Chapter 3
Tia, also known as Shorty was student of eleventh commerce section, who aspired to be a model, as every teenager in the school lusted for her. She was given an alias because of her short height and much shorter skirt. She made a habit of bunking classes and wandering aimlessly about the campus whenever it was possible for her to make the boys boys feel her presence in campus. She was incredibly girly and super obsessed with her popularity, but that didn’t matter. She was famous for her scandalous behavior as she often kissed boys in the bathroom or exchanged love letters. Everyone knew, she had a string of boyfriends in just about every class above her and was so attractive that most people were willing forgot her scandal ridden past to be her boyfriend. But, she wanted Aarav.
"Oh My god! Is that Aarav?" thought Tia.
Tia easily recognized who that person was. She slowly walked towards him in order to confirm. She was not noticed because Aarav was not to facing her direction.
" Why is he kneeling outside the class?" She asked herself. She shook her head and opened her eyes wide for the final confirmation."Yeah! It's Aarav," then rushed back to her class in order to find Khushi- Aarav’s best friend and her classmate.
Khushi and Aarav's name went hand in hand around the campus. Khushi was never seen talking to any other boy except Aarav in her entire school life. He was temperamental, yet he was a loyal friend Khushi had.
“Khushi, your best friend has been punished,” said Tia catching her breath. Khushi was silently taking her lunch alone in a classroom.
“What?” Khushi's mouth dropped open with her bite still inside. She stared her blankly in surprise. Was she really telling her truth or just teasing her?
“Yeah! He's kneeling outside his class,” Tia muttered.
“Are you sure?” Khushi gulped down her food without finishing chewing.
“Yes, Damn sure!” Tia replied with confidence.
Khushi was too confused to finish her sandwich. She closed her unfinished lunch box and stuffed it in her bag. Aarav was a higher priority than lunch.
“You’re not going to finish your lunch?”
Many rumors had developed that, their nine year old friendship converted into something else.But, whenever asked about their relation, they both denied being anything more than friends with a laugh.
“No!” She replied determined in a single word.
“You’re going to stay hungry for him?” Tia was astonished by the bond they shared.
“Later, Aarav needs me right now” she ran away to Aarav’s place without any further thinking.
In spite of sitting next to Khushi in lectures everyday and being her friend for whole year, Tia never liked Khushi, because she was closest soul to Aarav.
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Khushi stood in front of Aarav in the corridor. She blinked several times and breathed in short, shallow breaths to calm down. “Aarav, why did you get punished?” she asked breathing air in.
The familiar voice forced Aarav to look up. Aarav had those perfectly placed ultra black eyes in pretty childish face and every single girl from junior section at school was drooling over him. He was surprised to see Khushi standing in front of him.
“Khushi! You…” he exclaimed.
“Tia told me about this...” her eyes became warm with instant sympathy.
She stepped closer to him, and took a deep, calming breath. “What happened exactly?”
“Please go away! I'm being punished.” he said, glancing up at her uncertainly.
“But, why are you being punished?”
She was curious to know more.
Aarav joined his hands like he was praying at Khushi and pleaded “Please go!"
“Can’t you tell me why you are here?” She was puzzled. It wasn’t what she expected him to say.
“I can’t talk now. If the teacher sees me talking, I will get into worse trouble.”
“Which teacher gave you punishment?” Khushi said, not relenting.
“Goooo!!!” Aarav said firmly. He wasn't in the mood to answer her questions.
“I'm going Aarav. But, don’t forget to meet me afterwards. I'm worried about you,”
“I will surely come to you.” he promised.
“I will be waiting for you Aarav.”
Khushi turned around and stomped out of the corridor, filling the halls with the echoes of her footsteps.
After a long time tortuous time of 10 minutes, the lectures were finally finished and Mrs. Banerjee stepped outside the classroom with her books and mobile. The rest of the students in the corridor scattered throughout the corridor as she stepped towards Aarav.
“There's a test tomorrow, and I would take special care that you get good marks,” she warned.
Aarav stood up and immediately apologized. “I'm sorry ma'am,”
“You best be prepared, “ she said coldly and handed him his mobile phone.
A glow emanated from his face. He couldn't refrain from showing his happiness.
“Thank you ma'am,” "he apologized trying to sound sweet. “Sorry, again.”
Her glasses were perched precariously on the end of her nose.Adjusting her glasses she said, “This was your first time. No mobiles again, understand?”
It was something that came to Aarav as surprise. May be it was her birthday or she was in best mood of year.
“Yes ma’am!” he replied cautiously.
She turned around and disappeared towards the staff room. Aarav started checking his phone to see if everything was alright, when he took a closer look he found there was a small crack on the upper half of screen which gave a distorted image of Pamela Anderson as wallpaper. He ignored physical damage, he was much bothered about the content inside mobile, but he couldn't tell. Vikram had just come out of the classroom.
“Stanley!” Aarav called raising his hands."Come here!"
Stanley turned around to the call.
"I told you Aarav, read the law once. But, you didn't." complained Stanley. "Lectures are so boring when you're not there. I hate when punished."
Araav was worried about mobile and it's content."Forget the law and tell me, after I was punished, did the teacher do anything with my phone?”
“What?” he questioned unable to understand the thought.
“Idiot! Did you see her browse the contents of my mobile phone in my absence?” Aarav asked anxiously.
“Yes!” Stanley replied
“Yes?!?” Aarav felt lost for a few seconds
“Sure,” Stanley continued. “She showed your wallpaper to the whole class and said, Look what kind of wallpaper this boy keeps and the whole class was thrown into laughter.”
“Any thing, else apart from that?” Aarav asked eagerly.
“No, after that, she kept your mobile on the table,” Stanley replied.
“Are you sure?”
“Of course, there were some new messages or calls, because it vibrated for some time before the teacher switched it off,” Stanley said.
“Message or call?”
“Not sure,” Stanley said. “Anyway, I'm going to lunch.”
Aarav was relieved to find out the teacher hadn't checked to see what he had actually been doing on his phone. He took a deep sigh of relief and headed towards commerce section to meet Khushi.
On the other side, Tia had a pile of books under her arm from the library that blocked her view of where she was walking. Aarav was still busy staring at the mobile phone screen. They collided and the pile of books scattered across the room. Aarav, however, was able to catch his phone before it hit the ground.
"I’m sorry" They both said in synchronization. They both bent down at the same time to pick up the books before they realized who the other one was. Guys in the proximity tried to take advantage of situation when Tia bend down to pick up her books.
No words escaped his mouth as he quickly tried to make up something cute and catchy to say, but nothing came. They simply stood there staring at each other until Aarav stuttered, “Shorty, it's you! I thought it was some hot chic” Tia slapped a hand over her mouth. She wondered how she had gotten so sarcastic, but pretty-boy simply laughed, as if it had been a joke.
“Aarav!” Tia replied with a twisted mouth “Please, don’t call me Shorty like others. I hate it!”
He sighed; running his hands nervously through his long curls and looked up at Tia. “I won’t! Actually, when books feel, I just thought it was some hot chick. Another chance for me.. ”
“What?”
“Chuck it! I'm sorry. It was my fault.” he said, grinning sheepishly. His eyes swept the length of her, and he let out a low whistle. "You look lovely as usual in your extra short school skirt. I guess your tailor out of cloth?"
“No, Aarav, I'm sorry. I wasn’t able to see you, all these books, you know,” countered Tia neglecting the comment about her skirt. She always wore a bit shorter skirt then rest of the girls that helped her to reveal her extra thin legs.
“Then Ok! Give me my sorry back,” Aarav said with a warm smile.
“Sorry? How?” Tia said puzzled. She touched all his fingers as she took the books he picked up from his arms. Tia used to have a big crush on Aarav since the first time he smiled at her. But he always had been over friendly with her.
“I can’t give sorry back. How about I treat at canteen work,” Tia said flirtatiously.
“Ok!” Aarav agreed.
They both headed towards canteen.
TO BE CONTINUED...
