There was a loud hubbub in 12 B when I entered it at the end of the morning recess.

People were gathered around at the middle of the classroom and Riya was in the thick of the action, as usual.

A few people turned to look at me including Mishti who was wearing a very solemn expression.

"What happened now?", I asked wearily. I was not in any mood for another of Riya's dramas.

Riya looked at me with a defiant expression on her face.

"She slapped Aaliyah in the middle of an argument", Mishti mumbled, "And she ran out of the classroom crying"

"Oh God. Why Riya?", I asked in the same tired voice, "You know she's not alright upstairs. Why do you want to get into trouble?"

"Not alright upstairs?", Riya burst out "She's balanced enough to provoke me. And that's what she did. So I gave her what she deserved".

"You can't physically hurt someone Riya!", said Mishti incredulently.

"Yeah? What about her and Maya trying to drown us in the swimming pool last week?"

"Don't be dramatic Riya", Mishti said "Now if Aaliyah goes to Mr Chaudhary or the Principal, you're going to be in serious trouble".

"Was it that bad?", I asked Mishti, my tiredness slipping off.

"Oh yes!", Mishti said "There was a hand mark on Aaliyah's face".

I whipped around to berate Riya again but the classroom door flew open at the moment and an Administrative staff stepped in, "The Chief Minister is dead! Hurry up! Take your bags and leave!", she shrieked before running to the next classroom.

Everybody stood speechlessly for a second staring at each other.

Riya took advantage of the silence, "What are we waiting for?", she asked looking around "LET'S GO!"

It seemed like the class had been waiting for someone to give the order. There was an instant uproar as everyone picked up their backpacks and pelted towards the door.

In less than a minute, Principal Rajvansh's voice boomed through the intercom asking us not to panic but it was drowned in the outcry created by all the students. It was the same scenario in all the other classrooms.

Riya, Mishti and I grabbed our bags and followed most of the others out of the classroom, our argument completely forgotten, as the anxious voices of our classmates could be heard all around us.

"Is he really dead? What happened?"

"Should we go and ask Romil sir to call our parents?"

"Forget it! Let's walk home quick".

"Will they take out the school bus in this condition?"

The corridors became very crowded and noisy in no time as the entire student body flooded out, all looking anxious and confused.

Everybody was getting in everybody's way and there was utter chaos. I'd never seen so much commotion inside the school campus.

Most students were hurrying to the staffroom to lay their hands on a phone so that they could call their parents.

Some who lived very close to school, were begging their class teachers to allow them to walk home before the roads became unsafe.

There was a bigger commotion a little way ahead of us at the foot of the staircase going up to the second floor. Two eleventh grade guys had pushed a fifth grade boy down accidentally and he had rolled all the way down the stairs onto the first floor corridor.

Devika mam and Loukya mam were both screaming at the top of their voices.

"..COULD HAVE SERIOUSLY INJURED HIM YOU IDIOTS!"

"GET DOWN ALL OF YOU WITHOUT BLOCKING THE WAY!"

"Ma'am what actually happened?", Riya asked as we hurried over Loukya mam.

Loukya mam was panting from all the shouting. She looked at us mockingly and said, "As you just heard the principal say Riya, our Chief Minister is no more".

"What happened?"

"Cardiac arrest".

"But how come, suddenly?"

"That is a matter of concern for the Chief Minister's family Riya", Loukya mam said "Your bigger worry right now should be how you're going to reach home now".

Devika mam who had also stopped shouting cane over, "What happened Loukya? Can I help?"

"I was just answering to Riya who happened to be very curious for details about what happened today".

"This is the worst part of our job Loukya", she said shaking her head, "Youngsters think they know everything. They're completely convinced that they are right and it's so sickening!"

"Anyway Devika", Loukya mam said "My husband just messaged me and he's on the way here. Before I leave, I'm going to go and see my own class students and help them contact their parents. You see if you can help these three", she said and was gone in a swish of her saree.

Miss Mathur wordlessly handed her phone to us. Riya grabbed it and punched in her dad's number.

"Dad! Did you just hear.. what? Yeah! Well...I thought maybe..okay, okay. Yeah. Right".

She hung up and gave the phone back to Miss Mathur who handed it over to another girl. Behind that girl, a big queue had already formed for the phone.

"Mom and dad are coming", Riya said quickly as we ran down the corridor full of distressed looking people and descended the stairs, "Dad told me, you two should come along. Zoya you can stay at my house".

By the time we had bolted to the front gate, Riya's parents were already there both looking very anxious. A complete contradiction to Krish who was already sitting in the backseat of the car bouncing up and down without the slightest trace of worry on his face. He seemed to find this very exciting.

"Get in, you three! Quick!", Riya's dad said worriedly looking around.

It was quite jammed in the backseat with me, Riya, Mishti and a very bouncy Krish.

It wasn't until all of us were gathered in the Dixit's living room, each with a mug of cocoa watching the news fervently that I could breathe normally.

"You can't risk going home till tomorrow, Zoya beta", Saba Aunty said "The funeral is today evening and the roads will be fully blocked up".

By the time Riya and I got into her bed, I was feeling pretty much relived and wondering very much about Rahul and hoping their band wasn't stuck up somewhere.