Gardens of Love

This was the fourth school she was attending, her father's job never allowed her to stay at the same school for a long time anyway. At this point it did not even matter to her if she has any friends or not. In fact she purposely never made any friends because once she would have to transfer again it would hurt.

Almost a year and half had passed since she joined this school and she still was a loner, well she had managed to capture the interest of her expressive best friend and other than her, she didn't even talk to anybody. However she hated the school more than all the previous ones. It wasn't because of the friends issue, in fact she was glad. But it was due to the stupid timing, it was so early that during the winter students were even seen with torches going to school.

Not to mention, this was the most popular school in the town and the crowd was huge early in the morning. While going to school she hated that she had to come across so many students. But soon after she started attending, she found an alternative path. The most amusing thing in this town was that it had a lot of gardens, parks and tree covered paths. There was a garden or a park in every sector sometimes even two. And our Rasika surely loved plants more than humans.

The school was a long straight walk away from her home. either she had to walk the boring gray road straight for 10 minutes or she could cross three gardens and a small lane surrounded by trees and reach school in 10 minutes. and guess what she chose? of course... the path less traveled. once while taking her mom through that path to the parent teacher meeting a her school, her mother came to know about that. she had thought her mother will like it but instead she became worried due to lack of people.

"anything can happen... and there wont be any witnesses. why can't you go from the normal route with your friends." her mom had told her.

"I don't have any friends." she said. "and have you ever seen the road during the rush hour? any one could die getting run over by a car or something,"

That had shut her up. But she still sometimes worried about her daughter, often asking if she wanted her to accompany and Rasika always refused. she liked the peace and calm of her school journey... she liked being with nature.

which brings us to the present.

Rasika got ready for school a bit earlier than usual and she was getting impatient.

"mom, hurry pack the lunch." Rasika said pushing her water bottle through the slot.

"here here.." her mom said bringing her the lunch box as she proceeded to fill the water bottle.

"mom i already have filled my bottle... i am leaving now." she said kissing her mom on her cheek as she waved a bye. "bye dear, have a nice day." her mom waved her for the last time.

Rasika was walking feeling the morning breeze on her face, inhaling the morning calm. The white dog was roaming in the grass as its owner waved her and she waved back. It was the last garden just a couple of minutes and she would reach school. she looked down when she felt that her feet had come in contact with something.

It was a diary. A diary with a navy blue hardcover. she frowned and bent down to pick it up. the diary was well maintained, who would throw a diary like this? she opened it and searched for any names. she flipped through the pages. There was no name but the logo of her school was drawn on the very last page.

Usually she would not have cared but it looked like this was something precious to someone... so she decided to take it to school with her.