TWO

After the assembly, we came back to our class. My whole concentration and focus was still on her. I sat on the last bench whereas she was sitting on the third bench, on the other side of the classroom. After a few minutes a lady entered our classroom. She had been our Computer Science teacher the previous year.

'Good morning! 'she greeted us cheerfully.

'Good morning teacher. ' we sang in tune like those KG students.

'I have come to know that there's a new student in our class this year.' Leena miss, our computer science teacher said.

'Yeah ma'am I'm the one.' the new girl said confidently.

Her voice was very sweet. Every second I felt more attracted towards her.

'What is your name? ' Leena miss asked.

'Adah' she replied confidently

I liked her name at that instant.

'Where do you live?' Miss asked.

'Gandhi nagar. 'she replied.

Yes! I said to myself. Our new house was nearing to finishing was also situated in the same area. My mother had been saving all her money to build the house. I didn't have a father. He had left us when I was an year old. My parents had had a love marriage. My father was a hindu and my mother, a muslim. Their parents were not in favour of this marriage. So both of them ran away from home and married. After a few years of their, my father started forcing my mother to convert into hinduism but my mother gave a deaf ear to it. Finally, my father became frustrated and left her alone with her daughter and one year old me. I had a sister. She met with an accident and died when I was in tenth standard. Her marriage had been fixed. She was going for shopping for her wedding along with her friend in an auto rickshaw. A drunken lorry driver crashed his lorry against the rickshaw. My sister's friend was safe but both my sister and the driver died.

'Which school are you coming from? ' teacher asked Adah, that broke my chain of thoughts.

'J.P. Memorial School.' she replied, smiling.

'I hope you'll get along with the people.' Ma'm said, gesturing her to sit down.

Adah obeyed.

'So, students, how was your vacation? ' she asked.

Some said it was boring while some said it was good. Teacher called Adah to share her experience first. Adah stood in front of the class and shared the experience of her vacation. She had gone to Mumbai for a one- month trip. She had a high level of confidence and smartness. I was staring at her throughout. I noticed her silver coloured earring. It was round in shape and was big too. I noticed her eyes, it was the most beautiful part of her face.

'Are you in love with her?' Mike asked me in whisper. He had caught me staring at her.

'Totally.' I replied.

'Wow! I never knew you were interested in girls.' he said.

'How to become closer to her?' I asked.

'Interact with her as much as you can. Don't be nervous.Then, slowly build up your relationship.' he replied in a low voice.

This was difficult for a person like me. But I had to do this.

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It was time for the lunch break. I, Mike and Sam were going to wash our hands. There were two large washbasins near to our block. One was at the back of the block and the other near to the staircase. We always used the one at the back. While walking down the staircase, I saw Adah walking ahead of us. The washbasin near the staircase was always crowded. She was going to wash her hands there. Mike pinched me. I glared at him.

'What?' I asked.

'Tell her to come at the back.' he replied.

I had to call her now and tell her to come at the back to wash hands. Mike forced me to do this or else he would have killed me.

'Adah.' I called out a little louder because the place was noisy.

She turned back and smiled. Her smile was beautiful.

'What?' she asked.

'You will not be able to wash your hands here, come at the back.' I said, moving near her.

Wow! Aman, from where did all this courage come from? I mentally asked myself.

'Okay.' she said after a few seconds.

Then, we started walking towards the back of the block. Mike pinched me again signalling me to speak more with her.

'I.. I.. I am Aman.' I introduced myself nervously. She held out her hand signalling a handshake. We both had a handshake. It felt like an electric shock.

'He's Mike and he is Sam.' I introduced them to her. They exchanged smiles. I was freaking nervous.

'Made any friends?' I asked her.

'No, not yet.' she replied.

My heartbeat rate was increasing. I could clearly hear my heartbeat, but I had to talk to her anyhow, else Mike would kill me. He wasd really serioous with such matters.

'You'll not make friends here.' I said directly.

'What?' she asked.

'Yeah, all the girls of our class are jealous of you because of your beauty.' I said.

She almost blushed.

'What the hell!!! This wasn't needed.' Mike whispered to me.

Only then I realized that I had gone a bit too far.

What a blunder have you made. You are so dumb, Aman.

'How did you get admission here, that too in 12th standard?' Mike asked just to change the topic.

'Yeah, getting an admission in 12th is nearly impossible.' the intellectual one, Sam asked.

He always enjoyed logic and took part in practical conversations, mostly related to politics. No matter he was so boring.

'My home wasn't in Gandhi Nagar. I shifted here three months ago. Previously, my house was out of town and Kendra Vidyalaya was the nearest school. When we shifted here, that school seemed too far. My father was not in the favour of sending me there. This was the most well known school here and my father was ready to pay double the amount of fees to join me here and that's what happened.' she said.

From this it was evident that she was very rich.We washed our hands and walked back to our class to have lunch. When we entered the class, we saw that everyone had started having their lunch.Mike smiled at Tina, his girlfriend. She smiled back. Mike had proposed Tina the previous year and she had accepted it.

'If anyone can be your friend then it is Tina.'Mike said to Adah, pointing towards Tina.

'Hi! I'm Tina.' She introduced herself to Adah.

They both had a hand shake and we headed towards the last bench to have lunch. The last two benches weren't occupied, so I, Mike and Sam sat on one bench, whereas Adah and Tina sat on the other,facing us.

We discussed about our school life in the previous years and our friendship. Adah laughed at certain moments when we explained some of our mischief of the olden days.

I felt falling for her each time our eyes met. I was quite sad when the day was over. I didn't want this day to be over, I just wanted to look at her, forever.

I had never felt this way.

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'How was your day?'my mother asked me as I entered my home.

' Awesome!' I said, still thinking about Adah.

Her mesmerizing beauty had completely overshadowed my mind.In the school, we were told to study the portions taken on that day., but I found it difficult to do, since I couldn't focus on anything but Adah.

After I got freshened up, I switched on my computer and opened my Facebook only to find out if Adah had a Facebook account. After searching for somewhat fifteen minutes, I found her account. I was over the moon. For the next 10 minutes, my mind debated over whether I should send her a friend request or not.

Will she think that I am too desperate?

Finally, I decided to send her a request. I held my breath as I pressed the " Send Friend Request " button. To my surprise I saw that she had accepted my request after just 5 minutes. I let out a deep sigh. I didn't want her to feel that I was desperate and I didn't have the guts to chat with her. She had accepted my friend request and I was happy about that.

At school we were told to study the portions taken on that day and for the first time I found myself not being able to focus.

My mother came inro my room.

'Do you want anything to eat? ' she asked.

'No, I'm not that hungry. ' I replied.

My mother was a teacher by profession.She taught English in a private school(not in my school) that payed her well enough. Since, my father had left us, she didn't have any choice than taking up teaching and this was our only source of income.

'Why are you smiling so much? ' she asked me as I was lost in my own world thinking about Adah.

'Nothing, just thinking about our new home.' I lied.

'We will move there soon.' she said, smiling.