This is the Fourth Chapter of Part II. If you are new here please go through the previous chapters first.
Chapter III
Young Kabir had started closely following her through the
grapevine, even his friends had sniffed his increasing interests in her. As
time passed, he realized it was affecting his studies, so he tried to control
his infatuation. Slowly and steadily, he stopped waiting up on the stop, and
noticing her on the football ground. He never intentionally walked past her, he
knew his studies were at a crucial moment of his life, and either he could make
it or break it.
The first pre-boards were in the month of December, and as
he looked on his study desk calendar, it was a matter of just 15 days. He got
to his books, and studies really hard, he knew that a failure was not
acceptable to his parents. They had been gold medalists in their University and
thus he not scoring good marks was not a matter of life and death but a
military punishment. Dad being in Indian Air Force, had strict rules regarding
studies. Things were really lenient regarding most other things but studies was
a segment there could not have been a mistake. So he took to his books and made
a commitment that he would score well in the first pre-boards.
Days passed by, and he had nothing else on his mind other
than school, studies, pre-boards and his football games. A major game was due
the very next week post the exams, he was very excited about the same. It would
be the first time he would play as a right winger, where he always wanted to
play. He had played almost all the positions, but the one he preferred the most
was wing. Even during his studies, if he would sit in front of the TV and watch
football games, his dad would never say anything. Even he was an active
sportsperson.
On the eve of his first exam, as he was waiting for his bus
which had got delayed due to fog, he saw her standing on the opposite side of
the road. With books in her hand, and her long braided tail, she looked just
like a studious bookworm. For a moment, she looked up, as if she knew he was
looking right at her from across the road. Their eyes met, they both nodded at
each other wording “Best of Luck” to each other, and that was it. That was it,
his heart started racing and hands went numb. The notes in his hand were about
to fly with the wind, but the bus swooshed in and stopped right in front of
him. He got inside the bus, his eyes still on the opposite end of the road, but
her school bus had stopped too. The bus started and for that moment he forgot
he had his first exam. For that moment, he had no worries, he was feeling
light.
As soon as the bell rang, he ran out of the exam center, the
exam had gone really well, he felt lucky. The paper was set exactly according
to what he had studied, he had attempted the full set of questions, for the
first time in his life. Kabir felt really light after the first exam, and
things kept in line. On each paper the bus kept getting late and aligning with
her bus, and they wished each other and the exams were pretty good.
The last exam, his bus reached on time, but she had yet not
reached the stop, he didn’t want to get onto the bus without wishing her. The
conductor asked him to get on the bus, but he denied. The conductor said the
bus will leave, but Kabir denied getting on the bus. The bus left without him,
and he was standing in the fog with chilled out wind all alone. After a five
minute wait, she came walking with books in her hand. She looked up at him, he
could see that she was puzzled. He looked at her and wished her, then turned
and stopped an auto and got on it. That day he was late for his exam by fifteen
minutes, and he was already tense because of the time which he had lost.
To Be Continued
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