Chapter 4
After changing into her school regulars, Isha slipped inside the Auditorium for their Dean's ritual speak before the start of every single school term. She prayed all through her way to be out of Ro's range of vision. As always, all the Gods were against her!
She felt her wrist being caught in a death grip as she was whirled around to face none other than Rohan Nanda himself.
"What was that back there Ishanvi? That idiot was messing up my car and all you did was stand and laugh at it... How dare you?" he asked her in a low yet furious whisper. He was hurt, that was quite obvious! But Isha was never the one to give up, especially not when Rohan wanted to subdue her.
"Uffoh Rohan! You're so full of yourself aren't you? You were the one to start the fight in the first place over the most silliest parking issue and when the new boy defended himself, you broke it into a fight. Never think I'll justify my laughter out there. You should have seen your face!"Inspite of the situation she was in, Isha wanted to laugh at again.
She struggled against him trying to free herself, but he pushed her against the wall, twisting her arm painfully behind her and looked down with a winning smirk. His gaze immediately softened when he saw her pretty face in pain. That was all Isha wanted. Using her short form to her advantage, she twisted out of his loosened hold quickly and when he made a move to grab her, she side stepped him only to crash hard into someone.
"Ouch! Sorry sorry... It's not my fault... I swear!" she muttered rubbing her nose looking up to see Abhimanyu, who was staring down at her with an amused expression.
"What?" she asked annoyed at him. He made her feel like an elf from the North Pole!
"What were you doing behind the pillar?" he asked her trying to stifle his laughter at her out of place kind of expression.
"I was..Ro—" she turned to look at the empty spot behind her, "Damn him!"
Now she knew she looked like a total idiot to him and thus walked away muttering a "Sorry!"
Abhi shook his head at the little creature. She was cute when she was flustered, twitching her nose. He remembered that she was the one who was laughing at the royal brat when he pulled a stunt with His car! And he didn't miss the same guy walking away from them when she crashed into him. Maybe he was hurting her for laughing at him. He would keep a close watch on her incase he tried scare her once more!
Thinking this through he walked into the auditorium that was almost packed now with chattering students when someone ran to him.
Kaizad a.k.a., Sudo saluted him for showing Rohan his place. Now officially Abhimanyu was the Hero for the Bata gang. Abhi smiled at it and turned around as his eyes fell on the short girl from before. He made his way to sit near her.
"Hey hey...hello hello... Where are you going?" Sudo stopped him.
"The seats in the front are empty..." Abhi pointed to the row of seaters behind the teachers.
"You're pocket is empty also empty. Come! Sit near the Papu gang and be in your bank limits..." Sodu sniggered.
"Planning to open a new account! Wish to join?" Abhi shot back at him.
"Death wish dude!" and with that Sudo sauntered away muttering as Abhi turned towards the front row.
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"Making friends with the enemy Ivy!" Rohan asked her in a cold tone.
"Shy I am not sitting next to this brat!" Isha turned towards Shanaya ignoring him and skipped across her to sit next to Shruti.
"Shruti get up! She is sooo gonna sit next to me. Watch it!" Rohan ordered her glaring hard at Isha.
"Just sit down already Rohan! You both are not toddlers and I am definitely not your baby-sitter no matter how cute you both look..." Shanaya chuckled at them and Rohan had no other go but to sit on her other side as he saw Dean climbing the stage already.
That was when Abhimanyu settled into the empty chair beside Isha. She turned towards him with an embarrassed look and guilty smile. Not wanting to unnerve her, he held out his hand.
"Hi! I am—"
"Abhimanyu... I know! Heard it in the parking lot!" she told him eyeing his out-held hand warily.
"Well then! Call me Abhi..." he mentally patted himself as he saw a genuine smile graze her lips.
"I am Ishanvi... you can call me Isha or Ivy like everyone here does!" she finally shook his hand with a child like excitement.
"Alright!" he smiled at her turning towards the stage as their Dean asked everyone to settle down.
Isha glanced to her other side and saw her friends gaping at her.
Huff! Now what had she done!
"Is being friendly a crime!" Isha whispered to Shruti who giggled at her helplessness.
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Isha went round and round along the aisles searching for the book she had been assigned to do the synopsis on the very first day of school.
"Oh...the little book in blue, where the hell are you?" she muttered to herself like a chant.
Not finding it, she turned around from the corner and crashed into someone again making them drop all their stuffs.
Isha cursed herself under her breath. Was it her crash-&-destroy day or what!
She looked up to apologize and groaned, "Not you again!"
"I heard that!" Abhi replied clamping his lips together to stop himself fro laughing, "I ain't that bad Madam Shortcake. It's you who keeps bumping into me," he crouched down to pick up his books.
"And I am no Shortcake!" she shot back at him but bent down nonetheless to help him only to shout out in surprise.
"Hey! That's my book you thief!" she pointed at the book in his hands accusingly.
"Ms. Raizada, this is the library. Silence!" Madam Jeffrina looked at her over her table in the front with contempt.
"Sorry!" she whispered and walked out of the library. It wasn't her crash-&-destroy day, but make-Isha-apologize day afterall!
"Hey Shor- Ishanvi!" she turned around with a sigh to look at a breathless Abhi. Had he run after her from the library? She looked up at him uncertainly.
"Here's Your book!" he shoved the blue book in her hands, "And BTW I am no thief as it is a library book!" he folded his arms across his chest and looked down upon her. She was very small and looked almost fragile. Suddenly he felt this surge of protectiveness for her, but he wasn't sure why?
Not getting any response from her, "Why did you want Iliad so badly anyway?" he tried.
"Ugh! I am supposed to write synopsis for this on my very FIRST DAY of school... can you believe it?" she shrugged and then looked up at him finally with her eyes twinkling, "Thanks!"
"So friends?" Abhi asked her with his hands held forward once again which she shook without any hesitance unlike the previous time.
"Buddies it is...screw Rohan!" she laughed in a sound that matched her sparkling eyes.
"Yeah! About Rohan Nanda... was he trying to hurt you in the auditorium. I saw what happened and—"
"Whoa Abhi! Ro would never think of hurting me, he's my best friend since...since when I can remember time... he just thinks with his stupid head at times, but his heart is in the right place!" she told him with a fondness Abhi can never relate to. Not for now atleast!
"If you say so..." he told her unsurely.
"Thanks for trying to understand!" she told him as she slowly started turning away.
Abhi put his hand across her shoulders and started walking with her.
"Should I say thank you Shortcake for becoming my friend?" he asked teasingly.
"Abhi... I am not short!" she glared at him from the corner of her eyes but made no attempt to push his hand away.
He gave her a look with his eyebrow raised.
"Fine! I am not that short..." she threw her hands up in the air.
He let go of her and stood facing her, "And don't ever grow up..." she told her ruffling her hair and ran away laughing before she could do him some serious damage.
She laughed after him straightening her hair for the umpteenth time not noticing her best friend standing behind her with a lost look.
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Isha came along with Tanya for her tennis practice that Monday morning as the selection for boy's football team was going on.
After her practice routine, she chose to stay back and watch the selection. She saw Abhi slam hard on Rohan and whisk away the ball as Ro stumbled to maintain his balance.
She whooped high sending Abhi an air-borne Hi5 when he hit a goal but immediately sobered up as she saw Rohan standing with an unreadable expression looking at her.
She waited for Rohan to calm down. He was not in his sanest of mind when he was upset. that was a world known fact!
The Coach blew his whistle dispersing the group. She saw Rohan sending Jeet away and knew it was time for some talk.
"Hey R0... hoping you didn't send off Jeet to do something stupid..." she wanted to start on the lighter note not knowing his actual intent.
"Scared for your new best friend now Isha!" Rohan asked her with an off tone as he gulped down his water to keep himself from snapping at her.
"New best friend! Where did that come from? C'mon Ro... don't be such a stuck up child!" she was getting fed up of his so called possessiveness. She saw Tanya running across the field towards them and knew she would make this talk difficult for them to continue.
"Look Rohan! We both have not hit the good note since the start of this term. I dunno what went wrong and where it went wrong? I am sorry Ro..." she whispered the last part.
"Oh! So finally you've figured it out that we're not what we were before huh Isha. Or are you trying to play good since you have made new buddies?" Rohan finally snapped at her losing his cool.
"I just wanna make it up to you Rohan... I miss my best friend! If I have done anything wrong then I am really sorry... Ple--" she was cut off by Tanya's high pitched "Hey Ro!"
"Hey Tanya!" Rohan turned to the other girl with a fake smile as she hugged him.
"Uh...Bye!" Isha muttered turning away knowing she wouldn't be able to talk to him any further.
'You'll never know how much I miss you Isha...' Rohan thought as he saw her walking away from him.
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The next morning, Isha stood warming up in the tennis court.
"Hey Shortie!" she heard Abhi and turned around to see him standing on the other side of the net with a racket in his hand.
"You play tennis?" she asked him ignoring his new nickname for her. Atleast it was better than the 'Chottis' back at home!
"I got into this school with a Sports Scholarship l'il one!" he smirked at her as he shot a ball at her.
They started playing a mock match when a loud whistle announced coach's arrival.
"We'll continue this later Abhi. You should go now!" she pushed him out of the court. He bid her a bye and ran into the changing rooms.
Isha started packing up her things when she saw Abhi walk out of the change room in a foul mood and start running around the football field. She obviously knew it was a punishment. But what she couldn't guess was, for what he was punished. Having known Abhi for a whole week, she knew he wasn't capable of breaking any school rules unless and until it involved... ofcourse... Rohan!
She saw him standing at the edge of the football field looking at Abhi with what seemed like guilt. Isha heaved up her bag on her shoulder and walked towards him.
*
"You look like a cat that ate it's master's favorite bird!" Rohan heard her soft voice beside him.
"Shut up Isha!" he told her without glancing at her. She stood there for some more time continuously ignored by Rohan.
He heard some shuffling of feet and knew she had left. But he was surprised when he felt gentle arms hug him from behind and she leaned her forehead on his shoulder.
"Before the guilt eats you up, I wanted to bid you farewell!" she told him trying to keep the smile off her voice.
He chuckled at her attempt to cheer him up and turned to embrace her. Everything had fallen back together for the better!
Abhi looked at the embracing couple. Best friends my a**! They were so in love. Just blind enough to never see that! He shook his head with a small smile feeling happy for his Shortcake.
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I know I was late this time... I am a little caught up in work since it's the last month of my internship guys... The work just got overloaded because of it...
Anyways, the 4th chapter is here... sooo
Read & Review!
~~~ sam xoxo
Kumkum Bhagya
Tum Se Tum Tak
Sampoorna
Jhanak
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