A Candy In Need Is A Candy Indeed

Four years after kindergarten got over, she once again sat right beside me. Not during lunch break with her mom's presence, but in class.

Double flap. A red hair band. Two white coloured hair clips. She was like one of those Barbie dolls, though she was only in her school uniform. A perfect aura filled the place as she came up and sat beside me. I would definitely build a temple for the teacher who made such a possibility happen.

Anshu was beautiful as she always was. Of all the words that I thought she would say, she started "Move aside buffalo, give way for my bag." as she placed her bag on the bench, making sure it never got any dirt.

I was left clueless. I really hoped for a smile, maybe 'hi' at least.

My whole attention was on her. While I could not look at her directly, my ears were all set to hear what she was speaking. Is she the one talking or is there someone else behind me?

I turned to only find the blue shaded wall, realising it was indeed her speaking. That's where the roller coaster actually begun. Hush and push every day, all time long. Every day she kept calling me with names.

Dog, Buffalo, Donkey, Pig, Dinosaur, Rhino, she would go on as if I required a lesson of what animals one could possibly find at a zoo. But Dinosaur? Little do I know as to why she ever used that to mock me. I didn't care much either. I didn't even give heed to it most of the times.

Every person can withstand only up to a certain limit. Remember everyone has a boiling point! But I didn't trash her, knock her, or abuse her, but at a certain point I started listing out animals of my own as well, probably the incentives of being with a nitwit I guess. Though I thought she might stop or feel bad, she instead seemed to relish it. And we became the cheeky musketeers of our class.

Only difference being, there were only two musketeers.

She was a sassy one indeed, used to get down under the bench to copy answers from her book for the test, steal candies from the birthday babies, or snatch anything and everything that attracts her. She even faked being ill at times, to sleep in class or escape punishments whenever she didn't complete her assignments.

Every day she found new tricks right under her sleeve. Tricks that I wasn't aware of until I was in tenth grade. But she knew them, knew them so well enough that she was a pioneer in performing them as well. For anyone else who tried to replicate or reproduce her, ended up getting punished.

Finally one day, out of the blue, she questioned "Will you be friends with me?"

I was puzzled, especially after all the mischiefs that we had been doing lately. I thought we were friends already. But here she was asking me if we could be friends.

"Of course, we can be. We are already friends aren't we?" I said.

"You give a candy to Zara every day,But not me."

Zara was the girl who sat next to her in my kindergarten days, remember? She was my first ever bestie, someone I knew even before Anaisha herself.

I was sensing a bit of jealousy then from my cutie pie. But if I had to make a choice between my childhood bestie and my childhood sweetheart, I was obviously in favour of my sweetheart. For I adored her.

"From tomorrow I will fetch you one as well" I assured.

"Friends?" she buzzed again, to make sure of her authority over a daily dose of candy.

"Yea, friends." I said as I placed a candy in her hand. A candy that was supposed to be for Zara.

Zara Hussein lost her share of candy ever since that day. In fact, Hussein even got out of my picture and life for a brief period ever since. Everything was all about Anshu. Only Anaisha Mangala, no one else. And who was she? Not a class mate, nor my kindergarten sweetheart. But MY FRIEND! And She Became THE ONE WHO WAS MY FRIEND.