OS- The Unknown Name

"And that's how the hormones and brain regulate the mood" the teacher finished her lecture, flashing a satisfactory smile towards her students.
"Now I'm giving you the notes of today's lecture. Take them down carefully, they'll come handy in your project," she told them. She turned her back towards the students and started writing on the board. Following this was the noise of flipping pages and scribbling pens as the students hurried to not miss anything.
Except...
...a girl sitting on the second bench in the last row of the classroom, with her best friend. She did hurry, but not to open her register and take down the notes, but, to snatch the small diary out of her best friend's hands before she could conceal it.
"Milli!" whispered the best friend with a horrid look on her face.
Milli returned an evil, teasing smirk.
Her best friend lunged to take the diary back but Milli refused to let her take it.
"Let's see the new masterpiece that our highness is working on!" retorted Milli with a naughty and sly giggle.
"I've told you it's not complete yet! You know you'll be the first one to read it after I'm done with it" Milli's best friend assured her in whispers, lest the teacher caught them. But Milli was determined to read the story at that very moment. No amount of convincing made her change her mind. After a few minutes, when the argument seemed to be lost, Milli's best friend shot her an irritated look and returned to her textbook, while Milli read the story under the desk.
They did not realise that their argument in whispers were no more private. The constant disturbance in the silent classroom coming from their desk was audible enough to turn all the eyes towards them, including their teacher's. She had caught them in the act; Milli hiding something under her desk and her partner not taking down the notes on the board.
It was only when the teacher's loud voice broke the silence and rang through the classroom that they realised the damage they had done.
"Mrinalini!!!" the teacher commanded which made both the girls jump. On meeting the teacher's eye, Mrinalini immediately sprang up from her chair. Her best friend bit her lip.
"What is it that you consider to be so urgent that cannot wait until the end of this class? What is so important to be seen at this very moment that you are giving absolutely no importance to your psychology notes?" she questioned Milli in a very stern tone with a piercing gaze.
"Err-mm-nothing! Ma'am it's-nothing..." Milli stuttered in order to hide her act.
"Oh, nothing at all..." the teacher responded, in a histrionic fashion, taking long and silent strides towards her desk. "Why..." she questioned the air as Milli watched her fretfully, and the next moment, she whipped out the little diary out the table, "Isn't there?" the teacher finished with a look enough to kill anyone.
Milli's bestfriend's eyes widened in horror, so did her's. They couldn't let the teacher confiscate it; that was a record of all the things Milli's best friend had written till date, all those beautiful stories and poems.
"Let's see what exactly was going on under the desk" the teacher stressed on her words and began reading the unfinished story vaguely as she strode back to her usual spot.
All the students watched her anxiously. Their minds were constantly predicting what would be their teacher's ultimatum after she finished reading the little diary.
However, nobody's expressions matched those of the best friends' pair, who were so horrified at would happen next that they had forgotten breathing or blinking. The stood frozen to their spots, their brains numb.
Minutes slipped by like sand. Nobody uttered even a single word. All the eyes were on the teacher whose complete focus was on the tale in her hands.

'...giggled. They looked at each other. There was some unsaid magic in that moment of the night...something magnetic in their eyes, something that stopped both of them from averting their gaze. Their hands, deep down their jeans' pockets, went numb. A slow breeze whistled in their ears and caressed their faces, as they looked at each other. The road was silent, the way was long, the forests on the sides were deep, and the whole night lay in front of them, filled with adventure and unsaid things. They did not realise that they had stopped walking. And there was nobody to make them realise that. Her hair flew behind her in the breeze and the next moment, something fell on her fair face, something that brought both of them back to reality; a drop. She quickly looked away from his visage, and then to the heavens. Soon, the sky opened its arms to release its blessings, to let down rain, the first rain of the summer.

The words ended. The rest of the page in that diary was blank, inkless. The teacher jerked. With a trembling hand, she touched the unfinished page, hoping for the rest of the words to appear out of nowhere, magically. After a couple of stunned moments where nothing happened, she looked up from the diary and found herself facing a classroom filled with anxious students, all staring her. She almost jumped at the sudden transition in sight-from the road drenched with rain, to a room filled with people. She averted her gaze from the children and took a deep breath. She looked out of the window to see whether it had actually rained, or if the feeling of drenching in the raindrops that she was enjoying so much only moments ago was just a fragment of her imagination...
The grounds outside were sunny, not even a drop of rain, or any residue was visible. She was shocked. She looked back at her students who were all eyeing her with suspicion.
"Err-umm-class dismissed. We'll continue the lecture in the next class," she blurted out subconsciously. With her mind so engrossed at a completely different place, she considered rightly that she would not be able to teach anymore. It was the students' turn to be shocked. They all checked their watches.
'Class dismissed! That too thirty-five minutes early! Is she joking or what?' the students thought. They waited for her to take back her command, 'cause they were too sure that this was a joke.
'It's not even April. Why is she trying to make us all April-fools?' they exchanged bewildered looks.
However, their professor did nothing of that sort. She just kept staring dreamily into the blank space in the air.
Overjoyed that their hypothesis was not true, the students quickly reached for their books and registers and stuffed them in their bags. The teacher did not stop them. They were delighted that they had thirty-five extra minutes to chill! They even started exiting the class in twos-threes (some even tried to rush out as soon as possible, in case the teacher changed her mind) but the teacher was silent. In fact, even she started tracing her steps back to the door of the classroom in an unusual lost way. The diary that was the reason behind all this lay forgotten on the teacher's table. Milli and her best friend watched her in utter bewilderment. She did not even say a word to them! As they recovered from their shock, they heard her voice again.

"Just a minute," the teacher all of a sudden announced, icing everyone at their spots; all those who were exiting the room, or packing their bags, and of course the girls in question, froze in their positions. For once, the teacher was back to reality. Many of them even whispered, "WE are doomed!"
The teacher turned on her spot to face the pair of girls.
"Ermm, which one of you wrote that by the way?" she asked with a curious face.

That was an icebreaker. Milli breathed a sigh of relief. But contrary to her, her best friend was even more tensed after this question.
"Ma'am," Milli announced in a jubilant tone, "Celu wrote it!" she conveyed, pointing her best friend.

All the eyes, including the teacher's, turned towards Milli's best friend. Some watched her with appreciation (for getting them free time), but many eyed her with shock. The teacher was the first to react.
"Sorry who?" she asked again with uncertainty. She was sure that nobody she knew or any name she ever heard in her life was anything close to 'Celu'.
"Ma'am Celana!" Milli announced as if it was too obvious when she remembered, "Oh wait. Sorry. I'm so sorry. Ma'am, I meant Pakhi," she corrected herself.
The students were even more shocked, so shocked that their eyes were popping out of their sockets as they stared Pakhi, who was sitting tensed besides Mrinalini.
'She wrote something??!!! And the teacher dismissed the class just by reading it???!!!!!' the students thought.
However, the teacher was quite normal at this statement. She quickly glanced Pakhi and her timid face, then continued on her way out of the classroom.

As soon as she exited, Pakhi dashed for her diary. She picked up her treasury of writing and breathed a sigh of relief. As she made her way to her seat, many students came to her to express their gratitude or amazement. Many of them even wanted to know the contents of that secret diary that actually transported their psychology teacher into her dreamland. Pakhi read out the unfinished composition aloud to everyone, and she faced greater astonishment.
"You wrote that?"
"YOU wrote that?"
"Literally, you WROTE that?"
"You ACTUALLY wrote that?"
"You really DID write that?"
"You seriously wrote that YOURSELF?"
Pakhi faced the same questions fifty times. She was tired convincing everybody that it was her creation. In the end, she got tired and just shook them off and left the classroom with Mrinalini. When she was about to step out of the room, someone called her from behind.
"By the way Pakhi..." called a boy's voice. Mrinalini and Pakhi turned to face him.
"...Since when did you start calling yourself Celana?" he asked with a smart smile. It was a praise or a taunt, it was difficult to tell.
Pakhi responded with a blank face, but Mrinalini was too happy to tell. However, before she could, Pakhi chose not to answer, and turned and walked away, leaving Mrinalini to hurry behind her.

***

"Celu, Celu!!" Milli called out as she hurried to catch up with her best friend aka Prarthita in the corridor. After a few strides, she caught up with her.
"At least wait for me girl!" she said as she reached her side.
Pakhi disregarded this.
"What was the need to call me Celana, or worse, Celu, in front of everybody?" Pakhi asked in a stern tone.
Mrinalini knew that she had not done it voluntarily, but she chose to reply the other way.
"Well, what's the problem in that?" she questioned back.
"Milli you know everybody here knows be by the name Pakhi! Moreover, they are always hunting for a new reason for mockery. I chose such a beautiful name. Now they'll make a joke out of it!" she said in frustration.
"What's the guarantee of that?" Milli asked back. Celana shot her a demanding look.
"Well," Milli replied casually; she knew exactly how to handle her best friend, "How can you tell that Varun wanted to tease you? Maybe he wanted to compliment you?" she proposed. Another one of those dangerous looks.
"What?" Milli retorted in an offended tone, "Can't he compliment your writing skills? And moreover, he could have been only curious too!"
Pakhi started looking ahead without a word in her defense.
"But still..." she said after a while, "What was the need of announcing my name in front of everyone?" she asked in a pleading way.
"Celu, I said that because when you start publishing your books, at least these people, who know you, should be aware that who is writing under the pen name of Celana. After all, not everyone can mesmerise people with an unfinished tale. "
Celana stopped walking when those words met her ears. Milli had already moved forward when she noticed that Celana was not with her. She turned back to see where was she and found her standing at her spot, looking at her with sparkling eyes. Her lips slowly curved into a pleased smile.
Milli smiled back. Celu liked her reason more than she had expected. She smiled back. They both stood
at their places for some moments. Mrinalini, realising the moment, broke away from the smile exchange and continued walking ahead without waiting for Pakhi to catch up. She knew that at this moment, Pakhi would prefer solitude with her pen to company with her best friend. She left her in the corridor.
After a few moments of Milli's departure, Celana turned the other way and rushed down the route to the school gardens.

***

School ended and everyone went home. At the lunch table, she kept smiling with pleasure to herself as thoughts about her school, Milli's words, and her future stories kept revolving inside her head. Her curious mother even shot her many suspicious glances and asked her the reason; but she was too contented to tell. In the end, she gave up, but Pakhi's smile did not lessen. With the same happy expression, she ate her food properly, and departed from the lunch table without any word. As her mother watched her go, she smiled to herself. After a long time, she had seen her child happy.

As the evening descended, and the sun sunk low to just touch the horizon and illuminate the sky with beautiful hues of vermillion and orange, Pakhi found a nice little spot on the high terrace of her building. The sight of the magnanimous sky swept her heart with a calm feeling and made her celebrate her existence. She opened her little diary and her pen and started writing ahead.

'"...feel like getting drenched in the pearly drops of the heaven..." she confessed as she looked at the sky raining its happy tears upon her. The dark sky brought back the memories of some isolated moments to her, moments when the world had stopped her from dancing in the rains or being herself.
"But it's not always possible to do what you wish to..." she confessed with a fading smile, "...But I wish I could..." She again looked up, not at the sky, but at the rain. Nevertheless, it was enough to wash away all the pain of yesterday.
"I don't know why but when it rains, I feel like I'm detached from the world...I feel like I've reached somewhere else...where there's nothing but
calmness...
tranquility...
serenity...
peace...
and silence...the soothing one..."
Each word Niharika spoke was brimming with deep emotions and unsaid feelings, the things that she had never displayed to the world. Yet, she forgot that someone was here, listening to every word her heart was speaking.

This was new to Abhi. He had never seen this side of her. The ever so cheery girl who was the soul of all parties and get-togethers had all of a sudden gone in this silent state. He thought about the secrets that smile hid underneath it all the time while it was busy making others happy.
He had lost himself to the sight in front; a Niharika who was soft and soulful, innocent yet mature, who had lost herself feeling the raindrops of the heaven.

"I'm lost..." confessed her voice again, bringing him back to the scene, "...somewhere which I am not aware about..."'

Pakhi let out a deep breath and looked up at the never-ending sky. The sun had sunken lower in the depths of some ocean miles away, and a breeze had taken its place, making Pakhi's hair waver with it. She smiled and closed her eyes, to let the wind touch her heart and lift her above the realms of the usual. As it happened, she opened her eyes again to realise her solitude with the beautiful wind and the vast sky that seemed to be calling her heart. She again cast her glance back at her diary to appreciate her work when she noticed something missing.
She sighed to herself, then poised the pen back into the writing position. Gracefully, she inked the page with her pen until a single word in styled handwriting showed up in the corner of the page under her composition...

There you go girl. I know I took ages but you know why. Anyways, now you know that why was I keeping that rain status of yours. Well, I just added the story behind it, those beautiful words about the rain still remain yours. And also, if you noticed something else in the last lines too...

You'll have to hunt for it in future so thought of posting it here only, so that you can always remember the wish I gave you on your birthday..
"Follow your dreams...

-Aru ;)