Mehak was a bit surprised to not see the reaction that she was expecting from Kali. She met Kali's gaze and with lifted her eyebrows.
"Kya hua?" Mehak asked. "I don't get it." answered Kali. "What don't you get?" "Like, Sameer... is he really out for revenge? Or is he just faking it?" asked a confused Kali. "Okay. So it's like this. Sameer had to win over Avni for a test just to get into a group. And according to the gang, he did. But according to Avni he didn't. And at that time, Avni challenged him into running the college as that was part of the deal for getting into the gang." explains Mehak. "Yeah, so where did this revenge come from?" Kali asked. "It's not really revenge. It's more like a competition." "But you said revenge." "I did? I guess it was a slip of the tongue." "Okay, so what about that secretly happy that she'll be infront of him everyday part?" "That I made up. How am I supposed to know what he was feeling like at that time. I'm not some pyscho." "Psychic." "Same thing."
"What about when Prithvi and Damini met? Did you make anything up in that?"
Mehak started thinking about it.
"Nope. All that was 100% true."
"Alright. Now it makes a little more sense."
"Don't worry. Sameer and Avni's story is a bit confusing. But once you get to know them, you'll understand."
"K. So who's next?"
"Next is Varun and Roshni."
"Sound interesting."
"They are. You'll go all goo-goo ga-ga over them."
Kali looked at her with a stern smile.
"What."
"I'm not some baby that I'm going to go goo-goo ga-ga over someone."
"Fine then. Not goo-goo ga-ga, you'll go all aaaawwww. That's sooo sweet!!! They're soooo cute!!" Mehak said in a baby voice.
Kali hits her lightly on the shoulder.
"Okay. Shall I start?"
"Yes, please." Kali says with a smile.
"Alright then. Varun and Roshni's story starts by...
A girl wearing a purple knee-length dress walks into the classroom at the nick of time. It hadn't been even minute since she stepped into the classroom that the bell rang.
She takes in a deep breath and says, "Thank God time par ponch gayi. Varna di toh mujhe mar hi dethi."
She starts looking around to see if there's anyone that she knows. When she doesn't see anyone, she goes and sits in one of the empty desk. She hadn't noticed it, but a boy comes and takes the other spot beside her while she was putting on some make-up. A few minutes later, one of the girl's friend, comes in and starts looking around for a seat. The girl puts away her compact disk and sees her friend.
"Goldie, hi!!" screeched the girl.
"Roshni, hi!!" screeched back Goldie.
They both ran up to each other and hugged each other.
"Come. Mere saath betho." says Roshni.
Roshni sits back down in her seat while Goldie stands.
"Kari kyun ho. Betho na." says Roshni.
"Kaha bethoon? Seat toh booked hai." answers Goldie.
"Kaise booked hai--" says Roshni, for the first time looking at the seat beside her.
She sees a boy deeply lost in reading his book.
"Lo. Class shuru bhi nayi hoye aur yeh parne bhi laga. I don't know why school's even invented Goldie. It's such a waste of time." she says to Goldie while Goldie just takes a sigh.
"Excuse me." Roshni says to the boy sitting beside her. "Excuse me. Hello. Excuse me." Roshni says repeatedly.
"Rehne do na. Mein kahin aur jakar beth jaati hoon." says Goldie.
"Nahi! Tum yehi betho gi." Roshni says to Goldie.
She stands up and shouts at the boy sitting down.
"Oye, kitabi keere. Uth!" Roshni screams.
This action of Roshni's attracted quite a lot of attention from her classmates. Even of they boy who is sitting down. He finally puts down the book and looks up at Roshni. Roshni looks down at him frustrated while he looks up at her without any expression.
"I know I'm beautiful, but mera moon dekhna bandh karo aur utho." says Roshni to him.
The boy still looks up at her without any expression.
"Behre ho kya. Meine kaha utho!" Roshni stretches out the last three words.
The boy takes out an ear plug from each other and looks back at her.
"Kya hai? Jab se aiyi ho bak bak bak bak kare ja ri ho. Moorgi ho kya." speaks the boy for the first time.
Roshni makes a face in astonishment.
"Mein. Moorgi!" she starts freaking out. "Mein vegeterain hoon!"
"Noo!" says the boy. "Yeh hoyi ni sakta. Jis speed se tum bak ri ja ri ho, usse toh saaf pata hota ki tum moorgi hi ho."
"No!"
"Yes!"
"Ab mein kya karoon?!" says a panicked Roshni.
"Mein bataoon." offers the boy.
"Han."
"Apna yeh lips hai na, inn he band rako. There should be no sound coming out of you. Okay."
Roshni nods her head. The boy smiles back at her. As the teacher comes in, all the students scramble to their seat. The teacher starts taking the attendance and when a name, Varun Saxena, is announced, the boy sitting beside Roshni answers. When Roshni's name is called, Roshni turns to look at Varun. He looks at her and smiles approvingly. She smiles back and answers the teacher. While the teacher is doing the rest of the attendance, Roshni turns to Varun to talk to him.
"Can we start again?" she asks.
"Only if you don't call me a book-worm."
"But that's what you are." says Roshni frowning.
Varun laughs quietly.
"I'm Varun." he extends his hand out towards Roshni.
"I'm Roshni." she puts her hand in his and smiles.
"So that's how those two meet." says Mehak, happy that she got all three introductions done. "Aaaww. That was so cute!! And then the ending was sooo sweet!!!" says Kali.
Mehak smiles to herself knowing that was the reaction that she had hoped from Kali.
"Are they still in this school?" asked Kali.
"Yup. Infact it's their last year here." informs Mehak.
"Really? That's... so not fair. That means I won't get to know them that well." said Kali a bit sad.
"Heyy, cheer up. It'll be fine. Who knows maybe you have a class with them. What's your schedule this semester?" replies Mehak.
"I have Period 1 - English in Room 202, Period 2 -Music in Room 168, Period 3 - Gym in Gymnasium C and Period 4 - Science in Room 225." says Kali from memorization.
"That is so cool!!!" screams out Mehak.
"Why? I kind of don't like the classes that I have. Especially gym." frown Kali.
"No! You'll love your classes. All of them!"
"Why?"
"Cuz you The Hexs in your class!!"
"Are you serious?!"
"Yes! We all got our schedules last year and all I know is that Varun and Roshni have English together, Sameer and Avni have Music together and Prithvi and Damini have Gym together and they all have Science together!! This is so awesome!!" exclaims Mehak.
The driver in the black BMW increased its speed trying to outrun the motorbikes. The driver was going so fast that it almost hit a woman who was crossing the street with her child. It's because of the girl on the passenger's seat, who in the nick of time, stepped on the brakes, halting the car and saving the woman and her child. The two women ran across safely. The three motorbikes take back their position. They all take open a flap of their helmets to reveal their faces. The girl sitting in the passenger's seat looks back to see her younger sister who was looking as if she was scared to death.
"Rosh. Tum teek toh ho na." said the caring older sister.
Roshni nodded. To fully assure her sister she said, "Of course Avni di. Mein teek hoon."
Avni did get assured. But only a little. She directed her eyes towards her dangerous older sister.
"Marna ka irada hai kya?" she scolded her. "Gadhi se uthro. Ab mein drive kari hoon."
"Avni, I'm fine." she said.
"No Ms. Damini Gujral. You're not fine. Do you know how many people you could have killed today?"
"And yet the one I wanted to die, didn't." Damini said looking at the boy out the window.
"That's enough. Get out."
"Avni.."
"Now di." Avni said in a stern voice.
They both took off their seat belts and got out of the car. Avni got out and was greeted by a pair of pretty brown eyes that she's been seeing for the past three years of her life. She could see from her eyes that he was smiling at her. She took in a deep breath and started walking over to the driver's side. Damini, got out and saw the same big brown eyes that she's been always staring angrily into. It was these same brown eyes that she sometimes felt like dipping strawberries into as they reminded her of a pool of warm dark chocolate. Surprised and wondering as to where the hell did she get that idea from, she frowned. She looked back up at him and could see that he was smirking at her. Angrily she slammed the flap back on his helmet. As her sisters were getting out and exchanging seats, Roshni turned around and looked back at the boy sitting on the bike behind her. They smiled and waved at each other. Roshni started saying something to him but he couldn't hear her. So she took out a pen and paper and wrote her message on it. I can't wait for school today! She smiled showing her big sparkly white teeth. The boy who was wondering how to send his message to her, pointed to himself then showed two fingers to say, Me too. They both smiled at each other. Roshni turned back around as her sisters settled into their seats. But after a moment or so, Roshni went back to her position knowing that now that Avni is behind the wheel she is in safe hands.
Avni parks into one of the parking lots and gets out. Before, Avni has even shut her door, she sees that Roshni has already ran over to Varun. She smiles at Roshni's cute actions. She starts going up the stairs to college and thinks as this is her last year here, and she really wants to do something that will give her an identity. She doesn't want to remembered by Damini's younger sister, as Damini is only remembered by all her fights. Besides if people recognize her as that, then they'll probably think that she's like that too. Avni thinks as she doesn't want to be recognized as Roshni's older sister either as, Roshni is still a kid. She's still too immature to see the harsh reality. She still can't make any of her own decisions. She doesn't want others to think she's like that too. She wants to be remembered by something else. Something that will give her an identity.
Avni stops abruptly as she feels her dupatta is caught into something. She turns around to see what it is and sees that it's only a railing. She goes back and untangles it. She once again makes her way across the hallways but is stopped once again because of her dupatta. She takes in a deep breath and pulls her dupatta so that she can easily yank it off the railing. As she turns around to yank it, she sees that it's not stuck in a railing this time but it's being held in Sameer's hand. They both grasp onto the dupatta tightly, not wanting to let go. Sameer keeps staring at her while Avni looks everywhere except for him. Avni takes a chance to pull at the dupatta, but her pull is responded by his as he does the same. Sameer smiles a little at her while Avni looks at the floor wondering what to do.
"Sameer."
"Han."
"Please."
"Kya."
"Dupatta."
"Hmm."
"Chodo."
"Phir se kaho."
Just as she was about to, the dupatta got yanked out of their hands by Damini. Sameer and Avni looked at her scared as they know that now they're both dead. Damini looks at Avni then at Sameer. She throws the dupatta at Avni.
"Meine tumse kitni bhar kaha hai, agar dupatta sambalna ni aata toh mat pehno. Par nahi. Badi di ki baat toh suni hai ni." Damini scolds Avni.
"Di, woh mein..."
"Woh mein, kya. Huh?"
"Damini, Avni toh bas..." Sameer says trying to defend Avni.
But him trying to defend was a big mistake as now Damini's anger got shifted towards him.
"Mein apni behan se baat kari hoon. Tum kaun hote ho beech mein bolne wale? Hmm?" she asks.
Varun and Roshni both just came into the foyer and they saw Avni and Sameer both looking scared with an angry Damini in between.
"Yeh toh gaye." Varun and Roshni say in unison.
"Ab bolte kyun nayi? Hero samaj toh apne aap ko? Huh?"
"Damini just relax. Mein toh bas Avni se..."
"Avni se kya? And you're telling me to relax? How can I relax when I have creeps like you looking at my sisters in a dirty way?"
Hearing that insult, Sameer gets angry.
"Creeps? You think I'm a creep."
"Yes. You and all the other guys. Including that one, who is standing beside Rosh." she says looking at Varun. "Get away from her!"
Varun quickly takes five steps away from Roshni while she looks sad.
"Di!" she whines.
"Kya di? Tumare bhaliye ke liye kari hoon."
"Yeh kaisi baliye hai. Mujhe ni chahiye."
"Rosh!" Damini silences Roshni.
"Di, please. Shant ho jao. Aap kyun itna ghussa hai." says Avni holding onto Damini's shoulder.
"I don't know Avni. I-I just want to get rid of this year. I just want it to end fast." says Damini tired. "I'm just sick and tired of all this."
"Then you should have just stayed home. It's not like anyone was gonna miss you."
Damini rolls her eyes as she can now recognize that voice from anywhere. She puts her hands on her hips and tilts her head to her left.
"What do you want Prithvi."
"Nothing. Except for an apology."
Damini scrunches up her nose to make an are-you-kidding-me face.
"Apology? Aur mein. Huh. Puh-lease."
"Yes, an apology and you. I know it's a very complicated task that your puny brain won't understand, but we all have to try na." he says bending down towards her, with his arms crossed across his chest.
"Sorry, my foot." she grits her teeth while saying.
"Not to your foot, you idiot. To my brothers."
"Why the hell should I say sorry to them for? They deserved it."
"Excuse me.."
"You're excused." Damini steps back and smiles at him extending a hand out motioning for him to leave. "Please, right this way. The exit is to your right."
"Ha, ha. Very funny."
Damini drops her act and puts on her stern face again.
"Say sorry to them now, or else."
"Or else what." she says coming to face him with her arms crossed.
"Or else, you're gonna have to pay."
"We'll see about that in gym."
"Fine. If that's the way you want it."
"Fine."
Damini faces Avni and Roshni to say something to them.
"Avni, Roshni. Tum dono, inn teeno se dhoor hi ro. Samje."
"Yes di."
"Good."
The three girls leave. Sameer and Varun come to stand behind Prithvi.
"Sameer, Varun. You two get as close as you can with those two. Understand."
"Yes bhaiya." they say with a smile.
"I'll take care of the big one."
The three boys leave and head towards their first class.
The bell rings and everyone heads for their first period class. A few students though, stay back to talk for a while as they don't really care if school starts or ends.
Mehak drops off Kali to her first period, English class while wishing her all the best. As she gets in, she sees almost everyone talking with each other. There's hardly even a person who doesn't have a friend in there. Scared, Kali slowly heads into the room and puts her books down. Just then, a guy came and sat down, telling her to go the back of the room. She apologizes and starts heading down. She was almost about to be tripped over, when she got held back by someone pulling on her backpack. She took in a deep breath and looked at her savior. It was a girl, who had her hair up in a ponytail. She had pink eye-shadow, lip gloss, and a light blush on. She was wearing a pink and white checkered shirt with black jeans.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
Kali nodded.
"Dodo! Watch it." the girl said to the guy who almost tripped her. "Hi. I'm Heer." she extended her hand out towards Kali.
"Hi. I'm Kali. I'm new here." She put her hand in hers.
"I know. Actually we all know. You're gonna have to be careful. People would want to harrass you, as you'll be the loner around here. Oops!" Heer brought her hand up to her lips.
Kali just smiled.
"It's okay. I'm not a loner." she said with a smile, then frowned. "Atleast not yet. I know Mehak. She was my best friend before I moved. I met her this morning, she was really nice. But I don't know. She might be doing that as an act."
"Mehak." says Heer, who was now sitting on top of a desk. "Hmph. Funny. I don't know her. Oh well. Atleast you have me." Heer smiled widely.
Kali laughed. Her laughter was joined by a cute giggle, which if Kali hadn't known better, would have thought belonged to a little girl. In came, the first two people that Kali laid her eyes upon in The Hexs group: Varun and Roshni. Roshni was wearing an orange knee-length dress, with matching orange long earrings with her hair let out. She had her hand entwined with Varun's. Varun was wearing a simple white shirt with jeans on. Somehow, to Kali, they both stood out from the rest.
"This will great." said Heer bringing Kali out of her thoughts.
"What do you mean?" asked Kali who was still staring at them.
"Every class that The Hexs are in, are either two things: Great or Horrible. I wonder which one this will be."
"Why?"
"I don't know. It just is. All I want is to stay out of their drama and focus on my studies. I haven't been doing so good ever since I came here."
"What do they have to do with anything though?" asked Kali who was now seated on a desk as well.
"Well, it's not really them as it is the teachers. They don't teach properly. They're always busy with something. And then one time that they do really teach, they mess it up." Heer says pointing at Varun and Roshni.
"But isn't Varun smart?" asked Kali.
Heer laughed.
"So you do know them!" she said laughing.
"Of course I do. Were you pulling my leg?!" asked Kali surprised.
Heer laughed even more.
"Yes. Man, you're smart. Well it's good that you know about them. Cuz if someone gave you the wrong and you blurted it out, oh man! You're dead!"
Heer and Kali quickly got themselves a seat as their teacher came in.
"Hello, class." greeted the teacher
"Good Morning, Sir." echoed the students.
"I hope you all had a good summer vacation. But now it's time to work again. As you all know that this is the last year. For some of you." he says looking at Dodo (Uday is his real name. Dodo is just a nickname for him.) Some of the students snicker. "To end off this year, we will be reading a play, we'll write our individual anaylsis on the assigned character and then to end it off, we'll be acting it out."
All the students got excited, except for Kali.
Heer noticed this and asked her, "What's wrong?"
"I hate presentations."
"It's okay. You can do some small role."
Kali smiled at Heer.
How the whole hour passed by, Kali didn't know. She didn't get to talk much to Varun and Roshni, only a Hi and formal information was passed by through each other. But she was glad to know that she got such an awesome friend, Heer. She was so nice, that she even offered to drop her off at her next class. She thanked Heer and told her she'll meet in the cafe for lunch. Kali entered the Music room to meet her next two people in The Hexs group: Sameer and Avni.
Kali had thought that the class would be small, but she was wrong big time. This room was twice the size of her first period class and that was pretty big. She saw all sorts of instruments laying at the back of the room: violins, guitars, pianos, trumpets, flutes, drums, you name it. Kali layed her bag against the wall along the with the other backpacks and stood in the middle of the room, admiring the place. Kali was reading a poster up against the wall, when someone sneaked up behind her and said Boo! Kali jumped up, scared to death. When she turned she had her hand against heart and was breathing fast. She saw a girl wearing a blue suit. She two small earrings on and nosering. She had no heavy make-up only lip gloss.
"You scared me." said Kali.
The girl who was still laughing said, "Sorry. But I couldn't help it. You looked like someone had dropped you off in another world. Like this." the girl started mimicking Kali's actions, which she had to admit was pretty funny.
"Hi, I'm Kali." she extended her hand out to the girl.
"Hi, I'm-" the girl got bumped over by some other girl who put her hand in Kali's.
"Kripa." said the girl who bumped the other girl over.
"Kripa!" whined the girl.
"Kya Arohi. Tum isse mil chuki ho na. Ab mujhe milne do." said Kripa looking at Arohi. "Don't listen to her. She's a bit crazy." said Kripa to Kali now.
"I'm crazy." Arohi pulled back Kripa. "You're crazy."
"No, I'm not! You're crazy!"
"No, you're--"
"Girls, girls, girls!" came in Avni wearing a yellow suit. "Calm down. If you ask me, you're both crazy." Avni taps both their heads by each hand, as their standing either side of her.
"Hi, I'm Avni." Avni says to Kali.
"Hi, I'm Kali. Are they always like this?" asked Kali pointing at Arohi and Kripa who had started fighting again.
"Only when they have something new to play with. But no matter how much they fight, they'll always be best friends." Avni said smiling at them.
"This is pretty cool." said Kali looking around the room.
"I know. I asked the teacher to get it bigger."
"Really?"
"Yeah. This room used to be really small when it started out. But then with the help of those two," Avni tilts her head to motion towards Arohi and Kripa, "we got it bigger."
"That's so cool. So, what are you good at?"
"Me? Making lyrics. Arohi and Kripa are good at singing."
"Then who plays?"
"That. Would be me."
Avni and Kali turn around to see who said that. Kali saw a cute boy standing by the door, who she bet was Sameer. She looked at Avni to see what her reaction was and saw that Avni was looking at the ground. Sameer walked towards them. He took Kali's hand in his and kissed it.
"And may I ask, what is your name?"
"Kali."
"Phoolon ki kali." Sameer said with a smile making Kali blush.
Avni looked irritated. She turned to leave but Sameer held onto her hand. She turned around and saw Sameer holding her hand. He was about to kiss it, when she swiftly took it back. Avni walked over to Arohi and Kripa who had become silent as they saw Sameer come in. Avni started playing a few random notes on the piano when the teacher came in.
"Hello, students."
"Hello, Ma'am."
"Hope you all had a good summer. This semester is going to be a bit different. As you all know that this is your last year here, you will be marked very hard. Therefore, I'm not going to be teaching you all alot. This time, I'm going to see all things that you have learned in my class and see if you really were paying attention. I'm going to give you some theory sheets along the semester but what you're all gonna have to do is make up your own musical piece that we'll use in an English play. All the students in English class will be doing a play at the end of the year. The first semester will do the first half of the play the second semester the second half. You'll understand it better as the time comes, but till then all you have to know is that you have to make a musical piece that will mesmerize everyone. Okay. Okay. For today, you can review all the scales that you have learned the past three years. Any questions?" she looked around the class.
Hesitantly, Kali raised her hand.
"Yes."
"I'm new here. So I don't know what you taught."
"Oh that's okay. I'm pretty sure you had music your other years."
"No. This is the first time I have it."
"Oh dear. No that's a problem."
"No it's not." said Kripa.
"She can work with us." finished off Arohi.
"We'll happy to show her everything." included Avni.
"Oh wonderful! You three are such darlings."
Kali joined in with Arohi, Kripa and Avni who started teaching her the scales on the piano. When she couldn't get one right, Sameer came in and started teaching her. One thing that Kali noticed is that, this time Avni didn't look away.
Book Talk
