Anyone Else But You... (6 page)

“Hahaa. Good that it was a teacher. But it would’ve been more fun if it were this weird little witch who had come to warn you not to come late to school. It’s God’s way to tell you to wake up early, Sahana
. I think you should listen to Him,”
Vanya teased.

“Oh shut up,”
she said as they walked out of the bathroom.

FIVE

The loud bell of DHS rang, spreading cheer all round. Teachers raised their eyebrows at their apparent joy but nobody could give a damn about them. But the end of the
 
Political Science period in class XI G made Rishav curse the noise. He was almost done with buttering the new subject, back and forth when the noisy- cheery bell rang.

Damn.
 
Rishav thought. He had bragged a little. Well, a lot. But in these times you can’t get noticed without tooting your horn can you? He waited for the right opportunity to start up a conversation. And when he got his chance he couldn’t stop. Going from one thing to another; Offering his opinion and listening to hers too
. Although I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about what you thought about Salman Rushdie
, he thought. But he had to care. He praised her and then thanked her for complimenting him in a not-so-modest way.
 
 
And just when he was going to ask about her family and tell her about his lineage, the bell rang.

“I would love to stay and chat but I‘ve got some work to do. I’ll t
alk to you later, Rishav,
” the lady named Mrs. Sunita smiled and spoke.

“Okay, ma’am. See you later.”

Sweeeet victory
, he smiled in his thoughts.

“Too
 
hard. Trying, I mean… too hard,” the girl who sat closest to the door spoke.

Rishav turned; intrigued that someone was closely observing him. “Really?” he asked, raising an eyebrow

The girl smiled with a tilt of her mouth.

“101 Ways to Impress a Teacher’ - someone gifted it to me. Borrow
it from me sometime. Handy tips,
” Rishav smirked.

The girl got up, “Sure babe. I will borrow i
t the day I want to be like you; w
hich let me warn you now, won’t ever come. New?”

“Yeah. You were here in tenth?” he asked

 
“Yeah,
” Sahana said curtly while she got up from her seat and turned to go towards the door.

“Rishav. And you are?” a short pause followed.

“Sahana. You know, you need to pick out the targets for your buttering with utmost care. There are around hundred here. And you can’t impress all of them. Unless you address them in the M.P. Hall and tell them all about yourself.”

 
“Haha. You know, I actually won’t mind that.
It’s pretty convenient, you see,
” Rishav followed Sahana as she ambled her way out of the class towards the corridor.

“I am telling you.
You are w
asting your time on non-consequential people.”

“Really?” they had reached the staircase which led to the top floor.

“
Really
,”
Sahana said with sarcasm. “B
ut for god’s sake at least make it less apparent. Teachers aren’t
 
that
 
dumb,
” She walked ah
ead of him. “Or maybe they are,”
she said, giving him a meaningful look.

“It all works out to my advantage. And there’s no harm in a little bit of buttering. And everyone like
s
to be praised. Even if it’s not true. Human nature it is. Where are you going anyway?” Rishav asked her as he followed her into the maze of corridors.

“Where I want to.”

“And the place being
?” he followed it up.

“….my friend’s classroom. She’s in Commerce.”

Sahana walked with haste.

“What’s the hurry?”
Rishav asked, biding for time.

“Break is for freaking 20 minutes. Five minutes the teacher takes. Five minutes early the next teacher arrives. Leaves us with exactly ten minutes to eat and meet people. Bloody
,
stupid school system.”

“Ohkay. So that’s why you are rushing. No
-
one ever bothered to tell the teachers about this thing?”

“The only time the teachers will talk about anything
, apart from studies, is break; w
hich we can’t afford to waste.”

“
…and then you complain,” he chipped in.

“
Excuse me
?
” Sahana abruptly tu
rned around and raised a finger. “I
t’s your first day. You know crap about this school. You have no right to judge. When you have spent 10 years in this school, then maybe you are allowed to say that. As for what I just said, I was purely kidding. We’ve told them. But they are reluctant. What else can we do?
”

“Okay, okay. My bad. Sorry?” Rishav said, with an apologetic face.

“You better be,
”
Sahana said and walked off.

*

The break was ove
r. The teacher hadn’t come yet.
Rishav sat near the windowsill with his book, trying to read it. But to his annoyance, he couldn’t. He looked at the page full of words and
kept
looking at the words instead of reading the sentences.

All he could think about was the stupid conversation with Sahana.

I’ve managed to create one enemy. Not that bad, Rishav
, he thought.

He looked at the page again. He couldn’t bother to hold that book in his hand anymore. He put his bookmark on that page and kept it on his desk. He was about to get up and go to the washroom, since he had nothing else to do, when Sahana entered with her friend.

He sat on his chair again. He thought of all the ways of approaching her but decided against it.

Not in front of her friend,
 
he thought.
 
Wait for the friend to go. Then,
maybe. Till then
,
read the book. Yes. That is much better.

 
He opened his book again, blankly staring at the page. He tried to read the first sentence
. Makes sense,
 
he thought. He continued to read it, when he was interrupt
ed by her voice. “Nice bookmark,” s
he said.

 
“Thanks,” R
ishav replied with a smile, wondering why she
,
herself came to talk to him when clearly she was pissed a little while ago.

“So you forgave me.”

“What?
”Sahana asked, puzzled.

 
“I said sorry. You walked off. But you are talking to me right now. S
o you forgave me?
”

 
“Well…you could say that. Everyone’s allowed one mistake. You made yours. And you are new. I didn’t want to give you a hard time. It’s difficult, I know.
I’ve b
een there.”

Rishav raised his eyebrows wondering at how hotheaded she seemed a few minutes ago and how understanding she was now.

“Thanks. It is pretty hard. What’s with the corridors, I don’t get. Why don’t they have signs? It’s such a confusing place
.”

She laughed.
“I’ve been
there too. I have changed four schools. This is the fifth. I always used to forget the way to my classroom, so this time I had decided to remember it.
I remembered the way… and
the number of stairs too. On the second day I ended up climbing the same stairs four time
s
. The first time I went
,
I saw the piece of paper above the door. 9B was w
ritten on it. I went down again - c
ounted the number of stairs.
And then, came up a
gain
to find myself exactly at the same place. I d
id this four times.
Until this girl came and said
‘Sahana, where are you going? Our class is here’
. That was 9B. But actually
it hosted 7D,”
Sahana explained.

Rishav laughed.

“You were a stupid kid,”
he said.

“I was new, ok
ay
? All th
ese people were so intimidating that
I was afraid to ask them. What if they took me to a corner and
ragged me, like I had heard?”
Sahana said with a defiance.

“You were paranoid too,”
Rishav said.

“If you w
ere there, you would’ve known,”
Sahana said with a little hint of anger.

Rishav tried to change the subject hurriedly; afrai
d he would make another mistake, w
hich he couldn’t afford to make.

“So you came
 
here in seventh?”

“Yeah. Bad year. Don’t ask,”
she replied looking out of the window.

“First year is always bad. It’s when you are getting the hang of things.”

“Yes,”
she said with a distant look in her eyes.

A silence prevailed.

“You better hope that your first year is not bad sinc
e you have only two years here
,
”
Sahana said with a playful hint.

“Well then I need someone who could help me get
the hang of things around here,”
Rishav said, with a hope that Sahana would get the hint of what he was trying to imply.

“I can tell you what
 
not
 
to do. But
‘what to do’
depends upon which of the cliques in our school you wanna belong to, you know
?
”