Amor

I could hear the sound of my heart breaking.

“… What’s he upto?” Ayesha’s voice cut through my thoughts.

I turned to her, and said, “Huh?”

She grimaced. “What is wrong with you? It’s the second time since morning, that you haven’t listened to me.” Sighing, she continued, “Well, Mayank saw Roshan going to class way early, and he has locked the door. I wonder what he is upto.”

I knew what he was upto. Anyone would guess. He was trying to woo her. But I told Ayesha, “I have no idea.”

She let another dramatic sigh, and saw Shaan walking alongside Priti. She was taller than me, and anytime prettier than me. She was in his class, and they were laughing about something. It looked as if they were a couple, a cozy couple. They were so close to each other that it seemed as though they were practically attached to each other by their hips.

I followed her gaze, and knew what was going to come next.

“What is with him? Why is he with her?” She asked me. She hated Priti, because of the incident that took place a year ago, during the annual day. A teacher preferred Priti to Ayesha because of her towering height, even though Ayesha was a better dancer than her.

Shrugging I said, “I don’t know.” If she noticed that I was not meeting her eye and looking at the floor, she didn’t mention it.

“C’mon. Let’s see what’s in Roshan’s sleeves.” Before she could argue, I dragged her inside. I had no intention of staying there and looking at Shaan’s face. It was going to make me more depressed, if not anything else.

So, I made her race me, till the fourth floor, amidst the huge school going children crowd. Our classroom was in the fourth floor, and they didn’t allow us to go via the lift.

She reached two minutes after I did. Panting, she hit me on my head. “Finished.”

“Ow, that was totally uncalled for.” I said, rubbing the place when she hit me. “And… I reached before you did. So you are a loser!”

I waited outside our classroom, that had been locked by Roshan. “After you, Mademoiselle.” I said to Ayesha, in the chauffeur-ish way, bowing.

She just giggled and entered the classroom. I followed her, and the moment I entered, my jaws dropped down to the floor. I could see Ayesha had the same expression too. The room had been decorated with balloons and flowers; red and white balloons, and Red roses and white lilies. There was a bouquet on Ayesha’s desk.

Roshan knelt in front of her, in the perfect Prince Charming way, and said, “Ayesha, will you be my girlfriend?”

This was too good to be true, for Ayesha. I knew that girl in and out, and judging by the expression on her face, I could say her wish had come true.

I just wished mine would have come true, as well.

She nodded her head, and Roshan did a somersault. Literally. “YAY!” Roshan could be soo immature at times.

She laughed, and everyone went Ooh, Aah, and Aww.

They held hands and sat next to each other. They looked really cute together.

“Ahem.” They turned to look at me. “What if Vijaya Miss sees these balloons and flowers?” I questioned Roshan.

He looked at me with an expression that read: Oops, I didn’t think about it at all!

I sighed loudly and mumbled, “I knew it.”

The door was still closed, so we had an advantage. I banged the duster on the table, even though I hated the chalk powder that my act scattered. Needless to say, it caught the attention of the people who were present in the class. As far as the chalk powder was concerned, well, Dhruv would handle that.

“So, congratulations to the star couple of our class. And, since the idiot Roshan didn’t think about the consequences of decorating the classroom, I have to take matters in my own hands. We have a situation.”

I paused, it was a great dramatic effect. “Prick and pierce as many balloons as you can. The winner goes on a date with me,” At this point, everyone looked disinterested, “That was a joke, guys. The winner gets a Vada Pav (Potato bun -- literal translation. It’s actually roasted potato inside a bun, a special delicacy of Mumbai) treat from me.”

Within no time, everyone started piercing balloons, and it was a chaotic room. But that served the purpose. Saurabh emerged as the winner. I sighed, yet again. He was a Vada Pav fanatic. Looking at his lean built, you won’t be able to tell that he has atleast three of them per day. He would do anything to get a Vada Pav.

He held his five fingers at me. “Five.”

“Huh?” I responded, meekly.

“I want five Vada Pav’s for starters.”

“Done.”

It was announcement time again.

“And now everyone collect a rose and a lily. We’ll give them to the teachers. Say it’s just a special way of 10 D class to thank the teachers!”

Soon, the room was spick and span, with no hint of the presence any balloon or rose or lily.

And then, everyone started applauding. That round of applause had been initiated by Roshan and Ayesha.

“Jeez. I did nothing.” I told them, as I sat a bench ahead of Roshan.

“You saved us. Thanks.” Ayesha said.

“I owe you big time, pal.” Roshan agreed.

“Save it, Verma. I might need that later.”

“Hmm, how about a double date?”

Unknowingly, I cringed. “Oops, trouble in paradise?” he asked.

“We saw Shaan with Priti, downstairs.” Ayesha supplied.

I frowned again. “I’ll talk to him, okay?” He told me, reassuringly.

“Nah. Rosh, I’ll do that.”

“Whatever.”

I didn’t know what to reply and was saved by the entry of our class teacher, Mrs. Vijaya Dherry.

“Good morning class.” Her entry dialogue.

“Good morning teacher.” We chirped in response.

I went forward with a rose and a lily in my hand. And nine others followed me.

“Miss..?”

“Yes, Aanya?”

I placed the flowers on the table, and so did the others. “Thank you so much for bearing with us.”

“What is this?”

“It’s a token of our gratitude.”

She smiled, and said, “That was very nice of you all. Please go to your seats, it’s prayer time.”

We said our prayers, the pledge and everything. The school had begun for the day.

We had a double Maths session, that morning. Some of us groaned, because Maths was boring. In reality, it was more of an entertaining class actually. Thanks to our teacher, Mrs. Dhanalakshmi Iyer. She had a typical Tamil accent, and when she spoke English, it was so funny, that we could never contain ourselves.

“Good mwarning clasz.” She said, as she entered. A/N: The spelling is according to the teacher’s pronunciation

We wished her good morning, and a ten student squad gave her the token of gratitude. She seemed very touched.

“Okay, stoodents, today we will be doing Similarity.”

And lo, we all started talking among ourselves. We never paid attention in her class. I took out a sheet of paper, and so did Roshan and Ayesha. We always played ‘Bingo’ during Maths. I made the table, and randomly filled the numbers 1 to 25 in them. We were in the middle of a very interesting game, when she called my name, “Aanya!”

I stood up, sheets of paper falling from my desk. Typical.

I bent down to pick them up, and arranged them again on my desk. “Yes Miss? Sorry miss.”

“That’z wokay. Tell me how you will sollve thiz sum.”

I looked at the board, and the figure that she’d drawn. That was a piece of cake for me.

I gave her the answer. “Good, you can sit down.”

I heaved a sigh of relief, and sat down, immediately starting to giggle. This had almost become a daily routine. She almost caught us playing in her class.

She had proceeded to explain the sum to everyone. “Yin Triangal Ye(A)-Vo(O)-Dee(D) yand Triangal hyach(H)-Vo(O)-yum(M); Angal Vo is equal to Angal Vo; Angle Hyach-Yum-Vo is equal to Angal Ye-Dee-Vo, correspondeeng angalls. So, triangals Ye-Vo-Dee yand hyach-Vo-yum are szimilarr by Ye-Ye test of szimilarity.”

That was way too hilarious. Our heads bent, we started giggling uncontrollably.

“Ayesha?”

She stood up, stifling the giggles. “Yes miss?” She let a giggle.

“Whatz so funny?”

“Umm. Nothing miss, Roshan just cracked a joke.”

Roshan looked at her with such an innocent expression on his face, that I burst out laughing. “AANYA!” she yelled.

Oh my god, trouble.

“Sorry miss.” I said with a pleading look in my eyes.

“Keep standing both of you.” She went ahead to do another sum, after giving a lecture to us about how unruly the younger generation had become.

I caught Ayesha’s eye, and we kept on grinning.

Soon Dhruv started the wave of irritation, followed by Roshan. In no time, half the class was standing up. This happened everyday. We troubled her to no extent. Our pranks, making fun of her, constant yapping, annoyed her beyond limits. And she always ended up giving lectures.

In another couple of minutes, the bell rang. “Thang you clasz.” She said, as she left.

We collapsed on our seats, laughing hysterically.

“That was awesome!”

“So Treat time?” Saurabh asked me. It was short break, the official Vada Pav eating time. We had two breaks in school. Short and Long. (Duh!) Short break was usually for breakfast, and long break was for lunch.

“Alright.” I said, rolling my eyes.

“You two, want some?” I asked the new lovebirds, who seemed busy in their conversation.

“Yeah.” Roshan finally replied.

I rushed off to the canteen, and ordered seven Vada Pav’s.

I myself never ate them, cause I didn’t like them somehow.

And then I noticed Shaan, Priti and some of his classmates making their way towards the canteen.

I had to force a smile. I knew some of his classmates. Priti ordered some Vada Pav’s, and Shaan removed some money from his wallet.

My heart skipped a beat when I saw him.

Looking at my flummoxed expression Aishwarya, another friend of mine, told me, “They both are a couple now.”

“What?” I faintly heard Roshan cry out.

Roshan and Ayesha had followed me.

“What is this? A Dating season?” Saurabh exclaimed.

A/N: Just google 'Vada Pav'; you'll get the images. If you want I'll post them on here.

I might also post some FAQ's here. If you have any questions, lemme know!

Q: Who is Dhruv?

A: Dhruv is one of Roshan, Aanya, Ayesha's classmates. He's the class sergeant. Since this story is sort of based on my school, (although the story is entirely fictitious) we have four class officers for each class: Monitors, Asst. Monitors, Sergeant and Reporter. The work of sergeant is to as usual, make the class quiet, go in search of teachers, if the class has none, keep the chalks and dusters ready for the teachers, wipe the board, and announce the teacher's entry.

Oh, Dhruv and Saurabh are real people. Both were my classmates, and both are exactly the way I described them.

Please Read and Review.. that's what REALLY motivates me!

Nancy.