6 A Stranger.........................(2)

After a few periods I noticed that our bag were both kept on the seat and we were sitting very uncomfortably so I looked at him and thought to myself "should i ask him to put his bag down or maybe he will be repulsive and say that he don't want to , probably i should not say anything" then he saw me from the corner of his eyes and caught me thinking and signaled me to pay attention to the class and what the teacher was teaching, I noded my head. Maybe I should talk to him freely , he seems nice, but i didn't want to look like I was all over him and don't have self respect or something like that and very easy to get, I clenched my bag as i was thinking all of this and he noticed my hand and swiftly moved his bag down. After the lecture he said "put your bag down too" bag was the only thing between us as he was sitting right next to me!! so I hesitated for a moment and then put my bag down. Our hands brushed sometimes accidentally and it made my heart flutter but i liked it . It was happening with me for the first time that i was thinking so much , otherwise i am a very jolly kind of girl and i don't care about anything , its just me , my friends and having fun that i care about when i am at school. The time went by very slowly after that, I was living every moment , observing trying to know him more by his actions and sometimes peeking through the corner of my eye that what is he doing , is he watching me , etc. There was one person other than me who was happy because of the changes in me and that was our class teacher Mrs Patrica , as she noticed that I was more attentive and regular. She didn't knew the fact that i was doing all the hard work just not to get embarrassed in front of him I brought all the books to school , did all the homework beforehand , submitted my assignments at the right time and even behaved properly . But as people say bad habits die hard , but it was easy when i did it for HIM and it even made me happier.

Then our unit tests were held and the answer-sheets were to be handed us today , I did everything but i was not able to improve my marks.... He topped in the class and i got above average marks as always. I felt high pain in my heart when he said "How much did you get , Shelly?" I was overflown with embarrassment but somehow gathered all my strength and said "O-oh my marks? W-well marks my are not very good , Richard." His face was indifferent and cold , he said "Oh". My mind started running wild "what did he meant by 'oh' , now he thinks about me as a brainless time-pass girl?? i am not that , I can do better " I was feeling miserable and felt the pain the whole body.

I was all Gloomy that day and when he noticed me , my head my lowered and i was in my thoughts once again and he just poked me with his pencil and said in a warm voice "is this all because of the marks?" I was just like HE NOTICED!!!! but then the sense of regret rushed back and i noded my head and said "hmm" he was looking at me like i was a small kid who was crying and suddenly he lifted his hand to touch my face but it stopped halfway in the air and then he pulled it back in the fraction of second and said "you must work hard , and stop dreaming in the class firstly." his voice was cold and i didn't expect him to be that cold , but still there was a sense of joy in me that atleast he cares but then i thought that maybe i am overthinking it and he is just being nice as a bench partner to me.

In every games period i used to do yoga and aerobics , and he used to play football , so whenever I used to take a break i went to the terrace and watched him play football so passionately and just get lost in my own world. My yoga and aerobics teacher gave me an invitation to the inter school competition and i was soo happy that i almost shouted "THANKYOU SIR!!!" he smiled and said "you deserve to be happy as you work hard" and asked me to collect as many students as i can for the competition , the first person was ofcourse Mum-mun. I went back to her in the class and asked her to join the team , I said "Mun-mun , i am very happy , you know what sir asked me to gather students for the inter-school yoga aerobics team and i am already selected!!" She smiled from ear to ear and said 'I am very happy for you....." I interrupted and said "what do you mean by happy for me?? you are on the team too , and i have talked about it with sir already!!" She said in a low voice "I have never been in any tournaments out of school and i am not good at yoga." I gripped on her hand and said "hey idiot you can do it. we both are in this together and you know that I will not leave you" alone behind and i know that you can do it and we have got a lot of time left before the competition so don't worry" She smiled and said "okay then , lets take this tournament down then!!" she meant that we will win it together.

It was all going well then my parents joined me into an institution or coaching center as my grades were going down and my brother was 2years older than me and was studying in the same institute for last 2 years so they joined me too and there things were a lot different than i imagined...(to be continued.)