Sure enough, just about twenty four hours later Shruti found herself stumbling amongst all the people who had rushed for their OMR sheets when it was announced that the results were out. Having successfully gotten her paper out of the stack of them that were on the teacher's desk, she spotted, "RANK : 2." What wouldn't I do to get Nakul's father transferred.. Shruti thought. Nakul's dad was a Military officer; Just like Shruti's dad used to be. Of course, she had no clue where her dad was or what he was doing now; he might have moved to Greenland for all she knew.
...

Shruti hopped off the sidewalk onto the road. Aarnav never used the sidewalk. It wasn't macho enough for him, maybe. Whatever. No matter how much she tried to talk him out of the stupid notion, she failed, so Shruti decided it was better to join him instead of wasting her breath.
"Get back on..." Aarnav said, authoratively.
"Why should I?" Shruti asked him stubbornly.
"It's dangerous..."
"Uh huh... and it's alright for you?"
"Oh... shut up," he said in a bored voice, nudging her back onto it. Ugh. Shruti thought. But it was nice of him. It showed that Aarnav cared for her. She smiled at the thought.
"You have to listen to me. I'm the sports captain," he told her, proudly lifting his chin into the air. Shruti rolled her eyes. He was still in awe of the fact; nobody would imagined that he would be nominated for any post, even though he was so good at basketball. He didn't have such a great reputation amongst the teachers.
"Sure."
"Hey, I'm serious. Look, these mean you can't mess with me," Aarnav told her, bending over and grazing her arm with the pointy metal stars pinned on his shoulder.
"Ouch!" Shruti yelped, stepping backwards. "Idiot."

Shruti and Aarnav walked home together, every day after school. Aarnav never really spoke much, but Shruti was always satisfied with that because that meant she could go on, and on endlessly and Aarnav would never get bored of it. Not that she was sure if he was listening. Most of the time he just acted like it, and said, "What did you say?" at the end of a particularly long and intriguing story, which was a real annoyance to Shruti. She hated it when people didn't listen to her chatter. It was a tedious thing to repeat.
She looked up at the huge building next to her now; it was probably the richest one in the locality. There were so many servants that noone ever saw the real owner. It was Shruti's dream house; it was built beautifully. Maybe one day when Shruti was a famous author, she would own a house like that.
"Tell me one thing.. why do you hang out with that girl?" Aarnav asked, popping her daydream.
"Who?"
"Shreya.. I mean it's like she's always trying to be so... she's so..." Aarnav said, with a look that didn't really match what he said. He didn’t have to finish; Shruti knew what he meant. The ends of his mouth were curling up into an amused smile at the thought of Shreya.
"See, it's like... " Shruti's voice trailed off. Why did she hang out with Shreya? She couldn't even say it was because she was good at heart... sometimes she could be really selfish. She was sort of an introvert and she looked really really honest to someone who didn't know her, but Shruti knew her better. There were a few incidents that made her feel kind of stepped on. Like once in sixth grade, Shreya and Shruti were both asked to help organize some inter-school event that was going to happen in school. So they missed their classes the whole day, and at the end of it everyone who helped were asked to give in their names. Shruti was busy with something at the moment, so she had asked Shreya to give in hers too. The next day everyone who helped were called up on stage and thanked, but very weirdly, Shruti wasn't called up. She didn't really feel bad that she wasn't acknowledged or anything, but she wondered why Shreya didn't say her name as well. And then, there was this incident that took place like, the previous year, in ninth grade. Shruti was in one of her dreamy moods and wasn't paying attention; the English teacher had asked a question to which no one knew the answer. Shreya turned to Shruti and asked her. Shruti told her, without asking her for what, and to her surprise Shreya immediately raised her hand and told the teacher whatever she'd just found out from Shruti! It's not like all those were outrageously horrible, but they weren’t exactly pleasant, and there were a lot more than that.
"I don't know," Shruti ended. She heaved a sigh. "Maybe it's because I've known her since like, first grade or something. She's not all that great though, she can really annoy me at times."
Shruti had reached home; Aarnav's was a little bit more far off. "Alright, bye," Shruti said, before walking through the apartment gate.
"Bye," Aarnav replied just before he walked off out of sight.

Shruti wondered why he was speaking so much about Shreya nowadays. I mean, you could hate a person but how can you refer to them so many times when you've only spoken to them like once or twice in your life? She pushed the door open, to find Anusha on the couch watching Friends.
"Hi," she said, sweetly.
"Hey sib... " Shruti replied, supressing an urge to be mean. Anusha was nice to her, and now definitely wasn't the best time to trigger off an explosion. Her mom would be go nuts. "How was school?"
"School was good... we have a slip test tomorrow! Our first!" Anusha said, excitedly.
Shruti rolled her eyes. Who'd be excited for a test? Especially a stupid slip test. Anusha was in the sixth standard now, in the senior school. Till 5th, she was in a different building that was about two lanes away. Slip tests and quizzes were started only in this school, so it was new to her.
"What, is it only you or are all the people your age this excited?"
"Umm... I'm not excited," Anusha said, calming her voice, realising that it wasn’t ‘cool’.
"Sure..."
Shruti walked inside to her mom's room, to find her at her desk, busy as always. She had a pile of papers scattered all over in front of her, she was correcting the 11th and 12th grade weekly test papers. She was a teacher, but she taught at the junior college branch of their school. Shruti kept dreading the fact that the next year, she would have to join her mother's college. It would be embarrassing; a teacher's daughter? Ugh.
"How was school?" her mother said, reaching over to give her a brief hug, without even standing up. "So how much did you get in yesterday's Chemistry test?" Ironically, Shruti's mother was a Chemistry teacher.
"Ugh. It was fine. 92%. Second," Shruti replied. Shruti's mood was totally ruined; why did her mom have to remind her?
"Second again sweetheart? I wanted you to top this time Shruti," Her mom said, disapprovingly. "And what about Shreya? Was she first?"
"Mom please. I've told you before, just because she's got such an appearance she does not do better than me! And she got an 86! Alright? It was Nakul! Okay now can we speak about something else? Seriously, I'm sick of you talking about nothing other than grades..." Shruti settled herself violently on the bed. Why did her mom have to be that paranoid? She was doing really well, much better than ninety eight of the other tenth graders, right? Indian mothers had a tendency to be annoying like that.
“I see. What would you like to talk about?” Her mother asked, calmly.
"Aarnav keeps asking about Shreya, it's like he's stalking her," Shruti told her mother, a bit more coolly, consciously keeping herself from rolling her eyes. Her mom hated it when she did that. "And trying to find more reasons to prove that she's weird."
"Really? Maybe he has a crush on her." This was one thing Shruti liked about her mother; she could tell her anything, like anything at all and she'd have an opinion about it like any other teenager. But sometimes, like now, her opinions were drastically wrong, because she didn't know the people inside out like Shruti did.
"Mom! Woah! Hold your horses... Aarnav hates Shreya. It's like he keeps telling me how she's out of her mind,"
"What makes him think that?"
"Like maybe how she reads in the lunch time," Shruti explained.
"Why is that weird, Shruti? She's just catching up on her vocabulary. It's far more beneficial than the gossip you do, anyway."
Ugh. Moms would be moms...

Shruti walked into her room, as she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. Somehow she felt the need to walk into her own room before answering the call. She gently closed the door and took out her phone. It was a black at the borders with a small display. It wasn't a touch-screen like most of her other friends’; yet it meant her life to her. Nakul was calling.
"Hey," She said, pressing the green button even before she put it to her ear.
"'Ssup?" came Nakul's voice.
"Nothing really.. You know Aarnav keeps speaking about Shreya?"
Nakul laughed. "So you realised, huh?"
"Realised what?"
"No, nothing. So you were saying?"
"Yeah, so I was saying... What was I saying? How in the world did you manage to do Chemistry so well? I hate you!"
...

Shruti got up late the next morning; she'd been on the phone with Nakul for almost two hours the previous night, before she realised she had to rush off to some Math she had forgotten to do. She woke up at nine once already, and went crazy because she was so late that even her normal excuse wouldn’t serve the purpose; and then Anusha reminded her that it was a Saturday. No wonder Nakul had been so cool about the homework, Shruti realised. She cursed herself for being so forgetful and went back to sleep, to open her eyes again only to the disturbing sunlight of noon, pouring in through the window.
"Shruti, you’ve got a call!" She heard her mother shout. Call on the landline? Someone's desperate to reach me, Shruti thought. She checked her phone, and sure enough there were eight missed calls from Shreya, starting from around seven o’ clock. What could have gotten her up so early, Shruti thought. But then she remembered, Shreya always got up at seven on weekends. And she considered it to be late. She grimaced at the thought.
"Tell them I'll call back in about five minutes!" Shruti replied.
After a bit, Shruti dialed Shreya's number. Her number was so natural to Shruti's fingers that sometimes she dialed it when she meant to call somebody else.
"Hey!" Shreya sounded excited. Somehow the tone just didn't match Shruti's mood at the moment; she was irritated on hearing it, especially since she had been woken up by the very same person.
"Yeah, what's up?"
"Umm... nothing actually... Are y-"
"Which is why you've been calling from like, dawn. Right," Shruti shot at her, sarcastically.
Shreya giggled. "No, fine, well, there is something. Are you free in the evening?"
"What would I be doing?" Shruti rolled her eyes.
"Alright fine then... come to the ground at about like six. Okay?"
"Huh? Why?"
"Oh, just come, alright," she said.
"Fine," Shruti said, hanging up.

The ground was what Shruti and her friends called this empty field about two blocks away. It was actually the playground of a school before, but now the school had been re-built into the community hall, which was hardly ever used except if there was a marraige or something, which wasn't very often for the small colony of houses for which it was built. There was never anything to do there; which was perfect for Shruti and her friends, since they just needed it to hang out or simply talk, sometimes. It was a nice place. Shruti remembered that sometimes her father used to take her there, when she was very small, and let her play with the other school children who were of course, quite older than herself back then, but they all loved her treated her like a little sister. Her dad used to push her on the swings, and watch her so she didn't fall.
And it seemed like the area changed according to Shruti's needs. Once she was around thirteen, the school was removed and now there was nothing except huge gates to a huger building, a couple of swings, and a wonderful lawn ahead of them. It was ideal to meet her and her friends' needs.

Shruti's phone vibrated. It was Aarnav.
"Hey," he said, breathlessly, even before Shruti did.
"Hey... Why do you sound like that?" Shruti said.
"Like what?"
"Like you know... excited?"
"No there's nothing like that... What's up?"
"Nothing really. Rooster woke me up today," she told him.
"Rooster? Who?"
"Shreya. Hate her," Shruti muttered, more to herself than to him.
There was silence.
"I need to tell you something," he revealed.
"What?"
"No... Come to the ground. Around like seven,"
"No I'm going to meet Shreya at like, six so come at the same time... I can't wait that long over there,"
"Oh she called you...? Alright. 'Kay then, See ya'." Aarnav hung up.

Shruti wasn't really curious or anything. She was quite sure what would happen, Shreya would come just to hang out with her and speak about something really really random, probably about her cousin who was getting married next month. It was all she ever spoke about these days, anyway. And Aarnav, well he probably wanted to tell her that his favourite football team won or he bought an awesome video game or something. Not that she was ever going to be bothered, but it kept Aarnav satisfied to tell her. So she just acted like she cared and nodded to all the sports-language he spoke in. Maybe Shreya would understand what Aarnav would tell Shruti that day. Sports was probably the only thing common that the pair of them had. Well, actually, Shreya wasn’t really into sports either, but when one compared her knowledge to Shruti’s, it made her look like a sports wiz.
Shruti hoped that they both would get along some time, it was hard having Aarnav hate Shreya like that. Shreya didn’t approve of Aarnav either. She’d always advised Shruti to keep away from him, in vain though. She thought he liked to spike his hair and show off to attract girls, so he could double and triple time or something. But Shreya didn't know him personally; Shruti did, and she knew Aarnav wasn't like that. His clothes and outward appearance spoke nothing about his character. If he ever liked a girl, it would be geniune. Like maybe when he had a crush on Naini in eighth grade. He never asked her out, he just kept telling Shruti how amazing she was. Everytime he saw her with another guy, his mood would be ruined. At the point where Shruti was getting sick of hearing it, he asked her out. She turned him down; apparently she was already going out. That was a surprise, no one knew that about Naini and it was probably the most interesting talk at the time. In eighth, everyone was still innocent. In just two years, everything had changed. More than probably half of the school was going out with someone or the other, now. Shruti didn't believe in relationships, so she had nothing to do with all this anyway. Once, when she was younger, she’d screamed at a guy who’d asked her on a date. Shruti laughed at herself for doing that now. Either way, it was kind of good for herself; ever since, no one had ever gathered the courage to do such a thing again!

Later in the evening, as Shruti got out of her house, it was already 6:10. At first she felt bad to make Shreya wait; but then she remembered Aarnav was going as well. Maybe by the time she went they'd be deeply involved in an argument. For a second, the thought made her speed up her pace. But then again, she slowed back down when she realised that a verbal fight would be fun to spectate.

Shruti hugged herself. It was a little cold; it was October, which meant the winter was nearing. She walked as fast as her feet would carry her. She walked past the houses, in which there were children playing outside, cars parked, and mothers shouting for their kids to come inside. She loved her neighbourhood; it wasn't like one of those crammed up uptown places. There was greenery here and there, and loads of space to walk. It was really close to school, so there were a lot of people who lived here that went to the same school. When she was younger, she had a lot of friends, but now, some moved and some stopped talking; Shruti didn't have the time and will to make new ones, anyway.
In front of one of the houses, a cricket ball came flying straight into her face! Shruti shut her eyes tightly, and foolishly waited for the attack, preparing herself for a black eye instead of moving away. Sure enough, she felt something bang against her face.
But it was least like a cricket ball. It was a hand. She opened her eyes. Someone had caught the ball, just before it her squarely in the face. It was Nakul. He was laughing.
"What're you doing, why didn't you move?" He asked among chuckles. Shruti was like that; she was never good at last minute saves.
"Woah," Shruti managed to let out, once she recovered from the shock. “Thanks!”
"That's fine," Nakul said, smiling.
"What're you doing here?" Shruti asked.
"I live here, remember?"
"Oh..." It seemed like the cricket ball incident had erased a part of Shruti's memory for a second. Even though Nakul's father was in the army, they didn't live in the army headquarters. Nakul's father chose to be transferred here after the death of his grandfather, three years ago. So they chose to live with his grandmother in their old house rather than in the colony with all the other army officer's families.

Shreya too, lived nearby. Her house was way into the lane that was just before Shruti's house, when one came from school. But Shreya never walked home with Shruti; her dad would never let her get her shoes dirty, would he? He had everything arranged at school for her before she even stepped out of class; nowadays, it was a shiny new Accord parked outside with its driver.
"To the ground?" Nakul asked Shruti.
"Yup, d’you want to come? Aarnav and Shreya are already there,"
"That's alright, you go ahead," Nakul said.
"Oh come on, it’s just going to be five minutes," Shruti urged.
"Fine," Nakul said, throwing the ball back to the kids who were playing.
Shruti was so engaged in a conversation with Nakul that she hardly realised they had reached;
"I don't know what it'll be, maybe Mrs.Kumar will take over the po-" she stopped, running headfirst into the gate. She had been facing Nakul completely, and didn't see it coming! Nakul burst out laughing again.
"Oh, come on," Shruti said, rubbing her temple. "Couldn't have been that funny." But then again, when she thought of it, the picture of a girl banging into a gate that was right ahead of her was pretty funny. This wasn't new to Shruti; she was always at a lack of poise. It was the second time in a day that Nakul saw her embarrass herself; she made a mental note not to let that happen when he was around again.
Shruti was sure there was going to be an angry Shreya, and Aarnav, gaming on his PS as he waited. But oddly, neither of them were there! Nakul left the gates open and they walked into the ground, towards the swings. Shruti wondered why the swings were left behind when it wasn't even supposed to be a playground anymore. Anyway, she had no objection... She still liked swinging. And she was not ashamed to admit it. Just when Shruti was about to sit on a swing, she saw Shreya and Aarnav enter. They came in together, they'd probably met outside or something.
"Hey," they said monotonously.
"So... drop the bomb on me?" Shruti said, sarcastically. It was obviously not anything that serious. She hoped it would be over soon so Nakul and Aarnav would just get into some lame conversation about sports, and she and Shreya could speak something a lot more useful and authentic. Like maybe gossip. That was more important, anyday. Shruti stood up and leaned against the water tank.
Aarnav leaned against it next to her. Shreya took the other side of Shruti. Nakul retired to the swings, and started texing somebody.
"Umm.. he's got a girlfriend," Shreya tattled.
"Well, she has a boyfriend too," Aarnav threw back at her.
"Wh-what?!" Shruti sputtered. They both were going out, and they told eachother before telling her?
"You guys are going out?" Shruti paused for a second as she realised what was happening. "You guys are going out with eachother!"

Shruti lay wide awake in bed; it was about two-thirty A.M., and Shruti was facing a problem that she never really encountered before. She just couldn't get to sleep. Earlier in the evening, she got to know that Aarnav had liked Shreya all along. At that point she had just gaped at the two of them without any real emotion, and just taken in whatever they said blindly without analyzing. But later, certain things hit her, like maybe how Nakul knew all along that he was going to ask Shreya out, even before he did, and Shruti never even had a clue. No wonder Nakul had said, "So you realised" on the phone. It hadn't striken her, even then.
"Stupid tubelight," she cursed herself quietly. Aarnav had always called her that; this was the first time she'd agreed to do it herself.
Wasn't Shruti supposed to be Aarnav's best friend? How come Nakul knew and she didn't, then? And the worst part of it all was Shruti sort of let Aarnav know she wasn't totally fond of Shreya. Suppose he told her, now that she was his girlfriend? Supposedly, Aarnav did think Shreya was weird but that's why he liked her. When he asked why Shruti hung out with her, he wanted to know what she was like, since he didn't really know her that well. Well to say, his facial expression didn't say that. What was Shruti supposed to think?
Then there was Shreya. How did she end up liking Aarnav? When did she even approve of Aarnav? If she didn't like him, why did she agree to go out with him? Shruti wished she could pick up her phone that very moment and conference with Aarnav and Shreya and order them to clear the mess up in her head, right then. Unfortunately, they would be sleeping contently right now, far from what Shruti was going through. Why did she really care, anyway? Maybe because they both were her best friends and they'd suddenly done something completely out of the images she'd drawn of them. It was shocking, and to tell the truth, Shruti felt a bit left out. Maybe she wouldn't, if they both had shared their feelings with her at first, if maybe she was the one to have gotten them together.
Shruti thought that over. Would she really help them out if they'd told her? Well, for one thing, she thought being in a relationship was just.. different. Maybe not bad, just different. It'd change your life completely, and Shruti didn't know if she, or any of her friends were ready for that yet. Shruti, for one, was surely not mature enough and she was a long way off, as well. She couldn't even handle her own life, let alone handling someone else's along with it. Wasn't it too tough? Well, she wasn't the one trying to, anyway.
Shruti nearly got a heart-attack; her phone suddenly vibrated. It was Aarnav. Up at this time? She thought. But Aarnav is always up till late, she remembered. Late night calls were just not acceptable to her, they were just wrong, when it was with a guy, atleast. It obviously meant something wrong was up between them. Why else would anyone risk getting into trouble to talk to someone about something that they could talk about in broad daylight? Shruti chose not to pick up. She wondered why Aarnav had called, though. He'd never called that late before. Aarnav was too busy with video games to even look at his phone at that time, right? Weird.

It was going to be three-thirty, soon. There was no school the next morning but she had to get up by 7 atleast, because apparently her mother had to rush off for some important meeting in her college, so she had to be up to watch over Anusha. Ugh, what a tough life mom leads. Shruti thought. She fidgeted for a while and finally found herself a comfortable position. She remembered the courtroom once again; one of the few memories she could still recollect with her dad. She thought of her father. He looks pretty good, Shruti thought, recollecting his image. She wondered how he looked now, probably a lot older. But for the picture Shruti remembered, even grey hair and wrinkles wouldn't spoil the man by much. Shruti liked the thought of her father. Fathers were supposed to be nice, caring people. Someone who'd pamper his daughter; who'd take her shopping and buy her what she wanted, no matter how expensive it was. Someone who'd be there to talk to at a time like this. Shruti wondered why her mother got rid of him like that. She wondered what would have happened to make her she hate him as much as to never even meet him again. But there must have been something real serious. Shruti wasn't even sure if he would be able to speak to her father if she saw him. She remembered the house they used to stay in back then, faintly. It was a huge one, it was a completely different lifestyle back then. She even had a nanny. What was her name.. Shruti thought, deeply. She closed her eyes and tried to remember. Anita didi..? No.. maybe it was Ankita.

Arpita didi and Aarnav were holding hands and sitting on top of a bench in Shruti's classroom. Shruti walked in. What?? She thought, silently. She tried to open her mouth and ask what was going on, but somehow her lips wouldn't give way. Shreya walked into the class. She burst into tears and started wailing, 'But I liked him first! I liked him first..!!' What's going on?! Shuti thought. None of your business, Shruti, Aarnav said. Shruti's head shot up. How could Aarnav hear her thoughts? But.. Aarnav hadn't opened his mouth. What..?? Shruti thought again, agitated. Stay out of my life, Shruti. Why did you assume that I'm your best friend? I don't have to tell you everything. He said again, without moving his lips.

Shruti woke up with a start. She rolled her eyes. What a weird dream. But it confirmed that Shruti's fears may actually be true. Was Aarnav drifting away from her?
...
It was Monday afternoon, and Shruti was already in a horrible mood, owing to it being a Monday, her least favourite day of the week. Not that she hated school. School was a nice place, but it'd have been a billion times better if only it started at around one in the afternoon. Shruti was glad her mother couldn't hear her think; this thought would have deserved her a particularly long lecture. Her mother could be short tempered when people didn't follow her rules. But the good part was that this didn't change her teenage type thinking ability. In the morning Shruti had felt a little better about the whole Aarnav-Shreya thing. She decided to speak to him about it while they walked back home, and that took a lot off her head. Saying what she felt made it feel like the burden was off. She hadn't said it yet, then, but atleast now she knew she was going to, and when, where and how. It was a perfect plan, wasn't it?
Now, Shruti was walking on the pavement on the way back home with Aarnav. However Shreya was with them too. Shruti kicked a stone out of her way. It hurt. Whatever. She thought to herself. Maybe Shreya was going to do this every day. Maybe she would never get to talk to Aarnav alone anymore. Maybe all the time he used to spend with Shruti would be for Shreya now. Whatever, Shruti thought again, trying not to care.
"Aarnav, c'mon. Please? Get onto the sidewalk, it's dangerous!" Shreya said. Shruti thought that her tone was a bit over the top; Shreya never spoke so high pitchedly. Well, nothing could bring Aarnav onto the sidewalk, Shruti thought. Not even Shreya. She was satisfied with the thought.
Aarnav stepped onto the pavement. Ugh, not this too. Shruti thought, stepping onto the road herself. She half expected Aarnav to pull her back up like he did the other day, but he didn't even realise. Maybe if a car hit her he would. She wasn't seeking attention; it was just acknowledgement of her being alive, atleast. On second thought, maybe even if she had an accident, they wouldn't realise.
"Oh my god, you liked Naini? She left school right?" Shreya exclaimed.
Oh. So he was telling her his crush list.
"She's pretty," Shreya agreed.
"Not as pretty as you," Aarnav said, his voice a little softer.
Shruti's head turned their way, as a reflex. Somehow that just wasn't Aarnav.
Aarnav thought Shreya was that pretty? She looked at her; she was a shade fairer than Shruti. She had thick, wavy, dark brown hair that came up to a bit below her shoulder and was a bit plumper than Aarnav. It didn't show much, but she was.
Well, you could say she was sort of pretty, Shruti concluded.

They approached Shreya's lane, just before Shruti's house. Shruti was sort of happy; She could finally speak to Aarnav now. Shreya would leave, and there wasn't too much distance to Shruti's place but she could hang around a while and talk. However, Aarnav turned into Shreya's lane with her. Shruti couldn't hold back any longer.
"Aarnav!?" she said.
"What?" he said.
"Umm.. Aren't you like, going home?" Shruti asked disgustedly, pointing in front of her.
Shreya looked confused.
"One sec, Shreya," Aarnav said, walking towards Shruti. "Hey, could you wait a bit? I'll just walk her till her house and then we could go together?" Aarnav said doubtfully.
"You don't have to do that, you know? If you don't wanna go with me, it's fine." Shruti said, loud enough for Shreya to hear.
"Oh c'mon, it's not that!" He said, his face turning a little red. He probably didn't want a confrontation just yet. "Just a min, 'kay? I'll join you. Hang on, right here," he said, walking off with Shreya, far into her lane. Shruti would have probably screamed out her anger if he suddenly hadn't looked so helpless. It made her actually feel sorry for him, for a second. Just for a second, though.
Shruti would have to ask him why he didn't tell her before once he was back. Suddenly, the thought made a chill run down her spine. She remembered her dream. Maybe he didn't want to tell her because she was bad at keeping secrets. Suppose he would just tell her to keep out of it? Noone knew Shruti better than Aarnav. She wouldn't want to lose him. She sighed, stepping back further onto the road. She heard a car honk loudly, just before she heard a loud screeching sound followed by a sharp jerk above her knee.
"Ouch!" Shruti exclaimed, as she lost her balance and fell to the ground on her elbow. The road was rough, and she'd grazed her elbow. She picked up her bag, which was probably half the reason she lost her balance, as she heard the owner of the car open his door. Her arm went numb with pain.
"Are you hurt, child?" He said anxiously.
"No, I'm alright, thanks," Shruti said, examining her elbow. It was bleeding a little bit now. She wasn't angry; She knew it was her fault. Shruti looked at the injury, thinking about the horrible scar this hurt would turn into. Shruti hated scars, they disrupted the continuity of the colour of your skin and made it look ugly. Not that she didn't have a lot, owing to her ultimate lack of poise. She heard the door of the car bang shut, and she looked up just as it sped off again. Mercedes. Nice. There was a man with dark brown hair and patches of grey. He looked pretty tall in his seat. He looked somewhat familiar; Shruti was sure she'd seen him before.
"Oh... s***," Shruti said, aloud as the realisation dawned upon her. It was her father. Shruti wasn't sure of it; but he looked like the man she remembered that her mother dumped.
"What?" Aarnav said, walking back upto her. Apparently he'd heard her swear.
"You know what, Shreya's really awesome," he told her, forgetting what he'd asked about the very next moment.
Shruti shot him a sick look. Unfortunately Aarnav wasn't looking at her. He stared off into space, probably dreaming about Shreya. Shruti was sort of getting irritated with him now. As he spoke, Shruti covered her arm with her other palm, trying to get it to stop bleeding. She wished she had a napkin. Was that her father? Maybe she was just imagining. Not every tall man with brown hair was her father, right? But this one really looked familiar. But what would her father be doing here? What did she know about where he lived, anyway.
"I called you around three yesterday night, were you sleeping?" Aarnav asked, interrupting.
"Shruti?" he called, interrupting her thoughts.
"What?" She said, stopping as she had reached her house.
"When did you sleep last night?" Aarnav asked, as he stopped walking as well.
"Oh me..? I guess three thirty or four," She said, by mistake, forgetting that this was going to create a new round of enquiries.
"Oh.. I called. How come you didn't pick up?"
"I didn't have my phone around," Shruti managed. "Why were you up, anyway?"
"Oh, Shreya told me she gets up at like, four thirty or something and she could talk then, so I thought I'd stay up since I can't really trust myself to wake up at that time," he said, "So I thought I could speak to you till then."
Shruti turned her eyes back to her elbow. This was really weird. Why would someone stay up the whole night just to talk to Shreya, of all people?
"Oh, what happened to you?" Aarnav said, just noticing the huge mark of dust on her uniform above her knee and her blood-filled elbow.
Shruti looked at him. He looked surprised. How could he not have even seen it? Aarnav pulled out a sweatband from his pocket, probably the closest thing to cotton he could find.
"Ouch!" Shruti yelped, as he tried to dab at the blood. "You don't have to do that, Aarnav!"
"Shut up, Shr-"
"YOU shut up!" Shruti screamed, her eyes filling up with tears.
"Did you just have an accident...?" Aarnav asked, nervously, ignoring her outbreak.
"Doesn't matter, Aarnav. Just get home and call Shreya, believe me, that's all you need," Shruti said a little less loudly, as she turned to get home.
"Shruti!" Aarnav called after her, as she walked off.

Shruti crashed into her apartment. She was still a little angry.
"What's wrong, sweetie?" her mother said hurrying into the living room, hearing Shruti enter making quite a bit more noise than usual. She already made a lot of noise generally, so this was really noticable.
"Ugh, nothing."
"Oh dear, you're bleeding! What did you do, honey, walk into a wall?" Her mother teased. Normally, that was a possibility.
"Shreya and Aarnav are going out and stuff, so now everyday on the way back home I have to witness them talk mushy and act like I'm dead or something." Shruti explained, as her mother walked her to the kitched to wash the wound. Shruti wondered if she should tell her mother about the man who looked like her dad. She decided that it wasn't the best time. Plus, she had larger things that she needed help with. It was better to focus.
"They are? See! I told you!" Her mother was delighted on being correct for once. But "I told you so" wasn't exactly Shruti's favourite phrase.
"Okay! So you choose now to rub that in?" Shruti snapped back.
"I wasn't rubbing it in. I was just saying, that I was right. You should stop neglecting my hypothe-"
"MOM! Please."
"Okay, sorry, honey. Go on," her mother backed down.
"And well, they didn't really bother to tell me. Plus, Nakul knows. Everything. And Nakul wasn't even that good a friend of theirs. So that means a lot of people know. It's just me that doesn't."
Everything was just so annoying. She wanted Shreya and Aarnav to get along, and not talk about eachother behind their back but maybe this wasn't what she had thought of. This is was crossing the line. Teenage relationships; they were just a waste of time. One fine day, they would just break up and cry over it the next few months. Shruti didn't want all that to happen to their friends; and she'd never considered her friends the type of people to succumb to these type of petty things. Aarnav was too cool for it; Shreya was too much a good girl for it. But somehow Shruti didn't believe in those characters anymore. Shruti walked back out into the living room and let herself fall into the sofa.
"Shruti! Gently, please?" Her mother repeated this for what must've been the thousandth time.
Shruti rolled her eyes.
"And don't roll your eyes at me."
Shruti rolled them again.
"Shruti!"
"Can you please focus?"
"It's okay, child.." her mother sighed, obliging and coming to sit down next to her. "Listen to me. You're not acting like a friend. That wasn't fair to them; you should be trying to understand! Don't make this about you, honey. Maybe they just suddenly realised they liked eachother. Maybe Nakul was the only person who knew, you haven't received any confirmation that everyone knows, right?" Her mother assured her.
"He didn't even notice that I-" Shruti paused. "That I fell! He just went on, and on, and on about Shreya! He doesn't give a da-"
"Why would Aarnav want to do that to you? He would never want to hurt you. A relationship in this age is something exciting for people at this age; doesn't matter if it lasts. They're carried away by it and you've been mad at them instead of understanding," her mother explained.
Was she right? Shruti contemplated over it for a moment. She was; why would Aarnav want to do that to her? It must have been a huge misunderstanding. Shruti felt stupid now. Poor Aarnav. He was probably overflowing in guilt.
"Well...maybe. Thanks, mom," Shruti's voice trailed away.
"Forgiving is important.. you can never change anyone else, but you can always alter yourself to make it a more comfortable situation, Shruti. I know it's easier said than done, but..."
"What?" Shruti wanted to know.
"Nothing," she said, getting up, and going back to the heaps of paperwork on her table.
Shruti walked into her room, and found the phone vibrating already. Aarnav was calling.
Sure enough, even before she said hello, Aarnav's voice shot through the receiver. "I'm so sorry, Shruti, please don't hang up or anything," he said, really fast, before she could do something.
Shruti laughed. "You're funny. I'm not mad at you.. actually, I'm sorry. I should have understood," she said, genuinely.
Aarnav laughed too. "Thank god. You must have spoken to your mother. She's the only one who can calm you down so soon," he said. He knew her so well.
"Yep," Shruti said, smiling. "Okay tell me something. How come Nakul knew?" She had never thought she'd be able to ask him that as casually.
"Oh, we were just talking. He's in my Bio class, so.." Aarnav's voice trailed off. Shruti thought it sounded like he was hiding something.
"So?"
"Nothing, we were just talking about, you know, who we like," Aarnav said. Shruti could make out that he was at a total lack of words to use.
"And he told me about himself, so I told him about myself. From then I just ended up telling him all of it," Aarnav said. "I didn't tell you because Shreya's your best friend. I don't know if you'd be able to keep my secret!" Aarnav said, laughing. Shruti laughed again. It sounded perfectly fine; Shruti was bad at keeping secrets. "You don't mind, do you? About that, and today... just tell me if you're still mad or something."
"No, really. It was fine!" Shruti said.
"Well, I still should have realised something was wrong. What happened?"
"What?" Shruti said innocently, forgetting entirely about the elbow incident.
"Oh," she said. It began to burn again as she remembered it.
Anusha was there, but that was okay. She could know what she was going to tell Aarnav. "Well, when you went inside the lane I was kind of on the road, and this really expensive car just stopped before it hit me. I fell though, you know how balanced I am, right?" Shruti said, sarcastically.
"Are you crazy, Shruti? That was dangerous, stupid!"
"Yeah whatever." Shruti said, waving her hand carelessly. "And then this man gets out of the car.. who looks exactly like a ten year older version of my dad."
Anusha had amazement written all over her face; Aarnav sounded surprised.
"What was he doing here?"
"How do you it's him?"
Aarnav and Anusha asked together, so Shruti couldn't keep track of who asked what. "Well I think it's him, of whatever I remember of my dad. And really, you think I'd know what he's doing here?" Shruti asked. Aarnav had to hang up after that; but Anusha still wanted to know quite a few things. Shruti answered all of them patiently, maybe the patience was the affect of her conversation with her mother. Otherwise, Shruti wasn't usually fond of many questions. Not from family, atleast. Who was, anyway? And then, she wanted to hear about their father again. Shruti sat up cross legged on the bed, and began to tell her, again, everything that she could remember; from the time she spent with him at the ground, to the divorce at the court.
...

Shruti wasn't surprised to see Shreya reading a book quietly the next day, at her bench before the morning bell rang. She got to school early; she decided to save Mrs.Sharma today. She would probably have to walk up three flights of stairs to the third grade kids and look over them today, like she did once two weeks ago. Just so that Mrs.Sharma didn't have a complaint, atleast. Usually, she was just on time everyday so Shruti didn't get much into trouble, as she would think Shruti had left for her first class. However, today, getting up early didn't seem like too much of a problem. Shruti didn't know why.
"Early today?" Shreya asked her, placing a coloured post-it as a bookmark on the page she was reading, closing the book and turning to face Shruti.
"Yup," Shruti replied, shortly, setting her books for the first period on her table.
"You mad at me for something?" Shreya figured.
"No not really.. Just wondering," Shruti said, vaguely. She decided to ask why she hadn't told her she liked Aarnav.
"What?"
"How come you never told me you've got a crush on Aarnav? I could have helped you guys figure this whole thing out long ago," Shruti said, smilingly, knowing she would have just told Shreya to shut it and behave normally. She turned to face Shreya.
"Actually, I only had a thing for me after he asked me ou-"
"Are you wearing make up?!" Shruti blurted out. Shreya had kohl on her eyes, about which she'd never bothered before. Kohl wasn't exceptional; even Shruti wore it. But there was eyeliner on her eyelids; it was a bright, spunky shade of purple. If Shruti wasn't mistaken, she also had eye shadow on of the same colour. Maybe it was just the eye liner that had spread; after all, Shreya wasn't too experienced at this. Not that Shruti herself had ever touched it. Apart from that, Shreya had a thick layer of white powder on her face; making her look even more fair than usual. Her lips were shining with bright, sparkly lip gloss.
"Just a little. Figured I look prettier," Shreya smiled at her.
Shruti walked towards the stairs for duty, replying to the smile with cocked eyebrows. She didn't mean to let Shreya know what she thought about it; but she couldn't help it, this time. Shreya and make up? Ugh.

Shruti looked at herself. It was a dull Friday evening, and she was standing in front of the full-length mirror in her room and glaring at herself. She went a bit closer. Her eyes looked really plain without kohl. She didn't know if 'plain' meant ugly, though. She had a sharp nose, but not chisel-sharp. Maybe her phitrum wasn't long enough. But then again, it made her look better than if it was. Her dark, staight hair hung open, over one side of her wheatish coloured face. She had a very typical colour; but she didn't know if that made her any less pretty than Shreya, who was very fair. Shreya was also probably an inch taller than Shruti; Quite a few people were taller than Shruti, she was just the average woman when it came to height. She had never really thought of looks that much before. She knew she was pretty, and that was it. Did she need to wear make-up? Shruti pondered over it. No, she would only make herself look like a fool. She tied her hair back in a low pony like she always did, and went back to her school work, cursing herself for that lame thought. What had gotten into her? She was acting so stupid.
...
"Are you sure?" Aarnav said, standing in front of Shruti's classroom, asking for the hundredth time.
"Yes, Mr.Suddenly-concerned!" Shruti said, again.
"You'll walk alone?"
Shruti decided that it was sort of better to let Aarnav and Shreya walk home together without her, since she wasn't too sure if she could take another day of having to hear them at it again. Plus, now that Aarnav realised Shruti had felt left out the last time, he'd be extra conscious to make sure he didn't ignore her, and Shruti didn't want to put him through all that.
"I don't know, I'll find someone to go with," Shruti said, wondering who she'd go with. She was going to take auditions for the debate next month, since there were no other prefect volunteers from her house. She'd never bothered before, considering she'd have to go home in total boredom. If she did her duty, she would have to stay back an extra hour after school everyday, which wasn't really Shruti's idea of fun, and noone else's either, so she'd probably be the last one to leave school. Alone.
"Okay so you don't want us to wait for you?" Aarnav asked, one more time.
"Aarnav, bye," Shruti said, giving him a slight push. Shreya was waiting for him at the door.
"Okay, see ya," he said. "You're not doing this because you're angry, right?"
"Gosh. No," Shruti answered, rolling her eyes.
"Okay... careful!" Aarnav called out to her before he walked out of school with his hand on Shreya's waist. Shruti flinched. Ew.
Almost an hour later, Shruti found herself extremely busy in writing down a speech for the girl she'd selected to take part in the literary activity. She had heard about fifteen junior girls read out in their best possible manner what was written on the chit that Shruti had given them. None of them were really good at public speaking. They seemed terrified just to speak in front of Shruti; she could imagine what they would do on stage in front of the whole school. Nevertheless, Shruti was noone to speak since she had stage-fear herself, so she uncomplainingly chose two girls, who had been the loudest and most confident. Then all the girls left, and she was left alone to prepare what the girl would say.
It was funny how she'd been chosen as the literary captain inspite of her stage fear; it meant people actually bothered to read her articles in the yearly school magazine. She sat on a secluded bench outside a classroom on the first floor, looking over the basketball court. Aarnav never bothered to stay back for basketball practice, though he was on the team. He had private coaching. But there were quite a few guys who practiced at school, Nakul included. Shruti looked up from her work and watched them play. It was an intense game; people kept falling every now and then. However, thanks to Shruti's hatred for sports, she didn't understand one bit of the game. She also wasn't good friends with many other people on the team, just Nakul. He looked like he played really well, though. Or maybe he was just in a really good mood today. He kept shooting basket after basket. Nakul wasn't skinny, but he wasn't flabby, either. He was probably just a little underweight; perfect, just like Shruti herself. Shruti wondered if he had muscles.
Shruti ended the speech beautifully. Atleast it seemed beautiful to her. She grabbed her bag, almost weightless as it was today, and went down the stairs to the staffroom. Mrs.Kumar was stunned by her skills, once again. It was a routine; every time Shruti wrote something like this she was all praises.
"It's wonderful, Shruti. An inborn talent. Wonderful," she repeated, over and over again in her partly-british accent. "Tell me something, do you like doing this?" Mrs.Kumar asked her, knowing what the answer would be. "Yes, ma'am," Shruti replied truthfully. She really did like it. Writing took things off her mind, and it was nice to get involved with her essay, story or speech, find the correct words, put them in a sentence in such a way that it seemed orderly and perfect. When she re-read her own writings, it made her feel like she was really talented.
"You know, Shruti we should do something about this," Mrs.Kumar said, seriously.
"What?" Shruti asked.
"Bhavya also is a wonderful writer. You should really come up with a good idea for the school. Maybe a newsletter or something. About all the recent events and gossip at school! A weekly one," The old lady said.
Shruti thought about it. It sounded amazing. She would love to set aside time for writing. She wanted to let her friends see her skills, too.
"Wonderful, ma'am! I'd be totally willing to," Shruti said, interested now. "I'll.. ask Bhavya, too." Shruti was really happy now. She'd always wanted to do something like this; when she was in the seventh grade, her eighth grade seniors did something like it. She had requested her English teacher to give in her name for the next year; but back then Shruti was an introvert; the biased teacher had given in the name of her own favourite student. Shruti always felt so stupid about it and she'd always wanted a chance to show that she was better. And now, she was getting it. She loved Mrs.Kumar. Plus, Mrs.Kumar was a better and more experienced teacher, and she thought Shruti was really good at writing, so didn't care for the other teachers opinion, not a bit. Shruti smiled.
"Yes, and don't forget Prerna, as well," the teacher said. Prerna was another really talented writer. She was a quiet, sweet girl with an excellent vocabulary, something that Shruti lacked. Maybe the only thing that didn't get her past the elections was her over-use of it. Sometimes using too much of your knowledge irritates the reader. Shruti personally wouldn't have liked to read something with a dictionary by her side.
...
Shruti dragged her feet as she walked, talking to Nakul. She had met up with him just outside; apparently he went home everyday at that time, too. She seemed to have found company. She was delighted; Nakul wasn't as close to her as Aarnav or Shreya but he still was fun.
"And suddenly you're a sincere prefect?" Nakul raised an eyebrow questioningly. He knew Shruti wouldn't have opted to stay back to do the job.
"Oh don't be silly; I had to take debate tryouts."
"Or, somebody didn't want to walk home with two of her lovebird friends."
Shruti's head shot towards Nakul. "How did you know?" She blurted out, forgetting that she had to lie. Nakul laughed.
"It's obvious. To be frank I wouldn't want to be alone with them either," he admitted.
She remembered that Aarnav told her that Nakul had told him about his crush. Shruti wondered who it might be. She didn't want to ask; it might be kind of barging into his personal life, but the curiousity would kill her.

Shruti bent closely over her work so her chin was almost on the table. Her head felt heavy now; she was obviously sleepy, it was past 3 a.m. and she hadn't gotten even a minute of sleep since she was off the phone with Bhavya. At first Shruti thought she'd wait till school to tell her but it was too hard to put it off that long. Bhavya was just as interested as Shruti, if not more. She proposed an idea; Shruti and herself would write, while Prerna could edit to make the essays sound a bit more grown-up with her incredible vocabulary. Prerna wasn't reachable after school; she didn't have a phone. So if she didn't like her role, they would think about changing it later. Shruti was presently working on an article which was a tribute for Mrs.Woodman, a teacher who had passed away recently. She was loved by all her students, including Shruti, unlike the other junior teacher who had rejected Shruti for the newsletter. Bhavya was probably in the same droopy state as Shruti knew it. They were so eager to print the first edition soon, that they wanted to be done with most of it by the very next day. Shruti finished as soon as she could, and made sure she set everything back in place before she fell into bed. She knew she would have a problem getting up the next day; but then again, she would have that anyway.
...
"What?" Shruti said, groggily. Shreya had called her up at 5 a.m. Shruti wanted to sleep in till late, but unfortunately Shreya made her phone buzz so many times that even Shruti woke up to it.
"Aarnav and I fought," she repeated, for what seemed like the millonth time to her. But poor Shruti didn't have enough sleep to get her brain to get working again yet. This time, it seemed to strike to her, though.
"What?!" Shruti said surprisedly, sitting up. They had just started going out like a few days ago. Break-up already?
"How many times do I say it?" Shreya said, irritably.
"Oh, I'm sorry, but I happened to be sleeping. Excuse me for it though, I know it's weird I'm asleep at five," Shruti said, sarcastically. "What happened, anyway?"
"Well, I was on the phone with Kartik. Today evening, around 6 o clock," Shreya said.
Since when did Shreya talk to people like Kartik? He was Aarnav's friend; one of his best, Asish being the other.
"And then I got Aarnav's call." There was a small pause. "Shruti! Are you asleep?" Shreya said, louder.
"No, no.. no I'm not," Shruti said. How could she be? This was interesting.
"Yeah, so then, I hung up on Kartik and then I was about to take his call, but by then he'd already hung up."
"So?" Shruti asked.
"Wait! So then I called Kartik back," Shreya continued. "So.. later when I spoke to him, Aarnav thought that I didn't take his call just for the heck of it. I explained it to him but he just doesn't want to listen. At any rate, how does it even matter? It's just one stupid phone call. I don't understand, seriously."
Shruti understood why Aarnav was mad, though. He looked like he had not a care in the world externally. But on the inside, he was concerned about the people he loved. He probably just felt ditched. Shruti agreed, it was definitely a mountain made out of a molehill, but she didn't really like that Shreya was being so insensitive about it. By her tone, Shruti felt a little insecure about their relationship. Shreya sounded so rough and uncaring. She would hurt Aarnav.
"Oh..." Shruti said, much more awake.
"Well... what do you think I should do..?"
"Tell him you're sorry," Shruti replied.
"What? But I didn't do anything wrong."
"Ofcourse you did. You should have called Aarnav back instead Kartik at that moment."
"It's such a small thing, Shruti!"
"Well, it matters to him... and you should accept that," Shruti said.
"Ugh. Whatever, if thats what it takes for him to act normal. But he isn't answering my calls!"
"Keep trying till we meet in school tomor- today. If it doesn't work I'll do something," Shruti said.
"But... Shruti i'm really scared. I... I don't want to break up, I.. really, really like him," Shreya said, slightly softer. Shruti smiled.
"If he doesn't take your call, leave it to me. I'll take care," Shruti said. She looked at her watch. 5.15 a.m. She didn't really think she could go back to sleep now, so she just got out of bed and started off with her morning chores. Shruti sighed. Yet another day that she would be early to school. It would have been so akward to her, just a couple of weeks ago. Nowadays, it was usual. Shruti felt like she was changing; she had almost totally left behind her carefree attitude. She didn't know if it was good or not, but either way, other people were happier. Like her mother. She hadn't had to scream at her in quite a while now.
...
Shruti was outside Aarnav's classroom. She had to get a word with him; the last thing Shruti needed was two devastated friends because of a break-up. He hadn't responded to Shreya's apologies and it was driving her up the wall. Not to mention, Shruti too.
Shruti had been trying to grab his attention to get him to come out of his classroom, all in vain. She herself couldn't go in; the second class' teacher was still inside, clearing the doubt of some nerd. The rest of the students were hither, thither and yon, though. Finally, Aarnav spotted Shruti. Shruti breathed a sigh of relief.
"Hey," Aarnav said. He had slight circles under his eyes and he didn't exactly look his usual cheerful self.
"What is up with you guys?" Shruti asked, getting to the point immediately. Aarnav gave her an irritated look. Shruti could see it was only superficial; he wasn't irritated, he was really upset.
"Well, she..."
"No I know the story," Shruti said. "It's a small thing, Aarnav. It probably didn't cross her mind, that's all. She's been up all morning trying to apologize and you didn't even reply!" Shruti exclaimed.
"Umm.." Aarnav said.
"What?"
"I don't know, it just... really pissed me off. I mean, she's supposed call me back right? If she called him back, it obviously just means that she'd prefer talking to him. If it's that way... then what's... what's the point of all this..." Aarnav looked away.
"Look. Girls really don't analyze that much. She obviously chooses you over anyone else, Aarnav. He was probably just more interesting at the moment. With you, it's a different feeling. Maybe different from fun. Right?" Aarnav looked choked. He nodded, anyway.
"Oh my god. Aarnav! Shreya really likes you. Believe me!" Shruti convinced, fervently.
"O-okay," Aarnav said. His expression loosened a bit.
"Still mad at her?" she asked.
"I.. I wasn't really mad at her. I didn't know she was sending messages."
"What?"
"No, I'd switched off my phone. Felt like.."
"Like?"
"Like I needed a break from all of that for a few hours," Aarnav said. Shruti didn't understand.
"What is it?" Shruti asked him, frowning. She lay a hand on his shoulder. It was way above hers, Shruti hated to think.
"Nothing..." Aarnav smiled a bit, taking her hand into his own. Maybe he didn't want to talk about it.
"Come tell her you're okay," Shruti urged.
...

Shruti pushed open the door to her house with one hand, her other hand being occupied with a four-sided newsletter for the school, and it was the reason for Shruti's smile, which was probably wider than it had gotten in the past few weeks.

It was quite a noisy entry that Shruti made into the house once again, so her mother knew she had finally come home, and she hurried out to meet her. Before Shruti knew it, she was engulfed in a huge hug from her mother, who was ecstatic, maybe even more than her.
"Oh, Shruti! You didn't tell me you were writing!" she said, patting her on the back.
Okay, this is akward... Shruti thought to herself. She had expected her mother to give her a lecture on how she shouldn't waste time on things like this when her board exams were due in a few months. Instead, she was happy?
"How do you know?" Shruti asked, realising a moment later that Anusha had gotten a copy at school, too.
"Anusha, sweetheart. But really, why didn't you tell me?"
"Mom? Aren't you supposed to be scholding me? I mean.. I spent quite a few nights on this. And.. my Chemistry grades are still .."
"Oh, well, you have a point there. It is your board year, and this is very time-taking. But no, I don't want you to stop."
"Wha-?"
"You're a wonderful writer, Shruti. And so are your friends. That paper is amazing. You can't give up a passion like that! Who cares about your boards? You'll become an author!" Her mother was completely insane with joy, Shruti realised.
"You know that's what I've always wanted to be?"
"You write?" Shruti said, surprisedly. She never knew it.
"Yes, I spent my childhood dreaming that one fine day, I'd open up the morning newspaper and find my name in the headlines for a book I wrote."
"Wow. But.. I've never known you like that. I mean, why didn't you.."
"Because once I never got the conditions."
"What?"
"Well, first I had to complete my education, because your grandpa would never have let me taken writing as my only profession since it's not very dependable on. And then I had to get married. After that, I had you guys to keep me busy. And then, I split up with you father. So I have to stick to a full-time, properly paying job," her mother explained. Shruti noticed how her mother said, 'I split up with your father' with so much ease. She'd never heard her mention him so casually before.
"No, now you can leave your job, right? You can wri-"
"Darling, we'll be broke in a couple of months if I do that," her mother smiled sadly.
"Anyway, this isn't about me. Listen to me. I want you to write, develop your skills. Maybe I can get you a few books which might help you..." Her mother began to think, supposedly about which books were the best for her child.
"Mom?"
"Yeah, I was saying.. Just don't stick where you are, okay? Keep learning, keep growing... improve that horrendous vocabulary of yours." She completed, sounding more like herself now.
"Okay," Shruti said, smiling. Somehow the word 'horrendous' used against her didn't flare her up this time, she knew her mother was right.
"Go have lunch Shruti, I laid everything out on the table for you." She needn't have told Shruti that; she was already accustomed to it. As Shruti began to walk away, there was something her mother needed her to know.
"Shruti, you know how I said 'who cares about your boards'?"
"Yup." How could she forget that? It was the best part of the conversation.
"I didn't mean it. You better make enough time for your studies too, young lady." Shruti rolled her eyes.
...

Shruti sat on a couch, cursing. Why didn't she just say no? She was at Nakul's, and Aarnav and Shreya were with her. Apparently there was a football match that the guys had planned to watch at his place because Nakul had the house to himself that evening; unfortunately Shreya wanted to spend the evening with her boyfriend, so then Aarnav had a brainwave:Why not get Shreya over with him to watch the match? Generally, Shruti would have thought that Shreya would deny that, because even though she wasn't as clueless as Shruti in sports, she wasn't very interested either. But she agreed; and Nakul didn't want to be alone with them, as he'd told Shruti the other day, so he talked Shruti into coming over as well. Now, Shruti didn't understand a bit of what was going on in the game; no doubt, it was just senseless. Random people going around, kicking this huge black and white patterned ball... Plus, she had to make sure her head didn't turn left; there was a terrifying scene playing live over there. Aarnav and Shreya shared the same bean bag; and the last time she'd turned to offer them popcorn, they were in the middle of a wet kiss. Shruti felt nauseatic. She wished they would go find some place where she couldn't see them.

Ugh, Shruti thought to herself. She had felt so sorry for Nakul when he asked her to come, that she actually agreed to put up boredom for heavens knew what amount of time. She wondered how many hours these football games lasted. She could have been doing something so much better; what a waste of a beautiful Saturday evening. She could have been on the phone, talking about the most interesting things; she could have been watching Friends. She could have been facebooking, but yet, here she was in front of a fifty-five inch LED television watching sports.

Suddenly everything began to relax around her; Nakul changed the channel, Aarnav's face didn't look so tense anymore, and Shreya finally called up her mother, whose call she had been putting off till then. The match must be over! Shruti smiled. She wondered if she should be the first one to leave.
"Can I leave now?" Shruti twisted herself one hundred and eighty degrees to face Nakul, standing behind her. After the first ten minutes of the match, he was so tense that he couldn't sit himself down, so he set his elbows on the head-rest of the couch seat behind Shruti and leaned over. This way, it took less effort to stand up, walk around and curse whenever he wanted to.
"It's only the first segment, Shruti, don't you want to watch the rest?" Nakul asked. Shruti wondered if she should let go of her ego and let him know that she didn't follow one bit of any sport. No, she decided. She would just sit there, bored. Shruti turned back around unhappily.
"You don't follow football, do you?" he asked.
"I do... kinda," she said, sheepishly.
"Shruti."
"Well, no," she admitted, making sure Aarnav couldn't hear her.
"Why didn't you just tell me that? You missed forty-five minutes of it then! Anyway, no problem. I'll explain it to you now," Nakul said, chuckling. It didn't get Shruti mad though; it wasn't that type of a laugh. He sat down next to her, and began to explain.
"See, there're eleven players and two teams, ten are on the field and one is the goalie," he said, waiting for a reply. Shruti nodded. "The game is about ninety minutes long, with a break after the first forty five minutes."
"Are you serious? That was only forty five minutes? Felt like forever!" Shruti exclaimed. Nakul laughed again.
"Well, obviously. You were so clueless," Nakul told her. Nakul was a sweet guy; he kept explaining the game to her after that.
At one point, Shreya overheard and went like, "Oh my god, Shruti. You don't know how to play football? It's such a common sport!"
Shruti was slightly taken aback; She knew Shreya wasn't at fault to be surprised, anyone would be. She felt stupid; she wished she would just turn invisible. She might have been tomato-red if her skin colour had given way.
"Doesn't matter, Shreya. She wasn't ever interested. If she wanted to play then she'd pick it up in much less time than it would take you," Nakul replied bluntly, returning again to mentoring. Wow. That was amazing. Shruti wished she could answer people as reflexively as well. Somehow, confronting her would be like putting her on mute; she couldn't think, under all that pressure.

Once the game was over, Shruti liked football. She had even sort of enjoyed the second half; and the best part was that Man Utd (the team Nakul supported, and made Shruti a new supporter of) had won. Maybe it wasn't as pointless as she thought, raising your hopes on a game in which you aren't even the one playing. It was worth it if you won. Ofcourse Shruti got nowhere close to the emotions of the two boys; they were beyond happy.
"You didn't have to answer Shreya for me, you know," Shruti told him, later after the two lovebirds had left.
"I wanted to. Anyway, whatever I said was right. She was mean to you, and I didn't like it. She can't take you for granted..." Nakul seemed a little mad at Shreya.
Shruti smiled. "Thanks."
"Don't be an idiot. Don't say thanks to me!"

"She's never got time, Shruti," Aarnav complained, upset. He'd called Shruti and asked if she would walk with him for a while; he wanted to talk.
"It's the board year..." Shruti's voice trailed away. When Shreya knew that before, why'd she even agree to this? Shreya was stupid.
"And when I told her she's too busy, she said 'Well, if your choice is to fail, there's not much I can do about it. But I'm not sucuumbing to that'."
Shruti raised her eyebrows. That was rude. Aarnav looked hurt. Very hurt.
"She was so angry..." his voice trailed off.
"What did you say to that?" She wanted to know.
"Nothing."
"Why?"
"Who the heck knows what 'sucuumb' means?"
Shruti burst out laughing.
"It means... well, give in to," Shruti said, amongst giggles. "You should read, Aarnav."
"That's boring."
"You read Buzz, though, don't you?" He had better be reading it.
"Yeah... that's good stuff. And the articles are short... they keep my interest." Shruti smiled.
"I'll take that as a compliment," she told him, pleased.
"I didn't say I liked your articles in there," he tried to tease.
"So say it now," Shruti answered.
"Shreya, Shruti. Focus," he reminded her.
"Right. Just give her some time... she must be stressed. There is a lot of work you know. You've already set your career... sports doesn't need great grades. But all of us need to keep an eye on them, right?" Shruti explained.
"How come you always have time for me, then?" Aarnav shot at her.
"I make time for you."
"You know, Shruti, before I called you, I asked her to come for a walk... and she said no. Like, right on my face. She doesn't care..."
Aarnav had asked Shreya? Shruti looked at her multicoloured converse. She felt stupid. She was the second choice; the back up.
"Aarnav, I need to leave," she told him, quickly.
"You too?"
"Mom's got guests over today. Colleagues. She needs help," Shruti lied. "I'll call you. And I'll try saying something to Shreya."
"Right... bye then," Aarnav said, reaching over to her for a hug. Shruti returned it briefly. She wasn't too happy with him right now. Whatever. She knew she would still call Shreya.
...
Once again, Shruti managed to make herself a part of a heated discussion with Shreya regarding Aarnav. Shreya kept repeating how she couldn't manage it any longer, and Shruti secretly stood by her decision but the only thing that made her try that hard to convince Shreya to speak to Aarnav once more was the memory of how Aarnav looked when he was hurt; she had a soft corner for that expression. If that was the result of Shreya's anger, she could imagine what would happen to him if they broke up. It looked like he was really into Shreya and the last thing he needed to spoil his studies even more was depression. Shruti got her friend to conference with Aarnav once; and they talked it out themselves. As much as she had hated it when they told her they were going out, she was glad they were okay now.
Shruti had just finished narrating the entire story to Nakul, who seemed least interested to know if they were back together again, but just wondered Shruti managed to do it.
"So you spent so much time and energy on this?" Nakul asked her, disbelievingly.
"Yeah.. Well, friends. Gotta do stuff for them don't we?"
"You don't believe in all this relationship stuff, right?" Nakul asked her.
"No way," Shruti said quickly. "Don't take me wrongly. If they had told me before it all started I would have talked them totally out of it. But now that it's on..." Shruti sighed.
"Okay so you don't believe in it at all?"
"I don't know," Shruti told him, confused now. "You?"
"People let it affect their feelings SO much. They say it's their life and all kinds of bullshit, and at the end of it they just break up anyway," Nakul said. "But that doesn't mean I don't have crushes. Or I wouldn't ask anyone to go out with me. I just mean... I wouldn't attach so much emotion to it.. You know?" Shruti nodded. He made sense. Liking someone and not asking them out just because you think it's a waste of time would hurt just as much. It would kill you to restrain if you knew the person liked you back.
Nakul looked at her as though he expected her to say something else. "What?" Shruti asked him. "Oh... Nothing. Your house is here," he told her. "Oh," Shruti smiled. "See ya!" she waved to him and disappeared.
...

It was two a.m. and Shruti desperately needed to reach Shreya. She was sure her biology manual had gotten into her bag somehow; and she needed a confirmation just then, or else she couldn't sleep. She just couldn't, it was a real piece of hard work; there were so many difficult diagrams that Shruti had taken the pains to draw, and more importantly she would not get another record from the school even if she decided to re-do her work.
Shruti reached for her phone and punched in Shreya's number. She knew she would be sleeping now but she hoped she would answer her call. But it didn't ring; it was engaged. Ugh, Aarnav.. Get off the phone with her, Shruti thought to herself. She kept calling her; Shreya would have to put him on hold and take her call. Finally after five minutes of perseverance, Shreya did so.
"What is it?" Shreya asked Shruti, rudely.
"Who the hell're you talking to?" Shruti burst out, angrily. "Why couldn't you just put him on hold for ONE second?!"
"Kartik.. Sorry, anyway tell me what is it?"
Kartik? Shruti forgot why she had called. Shreya was speaking to Kartik, this late in the night?
"Kartik?" Shruti repeated.
"Yup."
"A-Aarnav's friend?"
"Oh lord. Yes, Shruti, that's him! Now tell me what it is, fast, he's on hold," Shreya said urgently.
"Oh.. Yeah.. Can you check if you have my Bio lab manual?"
Shruti waited as Shreya rummaged through her bag.
"Yeah, it's there," Shreya told her.
"Okay... Thanks."
That was supposed to be relieving, wasn't it? But now there was a bigger issue. Shruti wished she hadn't called; now she knew something that she shouldn't know. She didn't know if she should tell Aarnav or not. If she did, Shreya would hate her. If Aarnav got to know later and also knew that Shruti had known, he would hate her. She wished Shreya would stop doing that to him. To a guy who was hysterical about his girlfriend preferring to speak to some other guy over himself, a late night call with another guy was clearly a big deal. Shruti sighed as she got into bed next to her already dozing sister. She was so tiny next to Shruti; not to mention, innocent. Shruti had always familiarised Shreya and Anusha; but now Shreya had turned into a total brat. She hoped Anusha would not become so when she grew older. At any rate, Shruti would talk a good amount of sense into her before she let her put on make up or talk to any guy past midnight. Shruti thought about how Anusha always wanted to hear about their dad. She hoped she could get them to meet someday; maybe once she was famous, she'd meet her dad. And she'd take Anusha along. She lay one arm on her little sister and fell asleep.
...
Shruti wondered what was wrong with Aarnav; it was obvious something had happened. He hadn't spoken properly to Shruti in the till now, and he wasn't wearing his usual crooked smile when he walked out of his class. Shruti wondered if he found out about Shreya speaking to Kartik way into the night. They were best buddies; Kartik must have dropped some sort of clue. She wished she could ask Shreya to just go home in her shiny car and walk with Aarnav alone. She wondered if Shreya would even bother to ask if there was anything wrong.
Shruti snapped out of her thoughts as she glimpsed Aarnav walking right past her with Asish. She glared at him till he noticed her and then he walked over.
"What's up?" Shruti asked him.
"Nothing really," Aarnav replied. "I was just... gonna go get coke."
"Not that! I mean what's wrong?"
"What's wrong?" Aarnav said, innocently.
"Oh c'mon," Shruti said impatiently. "It's obvious something's bothering you... look at your face!"
Aarnav sighed.
"Yesterday night at eleven Shreya told me she's going to bed," Aarnav told her, looking away. "I really wanted to talk; I called her back in fifteen minutes but it was engaged."
"She would have taken your call, seeing your number, right?"
"No, I was low on money so I used my mom's phone. I called again at twelve, it was still busy. Why should she be talking to anybody that late? Suppose it's a guy...?"
Shruti wondered if she should tell.
"She probably planned to get into bed but she got another call," Shruti suggested.
"And so what if it was a guy, Aarnav? Everyone talks late in the night. Big deal," Shruti told him. "I mean e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e." Everyone committing a mistake made it seem light on Shreya's part to committ the same mistake. She wanted to keep him warned; she didn't want him to think Shreya was an innocent and sweet girlfriend. Plus, he would find out some day, and then it would be too hard on him if he didn't even have an idea.
"You don't." Aarnav said, bluntly. "You don't even take MY calls." Shruti wondered how he knew that.
"Oh shut up. I just keep losing my phone."
"Whatever, Shruti... Thanks anyway," Aarnav began to walk away.
"You look good when you smile," Shruti called after him. That did the job, and Aarnav turned back around to give her his typical crooked smile before he disappeared.
...
Shruti walked out of her bedroom, looking for her mother and sister. She had slept in horribly; it was one of those weekday holidays that made Shruti exceptionally happy.
They had probably woken Shruti up to tell her where they were off to, but like always, Shruti never remembered anything anyone told her when she was in the middle of her sleep. Shruti walked around to find a note or something like her mother usually left; and sure enough, there was a yellow stick pad- note attached to her own bedside table.
"Anusha's dental appointment. Will be back around 2. Don't waste time, study or finish your work for Buzz. Love, Mom"
Shruti rolled her eyes at the 'don't waste time' part. How typical of her mother.
Shruti poured herself cereal and milk, tied her messy hair up in a bun and plopped herself down on the couch conveniently in her loose tracks and t-shirt, watching as the television sprang to life with Friends. Shruti's hair was nearly ten inches below her shoulder now; she should probably get it trimmed. It'd been a while. Maybe this time she'd get a flick. Everyone had those now. Shruti hated fringes, but flicks were pretty good.
Shruti cursed as she heard her phone ring inside her bedroom, probably buried somewhere under the covers. She set the bowl on the coffee table and raced for the phone: but it stopped ringing before she could trace it. It was an unknown number; Shruti wondered if it was Aarnav from his mother's phone. The landline rang right then; and Shruti had to rush back to the living room now. She checked on the caller ID, and it was the same number. Aarnav, clearly.
"Hey," Shruti said, trying to catch her breath.
It was a man. Someone who's voice Shruti could not recognize.
"Is this Shruti, madam?"
"Y-yes," Shruti said, unsurely.
The man recited her car number and requested for a confirmation. Shruti wondered if her mother had disobeyed some traffic rule; maybe she had parked in a no-parking zone. Oh boy, this was going to be a lot of money.
"Madam your car has undergone a serious accident. Both the people inside have been found dead even before they could be taken to the hospital."
"Shut up Kartik. Or is it Asish?" This was surely Aarnav's friend; only those people would have this kind of a thing in mind for an idea of a prank.
"I'm not Kartik or Asish. I'm Mohan. I'm a Police officer."
"Don't joke," Shruti said, faintly. Her head was spinning. She wished she'd eaten last night.
"How would I know your car number? Your mother; her wedding ring is of white gold. It has a precious diamond in the centre."
Shruti felt the blood of her face drain out. She didn't want to hear anymore. The man was right; her mother wore that ring.
"Shut up," she managed to let out, trying to convince herself that it was a prank.
"I understand your distrust, but I'm very sorry to tell you I'm not lying." Shruti took the receiver away from her ear, and vigourously tried to get it back in it's slot. She missed. It fell beside the table, on the carpet with a soft 'thud'. Her head was swimming. This had to be a mistake. There's some mistake somewhere, she told herself. No, Shruti told herself. But then, everything blacked out.

When Shruti woke up, she was on a bed to the side of a window in a huge hall. The window was so big that even though it wasn't a sunny day, there was still a large share of light pouring into the place.
There was a lady who came over to help Shruti up, instantly. She held a glass to Shruti's lips and tipped it over, forcing her to sip. Orange juice. Shruti hated orange juice. Nevertheless, she felt so drained that she just drank without any objection.
"How're you feeling?" An older lady asked her. Both the women were servants, clearly from their apparel.
Shruti nodded in response.
Suddenly everything that happened before she passed out came rushing back to her in a fraction of a second. The note, the phone call. Where the hell was she?
"Where's my mother?!" Shruti asked, frantically.
Both the ladies looked at eachother uncomfortably.
"Your father will be home in a minute, child. He will explain," the older one answered.
Father? That was a word she hadn't heard in a long, long while. Something was definitely wrong.
"I - I want to step outside for a second," Shruti said, getting up. Only then did she realise that it required more energy to move than she had imagined. She forced herself up, leaving the women behind her with unsure expressions, and hurried down the stairs to the lower floor, which led to a huge double door. Someone helped her into footwear. Shruti went out of the doors to a magnificent gateway, which someone opened up for her. She heard someone call out for her, "Child!" but that didn't stop her. She knew this was all just nonsense; all she had to do was get back home as soon as possible, and her mother would be right there, worrying as she had been away for so long. Shruti was prepared to do anything to reach her house from where she was, but it wasn't all so difficult. She recognized the neighbourhood, infact it was her very own!
Shruti walked as fast her legs could take her through the weather. The clouds were getting darker now, and there was a slight drizzle. She ignored it. On she walked, towards her apartment. There you go, she told herself. It's right here, as through she had expected it to disappear. She forced herself up the stairs, ignoring how faint she felt, as her patience couldn't sustain itself enough till the elevator arrived. Up she went, ignoring all the greetings and questions she met with on the way. Finally, she was in front of her own flat. Shruti rang the doorbell, and waited impatiently. Why wouldn't anyone answer? It had been a full two minutes;She was getting angry now. She was going shout at her mother for having not rushed to open the door. She really needed to sit down.
Shruti rang the bell again. It sounded weird; not like it usually did. There was a slight echo. Shruti peeped in through the window. The lime-green curtains at the window had been removed. They looked plain; Shruti had never seen those windows like that. The weirdest part was you could look right into the house; there was no privacy. But... the couch was missing; there was no TV. Her mother wasn't busy running from the kitchen to her study room. Anusha wasn't plopped in front of the TV watching Friends or Hannah Montana. They weren't there.
Shruti knew what had happened, but she didn't want to believe it. That was only going to make it more real. She needed to walk, walk far enough to get back to her own world. This neighbourhood didn't seem like her own anymore and she needed to get back to where she belonged. Just go far enough, she told herself. Mom and Anusha will be there. She knew she was wrong.
She didn't get the chance to do that, though. At the foot of the steps at the ground floor, a tall man, aged maybe around forty-five waited for her. It was the man who's car she'd bumped into. It was her father.
"Come on, Shruti..." Shruti heard him say warily, leading the way to a dull red Hyundai Accent car. He opened the door for her as she got inside, without a word. She didn't know why she wasn't questioning him; maybe it was the realisation that she had nothing more concrete to do than to follow his instructions, anyway.
"Are you feeling any better?" He said, looking at her doubtfully. Shruti's eyes began to water. Her mother hated this man. She had wanted him to get out of her life and leave the family alone. But here Shruti was, helplessly sitting in the same person's car, seeking food and board from him.
"Don't you understand what's going on? My mother, my sister, they aren't he-" Shruti stopped herself. "You probably don't give a damn anyway," Shruti said, bitterly.
"You're wrong, child. Your mother; she meant everything to me," he told her, not sounding the least bit angry with her behaviour. Shruti looked up at him, expecting her nerves to burst open with anger at his total lack of emotion. Instead, when she looked at him, she saw genuine grief. He really did love Mom, Shruti thought to herself. He really didn't want to leave her. Well if he liked her so much he should have come back to us, Shruti argued with herself. Her mother worked so hard for a living; where was he when she needed him? Shruti turned back in front with an indifferent expression.
"Do you hate me?" he asked gently. Shruti didn't think this was the best time to discuss their own relationship.
"Why did Mom hate you?" She asked him, irrelevantly. Her father actually chuckled.
"Your mom... She never hated me. She divorced me in a rush of emotion. We fought; all the time. We were young and had our mountains of ego..."
"So it was your fault."
"I wouldn't like to think so. Your mother didn't think so," he informed her. Shruti was surprised.
"How do you know? You've spoken to her? After the..-"
"Yes, we spoke. Not very often; once in a month or two. Sometimes when she needed financial help."
Shruti gasped.
"I tried to make sure you all were fine, always... Guess I've failed that one, though," he said, sighing, reminding her of what had happened, again. "There's something you have to keep."
They had reached the house; and her father parked in the cellar, where, Shruti saw, that this car was probably the cheapest one he owned. He had four more, if she was right; one of them being a black Scorpio, and another, a Mercedes. The same one that'd knocked her down.
Her father took his wallet from the pocket of his ill fitting, horribly wrinkled light brown formal slacks, and gave her a small, folded, yellow paper that he'd kept inside it.
It was the post-it that Shruti's mom had left her. She took the crinkled little piece of paper into her hands, and ran three trembling fingers over it, trying to straighten it out. Don't waste time, Shruti read.

Shruti's new room was cozy. Her bed was pushed against one wall. It had dull red covers, the colour of her father's car. The comforter was mighty, and probably too huge for the small bed it was being used for. Whenever Shruti tried sitting on her bed, she simply sank inside it. There was a wooden study table set up against the wall opposite to it. It was an intricate one; very thoughtfully built. It had four compartments for loose papers, a stationery holder, and a tea-cup holdler, like the ones in a car. There was also an inbuilt trash can, to throw away rough paper. It was far more convenient than her old one, atleast.
Shruti sat at the table, trying to concentrate on her work.It had been a day or two since the incident; Shruti still didn't seem to grasp it yet. She cried occasionally; but otherwise, she just felt like she was staying at someone else's house, and that this was only temporary. The only time it really smacked her in the face was when she recollected the picture of the empty apartment; she tried her best to avoid the thought.
If there was anything that she could consider as her mother's last wish, it was the sentence in a scrawl, 'Don't waste time. Study or do your work for buzz.' Her quarterlies would start the next day and it was time for her to do what her mother told her to. Shruti made up her mind to make that all she would do, since it was probably the only thing she could do to make it up to her mother for being such a horrible daughter. If only she would have listened to her and got up early as she always pleaded her to, she would have atleast seen her mother and sister for one last time, seen them off... Maybe even gone with them. Somehow, Shruti realised that she wouldn't have minded being in the car with them at the time of the accident.
Shruti watched as a single tear fell from her eye onto her Chemistry book. She wiped it as quickly as possible; it was her mother's favourite subject. She had no idea when she would start studying focussedly. She just couldn't concentrate.
Shruti's phone buzzed. Now she was completely disturbed. Nevertheless, maybe talking to someone would distract her thoughts from the topic. She got up to get it. It was Shreya. Shruti didn't want to speak to Shreya at the moment. Whatever, Shruti thought as she sighed and punched the green button. Shreya was going to be sour; Shruti had given up school for nearly a week now, and had neither informed Shreya, nor kept herself available; her phone had been switched off till her dad handed it to her that very morning. Shruti hadn't asked for it either; she had totally forgotten about the little device she'd considered to be her life once. Shruti remembered that Shreya and Aarnav getting into a fight was a problem to her once upon a time. She would handle millions more of those, if someone gave her loved ones back in exchange for her services.
"He-hello?" Shruti said, her voice cracking. It had been a while since she spoke loudly.
"Where the hell're you?" Shreya demanded.
"Sorry..." Shruti said. She must have been really worried.
"Why aren't you coming to school?"
"Not well," Shruti said simply.
"Better now?" Shruti heard Aarnav's voice.
"Conference, is it?" Shruti was glad it was so; she would get to speak to Aarnav as well.
"Yeah." Shreya sounded really bitter.
"So.. How's school.. And stuff?" Shruti kept trying to make a conversation, ignoring Aarnav's enquiry.
"Umm.. Shruti? Why did you tell Aarnav I find some other guy more interesting than him?"
"What?"
"It really hurt him, you know? That time," Shreya continued. This was so sudden. And random. Shruti shut her eyes tightly and tried to remember. It felt like it was ages ago. Or maybe it was just that all those problems were buried under a lot of other things right now.
"That's not how I meant it, Aarnav," Shruti said, weakly.
"Look, if you guys have something with eachother, please don't make me a part of your war," Aarnav said. He really did sound hurt.
Shruti was confused. War? Her head throbbed.
"War?" she said, voicing her thoughts.
"Don't act innocent, Shruti. I know you've always hated me," Shreya said, harshly.
"What?" Shruti repeated. " Ofcourse I don't, Shreya! What's wrong with you."
"Don't deny that now," Aarnav said, firmly.
Wh- who told you that?" Shruti tried to keep up. What in the world was happening?
"You said it yourself, Shruti. You can't deny this. Remember? Before you knew we were going out, you told me?" Aarnav was saying this? Shruti couldn't believe this. She didn't know what to say; he was kind of right.
"I-" she began, again. She stopped herself; she had nothing to say. There was silence for a few seconds.
"Why're you trying to break us up, Shruti?" Aarnav said in a pleading tone.
"What?" Shruti repeated, stupidly, again. Cat got her tongue.
"You like him, you-"
"Can you please hang on?" Shruti let out. "Just look..."
Shruti hung up. She was desperate for a moment to assimilate whatever they were saying. She didn't know what to say to them in return.
She thought for a minute or two, and then picked up her phone in her trembling hands and typed.
"Look I'm really sorry if I said something wrong... I never meant to hurt you.." She sent it to Aarnav.
"There's nothing like what you suspect. I never liked him and I never will. I'm sorry if there was any misunderstanding but it really wasn't intentional.." She sent to Shreya.
Her phone buzzed back with Aarnav's reply.
"Okay.." it read. What did okay mean?! Shruti felt frantic.
"What exactly do you hold against me?!" Shruti sent back.
Shreya had replied as well. It was a long one.
"What do you mean by telling Aarnav he looks good smiling? If he was upset, why should you bother so much about it? That's my job, I'll do it. Stop pretending he's too good for me. He's happy with me, it's you who isn't." Shruti didn't find anything in that message to which she could think up an answer to. She was really dumbstricken; none of it was true, yet she didn't know how to prove it. She set aside Shreya's message and read Aarnav's reply.
"If you didn't want us to be together you should have told me. I would have respected your opinion, but trying to break us up like that...?"
Shruti's head began to swim again. What nonsense? Her phone buzzed again.
"That day, why didn't you tell me you called up Shreya later in the night and found her line busy? You knew it was MJ and no guy. Why didn't you tell me that? You were off pretending that you didn't have a clue."
Shruti felt even more stupid now. It was Kartik on the phone that night, not MJ. She didn't have the guts to text that back to him, though. She didn't want to be the mediator for anything anymore. Shreya was lying to Aarnav. Shruti wanted to help him, but she didn't know what kind of trouble that would create for herself now. Aarnav seemingly trusted Shreya more, anyway. She didn't reply to either of the texts; she felt lame. Shreya and Aarnav thought she tried to break them up. And they thought it was because she liked Aarnav. She stopped herself, and took a long, deep breath. Nope, it didn't help.
Shruti remembered it clearly in her head, Aarnav's tone when he said, "Why're you trying to break us up, Shruti?" He sounded so helpless and vulnerable.. So hurt by Shruti. The last thing she wanted was for someone to be hurt because of her. But in the reply to the message he sounded just as harsh and rude as Shreya. Shruti got out of her chair and sat down of the floor next to the table, leaning against the wall. She thought deeply; what was wrong with them?
Just then, her phone vibrated again. It was another text from Aarnav. Shruti hoped it was an apology.
"Shreya isn't cool with us talking, Shruti. I don't want to upset her, really. So this'll be the last time. Sorry"
Shruti's eyes filled with tears once again. It was like she was an intruder. Maybe that's what it was all along. Maybe they just didn't want her. She thought of all the times they told her something was up between them; they hadn't ever asked Shruti for help, it was only herself offering it to them. She felt so stupid.
Her mother had always loved and wanted her no matter what an idiot she was; but now even she was gone. Nobody wanted her, she was all alone. She had to fend for herself in this world; there was nothing like friends anymore. Noone cared if she was happy or not.
Shruti cried, sobbed for what seemed like the next whole hour. Now, finally, everything that had been happening hit her. And it hit her way too hard. She had forgotten the world till around nine when she heard a sharp rap on the door.
"Dinner," a male voice said. Shruti wiped her face clean of tears, glanced at the mirror to make sure she didn't look too obvious. Her nose did have a tinge of red at it's end; but that could be overlooked. Even though she didn't know the servant, she didn't want him to think she was crying, like a baby. She forced herself off the ground and went to the door.
"I'm not hungry," Shruti told him. She genuinely did feel full; lunch didn't seem to move ahead to the process of digestion. She had eaten less than she usually did, but she couldn't have force herself to more even if she had wanted to. It was probably because of the fever or something.
"Are you sure?" the man asked her.
"Yes," Shruti answered, and locked the room to herself as he walked away.
Shruti tried to distract herself by studying. She spent a little longer trying to concentrate, through tears; and got as far as hardly two or three pages of her vast syllabus when she heard another knock on the door. It was her father. He waited patiently till Shruti opened the door.
"Hello," he said to her. It then randomly struck Shruti that he had probably been at work all day. "How're you feeling?"
"Me? I'm fine. Fine, better I guess."
"You skipped dinner?"
"Yeah, I really can't..." Shruti's voice trailed off. She hoped he didn't force her.
"I think you should have just a little bit," her father urged.
"Really, I'm good."
He sighed. "Upto you. But if you get hungry, just tell me. And even if it's late, you don't hesitate."
Shruti nodded.
"Check your temperature..." he instructed, handing her a thermometer. Shruti was sick and tired of being checked for her temperature every now and then; there were way too many servants and she was the only family of the owner they had to satisfy. However, arguing would be of no avail; Shruti obeyed. She leaned against the railing to the upper floor just outside her room as she waited patiently. '102 F'. That wasn't exactly what was called as better, but Shruti couldn't let that stop her from attending the next day's exam. She had to do it.
Her father sighed. "You'll just have to wait a while till you begin going to school I guess. When do your quarterlies begin?"
"No I can't, they begin tomorrow," Shruti told him.
"Been able to prepare well?"
"Quite," Shruti lied brutally.
"Will it be a half day?"
"Yes," she said, hoping it would. It usually was, noone paid attention to lessons after writing an exam in the morning.
"Alright, then. I won't hold you up any longer. Don't study till late," he told her.
...
Shruti got out of the car her father had sent to drop her a street before the school approached. She didn't need mysterious looks at the car. She had pleaded with her father to let her walk, but he didn't comply, saying it was too chilly outside and promising that he wouldn't arrange a car for her anymore once she was feeling better.
Shruti made her way over to the gate well before time today. She stepped inside, hoping that she could avoid the normal irritating questions about absence when someone turned up after a long time. Well enough, not many people bothered; everyone was busy with their last minute preparation. Shruti usually was one of them, but today she couldn't recollect even a single part of what she had tried to cram up till three in the morning, successfully completing the portion but with a terrible quality. She didn't know what to revise if she had to do so, because everything was in her head carried the same kind of doubtful nature. The bell rang; All the students were being steered to the upper floors according to the shuffling system. Shruti made a silent prayer to help her in the examination. Maybe that was all that would work now.

The exams were done, alright; but Shruti hadn't a clue of what they went like. The entire memory was fuzzy, like she hadn't even written them. This unsure, doubtful feeling prevailed over Shruti before she entered the exam hall, before every exam. She hoped she would get by with atleast an eighty percent. It was pretty low, and it'd dip down her average horribly, but there wasn't much she could do about it now. She felt sort of upset because she couldn't be upto the the mark like her mother wanted her to be; but these were only the first serious exams in the year and it was okay if she missed the first rank this time. Her mother would have understood, anybody would have a problem at a time like that.
Shruti walked on the sidepath next to Nakul, much more civilised than ever before. It came on it's own; Shruti didn't feel much like jumping around today. It had been nearly three weeks since the incident but somehow Shruti couldn't snap out of it. To add to the disturbance, she always had Shreya's and Aarnav's voices playing in the background. To tell the truth, Shruti's never missed Aarnav as much. She needed him so badly, he had no idea. If things were okay between them, she would have told him everything and she knew he would make sure she was alright. He would turn the world upside down to make her feel okay. Atleast she'd know that someone still loved her. She knew that even if she'd told him now, he'd be pretty nice about it. But she didn't want to seek his sympathy now; she wanted to let him live his own life, as much as she felt like she needed someone to talk to.
She felt kind of guilty at one end; she didn't know what made her tell Aarnav that maybe "some other guy was more interesting at the moment". She had been sort of insensitive; she didn't think of what that simple sentence could have meant to him.
The other accusation, that Shruti didn't tell Aarnav it was MJ, had her just plain confounded. She even began to doubt her own memory; did Shreya tell her it was MJ? Maybe Shruti had heard wrong, after all she had been so weary and tired after all that searching for her manual. But she was pretty sure she had asked if it was Aarnav's friend and was replied to positively... Thinking about it made her head throb.
She hated Aarnav for telling Shreya about the slight clues she'd given him about hating her. Shruti had known it might lead to something bad the day she knew they were going out; but by then it was too late.
Shruti could have expected that sort of a thing out of Shreya, but Aarnav? She never thought Aarnav would believe some other girl over Shruti. Maybe a bit of Shreya was rubbing off on him. Everything around her was changing, suddenly and unstoppably. It was too fast for Shruti; she lost her family, friends and focus all at once. All the things in which she had always comfortably rested her security in had given in to her together. She always felt kind of lost now, and she hadn't spoken much to anybody since Mrs.Kumar had put off the after school Buzz sessions till after the exams so the girls could concentrate, but Nakul had basketball practice during exams, too, so she didn't have to face any questions regarding why she wasn't walking with him. Running into Aarnav or Shreya on the way home wasn't a problem for Shruti as yet; her father hadn't allowed her to travel on foot till that day.
"What's wrong with you? Given yourself into studies a bit more than necessary?" Nakul's voice pierced into Shruti's thoughts.
"Hmm?"
"Where's my Shruti?"
My Shruti? Shruti silently thought to herself.
"Why aren't you all high and rattling on and on as usual?"
Shruti's eyebrows shot up. "Hmm...?"
Nakul laughed. He was a little rude on purpose; maybe it was to bring her back to normal.
"So do I get you bored when I talk like that?" Shruti didn't want to continue it if she did; she didn't need to lose another friend.
"Oh, shut up. Now you're going to take me seriously?"
"Do I?" Shruti was persistant.
"No you don't. I like it when you talk," Nakul told her, and she could see he was being genuine. Shruti felt nice. She didn't know if he was being truthful or not, but she liked being complimented. She looked up at him. He looked directly into her eyes and after a second, Shruti noticed he had dark brown, sparkling eyes. They were so...deep. Wow, she thought. They looked really meaningful, though she couldn't describe what she meant by that. She looked away, wondering why she had never had a crush on Nakul before. Sure, Shruti didn't believe in going out, but she had millions of crushes; all insignificant and meaningless. Her biggest crush was probably on Asish; she had liked him once upon a time but she hardly felt anything when he asked some other girl out, so you could tell how superficial her feelings for guys were. It wasn't because she was shallow, but just because all that Shruti ever found appealing in any guy till date was only looks and she would never agree to go out with anyone even if it was her hugest crush. Anyway, she had never come across someone sweet or nice enough to really like.
"You look kinda upset," Nakul informed her. Shruti looked at him again; she was at a loss of words. What would she tell him? He didn't even know that her parents were divorced.
"I've got to go, Nakul," she said, pointing at her father's house, absent mindedly forgetting that this would lead to a new series of doubts.
"What?"
"Um..." Shruti said, realising what she'd just done. She didn't want to have to repeat the story right now; she wanted it to be the last thing on her head. She wanted to push it to the back of her head and pretend it never happened.
Nevertheless, she was out of options now, she had given herself out.
"I-I'll explain some other time..." she said, as a last attempt to get out of it.
"Why don't you just say it?" he said, placing his palm gently on her shoulder. She liked it. She liked his touch; it was comforting. It made her want to tell him everything. It made her want to let go of herself and cry. But she knew she couldn't.
"Whatever it is, I'm sure you'll feel better if you tell," he pursued his effort.
Shruti knew he was right.
"If you're okay with me knowing," he said again quickly. Shruti didn't want to leave him in benefit of doubt. Or maybe that was just the excuse she gave herself to follow her impulse without a guilty conscience.
"Alright.." Shruti said, letting her bag slip off onto the sidewalk.
"Shruti is everything alright? You didn't attend school for a week before the exams, you shed oodles of weight, and now you're not as happy as always... Plus, you forgot where you live," Nakul said, frowning.
Shruti sighed.
"Wanna go to the ground?" Shruti asked him. She knew this would take time.
"Alright," Nakul said, still unsure. "Are you.. Alright?"
"Well, I don't know."
"What?"
"Nakul.. My parents divorced when I was like, five," Shruti turned around and began to walk back to the field, and Nakul followed.
Nakul looked surprised; he obviously was. Nobody really knew about it.
"But- but that was really long ago-" he began.
"No, that's not the problem."
"Oh."
"My Mom... Sister.." Shruti didn't know if she wanted to speak any further. Nakul waited patiently.
"My mom and sister, they.. kind of.. passed away.. A few weeks ago," Shruti managed to say, not as gravely as the incident demanded. But that was okay, she wanted it to be as less dramatic as possible. As much as she wanted to cry, she didn't want Nakul to see her do it.
"What?!" Nakul said, outrageously. "Oh, god, Shruti! And you're telling me like this?"
"How else would I tell you...?" She hoped he would ignore the quiver in her voice.
"Well... I don't know, but I mean.. Are you sure? Are you.. Joking or something?"
Shruti smiled sadly.
"I wish..."
"I-I'm sorry," he told her. She could see that what she told him wasn't getting to him fully, as of yet. But it hadn't even gotten to her fully; she didn't expect him to absorb it right away.
They had reached the ground, and Shruti was surprised to see Aarnav and Shreya walk out of the gates, hand in hand, passing Nakul and herself. Shruti looked into the gates at the ground; she didn't want eye contact with either of the two.
"Hey," Nakul said to them, clearly surprised as well. Shruti felt a little disgusted; she didn't want the ground to be a hideout for teen lovers.
She waited patiently as Nakul finished talking to them, and looked up at Shreya once before they parted. She had her usual snobby look like she always did nowadays. She glanced once at Aarnav quickly before she turned away again.
He was wearing a mixed expression of surprise at meeting Nakul, slight hurt and disgust at seeing Shruti. It hurt her to see that he hated her as much now.
"How come you didn't talk to them?" Nakul asked her.
Shruti wondered if she should really tell Nakul about Aarnav and Shruti; they were close friends of his and she didn't know how he would take it. But she had already come this far and she didn't know if she could stop herself now.
Shruti lifted herself up by her arms and plopped down on the water tank. Nakul sat down next to her. She noticed that his feet reached the ground, even though he sat behind her on the tank. Her own shoes dangled stupidly against the cement.
She went on to tell him all about the fight; everything, from the phone call to the message she got in reply to her apology to both of them. At that point Nakul sprang up from his seat on the water tank and shouted at her.
"What is wrong with you?!" he asked her, frantically. "You didn't do anything wrong, Shruti!" "
Why did you apologize?" he said a little more softly, seeing that Shruti was startled by his tone.
"I-I don't know.." Shruti sad truthfully. She had no idea why she'd apologized when there was nothing wrong on her part. "It.. It was instinctive, like maybe because I was ready to say just anything to get them to act normal..."
"But you proved whatever they said was right by apologizing.
Shruti hadn't thought of it like that; but now that she was analyzing her actions, what Nakul said made perfect sense. Shruti wanted to cry even more. She'd worsened everything yet again.
"You can cry if you'd like to, Shruti," he told her softly, taking her hand in his own. Shruti hadn't ever had a friend comforting her like that before. Infact she never had a problem big enough to cry as much as this; the only other things that ever had bothered her were maybe bad grades, or a scolding, occasionally Shreya, but nothing serious. Ofcourse she had regarded them serious at the time, but now they seemed just plain trivial.
Shruti didn't know why, but she bent her head, rested it sidways below his shoulder and cried. Nakul placed one hand way around her back on her other shoulder, pulling her a little nearer and holding her. She kept trying to continue, as she let the tears stream down her face, and ruin his uniform. She remembered all that had happened; moving to her dad's place was so uncomfortable. She wanted her old room back. She had hated having to share it then, but now she would do anything for it and her sister. She thought of how Shreya and Aarnav had ditched her. She'd felt so horrible throughout the exams, but all she could do was push it to a little corner in her head and bury it under lessons. She don't know how long she cried, but she knew that this was something she'd been needing. Nakul was patient; he didn't even say anything. He just ran one hand over her silky, soft, hair, smoothening it out as he listened to her, trying to vent through sobs.
"Sorry," Shruti said, suddenly snapping back to reality and noticing that Nakul's shirt was really wet and the shoulder.
"Oh, shut up, that's just my shoulder. The rest of my shirt's still dry," Nakul said, grinning. He was trying to lighten the atmosphere.
Shruti laughed a little.
"Ahh..." he said, softly, as though he was touched by something.
"What?"
"That smile. Did I ever tell you how beautiful your smile is?" Nakul looked down at her. He wasn't smiling, but his eyes were gleaming with admiration. Shruti wondered how a person could do that.
"You look like a happy little kid when you're smiling. Just sit there in front of me, smiling like that and maybe I won't need anything else for the rest of my life," he told her.
Shruti laughed; only to hide how much she was blushing, but he didn't have to know that.
"You probably have to get home," Shruti said. She didn't want him to go, though.
"Not really," he said. "Is there anything else you'd like to tell me?"
"No... Let's just walk back.."
"Alright," Nakul said, getting up after Shruti.
"Thanks, Nakul. You're awesome," she told him. He really was. Noone would have given her that much time and patience.
"I didn't do anything."
"You did!"
"Let's not start that one now," he said quickly.
Shruti laughed.
"Bye," Shruti said to him, in front of her house. She felt a lot better now.
"Hey listen to me."
"Hmm?"
"Don't ever hesitate to tell me anything because I talk to Aarnav. I don't like Shreya that much anyway."
"How come?" Shruti was curious. What could Nakul have against her? He didn't even know her that well.
"Dunno, I just don't get the right vibes from that girl. She seems like a backstabber. And anyway, she's so weird."
Shruti smiled. She liked Nakul for not liking Shreya. And then he said it.
"I love you, no matter what anyone says."
Shruti felt kind of shocked at first; Aarnav had always told her he loved her, but not like this. Nakul really, really meant it. She could make that out.
" I love you too," Shruti told him, giving him a hug before she left to her house.
As Shruti walked into her room, she felt much better. Nothing was fixed but something was atleast replaced. Having a friend who loved her felt amazing, like an assurance that someone would always be there. Nakul was an awesome person. She felt more energetic than she had felt in a long, long time.

Shruti wondered why there was a sudden uprise in her class; till then everyone had been quietly listening to the lecture on magnets. Mindless of the elderly Physics teacher in the class, someone shouted, "OH crap! The results!"
"What?" Shruti asked Bhavya, sitting diagonally opposite to her.
"Quarterly results, Shruti," Bhavya told her, getting up. "Didn't your mom receive the message?"
The school had an SMS system; they sent all important information to parents through text messages. But Shruti had no idea where her mother's phone was or in what state it was. She would have to ask her father to come and speak to the administration to change the number now, they wouldn't change it on the request of a student. Shruti would have liked to avoid talking to him as much as possible; somehow it was very akward and business-like when she had to.
Suddenly what Bhavya told her hit Shruti; Results! She knew she hadn't done well. She felt a chill run down her spine; this was it. Eighty, Shruti repeated to herself. I just hope I get an eighty. Shruti poured out of the room along with the rest of the classmates, ignoring the poor teacher who was pleading for them to check the results after her period. Shruti wondered why she was even trying. They weren't going to listen to her, anyway.
There was a huge crowd of people jostling eachother in front of each copy of the results, at different places in the corridor. Shruti involved herself into one of them, trying to get to the front with minimum violence.
"Nakul Kumar - 96% - 1st rank" was printed in bold letters at the top. Shruti rolled her eyes. He would never get less irritating in this aspect. She continued to search for her name. Something blew the wind out of her; in the second line, it said- "Shreya Mukherjee - 92% - 2nd rank." Shreya? Ugh. This made Shruti feel all the more bad about not doing the exams well. Shreya had never crossed at eighty-five percent before; what was she doing in the top ten?
Shruti searched for her name; she didn't find it in the top ten, or for that matter, the top twenty. She couldn't find her name anywhere. There must have been some printing mistake. Before she withdrew to inform some teacher of the misprint, she looked for Aarnav's name. She wondered if Shreya rubbed off on him even in this aspect. Or maybe the whole relationship thing was just another distraction.
He had secured a 53%, safely managing above thirty-five in all the subjects. Shruti would have congratulated him if they were speaking, but now she just secretly felt happy for him. She didn't want Aarnav to fail; that was brutal.
Suddenly there was something that caught her eye, right above Aarnav's marks.
"Shruti Kuruvilla - 54%"
There was no rank next to it. Had she failed? Shruti slowly slipped out of the crowd, trying not to let the sick, horrid feeling reach her eyes. She needed to get out of here. She walked across the stage, and past the classrooms at the other end. She couldn't believe it, Shruti had never failed before in her life. Never. Shruti hurried in search of some lonely place; she didn't want the entire class to see her ashamed like that. How did she end up failing a subject? She wouldn't get a rank. Now everyone would think she was a dimwit. Her mother would have hated her for this. Her eyes swelled up with tears.
"Shruti, hang on!" Nakul said from behind her. No, she couldn't hang on. She needed to go, she couldn't face anyone.
Nakul jogged to keep up with her. They reached the path through which Shruti used to make an unknown entry into the school whenever she was late; the back of the playground.
She sank down against the wall and buried her face in her hands. This was so embarrassing. Probably Nakul thought she was stupid, too.
"Oh, Shruti..." Nakul said, kneeling down beside her and putting a hand on her back. "Don't cry, c'monnn.."
"But.. But it's all over.... I couldn't do what she asked from me, just one thing, and I couldn't do it.. She would have been so disappointed if she knew this, you have NO idea..." Shruti managed to say, amongst sobs. She kept her face in her hands.
"No, Shruti, your mom would have understood. It's pretty cool of you to even come and attempt the exams, believe me."
"No... This is just over-"
"Shut up. Nothing's over," Nakul said, firmly. He lifted her chin so she had to face him. His eyes looked fierce, almost like he was angry about something.
"I-I can't concentrate Nakul, not even a single minute... In the exam, it's like I know the answer but I just can't remember what it is... I hate that feeling, I can't take it anymore.... And I can't fail..."
"Okay, I'll help you, belie-"
"What can you do?"
"I don't know. But I'll do something."
"How can someone else help me?" Shruti knew that anything he did would be of no avail. She'd lost it; her focus, her intent and her confidence. She would never be herself again. She'd never be smart again. She'd never be the teacher's pet again.
"Trust me with this. Please?" I'll- I'll study with you. I'll help you learn, okay?" Nakul said, gently.
"No, that's not going to help..."
"It will, believe me, please? You'll be back to normal in the half yearlies, believe me.. please?" Shruti looked up at him; he looked so earnest and convincing that Shruti knew he really wanted to help.
The way he made it sound, it felt like everything would be alright; as if she still had hope of topping the school.
"You-you sure I'll be able to study properly again?" Shruti asked, doubtful in her tone, though she felt now, that Nakul was going to make it alright.
"I swear, but only if you smile for me now," Nakul said, helping her up.
Shruti sniffed.
"My swear's valid only if you smile in the next five seconds."
Shruti giggled; what sort of a condition was that?
"There we go," Nakul said, smiling back. "Now you're prettier, see?"
Shruti didn't know what about that made her smile; but something did. And she smiled.
...
Shruti paced from side to side in front of her father's office room; she was trying to decide if she should enter or not. She didn't want to talk to him, and it was really late, anyway. But she didn't want any more important notifications to go to her mother's unfunctioning phone and neither did she want to postpone all the akwardness for later.
"Is there something you need?" Shruti heard a man's voice from the other end of the hall. It was a servant.
She was startled; she didn't expect a servant to be around at this time.
"Oh, oh, nothing," Shruti said, knocking. She would look like a complete idiot if she walked back to her own room now.
Shruti pushed the door open, holding the knob tightly. She didn't know what made her feel so weird talking to her dad.
"Shruti?" Her dad said, surprised, looking at the door above all his piles of paperwork. She hadn't exactly bothered to speak to him before this.
"I'll come back later if you're busy," Shruti said quickly, hoping she wasn't disturbing him.
"Oh, no, no," he said, pushing aside all the papers and showing her to a chair. "I was finished."
Shruti didn't need to sit down, she just needed a minute to ask him to come to her school if he could. Nevertheless, she did as she was instructed.
"What's that?" Shruti asked him, looking at a framed picture on his desk in which she recognized her mother; clearly, it was taken ages ago.
"That's me and your mother. In college," he said, smiling a bit.
"Wow," Shruti said, taking it into her hands. That was him? They both looked so young. And so happy. Her mother was giving the camera a crazy grin, with her hand on her husband's, which was over her shoulder.
"You really loved Mom?" Shruti didn't know why she asked; it was obvious. In the way he spoke about her, the way he looked at her in that picture.
"You have no idea," he sighed.
Shruti was amazed to see the look on her father's face in the picture; she had never seen anyone looking more in love. He had a slight twinkle in his eye, smiling partially. He wasn't looking at the camera; he was too busy staring at his girlfriend. He looked even better, back then. The look on her mother's face made Shruti laugh a bit.
"She was so pretty, Shruti you have no idea," he told her, as though he was talking to a friend of his.
Shruti's head shot up; it was kind of weird hearing that from a man in his late forties, especially when it was her dad, and moreover when she'd never really spoken to him personally.
"She looked quite a bit like you, only a bit older. Around nineteen, I should say. She was by far the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen in my entire life. And she looked even better when she smiled like that. Don't you think?"
Shruti nodded. He was right; she looked gorgeous. Much prettier than herself, at any rate, but that wasn't a surprise. Her own friends used to tell her that her mother was cuter than herself all the time, even after ageing.
"But she never agreed to re-marry me. I must have asked about a million times."
"What!" Re-marraige? Shruti had never even thought of that.
"What did you used to speak about when you talked after the divorce?" It was a highly random question; but Shruti wanted an idea.
"She just used to tell me about you both.. She loved you a lot, Shruti. She even told me you wanted to be an author. She was so happy about it; and she really hoped you'd-"
"Wow." Shruti interrupted. She didn't know they spoke that often. He knew even about Buzz and everything. "Why did you guys break up?"
"It's a long story. My parents didn't want her to work. She was brought up differently... Always encouraged to work, stand on her own feet. Anyway, she was so angry with me, because I never stood up for her against them, and moreover all she could do was wait for me at home. I came so late, and hardly ever answered her calls... She felt so incomplete without me there, Shruti.. She didn't want to get any more attached to me... And then there were those terrible wars. We used to fight over every petty thing."
Shruti felt horrible. Her mother must have had a really, really tough time.
"She completely decided that I would never be there for her if anyone tried to crush her dreams. She thought she was better off on her own than supressed, and with me. I still called her.. She always took my calls. As they say, I realised how much I needed her only once she was gone. But I begged, Shruti, I literally did. I don't blame her for not being able to forgive me, though... I was too careless. But I could tell she wanted me back too."
Shruti put the picture back where it belonged.
"I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you when you were growing up, Shruti. I.. tried, I really did."
He was apologizing? Shruti didn't know what to say.
"It's-it's okay," she said, doubtfully. "It wasn't your fault."
He smiled at her. "You're as good as her, Shruti. As much of you as I've seen, atleast. Don't waste it..."
"I... don't think I have any of that anymore," Shruti said, hanging her head in shame.
"Is this about your grades this term?"
"Yeah..." Shruti answered the obvious.
"I'm not going to ask you what they were like. But I think you should know; grades mean nothing. Especially not just the grades of one exam." His voice was stern, like he would massacre her if she refused to believe him. Shruti nodded, more out of urgency to change the topic, than because she agreed.
"You don't hate me for anything, do you?"
"No, not at all," she answered quickly. She really didn't. At any rate, she couldn't, not after this talk.
"I'm glad," he smiled. "It's late, you better get to bed."
"Oh, can you come speak to my principal whenever you can? You need to ask them to change the parent's number in their record," she told him.
"Sure," he told her, as she began to rise.
"Goodnight, sweetheart," he said. Shruti was sort of surprised; only her mother called her that before. Nevertheless, she realised that she liked it.
"Goodnight, dad." It was the first time in a long while Shruti had called him dad, and she liked that, too.
"I love you, child.."
"Love you too," she answered. It was the second person she decided to love that week.

"The sun had begun to set over the lake that connected two sister cities, sending a strong, cold breeze in Shruti's direction, collecting moisture along the surface of the water on it's way. At first, she had trouble inhaling; it was freezing cold. She paused for a second and forced herself through a wholesome, deep breath, trying to ignore the hindrance the knot in her chest was offering. The mist air from the air struck her skin, giving rise to tiny goosebumps on her arm. Shruti closed her eyes and took one more deep breath, a step closer to unfastening that painful knot."
Shruti didn't know why she was writing this; she knew it was way too random to give in for Buzz. Besides, it was irrelevant. But writing it simply satisfied her. Sometimes, she felt like writing helped her to vent out things she couldn't always talk about; it was almost the same as telling someone, except it was better.
Shruti felt her phone stir in the pocket of her denims. She didn't wonder who it could be; she was already kind of sure it was Nakul.
"Hey.".
"Hey. What're you doing?" Nakul asked.
"Work for Buzz..." Shruti lied. She didn't want to have to give a lengthy explanation of what she was doing.
"Done studying for tomorrow's test?"
"Test?" Shruti hadn't heard of anything. The quarterlies finished just a week ago!
"You don't know?" Nakul asked, sounding a little tense.
"Don't joke, Nakul please..." Shruti felt helpless now. Failing another test was the last thing she needed right then.
"I'm really not, Shruti... Didn't you get the message?"
Message. Ugh, Shruti thought. She wished her dad had gone to the school already!
"What's the portion...?" Shruti asked him, dreading it.
Nakul began to tell her, ending only after having recited nearly everything they had been taught in Biology till that very day.
"I'm gonna fail..." Shruti moaned.
"Say that once more and you'll find me slapping you," Nakul said, firmly.
Shruti was surprised; she had never had Nakul so cross with her before.
"But..."
"No, shut up. You've still got time, forget your Buzz thing for a while and study. Study till you feel like you just HAVE to sleep," he instructed.
"I don't stand a chance anyway, why don't I ju-"
"Didn't you hear what I said about saying that?!" Nakul said, louder.
"Okay, okay fine," Shruti agreed. She would have really liked to just ignore the test though she knew it would devastate her later when She got the results and then remembered that it was against her mother's wish; but she didn't think there was a point in trying to study now, anyway.
Nevertheless, Shruti listened to Nakul.
She rummaged through her bag for her Biology book and began to study. She tried her best to block out all thoughts of her mother, Anusha, Shreya and more disturbingly, Buzz. But she knew she had to listen to Nakul now; he'd get mad at her if she didn't. She couldn't really concentrate much; but she felt used to it now. Anyway, it's just a quiz, Shruti said to herself. No tension.
...
Shruti looked around her; everyone was so silent. What was wrong with them?The invigilator had left the class for a minute; yet nobody bothered to look around and copy from the other. Usually, whenever the class was left alone even for five seconds during an exam, atleast twenty answers were transferred from one of the class to another. They were super-smart at copying, and didn't leave out a chance.
Shruti found Bhavya resting her chin on the eraser at the back of her pencil and dozing off every now and then, and Prerna drawing the outline of an eye, smack in the middle of her answer sheet. It was a beautiful one, though, Shruti couldn't help noticing. She looked out of the class to Nakul's, which was opposite to her own. He was trying desperately to balance a scale on his nose. Shruti couldn't help but burst out laughing at that sight, but she soon shushed herself up again; it was too quiet to laugh. He was acting lame; but he kind of looked cute.
Shreya was probably the only one writing vigourously. Shruti looked away from her as soon as possible; remembering that she had outrun Shruti had hurt even more than failing. She wondered how that happened, anyway. Shreya was suddenly doing well.
Shruti looked down at her own paper; she was glad that the questions had come easy, but she couldn't recollect a few definitions here and there. Everyone else probably already finished, she thought to herself. She knew she wouldn't stand a chance. She wouldn't have felt half as horrible if Nakul didn't force her to study. Atleast then, she knew she did bad only because she hadn't even attempted it. That way, it wouldn't speak about her abilities. Sometimes, it was better to not try than to try and fail. Just sometimes.
...
"Hey, just give me a second," Nakul told her, entering the staff room. There was noone inside except Mrs.Kumar, who Shruti had just finished speaking to. She wondered what work Nakul could have with Mrs.Kumar.
She waited impatiently, shifting her weight from one leg to another and dropping her bag to the floor. It was way too heavy.
"Bye, Shruti! See you tomorrow," Bhavya said, as she left with Prerna. Shruti waved back to both of them. Bhavya's a sweet girl, Shruti thought. She was a good friend, too. Shruti knew everything about her and her personal life, but she kept away from telling her about her own. All she told her was that her mom was staying with her parents, who lived in another state, and Anusha was with her. Shruti'd also been able to convince Anusha's classmates that she left suddenly and took admission in another school, far away from here. She assured them that she'd come down and meet them, sometime, though.
Nearly ten minutes later Nakul joined her again.
"So how was your test?" he asked.
"The test... Well whatever. What about yours, Mr.Topper?"
"Mr.Topper no more, I guess," he said, frowning. "It was hard. And mine was bad."
"Hard? I thought the questions and all were pretty easy. Just that I couldn't remember much," Shruti told him.
"No they weren't. I think it just sucked," Nakul said, turning away. He was clearly upset about losing his rank. Somehow Shruti didn't feel as bad as that; she had known she was going to mess up even before she began to prepare.
"Let's talk about more interesting things," Shruti said quickly, trying to change the topic. "Why were you speaking to Mrs.Kumar?"
"Mrs.Kumar? There was PT sir inside..."
PT sir? Shruti hadn't seen him come.
"Oh, I didn't see that. What did he say?"
"That... Can remain a surprise."
Shruti groaned. "Shut up and tell me, for god's sake!" She was terrible at handling suspense.
"I might just burst of anxiety or else," she told him.
"Well, I wouldn't want that, would I?" Nakul was being sweet again.
"So tell me!" Shruti exclaimed.
Nakul grinned. "It's awesome having Shruti back," he told her.
"Hold the sweet dialogues for later," Shruti said impatiently. "And TELL. Stop trying to change the topic."
"Fine. PT sir wants to make me sports captain..."
Aarnav was given a chance for the post; but the guy never even bothered to stay back after school. He only wore flaps to satisfy his homeroom teacher; she'd pestered the being in him to do it. Everyone knew he would be replaced soon. Being a national player wasn't what they needed; it was a sense of responsibility, that Aarnav totally lacked.
"Cool!!" Shruti exclaimed. "Take it this time! Don't be an idiot."
Nakul had been selected for the headboy post when the year had begun, but he had given it up. Apparently it was an unwanted deviation for him, but that was just too dramatic a reason for Shruti. It wasn't like office bearers even had many duties. Atleast Shruti, for one didn't seem to have many.
"It's a pain in the neck," Nakul said bluntly.
"No it's not. You hardly have to do anything. And you get to wear flaps and stars and show off," Shruti said, grinning and flaunting her own three metallic stars on either shoulder.
"Those poke people who walk by you."
"Poking people is fun. Just take it."
Nakul laughed. "I'll think about it."
...
Shruti heard a knock on her door.
"I went to your school, today," he told her.
"Oh, thanks," Shruti said. She would never complain of the delay; her father was an extremely busy man, and it was good enough that he'd made it, sooner or later.
"I'm sorry about today's test," he said. "I should have gone earlier."
"That's okay. How do you know, though...?"
"Oh, I spoke to some teacher there. Mrs. Kumar, if I remember correctly."
Shruti nodded. She'd be the only one friendly enough to talk to a parent about more than what he had come for.
"How come she doesn't know anything about the accident?"
Shruti was in for a shock.
"What?!" She hadn't wanted anyone in school to know about it. "Did you tell?!"
"Yeah," he replied, indifferently.
"No! Why?"
A teacher knew about it! Soon enough, everyone would!
"I had to, Shruti," he said, wearily. "I can't have you deal with this all by yourself. As it is, you don't talk to me much."
If her father wasn't standing right there, Shruti would have rolled her eyes. How would Mrs.Kumar be of any help, anyway?
"Okay," Shruti said, realising that she couldn't reverse what he'd done, anyway. At any rate, arguing with her dad seemed a lot more daring than the bickering she had always carried on with her mom.
"Are you busy or anything now?" he asked her, peeking into her room at her study table.
"Not really," Shruti replied, truthfully. She was practically just whiling away her time.
"Pool?"
"What?" Shruti asked him. That was no time to swim.
"You don't like it..?" he asked her, doubtfully.
"Swim? At this time?" She asked him, just as doubtfully.
Her father burst out laughing. He laughed for a whole two minutes. And then, he sat down and laughed some more.
"What?" Shruti said, irritatedly, but he wouldn't stop. What was so amusing in what she asked? Was it okay to swim now?
"I meant billiards, sweetheart," he told her.
"Oh." Shruti couldn't stop the embarrassment from showing up on her face. If she had Shreya's skin tone, she would have been tomato red by then.
"That's alright," he said, after he finished laughing.
"So do you want to play?"
Shruti decided that once she had come this far, it should be fine to embarrass herself a bit more.
"I have no idea how to play," she told him, edgelessly, expecting him to laugh some more.
Instead, he smiled at her and said, "That's no problem, I'll teach you if you'd like."
Shruti obliged; the last time she had agreed to learn some new game she hadn't regretted it at all.
"So who is this Nakul?" Her dad asked, as he led her to a room in an upper floor, which had a pool table with sticks to a corner of the room.
"Who is he?" Shruti wondered aloud. "In what context?"
"As in... Are you going out with him?"
"Daaad..." Shruti allowed embarrassment to reign over her face once again. That was a very direct way to ask a question, and Shruti was least expecting it.
"I'm just asking," he said shrugging.
"Not every guy I speak to is the person I go out with. How do you know him, anyway?"
"Oh, I just heard about him from your teacher. She was... telling me about how he's being friendly to you."
Mrs.Kumar? Telling her dad about a guy being friendly to her? Maybe even she thought Shruti was going with Nakul. Ugh, Shruti thought to herself. What a mess. That didn't serve too well to keep her wonderful impression about Shruti.
They were only half way through the game when Shruti's phone vibrated vigourously.
Without thinking, she took the call.
"Hey," Nakul said.
"Oh hey, Nakul," Shruti said out loud, absent mindedly. Not that she wanted to lie to her father, but she could have not mentioned the name and avoided the akward look.
Nothing, I'm learning to play billiards," she told him, quickly.
"That's nice. Hey listen I gotta ask you something..."
"Go ahead," Shruti said. A second later, she realised that was a very suspicious statement.
"Do you-" Shruti heard another phone ring in the background. Hold on a minute," he said, and Shruti heard him answering the call.
She wished he would finish up already; there was a horrible akward feeling pervading in the room as her father waited patiently for her to finish.
"Yeah, sorry. It's about time I do this.." he said.
"What?"
"What're you doing this weekend?"
"What?" she repeated, stupidly.
Why was he asking her that? It was highly random, but the first thing that rushed to her mind was an episode from Friends, in which Chandler had begun to ask a random lady out with the same question.
Shruti gulped. Was Nakul going to ask her out? It sounded like it.
She thought of when he said that he loved her. Did he mean something beyond what Shruti had taken it for? He sounded so different; maybe she was right.
This was so not the time. She looked at her dad again; he looked straight back at her; with a serious expression. Shruti wondered how she would answer him.

"Umm.. Nothing, Shruti managed to say, her completely tensed now.
"Remember I told you we'd study together? You wanna start on Saturday?" he asked her, simply.
"What?" Shruti said again, a moment before she realised that he had promised to help her study. Shruti breathed a sigh of relief. How stupid of her.
"Oh, oh yeah sure," she told him, the blood returning to her face. She felt pretty silly now; she should have known before. Just because Nakul said he loved her, that didn't mean he wanted to go out. He probably just said that because she was so terribly upset back then.
Shruti felt very lame and embarrased now; why did she think that Nakul would like HER, anyway? She wasn't very pretty; and now she wasn't even smart. Nakul was way above her. Shruti wanted to roll her eyes at herself, for expecting so much from herself even after everything that was happening lately to prove her totally incapable.
...
"So what makes you want to waste this much time trying to help me, huh?" Shruti said, trying make herself more comfortable in the itchy grass of the ground as she had been trying to do desperately from the past half hour. Nakul himself had been quite still; he was much more balanced than Shruti anyhow. For some unexplainable reason, they found it far easier to take advantage of the space on the lawn that sitting on the water tank with the books in their lap. But Shruti was begin to think that over again.
"Because you're smart. Can't spoil your life like that when I know I might be able to help," he told her, smiling.
"I'm not smart," Shruti told him, quietly.
"What makes you say that?" Nakul said, sounding much more severe.
"My marks? What else?"
"Oh cmon. Don't tell me you're making such a big statement that on the basis of one exam. Exams mean nothing, anyway. Marks mean nothing."
"So then why do we have them?" Shruti shot back.
"Just because they need a basis to divide us into who can get into a better college and stuff," he said, simply. "And who told you the whole education system makes sense, anyway?"
Shruti thought about it. "So if exam means nothing, why should you think I'm smart in the first place?"
"You're bright, happy, and you grasp things fast; that's what matters."
Shruti thought about it. Maybe he was a little right.
"So you're done with that part?" he asked her, pointing at her Chemistry book.
"I think so," she told him, fidgeting around again.
"Lemme try and see how much you could gather," he said, beginning to ask her questions. Chemistry actually seemed a little interesting. For the first time in her life, Shruti was having fun reading her mother's subject. Her mother would have been really happy. Shruti smiled at the thought. She liked Nakul.
...
Shruti felt on top of the world; she had just seen the result of her Bio test. She was second, again! She had been so happy, even though she knew it was just a pop quiz. Something about it made her feel like she regained her capabilities. Like she was getting back on track. Like she could conquer the world. Shruti stood with a slight smile in front of the mark list, outside her classroom. It was the recess.
"You did it!" Nakul said, suddenly appearing in front of her and startling her.
"Hey, well I guess I kinda did!" Shruti said, considering that her eighty percent was pretty bad. Nakul laughed. "I'm so glad. See? I told you, you're really smart. You topped with an eighty percent, that means when the paper was really hard for everyone else, you did awesome! You've got the capability to think differently. You're smarter," he concluded. It was Shruti's turn to laugh now.
"I'm serious!" he said, though he laughed along with her too.
"What about you?" she asked, curiously. He'd told her he'd done horribly.
"Oh me.. Don't ask," he said, still stupidly smiling.
Shruti looked over his shoulder to the list; Nakul had dipped really low. Shruti frowned. "What happened?" she asked.
"Am I wasting too much of your time, Nakul?"
"Oh no no there's nothing like that," he said, the smile fading off now. "I didn't study. Anyway, I know I'll do fine next time," he said. It's amazing how he didn't let it discourage him, Shruti thought. That was another one of the million things she should learn from him.
Suddenly Shruti realised something; if Nakul wasn't the one who'd beat her, who had? She looked at the list a third time. It was Shreya.
Shruti felt a little choked. The feeling of losing to Shreya took over winning over everyone else.
"Shreya's first?" she said, clearly looking disappointed.
"Oh don't worry about her. I heard she knew the paper; her dad's influence," he said, plainly. "Apparently it was the same with the quarterlies."
Shruti doubted it; it must have just been a rumour. Shreya wouldn't go that far. But Shruti wasn't going to argue on her side; avoiding Shreya's topic would be better.
Shruti smiled at Nakul again, pulling him into a hug. "Thanks SO much, Nakul, you're a real sweetheart," she told him and turned around to go, she had to give in next week's Buzz articles. She also wanted to speak to Mrs.Kumar: she had been really disappointed with Shruti's quarterly results. Apart from being her English teacher, she was also her homeroom teacher and she wasn't happy about the brightest student in her class getting a fifty percent overall.
"Shruti," she said, gesturing for her to come into the staffroom.
"Here ma'am, we've all finished," she said, laying them out in front of the elderly lady and explaining them to her. Shruti waited patiently as Mrs.Kumar approved of most and asked to change some; told her to convey the message to the other girls, and finally looked up from her table.
"So, Shruti. I heard you did well in the Biology test."
"I don't know, my score is pretty low but my rank is back up," she told her somewhat dryly. There was a new brightest student in the class now; why would Mrs.Kumar care as much for her anymore?
"Very well done, child," she said, beaming. "Work hard, I want to see you in the very first slot next time."
"I'll try," she said, as always. This was a routine question and a customary answer, but Shruti had never managed to beat Nakul. It looked like she had trouble from another competitor as well, now. She sighed, wondering how she would ever get first rank.
"Oh, and your father spoke to me, Shruti," she told her, lowering her voice. Shruti nodded; she knew it already and she was least pleased about it.
"Why didn't you tell me yourself? Poor child. You just stood there with a torn up and confounded face as long as I scholded you."
Shruti remembered; Mrs.Kumar had called her into the staffroom after the quarterly results were out and given her a particularly long lecture. She had tried to ask what was wrong; but Shruti was tight-lipped. She didn't want to talk about to anyone else. She only protested when Mrs.Kumar suggested taking her out of Buzz so she could concentrate.
"Anyway, getting along fine now?" she asked her, at a lack of a reply.
"I think so," Shruti told her. "I don't want to think much about it."
"That's right. Focus now, get good marks. What more would your mother or sister have wanted?" she said, smiling at her.
"You're in an excellent school, Shruti. We'll push everybody to a round figure of eighty, but the only ones that go beyond ninety are the ones who work with us. I'm counting on you to get our school a national rank. Work hard, child."
Shruti nodded, and was going to leave, when she remembered that she had to tell her one more thing.
"Ma'am," she said. "Please don't let anyone else know."
The teacher smiled and nodded at her understandingly.

Nakul studied with her a lot more after that weekend; they both liked it better. Shruti could finally spot what had Nakul ahead of her all these years; it was purely clarity. He had clarity in everything he claimed to have finished. He was fast, but efficient, because he could put his head to it. Nakul never neglected anything that was put down in the textbook.
During study hours, Nakul made it a point to stay quiet as long as they were studying together, and keep Shruti quiet as well, unless there was something they had to discuss. Combined studies is an excellent idea as long as nobody gossips, and Nakul wasn't the kind of guy who gave a proper reply to any kind of gossip. He hated talking about anybody behind their back, and however sadistic it sounded, Shruti found immense satisfaction in discriminating against Shreya. Whatever it was, she knew she couldn't do more than that to her anyway. So there wasn't too much to talk about. Nakul hated Shreya, and sometimes made a special exception to his policy for Shreya to join Shruti. Such was his mood on one hot Sunday afternoon.
"Why does she look more ghostly suddenly?" Nakul asked Shruti innocently. Shruti wondered what he was talking about for over a half minute before she exclaimed, "Oh you mean the powder!" And then she cracked up. He was right; she did look a little scary.
Nakul had forced her into studying that day; she had wanted to spend the day moping at home or maybe on the Internet, but he'd spoken her into making it a quality Sunday.
She shoved her book aside and reached for a chocolate chip cookie pack lying on the floor at some distance beside her, offering one to Nakul and helping herself.
"No, I don't like chocolate," Nakul said. Shruti looked at him incredulously. How could somebody not like chocolate?
"Are you human?" She asked him gravely, staring him down.
...
Results of the a Chemistry pop quiz were out; everyone had done terribly. Shruti, however, was frantically searching for Nakul. She needed to meet him right away. After an agitated search in his class, in the staffroom and in the auditorium, Shruti found him out on the ground with some of his friends from the basketball team.
"Nakul," she said, tensely, mindless of Krishna who was in a conversation with him. The other guys on the basketball team were around, too.
Krishna patted him on the back and made a funny face as he moved away with the rest of the guys, leaving both of them alone. Shruti didn't care if Krishna wanted to tease her or link her up with Nakul at the moment. She had more important things to care about right now.
"I got first," she told him, severely.
Nakul looked overwhelmed. "Shruti I am SO proud of you," he broke out, and held his hand up for a high-five.
"What's wrong?" he asked her, when she didn't return it but looked at him threateningly instead.
"Shreya got second?"
"No, apparently they lost her paper. Whatever. Who cares."
"Then what is it?"
"You, Nakul. You like... Just passed. How come you don't even care? I don't think we should study together anymore, seriously. I'm... I'm spoiling your future," she said, looking as disappointed as she felt. She didn't want to study with Nakul if she was spoiling it for him.
"Oh shut up."
"Look, ever since you've joined this place, all I've wanted was to see my name in that first place instead of yours. It's been two years since I topped Nakul." Shruti looked up at him. "Except maybe if you count that one time you had to skip an exam for an NCC camp so you weren't in the ranking," she added quickly. She didn't mean to make it funny; it just suddenly struck to her that there was a time that she'd been first even after Nakul had come. Except that that was the time when he didn't attend a couple of exams.
She watched as Nakul's face turned almost ten years younger as he broke into an amused smile. He was so sweet. She really didn't want him to mess himself up to help her. She didn't feel angry anymore; she felt guilty.
"I... I'm not happy this way Nakul, I'd rather fail," she told him, trying to hold back tears.
"Shruti..." he said, gently.
"Tell me you won't study with me anymore," she insisted.
"No, we'll study together. I'll do better in the half yearly, don't worry about me. And don't cry," Nakul said, lifting her chin up so he could look at her. She looked back at him. His eyes. She would have been knocked off her feet if he wasn't holding her hand.
Shruti let herself into his arms, teary-eyed and getting kohl onto Nakul's uniform.
"Promise me." Shruti needed confirmation that he'd do well again.
It was a childish request, but it would definitely make her believe him more than she did now.
"I'll beat you, just you watch," he said, grinning again.
"No!" she exclaimed, mock-frightened, and they laughed together.
...
Shruti watched as P.T. master announced to the school that Nakul was the sports prefect now. Aarnav had officially proven himself useless, and he was nowhere to be seen at the moment. He'd successfully saved himself the embarrassment. Or maybe he thought it was cool to be rid of the post. Shruti didn't know; she didn't want to think about it, anyway. She clapped loudly with he rest of the cheering school as the hefty teacher pinned three silver stars onto an embarrassed Nakul's flaps. Nakul hated too much attention, and on the stage as the centre of attraction wasn't his idea of fun.
Shruti found a junior girl next to her line hooting madly as though it was her own boyfriend or something.
"What's wrong with her?!" Shruti asked Bhavya next to her, surprised at the girl's enthusiasm.
"She? She's Nilima," Bhavya told her, as Shruti observed her bright and shiny magenta and red hair clips. There was something about prominent hairclips that made Shruti hate people who wore them. She herself used simple black ones; she didn't understand why someone would humiliate themselves with decorated versions of the ornament.
Shruti flinched.
"She apparently has the hugest crush on Nakul," Bhavya said, continuing. Crush on Nakul? Shruti didn't like the sound of it. Nilima looked bad. She wasn't nearly good enough for Nakul. Shruti was disgusted.
"Ew," she said.
"Precisely," Bhavya agreed. Apparently Shruti wasn't the only one with a hatred for terrifying hair pins.
The assembly was over and Shruti made her way through the crowd to get a word with Nakul before class started.
"Nakul!" she called out, as she found him, speaking to MJ. She was the girls' sports captain, so she was probably telling him something related to the duty.
Nakul didn't respond to her; he probably hadn't heard. "Nakul?" Shruti called again, right next to him now. He had finished talking; he was now staring at MJ as she walked back to her class. It wasn't possible that he hadn't heard her now, even though the jostling and hollering of the crowd made it quite difficult. She looked at him. He simply passed by her and walked towards his classroom with engrossed and look on his face; something that jerked a memory into Shruti. He had liked her before, and he probably still did.
How irritating, Shruti thought to herself, loosening her subconciously clenched fists. She hated it when people ignored her like that. That was one thing she couldn't stand; not being answered to. Why was he acting so rude? Just because he got a chance to talk to some girl he liked, didn't mean that he had to ignore a friend.
She was definitely not going to speak to him for a while. Not until they walked back home together.
...
"Nakul!" Shruti screeched. She had decided not to speak to him throughout the day, and it hadn't made a difference in the world to him. Shruti spotted him looking around for her in the recess; but that lasted about thirty seconds after which he just started speaking to some other friends. It was like Shruti's existence didn't make a difference to him.
Now she was waiting for him as he finished talking to MJ about some stupid sports meet.
She had been doing the same for nearly seven minutes now, and the only response that she got every time she called out was a casual, "One sec, Shruti."
But this time Nakul was just acting plain deaf. He didn't even turn.
"Oh my god have you lost your sense of hearing?" Shruti said, more for her own satisfaction that to Nakul.
"No, Shruti I haven't," he said, surprising her. He had been listening. "One se-"
"You take as long as you want. I'm leaving." Shruti said to him as she turned around to leave.
She didn't know what made her so angry, but she was angry all right.
"And what about the kiddo races?!" Shruti heard MJ ask him enthusiastically just before she walked out of the main doorway. How sick. She didn't even care about what Shruti was going through.
She didn't need someone to walk home with; she could do it alone. She walked out of the gate, nearly tripping on the hinge. Whatever, she said to herself, serving as a consolation. Who cared if Nakul wanted to act like an idiot?
A while later, Shruti kicked an isolated pebble off the sidewalk as she thought about football. She didn't know why that kind of a topic took up her mind just then, but it did.
"Boo," Nakul said, putting a finger through her flaps and pulling her backwards, towards him.
"What the-!! Shruti exclaimed. She needed a warning; she couldn't manage sudden appearances.
"Go, die," she told him, severely, looking away.
Nakul laughed. "I didn't mean to make you wait so long," he said, apologetically.
"Mmhmm."
"Really!"
"Yeah right."
"I'm sorry."
He had said it; the two words that made Shruti forget any level of anger.
"Okay yeah that's okay," she told him. "You like Meghana?" she was direct; she was nearing her house now and she didn't have time to beat around the bush.
"Like?" Nakul said, innocently.
"You know..." Shruti said, waving her hand.
"Well she's a former crush..." his voice trailed away. Nakul probably didn't really find it comfortable to talk about that with Shruti.
"Oh, so that's who Aarnav was talking about," she said, smiling forcefully. A smile would fit the situation, but she wasn't really happy with knowing this. She had forgotten that Aarnav told her Nakul liked someone all along. She suddenly remembered now; and realised this was bound to happen.
"Aarnav? What? And when?"
"Long ago.. He said he was talking to you.. And you told him you like someone.. Blah blah. And I was all curious. But everyone already knows you like MJ." Shruti turned away.
"Curiousity killed the cat. It might've killed you too," he told her, irrelevantly. Shruti rolled her eyes at him.
"So.. Are you going to be asking her out?" Shruti said, hoping he'd say, 'never!'
Nakul beamed at her again. He looks amazing, Shruti thought to herself again. What was with those eyes? They were always so full of life.
"You'll never understand, Shruti," he told her, shaking his head.
"Never understand what?"
"Nothing. Your house is here," he told her. Shruti looked to her right. Sure enough, they had reached already.
...
Shruti's phone vibrated vigorously in the pocket of her loose tracks. She had been trying desperately to concentrate on writing her article for Buzz, but Nakul kept popping up in her head with MJ. As it was already, it was hard for Shruti to focus, and knowing about Nakul's huge crush was of no help.
"Hello?"
"Hey Shruti," Bhavya's voice came through the receiver.
"Bhavya," Shruti said, trying to sound a bit more like herself.
"What's up?"
"Nothing, actually I'd called to tell you Mrs.Kumar asked you to write a particular topic for tomorrow. It's gonna be the last buzz of the term, before half yearlies, so she wants it to be better than ever. She thinks we have a chance of winning the 'the best enterpreneur" prize this year for Buzz!" she said enthusiastically.
"Oh, that's nice," Shruti said pleasantly.
"What's the topic?"
"Anything wrong Shruti?" Bhavya asked, immediately.
"No, nothing," Shruti said quickly.
"Okay," Bhavya said as she proceeded to give her the rest of the information.
Shruti sighed and pushed the red button. She didn't know if she could write right now.
She pulled out a couple of plain sheets and began to try. It was pretty hard, but in the end she had finished. She glanced at the papers; well, satisfactory. Definitely not as good as the teacher would have wanted them, but Bhavya could do a bit of last minute editing for her in the morning. She leaned back in her chair.
Shruti didn't want Nakul to go out with MJ. A few months ago she didn't want her best friends to go out with eachother either, but that was different. That was like trying to save them from distraction. That was like irritation from being ignored. Like annoyance because they made out in front of her.
Now, it was like for some reason Shruti wasn't good enough... Nakul liking someone else made her feel low about herself. Shruti didn't understand a single bit of her own feelings; why should she be so concerned?
Nakul... He was this awfully sweet guy who'd entered her life suddenly when she needed the most. Just because it was getting better now, he couldn't decide to leave. But, actually, he could, Shruti realised, suddenly thinking like her mother. It was upto him, wasn't it? Nakul was there when she needed it; if he wanted to get a girl, she should help him get that, not be a barricade for him to cross to get to her. If that meant more to him than Shruti, she should understand and accept that. That's what her mother would have said.
Shruti blinked back tears. She pulled out a few more plain sheets and wrote. She wrote about Nakul, and how she felt about him. When she was with him, it was like nobody could do anything to harm her. And if they tried, they'd get their due. He'd do anything to have her feeling alright. Infact, she didn't even need that from him. Maybe all she needed was to stare into his eyes forever. They gave her hope. They told her, that sooner or later, everything would be alright. Now, she understood what he'd meant when he said he could spend the rest of life looking at Shruti smile. But was Shruti felt was different; she really meant it. He'd just said it to cheer her up.
She missed being her old, carefree self. She wouldn't have given a damn back then, she'd just move on with life and find a new best friend. But I can't do that now, I love Nakul, she said to herself. For a minute she was shocked at her own thoughts; but then it made sense. Ofcourse she loved him. Anybody who knew him would love him.

Shruti threw on her uniform in a jiffy; she had woken up way too late. She'd fallen asleep at her table the previous night and had somehow not gotten up in time, not even to the sharp rap on her door twenty minutes ago. When her alarm had finally succeeded in waking her up, she'd frantically asked why nobody had woken her up, and a servant had replied that they'd assumed maybe she would like to stay home from school that day. She'd rolled her eyes at the excuse and begun to rush. Her mom would have had her out of bed without fail. Shruti swept all the sheets on her table into a file as she adjusted her footwear; all the papers had separate topics and there was no need to put them in order, anyway.
She threw in all the books she could find lying outside to do justice to her half-filled bag and began to walk hurriedly. She hoped she'd have enough time to give her articles to Bhavya before turning them in.
...
"So what did you do last night?" Nakul asked her. He'd come over to speak to her himself today; Shruti was pleased to see that he wasn't as busy as the day before.
"I don't know.. Wrote some nonsense for today's Buzz... And then randomly dozed off. I overslept in the morning." Shruti hadn't had time to give the articles to Bhavya; she just hoped Mrs.Kumar didn't get too angry with her for writing that bad. But it wasn't her fault. Shruti could only write when she felt passionate about it, and the previous night, her passion lay somewhere else.
"Yeah, I saw you enter at about just a second before eight. I was wondering why you were so late."
"You spoke to Aarnav or anything?" Shruti wanted to know.
"Sort of. I mean, I just keep it short with him. I've kind of lost my respect for that guy," he told her. "At first I thought he's nicer than he seems like, but now I think he's a total pushover. He should be able to judge you for himself after knowing you that long, not take his stupid girlfriend's word for it."
Shruti nodded. She knew Aarnav was more upset with Shruti than angry; but there was nothing she could do unless he trusted her more than Shreya, which he apparently didn't.
"Did you set up the scoreboard for today's football?" Shruti heard MJ ask suddenly, turning up out of nowhere.
"Hi Shruti," she added.
"Hey," Shruti replied reluctantly. She wanted her to leave.
"Oh yeah, I forgot.." Nakul said, engaging in a conversation about the match. Shruti waited patiently, but after three or four minutes Nakul walked away to the ground with MJ.
"See you in a while, Shruti," he told her as he left. Shruti nodded again, and watched as Nakul and MJ left, deep in discussion. She suddenly wished she knew something about sports too; maybe atleast that would make Shruti more interesting to him. That way she'd be there to talk about everything he wanted to. She wondered if she should try learning something about them; that was going to be a real torture for her. Anyway, she didn't want to turn into an imposter with a fake personality, for Nakul.
Shruti sighed as she saw them disappear down the hallway.
...
"Mm hmm. So how's the whole captain thing?" Shruti asked Nakul, who was seated opposite to her on the floor of her house once again.
"It's kind of boring," he told her.
"Boring? You seem so busy! I never found being a prefect so hard," Shruti told him.
"Sports prefect would obviously have more to do than literary, don't you think?" Nakul said, shrugging.
"How's Meghana?" Shruti said, teasingly stressing on her name.
"I don't like her, Shruti. I don't know why you think that," he said, looking her seriously in the eye now.
He looked absolutely critical; like he never wanted to be asked the question again.
"I thought..."
"No, that was really long ago," he told her. "And I don't really like the way she behaves around me.. I guess she knows I used to like her or something." He looked irritated now.
"What does she do?" Shruti asked him, surprised.
"I don't know... Like she acts all business-like. Like she doesn't want me near at all. She's missing out on the fact that I'm not interested in her, either. I mean, just because she knows I used to like her, I don't see why she has to treat me like dirt. I won't ask her out even if she is nice to me."
"Won't you?" Shruti teased again.
"Shut up, Shruti," he said, looking hurt. That was the limit. Shruti had pushed it too far. She didn't mean to hurt him.
"Okay, sorry sorry," she said. He looked so torn up that Shruti felt bad for making fun of him. He probably already felt embarrassed when Meghana treated him that way, and having to tolerate jokes about it definitely wasn't much of a help.
"Sorry," Shruti said again, looking to see if he was okay now.
"Don't apologize so many times! It's okay," Nakul said. "But I seriously don't understand how I ever liked her. She's arrogant."
"None of the guys need anything except looks in a girl. Look at Aarnav," Shruti said, shrugging. "MJ is fair. Thin. Got nice eyes. Athelete's body. Knows about sports. Fun to talk to, probably. What else do you need?"
"What else do I need?" Nakul said incredulously. "Just because you've seen a guy or two that're perverted, doesn't mean we all are like that!"
"So what do you need in a girl?" Shruti asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, she should be.. Pretty, ofcourse."
"See? I told you!"
"Oh, shut up. I said pretty. Not 'hot'. I'm not done yet," Nakul said, annoyed. "She shouldn't be arrogant, but she should have an attitude. She can't be a pushover. She should be real bright but innocent. Really sweet but not easy to take advantage of. Carefree but caring. Dreamy but practical. And she shouldn't ever try to change for me," Nakul finished, leaning back against the wall now.
"You know, all those qualities are the opposite of one another? How can someone be all of that at once?!"
"It's possible," he said, simply.
Shruti shrugged, wondering where Nakul would find his dream girl.
"All the best with that," she told him.
"Why?"
"It'll be long before you find someone so confused," Shruti told him, joking.
Nakul's grinned amusedly. Shruti wished he would stop; there was something about his smile that made her feel like she loved him more. Maybe even romantically. But she wasn't sure; because she didn't mind if he liked some other girl as long as he didn't ignore her. But then again, Shruti never felt jealous with any of her crushes. Shruti had no idea; and she felt no necessity to gain clarity as of yet, as long as all these thoughts were restricted to her own mind.
"Maybe I already know who she is," he said, smiling mysteriously.
"Who, who, who?" Shruti asked enthusiastically.
"I was just kidding."
"Oh," Shruti frowned. "Idiot."
...
"You sent for me, ma'am?" Shruti said, to Mrs.Kumar. A junior girl about half of Shruti's height had come running upto her and told her that Mrs.Kumar wanted to meet her.
"Ah, there you are. The articles you turned in the other day..."
Oh. Those. She was definitely in for trouble. What would she tell her? Shruti began to worry. The teacher had probably hated them. Shruti gulped. Was she going to shout at her?
"Is this a mistake?" Mrs.Kumar asked, looking a little confused, handing Shruti a bunch of papers. Was it that bad? Shruti wondered to herself, taking the sheets. As she flipped through them, it felt like all the blood in her face had drained out. She had accidentally turned in some of the things she'd written for herself instead of the articles she'd written for Buzz!
This was going to be so horrible. And just that night Shruti had to write how she felt about Nakul. Mrs.Kumar already assumed something was up between Nakul and her. Now she would know everything, and the impression she had on Shruti would change forever. Maybe she would even call up her father and tell him Shruti was deviating herself from her studies. Maybe her dad wouldn't let her meet Nakul anymore. That would be the last thing she wanted.
"Shruti?"
"Yes, ma'am," Shruti said, snapping back to the present.
"Did you give me that by mistake?"
"Yeah... Actually I mixed them up.." Shruti's voice broke off. She didn't know how to explain that she had her own private stash of writings.
"I understand," Mrs.Kumar said, nodding. "It's beautiful."
"What?" Shruti's head shot up from the papers.
"It is very well written. Extremely touching. It brought tears to my eyes, child. You must be tired of hearing it, but you're an amazing writer, Shruti," Mrs.Kumar told her, smiling only a little.
"Thank you, ma'am," Shruti said, repeating a never ending cycle.
"But dear, please tell me if you'd like to continue writing these. We'll cancel Buzz," Mrs.Kumar said, somewhat wearily.
"What! Why?!" Shruti exclaimed. She definitely did not want to cancel Buzz.
"Because child, so much writing takes so much effort," she told her, picking up her stock of pages. There would have easily been more than a twenty. Shruti wondered how she could have ever mistaken those for her articles.
"And so much effort requires so much time. Your half yearlies are up, child and I want you to concentrate. I understand that you love doing this, but right now I want you to spend enough time on your studies. You must display your real abilities in these exams, Shruti, you must!"
Mrs.Kumar looked a little upset.
"Don't cancel Buzz, ma'am. I'll.. I'll stop writing all this," Shruti said, reluctantly. She didn't want to stop and she didn't know if she was going to keep the word she was giving to her teacher.
"Very well, then. I hope you understand what I'm saying, child. I'm only worried; now that even your mother isn't there to keep an eye on you.." Mrs.Kumar sighed.
"I do," Shruti told her. She really did. It was nice of Mrs.Kumar to be bothered.
"Alright now, go ahead, it's your P.T. period," Mrs.Kumar said, as she let her leave.
Shruti didn't want to spoil Buzz for Bhavya and Prerna as well; the three of them loved it. She sighed. The teacher was right; she would have to stop writing so much if she wanted to do better; she spent so much time on it, and it didn't even get her anywhere. She carefully tucked away the pages of her toil into the large brown folder in her bag, hoping that she'd be able to forget them.

The half yearly was quite a rush; it felt like it hardly lasted as long as Shruti awaited it. The students were let off early, giving them more time to study everyday, which Shruti put to the fullest use, by studying right through the days and for the first time during exams, using the nights solely to sleep. She wasn't used to that; Usually she just finished very little before the exams started and began to cram madly in the early hours of the big day. She was totally thankful to Nakul for that; he had pushed her into learning before. It seemed much better than the mid-terms, at any rate and Shruti hoped she would atleast make it to the top ten. She had put in a lot of effort for all of it, supressing her urge to add to her personal pile of writings. She was glad she'd been able to avoid distraction, but she knew she needed to write. She would.
Shruti wished the result would come out soon; she knew she had already proven herself in two tests but doing the same in a half yearly was different from that. Much to her annoyance, the results for the main exams like half yearly and finals came out pretty late after a lot of careful scrutiny.
On the other hand, it'd been a pretty long time since she'd spent time with Nakul. She missed him. They didn't text as much anymore; he wanted her to concentrate, and he needed to too. Apparently he needed to cram this time; he'd scored so low on the tests. Shruti wondered how, though. Every time they studied together, Nakul seemed to complete more than Shruti, and with more quality.
...
Shruti frowned as she reread the text message she had just received. Was it good? She didn't exactly know. All that she was sure of was that it wasn't meant for her; Shruti and Shreya were quite used to receiving eachother's texts, both of their names started with the same three letters and it was quite understandable for someone to send one's message to the other.
"Stop being a jerk, Shreya. Winning over someone who's in need of your help isn't really winning," read the first line. Shruti wondered if she should stop; this was simply being nosy. She had no right to peek into Aarnav and Shreya's personal life. Then again, it wasn't her fault that the message had turned up to her phone. Plus, it seemed to pertain to her. She had the right to know about anything that she was a part of. Right? She shrugged and continued to read, anyway.
"Fine, I understand you've always been the supressed friend. But that's not her fault. It's yours, because you use stupid tricks to prove yourself better than her. And just so you know, you're not. She's a childhood friend, and even if she's done something to hurt me once or twice, she's been there for me a bunch of more times so I'm not gonna let you talk that way about her, geddit?"
Shruti read it again. What did it mean? One thing that was clear was that Aarnav was standing up for her while Shreya was trying to criticise her. But why would Shruti need Shreya's help to do well? And what tricks was she playing? Her head filled with possibilites.
Ugh. Shruti thought. Why was this so complicated? She wished she could just call Aarnav up and find out what was happening, but she knew that would be committing the same mistake she had a few months ago. She wasn't supposed to approach him for anything; it'd just be showing him how much she needed him. Plus, Nakul would breathe fire if he knew she'd spoken to him.
How stupid of me, Shruti thought, as she realised what to do. She texted Nakul immediately; she knew he would take care of the rest and tell her what it was about as soon as possible. She smiled as she thought about the way she could always rely on him. She hoped he would reply soon; she wasn't good at taking curiousity.
Ah. Finally something interesting to write about, Shruti's thought process directed. The half yearlies were over, and she decided she could break the promise she'd given Mrs.Kumar, just for a little while. She rattled through the papers on her table to find the brown file and settled herself comfortably at her table as continued to write again.
...
"What the fu-" Shruti heard someone begin next to her, and they stopped themselves immediately as the principal walked by. Shruti cringed on hearing the swear word. It was Asish.
"Are you insane Shruti?" he asked her, looking back at the results sheet to make sure it was true.
"I knew you always were a bit, but now there's competition to Nakul! What's wrong with you guys," Ashish said, shaking his head and walking away. Nakul and Shruti cracked up; they both were SO thrilled. Nakul, naturally was, he'd secured an unbeatable 97.2% and for the first time in a few years, Shruti had crossed a ninety-five. She'd almost matched upto Nakul with a stunning 96%. At first she couldn't believe herself; but then she knew she had deserved it. She had always stood second, but there was a noticable difference between her and Nakul before. Now she might even be competition to him!
"See I told you you were heck smart," Nakul said. Shruti hated it when people used the phrase, 'I told you so,' but it seemed like Nakul knew exactly when it would make Shruti happy. She giggled. "No more than you, mister. And you kept your word! You topped," Shruti said, happy about it this time. "Ah. That. Forget about it. I'm so glad you're officially back," Nakul said, smiling.
"Mrs.Kumar wants to meet you!" Prerna informed Shruti.
"And congratulations, by the way," she added. "I'm glad you're back in your own slot!"
Shruti thanked her and gave herself one more minute. There was something she needed to know.
Shruti searched the list for Shreya's name, as finally found her at the thirty-third rank. She knew it was wrong to be happy about it, nevertheless she looked at Nakul and flashed him her biggest grin. Nakul obliged and laughed along with her. It was fun to think she was spoiling Nakul's clean mind with her own moral-lacking thoughts. Shruti turned to leave then, but she hadn't walked two steps before she turned back around and flew right into Nakul, embracing him in the biggest and happiest hug he would have ever gotten. He was surprised; but then he placed his arms around her and squeezed her back lovingly.
"Yes, yes Shruti!" Mrs.Kumar exlaimed on seeing her. She rose from her seat and went over to hug Shruti. Being hugged by a teacher definitely wasn't helping her image, but that was okay right now.
"I'm so proud of you, child!" she told her.
"Thank you ma'am," Shruti said, grinning widely.
"You've made an excellent comeback, child. I'm so happy. Now all you need to do is overcome Nakul; just work to your fullest and try your best. Ofcourse that would be kind of bad on your part, considering all that he's done for you, but then again that's how the...." Mrs.Kumar muttered, talking more to herself than to Shruti.
"What?" Shruti interrupted loudly, wondering how Mrs.Kumar knew about how Nakul had helped. She realised about second later that she had probably picked up a hint from her write-ups; she had read them.
"Oh dear, what a slip of tongue," Mrs.Kumar said once again voicing her private thoughts.
"What slip of tongue?" Shruti asked her. Okay there's more to this than I know, she realised silently. There was something more to it; Aarnav's message and how Nakul hadn't replied when she'd asked about it; now this.
She was sick of all the suspicious events.
"Oh nothing nothing, Shruti, child go back to your class now, it's my class that you have now, isn't it?" Mrs.Kumar said quickly, picking up her bag. She was trying to get away from telling her something. Nakul was right; curiousity would kill her, someday.
"No. There's something you're not telling me," Shruti observed.
"Why would I hide anything from you? No, child, I don't know anything," she replied, tensely.
"What don't I know over here, ma'am?" Shruti asked, stubbornly. She didn't want to have to force it out of her now; she hoped she would tell her right away.
"Oh dear," Mrs.Kumar said, looking more worried. "Nakul won't be too happy with me."
"It's okay, I'll tell him I made you tell. Just tell me," Shruti said, impatiently.
"Well, if I must then," she began. "The boy was completely convinced that you'd never be able to do well if your confidence levels remained as low; apparently he'd talked to you and you sounded totally put off about the mid term marks."
Shruti nodded. Nakul had conveyed that much to her already, and she knew he had been right, now that things were better.
"So he came to me. And asked me if I could request one or two subject teachers to conduct an informal test." Mrs.Kumar paused. Shruti had an idea of where this was getting to, but that was impossible. That couldn't be it.
"And he told me everyone else was to perform terribly bad, while you would top. I must say, the unity of your classmates is noteworthy," Mrs.Kumar told her, chuckling.
Shruti gasped. She hadn't topped; it was all made up! Nakul had done it just to make her believe she could. And the entire school had cooperated?
"I think he had trouble convincing just one girl," Mrs.Kumar went on to say.
"Shreya," Shruti said, along with Mrs.Kumar. It was obvious.
"At first he expected her to oblige; he didn't expect that she'd not help you out even though you really needed it."
Now Aarnav's message made sense. But what about the 'trick' thing?
"She was adamant. And Nakul knew that even if you'd topped over everyone else, having Shreya ahead of you would be a block, considering all that had happened with you two. He came to me after the second test, and asked me where the papers were kept. I showed him, and he wordlessly scrambled through them, looking for something. When he found Shreya's paper, he tore it up," she narrated, chuckling.
"Woah. Isn't that wrong?" Shruti asked, surprised.
"Oh, who cares," Mrs.Kumar said, with a wave of her hand. "It was just a stupid quiz."
Wow. Shruti thought. Unbelievable. Amazing. She didn't know if she should believe it; but out of a teacher's mouth, it seemed pretty true. Nakul had totally crossed all limits of sweetness. How could he care that much? He'd asked every person to cooperate. And without telling them about her mother and sister, Shruti was sure, because she would have been able to make out if people knew about it. He'd done so much just to boost her confidence. Shruti felt overwhelmed, and also guilty at a point; she had never done anything for Nakul. He had actually coordinated the whole school to help her out? Everything made sense now; why nobody seemed interested, how Nakul seemed to have totally stopped studying, and how he was so confident about topping even though he had performed horribly in the tests. Suddenly all of it seemed to become clear; and now Shruti felt kind of stupid. It was obvious. How had she not realised?
...

"I think that was amazing," Shruti said, balancing herself on the edge of sidewalk.
"Ah. It was nothing," Nakul said, taking her hand, pulling her into the centre. He nudged her over towards the fence, standing in Shruti's way to the road. Being with Nakul was like being with a dad. He wouldn't let her near any kind of danger, no matter how small.
"Everyone wanted to help."
"It's like you know everything. As though it's a formula. Two plus two is four. Like you're so clear about what to do to make it work for me. It's like you're... God," Shruti concluded, lamely.
Nakul laughed.
"Are you high? I'm not God, I just really wanted to help. And see? Studying together helped me as well... I've done much better than last time."
"Thanks Nakul," Shruti said, looking up at him. He had spiked his short hair up with gel in the morning as always, but now it was totally messed up after basketball. One would think that ruined his look, but surprisingly, he looked even better.
"Not thanks again," Nakul said, shaking his head. "When will you ever learn Shruti?"
Shruti laughed.
"You think MJ's nice?" he said suddenly, out of the blue.
"Hmm?" That definitely wasn't what Shruti was expecting to hear.
"Umm.. Well yeah. She's nice to me, nice to.. People, in general. Not mean, atleast."
Shruti wondered why he was thinking of that now, when he looked so good and she wished he was thinking about her and not MJ.
"Well, I don't know. She's being kinda sweet, now. She said I played really well yesterday. And she congratulated me when the results were out," he said.
"What?" Shruti said, stupidly.
"Are you listening, Shruti?"
"Ye-yeah, sorry. Maybe she likes you."
"I see."
"What 'I see'?"
"I don't know..." Nakul's voice trailed away.
"You like her again...?" Shruti asked, reluctantly.
"Not really," Nakul said, vaguely.
"Okaay..." Shruti said, turning away. She wondered what that meant. She tried to ignore the sinking feeling inside of her; she knew she needed a clear confirmation that he did NOT like her. Maybe he did. Ugh. Why couldn't he just be clear in the head?
"Alright bye," she told him, irritatedly, realizing a second later that she had no right to be annoyed. Especially after how sweet he'd been to her.
"What?" he said, lost. "Oh, bye."
...
"Yes?" Shruti said loudly, stepping outside her room. Someone had called out to her; and Shruti meant to go and speak to them but the owner of the voice was nowhere to be seen. Shruti had no idea where to search for him in such a big house, so it was definitely more convenient for her to holler back.
"Your father's asked you to meet him once you're free, he needs to talk to you," a servant said, appearing at the foot of the steps downstairs.
"Okay," Shruti said, sighing. "I'll be there."
She closed the door to her room and began to walk towards her father's office room. How complicated, she thought. At home, her mother would have just shouted whatever it was she wanted to speak about, and Shruti would have heard it from the other room. Occasionally Anusha would be studying and would scream out for both of them to be quiet, so then there would be a small controversy over who should make the move to the other's room; nobody ever wanted to budge.
Shruti smiled as she thought of it, and knocked gently on the door to her father's room, bringing herself back to reality.
"Come, sit," her father said, filing a bunch of papers.
"I got a call," her dad said. "From your teacher."
"Mrs.Kumar?" Shruti guessed. It was quite obvious. She had probably called to say she was happy about the results.
"Yeah, exactly. Well, before anything else, I'm really glad you're back on track," he told her, smiling. Shruti smiled back. "And you finally know what that boy was doing for you, hmm?"
"How you do you know about it?" Shruti asked, surprised. Even her dad knew? She was the only one clueless.
"Ofcourse I know. Your teacher told me, when I spoke to her after the mid term." Oh. That made sense. That's why she'd been questioned about Nakul that day.
"Are you sure you're not going out with that boy?" He asked again, doubtfully.
"What?!" Shruti said incredulously. "Not again, dad! I told you, I'm not!"
Her father chuckled.
"Alright, alright. Not like I would expect you to tell me if you were, ofcourse," he said, still laughing.
Shruti felt stupid. Why did her father think that? She wondered what he would do if she was, though. If it was her mother, she wouldn't mind. She'd just wait for Shruti to get over the phase herself. But there were some parents, like Shreya's, who didn't approve of relationships, and their kids maintained silence about it at home. But if he's amused enough to laugh about it, he would probably be okay with it, Shruti realised.
"Why do you think he's helping you then?"
"I don't know! Because I'm his friend?" Shruti said, obviously. "Anyway, I think he likes someone else."
"Oh, very interesting." He was being sarcastic. He didn't believe her.
"Look, I'm serious!" Shruti insisted.
"Mm hmm. Who's that girl?" He'd asked her as though he wanted to hear the name; rather, to see how fast she could come up with a name. Shruti wished he'd just believe her; she wasn't lying!
"MJ... Meghana. She's the girls' sports captain. Nakul is the boys'."
"C'mon. Just because two people hold the same post, it doesn't mean they like eachother," he told her. He still looked amused at how Shruti was trying to prove him wrong.
Shruti wasn't that stupid. She knew it wasn't just because they were at the same post! Did her dad think she was that dumb? "Look! I'm not lying. If you don't want to believe me, well and good!" Shruti exploded.
"Okay, okay. I believe you..." her father said, genuinely. "Anyway. Keep up the good work, Shruti. I'm proud of your 96%."
"Thanks," she told him, still annoyed a bit.
...

Shruti reached for her phone; it was way at the other end of the bed and she wasn't just about to get up to take the call. It was too far; Shruti groaned, stood up and walked over to it.
MJ? She had never really spoken to Shruti before. It wasn't that they weren't on good terms, but they were just the kind of girls who greeted eachother every day but never really got around to talking.
"Hello?" Shruti said, curiously.
"Hey, Shruti. Is this a bad time? I've got a couple of doubts..." Meghana went on to tell her about a few Math problems. Shruti frowned. Those were pretty easy, and MJ was quite smart. Shruti could say that it wasn't for these that she was calling. Nevertheless, she explained them out to her.
"Thanks loads, Shruti," she said sweetly.
"Oh, don't mention it."
"So... Are you dating Nakul?" she asked.
"What?" Shruti said, exasperated to be asked the same question again.
"Ofcourse not," she told her, trying to be calm. She reminded herself that it was kind of natural to assume that, considering what Nakul had done for her, and that they both talked a lot in school.
"Umm.. Are you like, sure?"
"Very," Shruti said, firmly. "Why?"
"Well... I don't know. Shruti, please don't lie to me," she said, a little pleadingly.
"I'm really not. Why, though?"
"So.. He's single right?"
"MJ, do you like him?" Shruti asked, impatiently.
She was making it obvious.
"Yeah.. Sort of. He used to like me, right? Do you think he still does?"
Shruti's heart sank as low as she could feel it go. If Nakul knew that MJ liked him, he would obviously go out with her. What should she tell her? If she told her that he didn't, she probably wouldn't confess her feelings to him. But that would be straight down lying. She didn't want this; but she knew she had to do it. For him. After all, MJ deserved Nakul a lot more than Shruti, anyday.
"I don't know MJ. Probably," Shruti said, truthfully. She knew Nakul probably did like her, but she didn't want her to get her hopes too high.
"Okay... You think I stand a chance...?" MJ asked, slowly.
"That.. That I think you do. A pretty good one," Shruti said, trying hard to keep her own emotions out of the conversation.
"Thanks Shruti," MJ said, sounding a little happier. "I feel much better after after talking to you!" MJ giggled into the phone. "I was really, really hoping this would work out for me."
Shruti rolled her eyes.
"He's really good looking, don't you think?" Meghana asked.
"Yeah... Quite." That's not what Shruti wanted to say. She wanted to say that he looked absolutely mesmerizing, and when he grinned at her, and his eyes sparkled in his usual way, it felt like he was so high above her that she wanted to tell herself off for even wondering if they could be equals and wishing that he liked her.
But she couldn't let MJ know she felt that way.
"And he's so freaking attractive. He manages to look awesome even while he plays basketball." MJ continued.
"Yup," Shruti agreed.
"How do you think we'd look together?" MJ was excited. Shruti raised her eyebrows at the reciever.
"You'd look good together," Shruti said, without even contemplating on it. She wasn't about to tell her that she thought they'd look stupid together.
"I must be boring you, I'm sorry," MJ stopped herself.
"Oh no, there's nothing like that," Shruti said. She didn't want to be rude to Nakul's girlfriend.
"Well, anyway I gotta go. My mom's calling me," MJ told her, as Shruti heard a yell for her in the background.
"Sure," Shruti said. "Bye."
Shruti felt terrible. She pulled out a few white pages and began to write. Shruti sighed and let a tear slip down her face. Nakul would forget her soon, now that even MJ liked him back. It was their perfect story. And she wasn't a part of it.
...
"Wow," Nakul said, impressed. "Your dad thinks we're going out?" She had just finished telling him about the embarrassing meeting with her father the previous day.
Shruti looked across the playground to where she could see Aarnav playing football. He was skinny, and tall. Taller than Nakul, who was pretty tall himself. He was good looking too, but for some reason Aarnav just seemed like a brother. She wondered why only Nakul interested her like that. Shruti looked across the playground to find another good looking guy who would maybe be able to get her mind off Nakul. Hopeless, she said to herself. They're all sick. She sighed.
"Shruti?" Nakul said, confused. "What're you thinking about?"
"Oh!" Shruti said, snapping out of her dream. "Sorry, I was just..."
"Is there some guy you're staring at?" He asked her, smiling in his trademark style. Shruti looked away quickly; she didn't need to like him any more than she already did.
"Don't be silly, Nakul," she said, simply.
"Do you want me to explain basketball to you?" he asked, as she looked over to the basketball court, imagining him play.
"Y-yeah," Shruti said. She definitely wanted to know all about his favourite sport.
Nakul began, leaning over her as he pointed above her shoulder to the court. He loved basketball; she could make that out. He was so interested. She could sense it in his voice; he was so thrilled, talking about it. She wished his voice got like that when he spoke about her to other people.
Shruti paid attention to him in the start, but later she just lost track. She wondered how he would feel to have that amazing voice speak about some other girl. She felt choked.
"Shruti? Are you with me?"
"What?" Shruti said, suddenly realizing that she was supposed to be listening.
"I'm sorry, I'm just..." Shruti didn't know what to tell him.
"Are you alright, Shruti?" he asked, a tinge of worry in his tone. He could probably see something was wrong.
"Yeah, I-I am." She knew she still sounded a little upset, but that was the best she could do. She wished he would stop being so nice when she wasn't going to get him anyway. She closed her eyes as he moved his hand up and down gently, on her arm just below where her sleeve ended. She took the risk and looked up into his eyes. He cared about her. Shruti unconciously let a tear slip out of her eye. She wiped it quickly; it would spread the kohl.
"Shruti! You're crying..." he said, frowning.
"No, I'm not," Shruti said, stupidly.
"What's wrong? You can't get away with this now," he told her, firmly.
"Nothing. I'm just wondering what I did to have someone as amazing as you for a best friend," she told him.
"Oh, c'mon. Shruti, how's this? I'll fail twice, and lose confidence. Then, you help me out, okay?" Shruti giggled.
Nakul breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank god you smiled," he told her. Shruti smiled again and looked away.
"Thanks," she told him. "You make me smile."
"Formalities again? Not accepted. Feeling better, now?"
"Yup." Shruti really did. She didn't know how he'd helped; but he had.
"Are you sure?" he asked, placing his cool palm against her cheek. She wished she could stay with him, this way, forever.
"Yeah, don't worry," she said.
"Thanks Nakul. Love you," she said, and surprised herself.
The bell rang. They had to leave for their classes.
"Love you too, Shruti," he said, smiling back.
...
"You've got a good point," Nakul said, in the middle of a random conversation, pushing his book aside and reaching for his phone. They were in Shruti's house again, on the floor in a huge room that Shruti suddenly seemed to have found that morning. It was uninhabited, like about ten other rooms in the house. Perfect to study.
"How's MJ been acting around you?" Shruti asked, wondering if she did anything about her feelings for him.
"Why do you ask?"
"Well, now that you mentioned that she's being nice..." Shruti's voice trailed away. She wished she could tell him the truth.
"Well... This should speak for me," he told her, handing her his iPhone 4.
"Are you going to the sports meet tomorrow? I'll go if you do!" MJ had sent him that two minutes ago.
"Wait," Nakul said, tensely. He grabbed his phone from her and gave it back in thirty seconds. "See the inbox."
Shruti did as she was told. She wondered why he took his phone back before telling her to see his inbox. Maybe he was deleting some messages; maybe ones from Meghana. Did they already have something going on? Maybe Nakul wasn't telling her because... Well, she couldn't find an explanation. She was probably wrong about them.
Shruti blinked. Apparently, he hadn't been replying to MJ that morning. There were about twenty messages that just read, "Hey!" and another forty that read, "Sup!" Shruti rolled her eyes. She didn't like this too much. And then, Shruti realised it. Nakul knew she liked him now; he was playing hard to get before he asked her out. What could make a girl like a guy more than that?
...

Shruti looked out of the class to see Nakul enter the school with MJ and the PE teacher. He had just retuned from the sports meet, and was wearing loose jersey and school pants. Even though the fit was ill and the colours were hideous together, he still looked good.
"Shruti!" An angry voice screamed at her.
Shruti turned back in front.
"Sorry ma'am," she said.
Chemistry. Why in the world would she even try to pay attention?
"If the sights outside the classroom attract you more than this," she said, tapping the board. "I will willingly send you out." She continued where she had left off with the lesson. Shruti rolled her eyes. She wished she could just tell her she'd love to leave the class as well.
Shruti carefully observed her watch, and waited for it to hit the end of the period as she resumed day-dreaming.
A loud interruption from the bell disrupted her thoughts, but she was happy about it. She grabbed her bag and went outside to find Nakul. He obviously didn't have basketball today, after the sports meet, and Mrs.Kumar had asked the girls to leave early as well.
"Hey," he said, as soon as they found eachother. He had changed into his entire school uniform; even he had realised the colours looked terrifying together.
"What's up?" Shruti asked. "How was the sports meet?"
"It was good," Nakul replied. "Only MJ was weird."
Shruti's ears perked up. "What happened?"
"I don't know. She's blushing too much," Nakul told her. Shruti raised her eyebrows. MJ needed to be tactful.
"And she's being too sweet. She hugged me before we left from there. It was weird."
When a guy found a hug from a girl weird, that was where she had to stop pushing it over the edge.
Can you hang on a sec, Shruti? She also asked me to meet her before we leave," he said, disappearing after receiving a reluctant nod from Shruti. The last time he had said 'one sec' in relation to MJ, it had taken forever. She hoped she didn't get any more touchy with him.
Shruti stood at a distance as she saw them speak. Nakul stood with his back to Shruti; she couldn't see his facial expressions, though MJ's were quite clear.
For a while, MJ was kind of blushing. Then, she turned a little red at the ears; and then she looked sort of embarrassed, and then she looked at Shruti. Shruti looked away; she didn't want to look like she had been staring. She wondered what could have happened. Did he ask her out? Oh my gosh, she must have agreed, too, Shruti realised. Maybe she didn't like that all of had to happen in front of Shruti; that's why she was embarrassed. She didn't think it would be done so soon. Maybe MJ would walk home with them now. Shruti sure didn't want that. It would be an Aarnav-Shreya repeat, only more painful this time. That was the guy she loved.
Then, Nakul turned around and began to walk towards Shruti, looking equally embarrased. Maybe he was coming to ask her if she could go home alone that day and to say that he and MJ would hang out for a while somewhere and leave later. Shruti was dreading it.
However, "Let's just leave," Nakul said, making it a point to look at his shoes, trying his best to flush the red out of his face.
"What happened?" Shruti said curiously, looking back to MJ who walked out towards another exit.
"She asked me out."
"What?!"
Boys asked girls out all the time; but a girl who asked a guy?
"Umm.. Yeah. Did you speak to her about this before?" He clearly knew that she had.
"Yeah," Shruti confessed.
"She asked you if I like her?"
"Yeah, I said probably..."
"Why did you do that?!" Nakul sounded like it was completely illogical.
"Oh for gods sake! What did you say to her?" Shruti asked, impatiently.
"I told you before and I'm telling you again. I don't like her, Shruti, so I said I can't."
"Oh," Shruti said, surprised. She was also obviously a little pleased.
"It's sick when I have to blow off girls. It's dramatic. MJ looked like she might cry," Nakul said, shaking his head. "And it's going to be akward around her forever now."
"I'm sorry," Shruti told him. He was right; he'd told her that he didn't like MJ, and now because of her own stupid assumptions he'd have to face a totally ruined relationship with his fellow sports captain.
"Don't apologise... It isn't your fault."
"Has anyone else ever asked you?" Shruti asked, wondering why she never thought of it before.
"You could say so."
"Who, who, who?" Shruti said, curiously.
"Some girl... She's a junior.."
"Nilima?"
"Yeah, that thing."
Shruti laughed.
"What did you say to her?"
"What do you think?"
"Okay, sorry."
Nakul looked irritated.
"Why're you so angry?" Shruti asked him.
"I don't understand why you still thought I liked MJ. I mean..."
"Sorry..."
"Don't apologize, idiot. I just don't understand why," he said, a bit warmer now.
"I didn't want to be the one to put her off. And anyway, when I asked, you said 'not really' so how could I say you didn't at all?"
"My bad. Wrong choice of words. I don't like her at ALL. Clear enough?" Nakul asked.
"Yup," Shruti said, looking up at him and smiling.
Finally, she had gotten the confirmation she required.
...

"You've gotten your clothes for the farewell?" Bhavya asked Shruti. That was a tradition; tenth graders wore a sari for the farewell, which would be arranged by their immediate juniors. Shruti had helped host one for her seniors too, the previous year. Ninth grader hosts had it much easier; they just needed to wear a simple chudidhar.
"Ofcourse not! There's so much time left," Shruti answered, paying her only half her attention, the other half being on the ground with Nakul, playing football.
"I did. My sari is light brown," Bhavya told her.
That was ridiculous. There were nearly three months for the farewell. And there was so much that had to be finished before the farewell. There would be the boards. And then results a week later, and THEN the farewell. There was so much to worry about.
Shruti looked back onto the last couple of months; they had just flown by. It seemed like it was just yesterday that Nakul turned Meghana down. From then, time had been running too fast for Shruti to catch up with. There was nothing that hit her emotionally either; Nakul had been all hers. They studied together so often that Shruti felt weird when she had to do it without him around. When they couldn't meet, they scheduled their portion and finished it together. But she still couldn't tell him about how she felt; he didn't seem to feel the same for her. If she'd let herself out, things wouldn't ever be the same between them.
"What colour are you going to buy?" Bhavya asked. Honestly, Shruti had huger problems to solve than finding the right colour for her sari on farewell. She had a lot to study. She had to get over Nakul.
"Well, maybe I'll take a greenish-blue. Or a dark pinkish-purple. Maybe maroon," Shruti said, naming her all time favourite blend of colours to wear. "I don't know, I guess I'll have to decide at the store." Shruti felt confused now.
"But you picked a good colour," Shruti said, looking away from the ground to Bhavya's fair skin tone.
"Brown would look hideous on me," she observed, before diverting her focus back to the ground.
Bhavya laughed. "It's exclusive to a person," she agreed. "You like him, don't you?"
"Who?" Shruti asked. Did Bhavya know? Was she really being that obvious?
"Nakul!"
"Well...." How in the world did she know? Shruti wondered.
As though she had asked out loud, Bhavya said, "It's obvious. Now don't deny it, don't worry I won't tell anybody."
"He doesn't like me back," Shruti said, quietly. If Bhavya could figure that Shruti had a crush on Nakul, so could Nakul. If he suspected it, and he wasn't already asking her out, that just reinforced her assumption; he didn't like her.
"Maybe he does, Shruti! I think he does. He never hangs out with any other girl like he does with you."
"That doesn't mean he likes me. It just means he's being friendly because-" Shruti stopped herself. She wasn't about to tell Bhavya why he had always been sympathetic to her.
"Because? Because he likes you, idiot!" Bhavya said, excitedly. "You guys would make a cute couple."
Shruti laughed. Bhavya was thinking way into the future. "You really think so?"
"Totally. You look perfect for eachother."
"I don't think it'll ever happen, though..." Shruti's voice trailed away.
"I'm serious," Bhavya told her.
Bhavya could think what she wanted to, but Shruti knew the truth. He was only being nice to her because he knew everything that happened; he was a kind by nature, and he would help anyone who needed it, and that was probably the only reason he hung out with Shruti. He also spoke to MJ sometimes, because he felt bad for rejecting her. That didn't mean he liked her, right?
How could she tell Bhavya all of that?
...
Shruti sat on a couch outside her room watching tv as she ate. As always nowadays, her attention wasn't at the Television, though. She had way too many things on her mind. She needed to make a proper plan to finish her portion now; the time was ripe to study more than she'd been. Nakul didn't like her. And she had no idea how she was going to ask her dad to buy her a sari for the farewell; she'd never really asked him to buy her anything since she moved in with him. It was just something that was understood; Shruti bought the small things she needed with her allowance, now that she got one. But that wasn't enough for even a blouse piece of a sari. And if she wanted a pretty one, it was going to cost more than just six hundred rupees.
Shruti's guilty conscience was pricking her; she needed to get back to work. She lay out a thick reference book in front of her on the table, and stretched herself out on the chair. Her eyes burnt. There was too much to cram. To make things worse, the teachers didn't give up on homework. But it wasn't too long before Shruti put her head down and dozed off, using her thick Physics book as a pillow on the hard table. She couldn't study anymore; she had to make up for her serious lack of sleep. Not much time was wasted, though; she was woken up pretty soon. Her phone vibrated, making her jump, forgetting all her tiredness.
"Hey..." Nakul's voice dropped through. "Busy?"
"Not really," she said.
"Come meet me?"
"You're talking about studying together?" Shruti asked, reluctantly. She didn't want to study anymore. Maybe a power nap would work.
"No, not now. Let's just walk," Nakul told her.
"Alright..." Shruti said, before hanging up wearily. She didn't want to study, but she didn't want to walk either. But it was with Nakul, which totally changed her choice. Shruti sighed as she changed her tracks to jeans and slipped her phone into her pocket as she walked out. The summer was dying; it wasn't as hot anymore. She met Nakul standing just outside her house, as though he had been waiting for her.
"How long've you been here?" Shruti asked, walking towards him.
"I was already out of the house when I rang you up. Just thought it'd be nice if you'd join me," he told her.
"It sure is nice," she agreed, smiling.
"Oh my god, Shruti what's wrong with your eyes? They're red as ever," he said, shocked, as she got nearer.
Now she could see Nakul; his eyes were quite red as well. Something about that made her feel a sharp pang of pain somewhere inside. She wanted him to be alright... Nevertheless, she gulped and said, "Can't be worse than yours."
Shruti rested her head on his shoulder and took his arm as she walked. She hated to think that her head hardly could reach the top of his shoulder; she was too short for him.
"I wish prep holidays would start soon and we could just write the stupid boards already."
"Exactly," she agreed.
Another month and a half and things would finally be alright.
....

The Boards were not as scary as Shruti had imagined; they were actually easier than any of their pre-finals. The questions were of the easy kind, but they always had a small twist that threw the student off track. Plus, they were all application-type, which meant that those kids who got through by memorizing were in for a bad surprise.
"When're you going to start studying for History?" Nakul asked her, one afternoon after their first board exam.
"After the lunch, I guess," Shruti told him, "I need some sleep."
"Well, you've got a point," he agreed. "I need some too."
"We've got three holidays for History. Three days of history is going to be a real pain."
"You're so right," Nakul said. "Maybe we should study together. We won't waste time; it's the board."
"Hey, maybe we should! Come over, tomorrow?"
"Around 11," Nakul agreed.
...
"You know, I've never asked you," Shruti began to say to Nakul, who was sitting at her table as she, herself totally occupied her bed with all the History books and materials she could gather.
"What do you actually want to be?"
"Me?" Nakul said, lamely. Shruti rolled her eyes at him. There was clearly noone else in the room.
"I... Want to be a space scientist," he told her.
"Ooo.. Sounds pretty cool," Shruti said, even though she had no idea what space scientists did. Not that it mattered to her. The name of the profession sounded cool enough.
"You don't know what that is, do you?"
"No."
Nakul laughed.
"You're innocent... and cute."
"What?!" Shruti wasn't innocent! The fact that he just said she was cute made her heart jump around and do a little dance, but she didn't say anything about it.
"Okay, okay no you're not. What did you always want to be?"
"Well, I always loved writing. And I've always fantasized about it. From like, before my parents were divorced," Shruti told him.
"From when you were that tiny? Wow," Nakul said. "When I was four, I wanted to be a power ranger..."
Shruti burst out laughing. Power ranger? Way beyond her imagination.
"Oh, but of course. I had this phase where I wanted to be an actress," Shruti confessed. It was Nakul's to laugh.
"You'd make a good one, though," he told her.
"Me?" Shruti was surprised. She laughed again.
...

The boards had lasted an entire month, with Shruti wishing that time would fly like it had been doing before. Unfortunately, it had gone much slower with nothing to do except eat and study. But ofcourse, they went well. Shruti stopped thinking about her rank and just hoped to cross a ninety five. She knew she couldn't top; Nakul was too good.
Shruti smoothed out her new top and looked at herself in her full length mirror. She decided she looked pretty fine. She tucked her phone in her pocket and left the room. Her father was being very sweet; he'd offered to take her to school to see the results.
"Nervous?" he asked her, in the car.
"Very," Shruti admitted. She was going to see how much she'd scored; it was the result of a year of real labour. She closed her eyes and said a little prayer.
...
"Hey Shruti, that's pretty cool!" Shruti heard someone say.
"Thanks," Shruti smiled. She didn't know who the girl was; probably a junior.
"Hey, Shruti. Congratulations," she heard another guy say behind her.
"Thanks so mu-" she began to say, before she realised that it was Nakul.
"Oh it's you. Hey," she said, looking at him.
Nakul laughed. "You've been saying thanks so much that you're forgetting to see what and who you're saying it to," he told her. "This proves it."
"I don't deny that," Shruti said, grinning. She couldn't have been happier with her grades; she didn't even care if she was first now!
"So, ICSE board 97.7% achiever. How do you feel?" Nakul asked.
"I... Want to get away from here, and talk you somewhere I'm not pushed around as much," Shruti answered irrelevantly, looking around at the crowd.
"And don't you tell me my percentage is good. I haven't seen anyone who gets more than a ninety seven in their boards. I mean, 98.3 is inhuman!" Shruti exclaimed. Nakul laughed.
"Wouldn't have been possible if I hadn't studied with you."
"It should be me who has to say that," Shruti said, looking at him gratefully.
"Thanks," she told him.
"Not again.." Nakul began.
"Why can't you just say, 'you're welcome'?"
"Because I don't like being thanked or apologized to. Not by you, atleast," he told her.
Shruti heard a thundering voice call for him.
"PT sir," Nakul said, regretfully. "Why doesn't he just slaughter me?"
Shruti giggled. He had a peculiar attraction for Nakul.
"Hold this for me, Shruti? I'll just be back," he told her, handing her his phone.
Shruti wondered why he couldn't have taken his phone when he went to talk to the teacher. She shrugged, and pressed the centre key of his phone to make it light up. Now, Shruti had no idea why she did that, but there sure was something that she liked to see. It made her stop breathing for a few seconds.
"Shruti! Your result is awesome!" she heard Bhavya exclaim.
"Th-thanks Bhavya," she said, without looking up, as Bhavya came to stand beside her and see what she was looking at. The result had become the second thing on Shruti's mind now; there was something more interesting here.
"Is that Nakul's phone?" Bhavya asked, doubtfully.
Shruti nodded.
Nakul's background was a picture of Shruti. She had a pencil in her hair, and she was looking down at a book, in which she was writing. She was on her bed, sinking into the mattress and surrounded by books everywhere. Shruti looked terribly messy, in her tracks and a T-shirt.
He must have taken it when we were studying together, Shruti realised.
His phone background picture was one of her? That was so sweet of him!
She wanted to send a picture of his to her own phone and do the same, before he was back. She would love to see Nakul every time her phone lit up!
Shruti quickly unlocked the keypad and went to his picture gallery, and she scrolled through the pictures to find one of himself, but she gave up after a minute or two; EACH and EVERY picture in his phone was only of Shruti. Shruti, reading, Shruti, walking, Shruti, typing, Shruti, writing, Shruti, on the phone, and there was even one of Shruti, sneezing. Shruti flicked the screen several times, and it kept scrolling down and showing her more pictures of herself.
"Oh my..." Bhavya said, looking at the screen, amazed.
Wow, she thought. Shruti was stunned.
"See?! I told you! I told you he likes you, Shruti, he totally does! I'm telling you-"
"When the heck did he take all these?" Shruti interrupted, flipping through the never ending set of pictures.
"It's so cute," Bhavya said, smiling. "He likes you."
"Well..." Shruti had no idea what to say.
"I hope you're right."
...

"Wow, that one's really pretty," Shruti exclaimed, looking at a mannikin.
"Do you want it?" her father asked, as he had been doing with every sari that Shruti said she liked.
"Umm.. Let's see all of them," Shruti said. She didn't know how to explain to her father that he wasn't suppose to offer to buy everything Shruti remarked about.
"Ofcourse, sweetheart." This cycle was never going to end.
Shruti smiled. A She didn't know how her dad got to know that she needed to get a sari for her farewell, but he did, an he himself offered to take her. She had originally planned to ask Bhavya to go with her and only ask her dad for a little money, but this was much better.
"Thanks, dad," Shruti said, suddenly remembering her manners.
"You don't thank me, Shruti," he told her, reminding her of Nakul.
After half an hour, Shruti had selected about five saris from which she had to pick her favourite. By now, her father was getting restless, and she realised that it was about time that she got to a decision.
"Try them on, we'll see which is better," her dad told her. Shruti went into the dressing room and then there was something she realised; She had no idea how to wear a sari. She would look like an idiot if she went back out now. Shruti sighed. Why didn't she think of that before getting into the room and locking herself in? At this point, Shruti missed her mother. Shruti thought for a minute and did what would make her look least dumb; She folded two up and draped them both over her shoulder at the same time; she would have to choose according to which colour was the best.
"You like this one?" Shruti asked her dad, pointing to the sari on her left shoulder.
"Oh, yes, it's very pretty. I think the colour goes with you quite nicely. Much better than the other."
"Really? But I liked this one!" Shruti said, holding up the other one.
"Oh." His face fell.
"Actually you're right. That one's much better. It's a lot prettier," he told her, nodding enthusiastically.
Shruti rolled her eyes.
"Dad!"
"Well I'm sorry child but I'm terrible with colours! Would you like to call one of your friends so they could help you?"
"No, that's alright," Shruti couldn't help laughing. She wondered if her mother had ever gone shopping with him.
"I'll pick something on my own," she assured him laying out all five on the counter in front of him.
"Oh!" Shruti exclaimed slightly, as she realised that she'd forgotten to check if any of them were in her budget at all. She couldn't ask her dad to spend too much; she'd only be wearing it once. She crossed her fingers; if they weren't, she'd have to start searching from scratch again. Shruti turned over one of them to see the price; she immediately gasped. Seven thousand was way too much to spend on a single sari!
"We'll look for other ones," she told the boy at the counter quickly, gathering them up.
"Why?" Her dad sounded like he already had an idea.
"It's too expensive for a one-time wear," she told him.
"No," her dad told her, firmly putting his hand over the remaining price tags so she couldn't see.
"You're so much like your mother. Stop looking at the prices and buy what you would like to have," he told her, simply. Shruti wondered if that was a compliment.
"But-"
"No buts, Shruti. Just choose one," he told her.
She picked a dark shade of pink, with a tinge of purple in it.
"This one," she said, smiling up at him. She loved her dad.
...
"No, no way, that's enough," Shruti said, hardly able to speak. Bhavya's mother had dabbed a thick layer of foundation cream onto her skin immediately, and now she was covering that up with facial powder.
"Aunty, I think that's enough!" Shruti exclaimed.
"No, no dear, let me just finish up," she said, ignoring her doing as she liked anyway. Shruti couldn't do much to stop her; it was pretty nice of her to offer to dress her up, anyway. But little did Shruti know that she was planning on doing her more help than just showing her how to wear the sari.
I shouldn't have come here, Shruti said to herself as Bhavya's mom made her keep her mouth open so that she could put lipstick on her. Shruti stopped trying to withhold; it was getting useless.
I could have just added a little eyeliner and mascara to my normal dose of kohl, Shruti thought, as she felt her skin being brushed with blush and eye shadow. I could have just done whatever I do for school everyday, and I would have been fine. Now I look like Shreya the second, she muttered.
"Wow, you look pretty, Shruti!" Bhavya exclaimed, as she walked into the room, looking beautiful herself.
"Look who's talking," Shruti said, trying to smile without ruining the layers of make up. Bhavya smiled back.
"It's about time, Ma," she told her mother.
"Oh yes, I'm just finished with Shruti, give me a second," she told her, rubbing Shruti's blush to make it uniform.
"Thanks, aunty," Shruti said, smiling.
"Oh, don't mention it. Anytime," her mother said, patting her on the back.
Never again, Shruti thought.
"Ma! Her dad is waiting outside, we have to leave," Bhavya said, hurrying her.
"Okay, okay here you are," the lady said, helping Shruti up. "Off you go," she said, smiling wide, so that thirty two pearly white teeth showed.
"Have a good time. And take pictures!"
Shruti thanked her again and walked outside to meet her father.
"Ah," he said, on seeing them. "You both look beautiful. This deserves a picture."
"Stand right there," he said, choosing a nice spot inside the house, and pulling out his phone to take a picture of them together.
Not like this, not like this, Shruti thought, in vain. Funnily, Bhavya didn't seem as conscious. Shruti. didn't want a picture of herself in which she was wearing as much make up as that!
"I'll sit in front with dad," she told Bhavya, as they got into the car. Bhavya nodded.
Shruti quickly pulled down the sunshield, which had a mirror, and carefully wiped a large percentage of the make up off her face with a handkerchief, hoping noone would see her doing that. Luckily, nobody did.
By the time school was nearby, Shruti wished she hadn't taken off so much of her powder though; she looked kind of simple compared to the one or two people from school she could spot, walking.
I should have taken off the eyeshadow, Shruti realised, as it became harder for her to blink, since her eyelid got stuck to the top whenever she tried to close her eyes. How irritating.
As Shruti walked in with Bhavya, she realised she wasn't the only one covered in make up. Shreya looked like she was carrying around a make-up store, standing next to Aarnav in a brown shirt and a off-white suit. That was a nice combination. Aarnav dressed well; she had to hand it to him.
Shruti failed to recognize Prerna at all. MJ looked quite good, though. She was very pretty, in a purple sari with traces of black.
"Hey, gorgeous," she heard Nakul say. Shruti looked beside her. There he was, looking absolutely stunning. He was already sweating; he had probably reached much earlier than her, considering she was nearly an hour late.
"Talking to me?" Shruti asked, looking the other way, but there was nobody there. Nakul laughed.
"Yes, Shruti, I mean you," he told her, his eyes sparkling. Shruti looked down at what he was wearing; a dark grey shirt with a black suit over it. It was a wonderful combination. He looked absolutely stunning. Grey suited him so well.
Shruti tried to ignore Bhavya squeal, "He likes you, he likes you," next to her; she had clearly heard Nakul's compliment. Shruti was sure Nakul heard her say that; he pursed his lips and smiled a bit amusedly.
"Nice shirt," she said, simply.
"Well, thanks," he said, smiling.
"Here, let me take a picture of you guys," Bhavya offered, grabbing Shruti's cellphone. 'Thank you,' Shruti mouthed when Nakul wasn't looking. She had been dying for a picture with him.
He offered her his hand for her to stand back up, and Shruti gracefully took it, trying her best not to tear any part of the dress at her every movement.
"Thanks," she said, laughing.
"Anything for you, today," he said, forgetting to get irritated when she thanked him. "You look amazing."
Shruti smiled. He was being way too nice.
When Bhavya was taking the photo, there was something Shruti managed to notice, even though there were many layers of the sari before her skin so she could hardly feel anything herself; Nakul had put his arm around her waist for the picture.
Shruti wished Bhavya would offer to take another picture. She sighed, and began to sit back down as she watched MJ pass by. "Shruti, wait," Nakul said, taking her hand with one of his own and taking one of MJ's with the other.
"Can you take a picture of me and her?" Nakul asked Shruti.
Shruti rolled her eyes. And she had thought he was going to do something with her.
Nevertheless, "Sure," she said, and took MJ's camera. She felt her insides burn as MJ took Nakul's arm into her own and leaned towards him for the picture. She quickly finished and handed her camera back, hoping she would disappear.
"You look really beautiful, Shruti," she said, and suspiciously smirked at Nakul, before she left.
Shruti returned her compliment; she obviously looked much, much better.
Shruti sat down next to Nakul and began to pay attention to the program their juniors had arranged.

"Wow, that one's really pretty," Shruti exclaimed, looking at a mannikin.
"Do you want it?" her father asked, as he had been doing with every sari that Shruti said she liked.
"Umm.. Let's see all of them," Shruti said. She didn't know how to explain to her father that he wasn't suppose to offer to buy everything Shruti remarked about.
"Ofcourse, sweetheart." This cycle was never going to end.
Shruti smiled. A She didn't know how her dad got to know that she needed to get a sari for her farewell, but he did, an he himself offered to take her. She had originally planned to ask Bhavya to go with her and only ask her dad for a little money, but this was much better.
"Thanks, dad," Shruti said, suddenly remembering her manners.
"You don't thank me, Shruti," he told her, reminding her of Nakul.
After half an hour, Shruti had selected about five saris from which she had to pick her favourite. By now, her father was getting restless, and she realised that it was about time that she got to a decision.
"Try them on, we'll see which is better," her dad told her. Shruti went into the dressing room and then there was something she realised; She had no idea how to wear a sari. She would look like an idiot if she went back out now. Shruti sighed. Why didn't she think of that before getting into the room and locking herself in? At this point, Shruti missed her mother. Shruti thought for a minute and did what would make her look least dumb; She folded two up and draped them both over her shoulder at the same time; she would have to choose according to which colour was the best.
"You like this one?" Shruti asked her dad, pointing to the sari on her left shoulder.
"Oh, yes, it's very pretty. I think the colour goes with you quite nicely. Much better than the other."
"Really? But I liked this one!" Shruti said, holding up the other one.
"Oh." His face fell.
"Actually you're right. That one's much better. It's a lot prettier," he told her, nodding enthusiastically.
Shruti rolled her eyes.
"Dad!"
"Well I'm sorry child but I'm terrible with colours! Would you like to call one of your friends so they could help you?"
"No, that's alright," Shruti couldn't help laughing. She wondered if her mother had ever gone shopping with him.
"I'll pick something on my own," she assured him laying out all five on the counter in front of him.
"Oh!" Shruti exclaimed slightly, as she realised that she'd forgotten to check if any of them were in her budget at all. She couldn't ask her dad to spend too much; she'd only be wearing it once. She crossed her fingers; if they weren't, she'd have to start searching from scratch again. Shruti turned over one of them to see the price; she immediately gasped. Seven thousand was way too much to spend on a single sari!
"We'll look for other ones," she told the boy at the counter quickly, gathering them up.
"Why?" Her dad sounded like he already had an idea.
"It's too expensive for a one-time wear," she told him.
"No," her dad told her, firmly putting his hand over the remaining price tags so she couldn't see.
"You're so much like your mother. Stop looking at the prices and buy what you would like to have," he told her, simply. Shruti wondered if that was a compliment.
"But-"
"No buts, Shruti. Just choose one," he told her.
She picked a dark shade of pink, with a tinge of purple in it.
"This one," she said, smiling up at him. She loved her dad.
...
"No, no way, that's enough," Shruti said, hardly able to speak. Bhavya's mother had dabbed a thick layer of foundation cream onto her skin immediately, and now she was covering that up with facial powder.
"Aunty, I think that's enough!" Shruti exclaimed.
"No, no dear, let me just finish up," she said, ignoring her doing as she liked anyway. Shruti couldn't do much to stop her; it was pretty nice of her to offer to dress her up, anyway. But little did Shruti know that she was planning on doing her more help than just showing her how to wear the sari.
I shouldn't have come here, Shruti said to herself as Bhavya's mom made her keep her mouth open so that she could put lipstick on her. Shruti stopped trying to withhold; it was getting useless.
I could have just added a little eyeliner and mascara to my normal dose of kohl, Shruti thought, as she felt her skin being brushed with blush and eye shadow. I could have just done whatever I do for school everyday, and I would have been fine. Now I look like Shreya the second, she muttered.
"Wow, you look pretty, Shruti!" Bhavya exclaimed, as she walked into the room, looking beautiful herself.
"Look who's talking," Shruti said, trying to smile without ruining the layers of make up. Bhavya smiled back.
"It's about time, Ma," she told her mother.
"Oh yes, I'm just finished with Shruti, give me a second," she told her, rubbing Shruti's blush to make it uniform.
"Thanks, aunty," Shruti said, smiling.
"Oh, don't mention it. Anytime," her mother said, patting her on the back.
Never again, Shruti thought.
"Ma! Her dad is waiting outside, we have to leave," Bhavya said, hurrying her.
"Okay, okay here you are," the lady said, helping Shruti up. "Off you go," she said, smiling wide, so that thirty two pearly white teeth showed.
"Have a good time. And take pictures!"
Shruti thanked her again and walked outside to meet her father.
"Ah," he said, on seeing them. "You both look beautiful. This deserves a picture."
"Stand right there," he said, choosing a nice spot inside the house, and pulling out his phone to take a picture of them together.
Not like this, not like this, Shruti thought, in vain. Funnily, Bhavya didn't seem as conscious. Shruti. didn't want a picture of herself in which she was wearing as much make up as that!
"I'll sit in front with dad," she told Bhavya, as they got into the car. Bhavya nodded.
Shruti quickly pulled down the sunshield, which had a mirror, and carefully wiped a large percentage of the make up off her face with a handkerchief, hoping noone would see her doing that. Luckily, nobody did.
By the time school was nearby, Shruti wished she hadn't taken off so much of her powder though; she looked kind of simple compared to the one or two people from school she could spot, walking.
I should have taken off the eyeshadow, Shruti realised, as it became harder for her to blink, since her eyelid got stuck to the top whenever she tried to close her eyes. How irritating.
As Shruti walked in with Bhavya, she realised she wasn't the only one covered in make up. Shreya looked like she was carrying around a make-up store, standing next to Aarnav in a brown shirt and a off-white suit. That was a nice combination. Aarnav dressed well; she had to hand it to him.
Shruti failed to recognize Prerna at all. MJ looked quite good, though. She was very pretty, in a purple sari with traces of black.
"Hey, gorgeous," she heard Nakul say. Shruti looked beside her. There he was, looking absolutely stunning. He was already sweating; he had probably reached much earlier than her, considering she was nearly an hour late.
"Talking to me?" Shruti asked, looking the other way, but there was nobody there. Nakul laughed.
"Yes, Shruti, I mean you," he told her, his eyes sparkling. Shruti looked down at what he was wearing; a dark grey shirt with a black suit over it. It was a wonderful combination. He looked absolutely stunning. Grey suited him so well.
Shruti tried to ignore Bhavya squeal, "He likes you, he likes you," next to her; she had clearly heard Nakul's compliment. Shruti was sure Nakul heard her say that; he pursed his lips and smiled a bit amusedly.
"Nice shirt," she said, simply.
"Well, thanks," he said, smiling.
"Here, let me take a picture of you guys," Bhavya offered, grabbing Shruti's cellphone. 'Thank you,' Shruti mouthed when Nakul wasn't looking. She had been dying for a picture with him.
He offered her his hand for her to stand back up, and Shruti gracefully took it, trying her best not to tear any part of the dress at her every movement.
"Thanks," she said, laughing.
"Anything for you, today," he said, forgetting to get irritated when she thanked him. "You look amazing."
Shruti smiled. He was being way too nice.
When Bhavya was taking the photo, there was something Shruti managed to notice, even though there were many layers of the sari before her skin so she could hardly feel anything herself; Nakul had put his arm around her waist for the picture.
Shruti wished Bhavya would offer to take another picture. She sighed, and began to sit back down as she watched MJ pass by. "Shruti, wait," Nakul said, taking her hand with one of his own and taking one of MJ's with the other.
"Can you take a picture of me and her?" Nakul asked Shruti.
Shruti rolled her eyes. And she had thought he was going to do something with her.
Nevertheless, "Sure," she said, and took MJ's camera. She felt her insides burn as MJ took Nakul's arm into her own and leaned towards him for the picture. She quickly finished and handed her camera back, hoping she would disappear.
"You look really beautiful, Shruti," she said, and suspiciously smirked at Nakul, before she left.
Shruti returned her compliment; she obviously looked much, much better.
Shruti sat down next to Nakul and began to pay attention to the program their juniors had arranged.

Shruti walked extremely carefully, taking her time, even though she knew the whole school was waiting. She did so because she felt it was definitely better to let everyone wait than to let them see her trip over her own sari in pencil heels and fall. She looked up at the stage. It seemed miles away, and Shruti couldn't walk without tripping. She made a mental note to appreciate Mrs.Kumar for wearing one of these itchy things everyday. Nakul was already on the stage; he had gotten up from his seat next to Shruti and taken his place next to PT sir on stage. Nakul had been winning every alternate prize so sir had asked him to stay up there instead of climbing up and down every now and then. It was a sensible suggestion, but Shruti hated him for it. She had wanted him to sit beside her.
Now Shruti, Bhavya and Prerna had been called up to take a prize for Buzz. There was a tiny trophy for all of them, and they also separately got a small, mysterious packet. Shruti wondered what it was. A junior handed the microphone over to Bhavya to speak about how the idea had originated, and she fearlessly spoke to everyone about how Mrs.Kumar had given them the opportunity and how they all really loved it.
Shruti saw Nakul talk to the junior who was calling people up to collect their prizes, after which he came to stand by Shruti.
"Listen, Shruti, they're going to ask you to speak too," he told her. He knew she was dead-scared of the stage.
"B-but I can't!" Shruti told him. She felt her stomach churn. She'd mess up. She knew it.
"You can, believe me."
"I can't speak, I-"
"Shruti. It'll be fine," he told her, placing his hand on her shoulder. "Believe me. Just say what you think you need to get across to everyone, darling, it'll be fine."
Shruti wished he hadn't called her darling now. It gave her something else to wonder about.
She felt her head spin. She couldn't talk; what if she tripped and fell over her sari now?
"Shruti," Nakul said, snapping her back to reality. "Don't be scared. It's nothing, it's just a few people. I'll be right next to you.. What're you scared of, huh?"
Shruti nodded.
"And the founder of Buzz...Shruti Kuruvilla!" The junior announced. Shruti groaned, trying to take her attention off having to speak by concentrating on all the other small things that were happening. Nobody knew how to say her surname right, so she didn't find the logic behind trying. He could have perfectly well used her first name alone; there was no other Shruti in the tenth class.
Shruti felt her knees wobble as she walked over to take the microphone from the junior boy. She ignored it.
"Thanks," she said, before she spoke into it.
The boy smiled.
He seemed sweet; Maybe Shruti would excuse him someday for trying to pronounce her last name.
Shruti cleared her throat. She had no idea what to say.
"I guess this all happened only because of Mrs.Kumar. She was the one who led me through it all," Shruti said, looking around for her, finding her at a corner of a ground, smiling at her. Shruti smiled back. This was stupid.
"And... I think what really kept me at it; what really made me want to write, and write better each time I tried, was... my mother." Shruti paused. Her voice was getting quivery now. Maybe thinking about her mother wasn't too good for her at this moment. Nevertheless, she needed to do this. The worst excuse for the last rites to her mother; but it was the least she could do. She didn't even allow her dad to make the funeral public.
"My mom and sister passed away earlier this year," she said quickly, ignoring a few gasps. "Can we all spend two minutes in silence for them?" Shruti had once again, ended up making it sound a lot less serious than it was, but that was okay. She stepped back and bowed her head with the rest of the school, who had quietened themselves for her request.

"Shruti," Nakul said, taking her arm and jerking her behind the decorations on the stage. Noone could see them here; there were just a few juniors trying to have a last-minute practice for dance.
"Watch it!" Shruti squealed, tripping, as her foot failed to keep her up. Nakul had tactlessly pulled her without a warning, and her heels were not helping.
"Sorry! I've got you," he said, taking her hand into one of his and holding her firmly behind the waist with the other, before she hit the ground. Shruti shut her eyes tightly. She could properly feel his hand there this time; she needed to stop feeling the way she was. She was actually happy she lacked poise; maybe if she kept falling, he'd keep holding her up. She liked it.
"You can't walk in those heels, can you?" Nakul asked her, upsetting Shruti as he withdrew his hand from her waist. He still held her hand.
"No, I'm bad at it," she admitted.
"Well, how about I stay around you for the rest of the day, making sure you don't fall?" Shruti suddenly found his eyes sparkling like never before; it was the same look her father had on his face when the photo on his desk was taken. She couldn't answer him.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Shruti told him, pulling herself out of her enchanted mood. "That was really sweet."
"Anything for such a beautiful girl," he told her. She wished he would stop making her want him more.
"Shruti?" Another male voice appeared backstage.
Shruti twisted herself a complete one hundred and eighty degrees.
It was Aarnav.
"Aarnav?" Shruti said, surprised.
"Umm... Yeah?" Nakul said, sounding completely uninterested. It sounded like he hated him for interrupting.
"I'm sorry if I was.." Aarnav's voice trailed away.
"Was?" Nakul asked.
"Spoiling the moment."
"There's nothing like that."
Nakul had answered him, but his voice offered Aarnav a cold shoulder.
Shruti felt stupid now; She hardly understood what was going on. Why did Aarnav come?
"Okay, Shruti, I'm like... really, really sorry about your mum.. and..." he said, looking pretty genuine. Shruti felt angry, but not half as angry as Nakul seemed just then.
"Wh-when did this.."
"About a day before you and your girlfriend blew her off," Nakul said, severely, even before he finished his sentence.
"Really?" Aarnav looked shocked, hurt and guilty, all at once. Shruti nodded.
"I-I'm really sorry, Shruti I didn't.. I couldn't even imagine..."
"I know," she told him. "It's alright."
"And about all the crap I spoke about you that day... and what Shreya said about you.."
Shruti wanted to give Aarnav a piece of her mind. She didn't know if he'd be able to take it over the shock from the news he'd just heard, but she had to let him know how she felt anyway.
Nakul was about to raise his voice, but Shruti lay her other hand on his arm to tell him to stop. It was about time that she stood up for herself.
"Look, Aarnav, I don't like you in a romantic way, and I've got no interest in spoiling your relationship," she told him, her voice trembling again. "You just magnified every word I said into something much huger than what I meant, and that's not my fault." It took her a lot of effort to keep her voice firm like that.
Aarnav nodded.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"You never gave me a chance to explain, either. Let me just be clear now; I don't know who she was talking to that night, and I don't know if I heard wrong when she told me. But to me, it definitely didn't sound like 'MJ'," she told him, clutching Nakul's arm tighter. Her voice began to falter. She knew she was going to cry now; she had a mixed feeling of anger and sadness.
"I-I know. Kartik told me," he told her.
"Shruti... It's not your fault, listen, don't cry..." Nakul said, putting an arm around her waist again. Shruti wished he didn't do that. She would have just made herself strong enough to fight back tears; but Nakul's tone was telling her to give in. Everything about him made her less rigid; like he'd take care of it for her and she could let go. She quickly swiped another tear out of her eye before it ruined her face.
"Shruti, I'm really sorry," Aarnav said, looking terribly guilty. He came over to her to hug her. Nakul didn't let her hand go. Shruti hugged him back, one handedly. It was an uncomfortable hug, but she preferred Nakul's hand to Aarnav's hug anyway. She felt Nakul's grip on her palm tighten. She looked up at him. He had tightened his jaws so terribly that Shruti thought maybe a tooth or two would break. He's really angry with Aarnav, she thought as she made eye contact and smiled reassuringly at him. He loosened himself and looked down to smile at Shruti.
"Happy, now? He's finally spoken to you again," he said, lightly, though he clearly wasn't too happy that she'd forgiven him. Shruti smiled and nodded a bit.
"I dumped Shreya," Aarnav announced, happily.
"What!?" Shruti said, surprised. Nakul cocked his eyebrows.
"Yeah. She's a liar. I don't care if she was jealous of you and that hurt her; she's mean. I should have trusted you," Aarnav said. Shruti looked at him thoughtfully. Shreya was jealous? No wonder. Either way, she was better off, rid of her.
"Nakul!" Shruti heard PT sir shout.
"Ugh, not again..." Nakul groaned.
"The man can't stay a second without you in front of his eyes," Shruti said, laughing.
"I'll be back, just a second," he told Shruti as he left her hand and disappeared behind her.
"So you guys are going out?" Aarnav asked Shruti, as soon as Nakul left. Shruti had meant to ask him more about Shreya, but he didn't give her the chance.
"No, idiot, shut up! We're not," Shruti said. "I wonder why everyone randomly assumes that."
"Do you atleast like him?" he asked, looking towards Nakul, outside. Shruti hesitated; was it safe to tell Aarnav?
"Well... yeah. A lot. Hell. A lot," she told him, truthfully. "But I don't really think he likes me, he's just nice because... well you know, he heard everything that happened before anyone el-"
"Oh no, you crazy fool! He likes you! You remember, I told you I was talking to him about this stuff?"
Shruti nodded, a little confused.
"He's liked you, all along! He only spoke to me to know if I was dating you! And then I told him that I liked Shreya! And he told me he likes you," Aarnav completed, explained.
"A-are you sure..?" Shruti asked, lamely.
Aarnav grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around in reply. Nakul was standing right behind her, kind of embarrassed. Now, she was too.
"You like me?" Shruti asked him, breaking the silence.
Aarnav sighed. "You guys are taking forever." Nakul chuckled a bit.
"Will you go out with me?" Nakul asked her, surprising her a bit. This was extremely direct. Shruti looked down at his hand, and took it back into hers.
"Yeah," she answered, smiling.
...
Over the years, a lot changed. Shruti's dad became her best friend; Shreya became a model, and Shruti dropped her complicated surname for a much simpler 'Kumar'. Two pieces of her heart were lost, and those were people that couldn't be replaced; but she'd learn to live with their memories and run according to their wishes. It was probably the same insight that got her to where she went. She'd lived her mother's dream; She woke up one fine morning to see her name in the headlines for the country's best selling book! After a year or two, she was approached for copyrights on a couple of her books; people wanted to see them as movies. After that, there was no stopping her. Shruti became a legend!