Tamara

"Dark blue jeans or light blue? Such a tough choice. The light blue brings out my eyes but I love wearing dark colors. Which one should I wear Asia?" Tamara asked her little sister, Asia.

"Light blue, didi, light blue. You know how mamma gets when you wear the dark blue jeans to school." Asia answered.

"You're right. We're getting late. Let's go." Tamara said, going outside to her cycle.

"Bye Asia." she said, and left for school. It wasn't as if her school was far away. Tamara lived in the military station of a small town called Gopalgunia on the border of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in India. Everything needed was inside the military station. All her friends, a shopping complex, a swimming pool, gym, apartments, 3 schools, 4 or 5 banquets (places where officers would come and party), a park, a dam, a dirt karting place and boating.

Today was Tamara's first day at school. She was excited because she had missed the first month of school because she had to go to Delhi for her dental treatment. She had to get her braces put and a gumguard for some reason. She hated the gumguard. It made her breath terrible, it didn't allow her to speak properly and she couldn't drink coke. She was okay with her breath being terrible and not being able to speak properly but coke? The dentist just had to ban her coke! And top it all, the gumguard had made a huge gap in her teeth which she hated.

Other than that, she was excited because she had attended her school online for the last 2 years cause of the pandemic.

First she was in Delhi for five years. She had lovely friends for the first 3 years, but then, she had to shift to a new neighborhood. Over there, all her friends were terrible. Arohi, who was terrible and had a huge head. Then came her twin brother. She couldn't remember his name now, but she could remember that she was good friends with him. And Trisha the backstabber. Two of her enemies, Tushar and Ishaan, had moved her old neighborhood to this place. Oh, how she hated them.

There were three people who got her through that neighborhood. Ishaan's younger sister, Khawish, Ipshita and Jaanvi. Trisha was there sometimes, but she was a backstabbing little son of a monkey. Scratch that, daughter of a monkey.

It wasn't as if she could avoid them. It was a small neighborhood, all the kids her age (11 to 14) would play badminton or stay home. She couldn't even go to the other badminton court because over there everyone was 14 or above. She could go there, but, her badminton skills weren't that good. So, she was stuck with Tushar, Ishaan, Arohi and Trisha.

Ipshita and Khawish would rarely come and Jaanvi would be around, but she would mainly follow Trisha around. Arohi's twin brother would come very late cause he used to walk to the tennis court, which was very far away. She may have forgotten his name, but she remembered him very well. He had a thin face, brown eyes, black hair, he used to always wear t-shirts and shorts and a half face mask and he would borrow her racket very often. The only reason they were friends was because they had one common thing. Arohi hated them both a lot. In fact, Arohi hated him so much that she would tell everyone that he was adopted.

Luckily, she wasn't there for so long. Her father was living somewhere in North India while she was here. So, her father, Vivaan, would call her and her family to stay with him for a while.

She spent a total of 8 months with him in Leh Ladakh. She even celebrated her 12th birthday in Leh Ladakh with all her friends in the unit. Poorvi, Nirvika, Shaurya, Misha, everyone had been there. Her father had been commanding officer of his unit back in Leh Ladakh.

Then Vivaan's unit moved to Kohalnagar in Rajasthan. Over there everyone had been so friendly. It had been refreshing after Delhi. She still kept in contact with her best friends Priyadarshini and Meenakshi. In Kohalnagar, her neighbors were Mansha and Medha. They had a rottweiler named Max. If she had any friends, it was all thanks to Mansha. Her closest friend was Tarun. He was like a brother for her.

One Christmas in Kohalnagar, her father was not there. He came two days later with a dog as her Christmas present. That night, she had been restless. Vivaan was to come home late, and she couldn't wait to meet him. Then, around 1 a.m., she heard a car pull in. She ran to her mother's room, and told her "Papa's back. Come!"

But Ananya didn't believe her. She said, "Your ears are ringing. Go back to bed." But then, the bell rang. That moment, Tamara had started doing a little dance, singing "I told you so." Except she pronounced you like oo. She ran to the door and opened the door. Vivaan wasn't there, Bhaiya was. (In Vivaan's unit, there were a lot of people. Like 200 or so. Only 9 or 10 of them were officers. So the rest were referred to as Bhaiya.) Bhaiya came in, then another Bhaiya came. Then Vivaan came. But he wasn't coming in, he was saying "Come Bailey, this way."

Tamara poked her head out to see who Bailey was. She saw a cute puppy on the floor, sniffing everything. The puppy was cream in color, a golden retriever, for her, Asia and Ananya. Vivaan picked Bailey up and put her inside. Ananya saw her, and broke into tears. Bailey stumbled in (she was so fat) and pissed first thing. Bailey was so cute and adorable. Tamara ran to wake up Asia. After two days, Tamara's cousin Sam came over for a day to see guns. They had so much fun together.

Within six months, Vivaan's unit had to shift to Gopalgunia. By now, Nirvika had left, Poorvi and Shaurya were the only ones left. Gopalgunia was a small station where everyone knew each other. And now, here she was, going to school after 2 years.

Her school was very small. It was only till class eighth, which is a rarity in India. She was in class eighth. She was a senior. Her life was a perfect as could be. A dog, friends, good grades, family, looks. When I say looks, I mean it.

Tamara had awesome looks. She was in eighth grade, but she looked like a high schooler because of her height. She had bright blue eyes and pale, white skin. Her lips were red in color, and she had wavy black hair with a bob cut. She had specs, but used contact lenses. She had such long legs that she didn't know what to do with them.

As I was telling you, her life was as perfect as could be. But she loved reading. Especially books like Percy Jackson, or Harry Potter, or Keeper of the Lost Cities or Land of Stories. In all these books, the lead character was a normal child, like her, who turned out to be a demigod, or a wizard, or an elf, or the heirs of magic. She used to read such books so much that she wished to be like them. For her, life was boring. Of course, she didn't know yet that all this was about to change!