Chapter 5

Ok, I guess I can continue a little longer...even if Eklavya turns negative.

Part 5- They meet again…
In the cafeteria, Lakshya sat down with KT, Archita and Isha. "Aaj to tum bache gayi, Isha." he told her. Isha just looked at hime. "I just hope she's not going to pick me for the tutoring lesson! Can you imagine! Mujhe waise bhi class mein need aathi hai aur woh Professor Mehta hum log ko extra tuition lessons de gi!" Isha said while eating her lunch. "Waise kal ka show to ekdum hit tha, na?" Archita said. "Haan!" KT exclaimed. "Pehle toh main lighting aur music karna nahin chati thi, magar-" KT told them. "Magar jabb aapko pata chala ke Lakshya bhayia lighting aur music samalh rahe hai toh aap ne fath se haan kar di! Hai na?" Archita finished off. KT blushed "Nahin toh! Main is chilgose ke saath kyun kaam karna chahoon gi?" Lakshya looked at her and said "Miss KT waise mujhe bhi aap ke saath kaam karne main koi maaza nahin aatha." Isha rolled her eyes at them. Everyone knew that KT and Lakshya liked each other, yet the two always the fact. Suddenly, Isha remembered yesterday's show. "Oh, yaad aaya, Archita aap log kal ghar kaise gaye the? I mean, Nisha di ne mujhe kaha ke aap log kudh chale gaye, hum dono ki wait bhi nahin kari!" Archita replied, "Woh, haan Eklavya bhaiya humko ghar lehne aaye the." Isha tried to recall an Eklavya in the huge Virani parivar but couldn't remember anyone. "Eklavya?" she asked. "Haan, oh aap toh Eklavya bhaiya se milie hi nahin na!" KT said. "Koi baath nahin, aaj mil lo, woh mera ek assignment main gar pe bhul gayi toh Eklavya bhaiya ne phone kar ke kaha ke woh la rahe hai." Archita said. Isha shrugged and cleared the table up from everyones lunch trays. She took the plastic wrappers from the table threw them in the garbage can. As she was walking her way back to the table, she stepped on the wet floor, unnoticing the WET FLOOR sign. She slipped instantly on the wet floor. Going by instinct, she grabbed the first thing she could find to stop her fall. She caught a man by the neck. Although the man was caught off guard, he grabbed the Isha by the waist to keep her balance. Once again, Isha was staring into the eyes of the man she encountered on the day of her show. She kept staring at him unwilling to break their eye contact by blinking. "Arre Eklavya bhaiya!" Archita called. Isha blinked and Eklavya suddently realizing he was holding a girl's waist, let her go. She fell with a big thump on the ground. "Owww!" she yelled. "I'm sorry" Eklavya said helping her up. "Are you ok?" he asked her unsure if she would yell at him again like the first time they met. "Ummm…yea" Isha surprised herself with her own reply. Even though he had just dropped her, she had felt amazingly different in the little moment that he had help her and didn't want him to think of her as a freak." Suddenly she realized that her entire skirt was wet because she had landed on the wet floor. She looked down at her skirt. Lakshya snickered at her situation and KT whacked him. "Ouch! KT-" he began to say, "Koi baath nahin, Isha, tum kapde badal de na" Kt offered help. "But mere pas koi extra kapde nahin hai, tumare paas hai?" She asked desperately to Archita and KT fully aware that Eklavya was apologetically looking at her. They both shook their heads. "Umm…Isha tum ek kaam karo…Eklavya bhaiya ke saath Shantiniketan jao aur mere ya Pari ke kapde le lo. Waise bhi mujhe mera assignment mil gaya hai aur bhaiya ghar hi jaa rahe hai" Isha opened her mouth to say that she would go by herself to her own house in an auto rickshaw but the shrill bell rang to say that lunch was over. KT, Lakshya and Archita got their stuff and ran towards their class leaving Eklavya and Isha alone in an awkward situation.

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Here's Part 6:

Part 6- the tutoring lesson

             Nisha continued to stare at the file in her hand that Professor Mehta had given her. In huge letters it said the name of the student that needed help according to Professor Mehta. Nisha stood their utterly shocked that she was going to do this. The door opened with an excited Professor Mehta and a very bored expressional Manthan.

             "Toh Ms. Nisha, this is your student, Manthan." Professor Mehta said introducing the two together. Manthan didn't even bother to give her a smile or look up. Anybody could tell he didn't want to be here at all. "Nisha, you got the file, right? Ok, I highlighted all the problems he's having in my class. You can start with any one you want. I'll be in the staff room if you need me." Professor Mehta said ecstatically. Nisha gave her a weak smile, wishing she was anywhere but here right now. Professor Mehta left the room with one last smile showing all her teeth and shutting the door silently.

             At first Nisha didn't know what to do so she picked up Manthan's file and pretended to be shuffling around the papers to figure out what to say first. Thankfully, Manthan spoke up first. "Listen, I don't wanna stay here. Just tell Mehta that I know everything after a few classes and I'll change courses." He got up to leave but Nisha finally spoke up. "Wait! I know you don't want to be here. But try to understand, Professor Mehta's only trying to help you. I promise I won't tell anyone about the tutoring." Manthan stopped and lifted his hand away from the door knob. He turned around wondering why on earth this girl wanted to waste her time teaching him. Well, he thought, she'll probably give up on me after today's class so it doesn't matter anyway. She threw his hand up and said "Fine, but trust me it's pointless trying to teach me math." For the first time since she had been in the room, Nisha smiled. She motioned for him to sit in the chair closest to her, telling her self it was only so she could help him when he needed it and not because of how incredibly hot she thought he was. "Ok, aaj thode easy equations se start karthe hai." she said now getting into her "tution-teacher-mode". She went through Manthan's file again, this time without pretending. She was shocked to see that he barely passed the class. She decided to start with something that she that he would get to boost up his confidence. She began writing on the board with a piece of chalk. "Ok, first question, Raj and his sister cut the lawn. The lawn is a square and Raj says he will cut a path around the outside 4.49 m wide. His sister, Gauri, will cut the rest of the lawn. If the amount of lawn that Raj cuts and the amount that Gauri cuts is the same, then what are the dimensions of the lawn? Try it by yourself. I'll give you 10 minutes." Nisha smiled and got back to skimming through Manthan's file.

             Manthan was amazed that this girl tried so hard. Most of the teachers or tutors that his mom had paid to teach him didn't even try. They usually just came for the money and it was clear by the way they taught him. They, like everyone else, thought that Manthan didn't need to study as he was already rich and was bound to end up working in the Virani Industries no matter how smart he was. But this girl was different, Manthan felt as if she actually cared about what Manthan's results and marks. She didn't look as if she as doing this all just to get money or anything beneficial for herself. He thought it was only fair to at least attempt the question if this girl was attempting to teach him.

             Nisha jotted down questions to ask Manthan to strengthen his weaker areas in math. Every few minutes she kept glancing at him telling herself it was only because she wanted to se if he was done or not. After a while Manthan called out "Done" he said. She smiled, sauntered up to him and sat beside him. She took his book and looked at his answers. Manthan was waiting for her to begin yelling at her. He was so used to it. The first time he ever did anything he always screwed up big time and got yelled at. Instead, Nisha smiled again at looked at him. "Can you explain why you used this form?" she asked. "Well…"Manthan stared to explain. Nisha looked at her watch; she knew it was going to be along time before she could go home because Manthan clearly needed a lot of help. She went up to the board and looked around for chalk but realized that there was no more chalk left. She went up to the huge cabinet where she saw the last box of chalk on the top shelf of the cabinet. She got a stool. Manthan realized the stool she grabbed was wobbly. Before he could call out to her she got up on it. It wobbled a little but Nisha extended her arm to grab the box of chalk. "Got it!" she said as she grabbed the box. Suddenly the stool collapsed, letting her fall into somebody's strong arms. She had closed her eyes to stop the hard land of the fall. She opened her eyes and found her self staring at Manthan – all covered in chalk. She looked at him for a second before breaking out into a laugh.

               Pooja