Chapter 5

4. Found Me Just In Time

Past 

Kirti was very nervous as she stood at the back of the stage. She had to recite a poem for the assembly. Kirti had only recently changed schools and was new to the ways and rules of it. Here, in this school, the assembly responsibility was rotatory in nature. As in each class looked after the conducting of the assembly.

It was eighth-grade turn this week. There were few other students from different sections as well. As she was new, she didn't know anybody. The fact that she was new was what had landed here in the first place. The other students not wanting to do the task had made her the scapegoat.

It was a small stanza from Rudyard Kipling's If, that she was going to recite on the stage.

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Her legs trembling she was repeating her lines in her head, at the same time praying she did not forget anything when she had first heard him.

'Hi!'

She had opened her eyes to find a gangly boy smiling at her.

'New girl from VIII B, right?'

She nodded her head.

'I am from VIII C. Tejas Gupta. What's your name? Shivani Jaiswal?'

'No, that's the other new girl. I am Kirti Singh.'

'Oh sorry'

'It's okay.'

'Which school were you previously in?'

'Acrostic Public School'

'Oh' 

She should have become used to the reaction however she wasn't. It was a government school, no one in this Riverside World School, had ever heard of. A little embarrassed as well as offended by the reaction Kirti had turned away from him, her attention again reverting to the poem and its recital on the stage.

'What if she pronounced things wrong? Will the other kids make fun of her?' She had become very conscious of her English and her looks, her background in this school.

Once she thought she had everything and now it seemed she was but a small dirty worm in this sea of fiercely vibrant and rosiest flowers.

'Kirti, do you happen to know any good thought of the day?' The boy asked her.

'You mean to say you are here without any preparation?'

'I wasn't supposed to be here actually. But my class teacher caught me playing hooky and so I am here.'

'You are being punished?'

'Kind of. So any good thought?'

Kirti took some time to recollect any good thoughts she might have read before. She remembered a few but they were too simple so she thought hard.

'Okay, I remember one. If you have good thoughts, they will always shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.'

'Wow. That's great! Thank you!!'

'Will you be able to remember it?'

'Of course! Aur nahi bhi yaad raha toh kya?! Improvise kar lunga aur kya!'

She had been taken by his laid back-ness and confidence.

The morning prayer being over, his turn had come and she had inadvertently felt herself turn and wish him luck.

'Will be right back.' He had said.

She had heard him deliver the lines without any falter or stutter in his speech.

But alas, when her own turn had come, she had messed up the last few lines. When she had returned to the back of the stage, she had found him waiting for her.

' You were great there!' He had complimented.

'I wasn't.' She had tears brimming in her eyes. Will the students from her class hate her for it? Will she not be able to make friends?

'Sacchi. Mast tha! Last mein thoda sa idhar udhar hua. But it's okay. It happens.'

She didn't respond and just went back to her class.

After that incident, she would see him every day in the corridors or the assembly. Their classes were next to each other. She had come to recognize the circles in which he moved, his group of friends. He would always visit her class during the recess period. There was a guy in her class whom they came to visit.

He would always smile at her when their eyes would meet and wave at her. She would always look at him, smile back and that would be the end of their interaction.

Sometimes he would ask her about homework or marks in a particular subject. She would faithfully answer him however awkward she found those conversations. Then, one day he had come rushing to her class and had shouted, 'Kirti, have you got Julius Caesar?' 

She had had the insane urge to say,'Julius Caesar toh kab ka mar gaya  but had instead settled into a boring, 'Yes'

'Please lend me. I have forgotten mine. Matthews class se bahar fek dega!'

She had wondered while handing him her textbook as to why he hadn't asked his friend from this class for it and instead come to her.

He was going away with her book when she had run to him and said, 'Don't use the pen in the book. Jo bhi mark karna hoga pencil se karna.'

'Jo hukum mere aaka,' he had said before entering his class.

And in this manner, their familiarity with each other had bloomed. Even though she couldn't figure out why he was so interested in her and what made him come to her again and again, she was in her heart thankful for it. It made her less lonely in this cold and foreign place. 

Then the year had ended. A new session had started and Kirti found herself being shuffled to another section. She had barely made friends in her class and now this moving to a new class. It was unfortunate that only two students had been transferred to the other section, the rest of the class being left untouched. One of the two being her. Picking up her bag she had dragged her feet to the new class IX B and had barely stepped inside when he had hollered her name.

'Kirti Singh!! Wow, you are in our class. Come here. Come here.'

He had been the only familiar face and for some reason, her heart had skipped a beat when she had seen the joy on his face. He was genuinely happy to see her there.

She had been walking to where he sat, but he had met her halfway, pulling her bag from her, and had rushed to the seat behind his own placing it there.

'You will sit here'

He had just decided it for her and she was secretly thankful for it because he had saved her from the trouble of choosing one for herself.

When she had seated herself on the last bench, he had turned back to face her and introduced to her his partner.

'This is Sana Agnihotri. My partner.'

A pretty girl had smiled at her. 'Hellow Kirti. We have another Kirti in our class. Keerti Sabarwal. What are you? Singh? I'll call you Singh.'

Then she had turned back to another guy and had said, 'There he comes.'

When the lunch bell had rung, she had been getting up to go back to her previous class friends, when Tejas had stopped her.

'Let's go to the canteen'

She had looked at Sana.

'Come on,' she had invited.

And that's how she had been included in his group. In their group.

[NOCOPY]

[MEMBERSONLY]