Rough Start

(Fiction Story-III)

Naina thought why should she worry about what problem this boy had with her and decided to not speak to Kabir or even look at him. She didn’t want to look at that hateful glance again.

The rest of the day went on without any incidence. The teachers seemed nice. She was asked to introduce herself by every teacher before they started their class. She was sure that by the end of the day the entire class would remember her name and school she came from.

In the break she hung out with Prachi’s friends. There was Avani, Aanya, Rhea, Myra, Veer, Aditya, Aryan and Shaurya. Aanya was the inquisitive one who kept asking her questions, trying to know her and her background. Avani was quite charming and talkative and seemed to talk quite a lot about herself. She concluded it would be good to be around her to shift the focus from herself. Rhea seemed quiet and reserved. She was the observer. Myra was the only one in the group from whom she didn’t really get good vibes. She kept staring at her with unfriendly eyes. Though she did have to give her that she was the prettiest girl in their class. Veer had the friendliest eyes, the happiest smile. He was cute and full of energy. He was a shorty like her. Aditya was the shy one. Aryan looked average but had a great body. She wondered how many hours would he be dedicating to gym after school and when would he be getting his homework done. Shaurya was friendly as well and with the kind of attention he gave to Prachi it seemed like they were dating.

The canteen area of this school was so much cooler than what she had at her school. This school seemed like the one from Hollywood movies when compared to her old school. She decided she was going to like it here. Throughout the day she got a lot of hi’s and friendly smiles.

During this entire time, every few minutes she felt a strong desire to turn and find Kabir, to look at him, to go introduce herself to him, but she knew there wasn’t any point as he already knew her from all the introductions she was made to give and if he wanted he would have come and met her. But he probably hated her for reasons best known to him, so what was the point of even looking at him. She was going to control her urges and divert her attention to the other people. If she had to survive another two years at this school she had to make friends.

Kabir was annoyed! What was wrong with his friends and class-mates? All they could talk about was the new girl in the school, about how pretty was, what a good body she had, how friendly she seemed. How was he to ignore her presence in the school if that’s all his friends were going to talk about?! Why were all his friends behaving like kids who were given a new shiny toy?? He kept stealing glances at her but she didn’t look at him once. It annoyed him even more! He was right after all. She must have the attitude of the size of an elephant.

She was satisfied with how her day had panned out. Everyone had been friendly with her and they had even invited her to their regular coffee house where they met every evening. She was now feeling better about this move than she did in the morning. The only thing that constantly tugged her in the back of her mind was the weirdly rude behavior of the beautiful boy who was apparently not so rude.

As she reached her new home, which they had moved into 5 days back due to its proximity to the school, she all she had were positive thoughts. She was waiting for the lift when her water bottle suddenly dropped from her hands. Just as she was reaching out to collect it, a set of another hands that just seemed to have arrived picked it up for her. As she turned to thank the person, the smile from the face of the helpful hands vanished. It was Kabir!

What was he doing here? At first what she thought was a pleased look turned into a scornful look within seconds.

He asked her with anger in his eyes, “What the hell are you doing here? Have you been following me??”

She was shocked at the hate that emitted from his words. With hurt in her eyes she replied, “I have moved in here. But what are you doing here and are you trying to play the ‘ulta chor kotwal ko daate’, because I came here first and with that logic you are following me!”

Rudeness like she had never used before, spit from her words. But who the hell cared what Kabir thought. If he was going to be rude, rudeness is what he was going to get!

Seemed like her rudeness had gotten through to him. He silently replied that he lived there too. And without so much as another word, he took the stairs.

She was relieved because she was sure she couldn’t have handled one more second of being around him, his hateful eyes and his rude words. Her mood had been ruined. Her happiness had turned into anger by the time she reached from the parking to her home.

When her mom opened the house, she asked how was school and being angry, she answered rudely, “Just Fine!!!!” and went into her room and slammed the door behind her, locking herself in. Her mom knocked, but she again rudely said, “Leave me alone!”

She crept into her bed and tears rolled out of her eyes. Why was he being so mean to her? What had she done to deserve such hate? Atleast she had not cried in front of him to give him that pleasure of hurting her.

As hours passed by, so did her irritation. After a couple of hours she realized how rude she had been to her mother for no reason. Great! Now her mom and dad were going to feel guilty about moving her here! She quickly went out and apologized to her mom and assured her the day had been good, but she was just annoyed by the traffic she encountered on her way back home. Her mom didn’t seem to believe the story but thankfully decided not to probe further. This was a first for her, given her probing nature. Maybe she did decide to leave her alone.

She thought it all happened because of that idiot Kabir. With nothing but hate in her eyes, she decided she was never going to forgive him.