22 1.19 — I Hate Surprises
Life in the class was refilled within minutes. The noise and senseless chattering were ringing in the air.
Other members of our group—by which I just meant two other people—started to fill the surrounding benches. While technically, they could be considered friends, they were more like acquaintances. Maybe even friends by extension.
Kushal and Irina.
Kushal had been a friend of Idris since school days—much later than me though so I still the seniority. They both were part of our school’s football team and since I was not a part of anything back then—or even now—my interactions with him had been very limited. It was a nice surprise though to see him in the same Jr. College as ours.
One can never really have too many friends, you know?
Though, when Kushal made the entry, he made the same joke about me being early with his annoyingly nasally voice, so…maybe I’m wrong. Maybe one can indeed have too many friends.
Or maybe I seriously just need to get new friends.
And then there was Irina, a friend of mine by extension of Naina. She was the most recent addition to our little group and had no prior history with any of us. Or anyone else in the class for that matter.
Remember how I said I had never seen a foreigner in our town? I might have excluded Irina from that list. Well, in my defence, she is half-Indian.
She had to transfer here last year in the middle of the semester from…I wanna say Sweden but honestly, I don’t remember. The reason was something about her parent’s job or some other thing that I again don’t remember. What? I didn’t bother to pay attention.
Unlike you all, I don’t pry into other people’s life.
The point being, she stood out a lot and not just because she was new.
Among the groups of uniformed black-haired classmates, her naturally blonde hair and tall features made her stick out like a sore thumb and the target of many gawking eyes. I mean, she was as tall as me and I was probably the 3rd tallest person in the class.
Ofcourse that could just be because my class is abnormally short but on the off chance that they were normal, she also became the target of a lot of girls’— and boys’— envious gaze.
Yeah, people in my class are weird. They treated her like some exotic new bird at the zoo, a target of admiration and compliments but also something that should probably be kept at an arm’s length away.
In simple words, making friends was a hard thing for her.
Especially because, as I said, she didn’t know a single person in the class. I mean, it’s not like she was bullied or anything—was that still something people did?—but more like ‘you’re cool and all but we’ve reached the full capacity for our friendships, it’s not you, it’s us, thanks for understanding, okay ta-ta, bye~’.
And then Naina just…existed.
Thing is, I’m pretty sure she didn’t even approach her as a way to include her in our group or make a move of friendship.
She probably just saw a lost girl in need of academic help and did what she did best—be a nerd.
After a lot of notes sharing and catching Irina up on all the topics, Naina just managed to phase her into our little group without any one of us even realizing anything. Heck, I doubt even Naina realized what she had done.
I would say that compared to Kushal, I did feel a lot closer to Irina, mostly because of the way she and I stood out among the rest of our class. Snow white and sunny blonde hair weren’t something that people just naturally had in this town.
It did annoy me though when no one suspected her to dye her hair when such accusations had been fired at me for my entire life! But whatever…
Petty, I know but I have very less things in life to make me happy.
Other than that though, she was also a sweet girl who didn’t comment on me being here early like the rest of my ‘friends’ so that’s a very big plus in my books.
Then again, she did say, “I’m glad to see you being in the class so early. You should always be early. It’s good to improve your bad habits” which wasn’t a joke on me but also didn’t make me feel good despite how softly and non-condescendingly she said it…
“Oh come on, you all make it sound like I always come late. I have a routine, you know.”
“Yes, yes, a routine that’s not at all influenced by the presence of one person,” Idris said. That little tall bi-spectacled traitor.
“Oh come on, you’re still pining for her, dude?” Kushal asked in his nasally voice.
“No, I am not pining—”
“Ah, don’t listen to him. He is.”
“Yeah, I trust Idris too, Kush. He would never lie,” Naina said, her phone finally turned off now that Irina was beside her.
“True, I can’t lie. It’s a curse I have to bear for life.”
“True, the dude can’t lie,” Kushal added his irrelevant opinion, “What do you think Irina?”
“…” Irina stared blankly at me and shrugged her shoulders.
Wow. I don’t know whether to feel good about having the topic stopped or offended for being ignored.
“How’d you hurt your hand?” Naina asked, her voice timid but deep with a slight accent.
Wait, what? I thought everything was healed. I looked down and saw no scars or wounds on my hand—and oh okay, she didn’t mean me. She meant Idris.
His right hand was wrapped with a bandage. And before you say stuff like how I’m a bad friend for not noticing or asking about it, let me tell you, I did. You know, notice it, I mean.
But I also know there’s no point in asking him about it since his answers are always the same ‘It’s nothing. Just a sports injury. Did you do the assignment though?’
“It’s nothing. Just a sports injury. Did you do the assignment though?” Idris said.
See? He’s been saying that since he was a kid. No matter where he got hurt, or how, he says the same crappy line every time.
Even when he was struck by fever, even when there was no assignment to do, he’d still use that shitty line.
Although, to be fair, more often than not, it really was a sports injury.
Like in this case. He did mention the other day that he and his team were going to have some practice match for the regional football match. Probably got it from there.
“Yes, of course I did it. I’m not Aarav,” Naina said
“Hey!” I mean true but still….hey!
Oh wait, shit in my sheets, that’s true! Because of what happened yesterday, I totally forgot about the assignment!
Hey, this time I have an actual genuine life-threatening reason for not doing my assignments. It was a literal escape or die situation for me.
I looked at Idris who simply sighed and raised his hand. Ah yes, he probably didn’t do it too. Although, unlike me, he had an excuse.
A believable excuse, atleast. Miss Aparna is more likely to believe Idris than me. Then again, until yesterday, I would be more inclined to believe Idris too.
I felt a slight tap on my shoulder from behind. It was Irina, “…Here, take mine.”
“Ah, my saviour, my goddess, my last and only dependable hope. Thank you!”
“…that’s creepy.” She says that but she still had a little smile on her face.
See? Kindred spirits. Only she could truly understand me.
Opening my own notebook, I started with copying down the sums right away. I figured I could finish atleast half of these before the lecture started.
Soon our class teacher—and also our math professor, Miss Aparna Jivani—entered the classroom with her books and handbag-purse thing. She started laying out her things on the desk that was in the middle of the classroom and began making quick ‘hi’ and ‘hellos’ with a few of the students.
Someone, probably Sneha, asked her why she was absent yesterday, to which she just cleared her throat as if warming up her voice before making a speech of her difficult day yesterday.
Knowing that she’ll probably just be starting with roll calls after that speech, I deduced I had ample free time and hence, decided to rather focus my attention on copying. If I happen to miss my number, I have friends to notify me of that…I hope.
They can get really evil sometimes.
“I know, you all missed me yesterday,” Pft! Yeah, right, “and I’m sorry but I think I’ve found a great way to make up for my absentee.” Oh? No homework? Nah, that doesn’t seem right. Well, still, I’ll keep my ears open. I can multitask.
“So now, before we start with the roll calls, I have a small announcement to make,” She said and took a pause. I wondered what happened but then Idris started jabbing his elbow in my ribs and found her looking at me, “Aarav, I’m talking to the entire class here. Including you.”
Okay, maybe I can’t multitask. “Sorry, ma’am,” I said, closing both the books.
Miss Aparna cleared her throat and began, “I could make a speech but whatever, I’ll just say it,” her voice was filled with fake enthusiasm. Why fake? Well, it just looked a little unnatural. Then again, that’s probably just the face. “Get ready for some surprise test!”
…You know, I’ve never had many surprises. The very concept of surprise birthday parties did not exist in the Vyas household. I only found out about that through movies.
So let me you, if this is what surprises feel like—then by god, I hate surprises!
