberate. Karan, slightly punched Arnav on his thigh, underneath the table, and kept his hand on Khushi's which was idly resting on his table.

"Are you better? Your fever still seems to be there.", Karan asked her friendly, with a hint of concern in his voice. He knew Arnav way too well, that he had intended to know about her well being, hadn't it been for his crude ways of socializing.

Khushi, looked in Karan's direction and put up an odd smile, still under the shock of changing behaviors. "I am good. It wont take much time to be off" she assured him, pleased with his concerned gesture.

"Are you claustrophobic? I don't mean to be personal but..", Karan said trying to find the right words to cover up for his very direct yet personalized question.

"Oh yeah. How do you know?" she asked a bit surprised at his guess.

"Well by what Arnav told me about you (receiving a downward punch as well as glare from Arnav), it seemed that way. You see I have that disease too", Karan stated causally, causing Khushi to briefly look into Arnav eyes, that held a streak of concern, but she quickly looked away, giving Karan a wide smile.

"In that case, you should let your friend here know, that people with such disease, have no intentions of going blue, when really your have materials like paint to do that", she snidely remarked, directly hunting Arnav down for his earlier rude comment. Karan smirked to himself, she was no less, he thought.

"I should be going, Ms.Anita would be here any minute, and then you know how she is", she chided, giving a smile at Karan, receiving one from him too, and walked away to her desk without as much looking back at a dumbfounded Arnav.

"You didn't have to keep up with such chatter with her", he said annoyingly, to Karan, who clearly looked away dodging Arnav's accusations.

"She's nice really. I don't know why are you so rude with her all the time" Karan said to a furious Arnav, who was offended by the way Karan was supporting Khushi.

"You saw her, she's no better" Arnav told him back defensively.

"Well, you forced her to be that way."

"Who's side on you, mine on her?"

"None. I am just stating the facts.", Karan replied non chalant looking away from Arnav, who was leaning against the wall grumbling about something nonsensical.

Vivek had returned just in time to catch his seat, as only seconds after him Ms.Anita entered, waving her blonde hair about, carrying her Biology folder with her, and with thick steps, with a ringing noise, kept her things on the large brown table, standing without any expression in the middle of the class, as the class chanted 'Good Afternoon' and then took their seats.

"So class, today I will not be teaching you anything, instead if anybody does remember, its time to bring to you the first term project of this academic session", Ms.Anita announced cheerfully, and soon after a look of disgust was all over her face, as loud groans of disappointment echoed throughout the class.

"Another stupid assignment", with another stupid group, Vivek muttered to himself, but Khushi had caught his words, and turned to question him.

"Just for the record Khushi, even if the assignments good, she makes such awful groups, that it basically becomes a lifetime full of hell to work with those people." He said, making a face to himself, in his mind remembering, the last time how the entire project of baking soda with vinegar project had turned into a flop, and instead had him smelling like vinegar for weeks now, only because of the blooper of his idiotic group fellows.

"This class isn't really that bad", she stated, amazed at how hoarse he was suddenly acting to the idea of projects.

"True. Only that Ms.Anita is known to make the worst groupings, so yeah if in a project, you maybe knowing, if they group cant work out, it turns into failure"

"It won't be that bad Vivek." She comforted him, keeping a hand on his shoulder.

"I'll ask you that after she makes the groups." He scorned as she announced about the project being about making a life size model of working a heart. More groans were heard in the class, which were effectively silenced with her thunderous voice.

Now was the time, the big time, when Ms.Anita, tapped her chin and started to think of the most hideous combination of children working together.

"Arnav get up, (she pointed out, to which he with a disinterested look stood), erm you stand up (pointing at Samrat), you (pointing at Mayank), now a girl, erm.. (Setting her eyes on Khushi), yes you Khushi. (Khushi stands up) This is the first group", Ms. Anita stated, as the four standing people shared bewildered looks with each other, especially Arnav and Khushi, who shot horrid looks at one another.

"Four of you, drag your chairs and go sit at the back of the class" she ordered them, as all of them still in a daze trying to recover from the shock, obediently carried their chairs away, as Vivek only smirked at Khushi, who gave him an irritated look, and went over to sit there. Once they were seated, next to each other, Arnav thought of the prospect of them working together. Failure. Failure, and nothing else. He couldn't stand here, nope, the teacher had to make amendments. But before he did say something she was already standing, ready for protest.

He immediately got up from his seat, in utter annoyment, only to give a deep glare to a already pretty much frustrated Khushi

"No mam! I cannot work with him at all" she protested helplessly, to the Biology teacher, who was in no mood for concessions, forget that, she wasn't even all that much wanting to listen to any arguments.

"Surely Mam! I cannot work with her at any cost!" he raised up his voice, which was particularly very unlikely of him to do since he hardly ever talked.

"No arguments. And I mean no arguments, you two. Either you do it together, or accept the boiled eggs I give you in the assignment", Ms Anita said seriously, however leaving the hint of a joke, to which she expected everyone to laugh on, well at least they would if they knew how her lame joke was supposed to make them laugh.