chapter 4

I reached my home with a full zeal. Happiness was overflowing from my face. My mom at once noticed my happiness. She said, smiling, "Did you win any prize today?I said, beaming at my mom, "No, mom."Mom - You are shining bright today as if you have found gold.Divya - Hehe. Nothing like that mom. Actually, today, I gave all the answers to Rajni mam snd she was impressed.Mom - Ohh…interesting.I said, touching my stomach, "Mom, please make maggi soon. I am feeling very hungry."Mom - Okay beta. You take rest. You will get maggi soon. The Next DayEarly in the morning, Vaishali and I came to class and I started waiting for the arrival of Nikhil. I had already planned that today, I would try to talk to him. I was not so curious to talk to him, I was rather interested in showing my friend that I was also something. Nikhil entered the class. The time had come to show what I was. He put his bag by the side of his bench. I walked to him and said, “Good morning, Nikhil”. He turned his face towards me and was surprised to see me there since I never talked to him before. He wished back, “Good morning, Divya.” Vaishali was seeing all this happening in front of her eyes. She thought, “Divya is becoming courageous.”I asked him in my sweetest tone, “So… how are you?” My question surprised him again. He said I am good and walked out of the class ignoring me. Vaishali could not help laughing. When he left me, I felt insulted from both sides, one from Nikhil’s side and the other from Vaishali’s side.I looked back to check if Vaishali had seen everything. From her insulting grin, I found my answer. I walked to her looking confident but within heart of hearts, I was crying. She didn’t care for my feelings and blurted out, “He ignored you completely. Hehe!”I said to cover my insult, “No, he didn’t ignore me. He said he is busy, he will be back.” She quickly said, “Let’s go out of the class and see where he is busy.” She dragged me from my arm out of the class. I was reluctant to go out because I knew the reality but could not resist her pull. We walked out of the class. We saw that Nikhil was talking to the other girls of the class. She said sarcastically, “He is really very busy. Divya, I don’t think you have any chance.”I again tried to cover my insult by saying, “He is busy. He told me that he would talk to me again after talking to girls. They needed his help.”Vaishali tilted her face a bit, put her right hand on her waist, raised her eyebrows and said, “Really?”I said, making an innocent face, “Do you think I am telling a lie?” She twitched her lips and went back to the class without saying anything. I thought, “It’s no use telling her lies. She has understood everything. Perhaps, she is smarter than me.”We used to sit together in the class. She didn’t leave any opportunity to torture me in the class by her heart piercing taunts on what happened in the morning. Sometimes, she said, “Don’t you want to talk to Nikhil again?” Some other times, she said, “Look at Nikhil. Now, he is not busy. Go and talk to him now.”I thought, “Is she my friend or an enemy? It’s her time. Let her play. My time will also come. Then I will rip her apart by my taunts.” In the class itself, I started planning within my mind what to do next. This time, I didn’t share anything with her. I understood that she just wanted an opportunity to exploit my feelings. The Next DayVaishali and I were sitting on the same bench. Nikhil was busy talking to some boys. I was waiting for him to become free. As soon as he became free, I got up from my bench. Vaishali said, “What happened to you?” She said a bit loudly, I don’t know if Nikhil heard her or not. I ignored my friend and walked to Nikhil. He sensed that I was coming to him to talk to him. He said, “Yes.” I said, “Please give me your book of chemistry.” He opened his bag and gave me his book of chemistry. I said, “Thanks.” He said welcome and started finding something in his bag completely ignoring me that I was still standing close to him. I waited for him to look back but he didn’t. I heard the voice of Vaishali, “Come back, Divya. It’s over.” I briskly walked back and said, “Shh… Just look at what you are saying. If Nikhil hears you then…”She said confidently, trying to overpower me in words, “Then what will happen? Nothing is going to happen between you and him. I am telling you. Mark my words, you can never impress him.”Her words directly hurt my female ego, “Don’t dare challenge me. You don’t know who I am.”She said, offending my feelings, “I know who you are, who has been ignored by Nikhil. Hehe!”Teenagers are like that only. And teenager friends are sometimes worse than enemies, perfect tool for mental torture.In the night at my homeI was lying in bed. I was tossing and turning, unable to sleep. The taunts of Vaishali were haunting my mind like anything. Her words were biting my heart like a yellow paper wasp, “Nothing can happen between you and Nikhil! He completely ignored you! Go, go, now, now he is not busy. Talk to him!”I placed my hands on my head and said in frustration, “Stop!” I thought, “I have had enough. I am a very beautiful girl. How can he reject me? He is a nerd. He doesn’t have any girlfriend. Perhaps, he doesn’t know how to talk to a girl. He is inexperienced. No problem. I will teach him everything. I will become his mentor. Tomorrow, I will shut the dirty mouth of Vaishali forever.”(It will be so nice of you, if you leave at least a single word comment and please don't forget to follow me and become my superfan. You will be able to read all the locked parts of all my series for free and you will also be able to chat with me and my superfans directly.)