Breathing heavily, Prabir woke up with cold sweat and throwing his coverlet jumped out of the bed. He rushed towards Parul's room.

Wanting to walk as fast as he could, he raced but his legs felt numb and crippled. Wobbling,gasping for breath with his heart throbbing furiously, he felt miserable and helpless. The pain was enough to break him and change him beyond recognition.

Why? Why did he have such a horrible nightmare?

Was she okay?

Somehow managing to reach her room, with cold shaking hands on the door knob he opened it slowly.

Soundly sleeping, with her left hand cupping her face on the pillow and her right hand near her waist, she laid on her bed.

Darting forward he slid down on the floor, close to her bed on his knees thanking the Almighty with all his heart. He was relieved beyond measure. His hands in a reflexive move had drawn up to cover his mouth.

Eyes, moist with tears, he felt so traumatized as if his heart was shredded to pieces.

How could a dream feel so damn real? He wondered...

Placing a shivering cold hand, caressing her face, gently sliding a strand of hair from her face, he got up on his feet slowly and strolled back towards his room. This was his wake-up call, now he knew for sure that he needed to monitor her social media activities on a regular basis.

She meant the world to him - his little girl, his 'Paru'.

Making her realize, her self-worth and regain her self-confidence, was harder than he had imagined it to be. Hoping to get a hold on her self-loathing pep talks and encouraging her to lead a normal life,
he had already informed the school authority but they never acknowledged the matter with forethought.

Parul's class teacher insisted her, to stop overthinking, instead of motivating and inspiring her, to take a stand. She was asked to think more rationally.  People are not so or were never so obsessed with her looks as they are obsessed with themselves, was what she was told. Everyone has his/ her own insecurities. It's a natural human tendency that children, especially teenagers call out each other using humiliating names.

All the time, being legitimately wronged by others, her teacher had only tried to justify her disdain and mistreatment. Prabir had never wanted her to receive a counselling from her teacher rather, he wanted the students who use, such names to be lectured and told that they were just being mean and disgusting and that they shouldn't speak to anybody like that.

***************

Having spent a long and sleepless night, he came up with a decision.

Definitely speaking to her classmates was an option he considered, however, he wished he could speak to  all of them at a time and not individually have to persuade them one by one.

Organizing a party, inviting all her classmates and grilling them was probably the best idea he had.

They pretended to be her friends and said that they were trying to only help her....
But were they really of any help??

" Oh! My God! How do you even look at yourself in the mirror?"

" What will my friends think...if I hang out with a FATSO like you?"

Parul had to deal with such harsh comments on a daily basis.

************************************

Finally taking a nap at 5a.m. in the morning, he got up at 6. Getting ready in about half an hour, he started preparing sandwiches to be packed for Parul's tiffin, then made 'upma' for the breakfast and immediately started the preparations for lunch.

His father, Mr. Banerjee was a dentist in the city hospital. He would usually have his lunch packed and took it with him before leaving early in the morning. So the lunch had to be prepared before 8.30 in the morning. Some curry and three rotis ( Indian bread) would be sufficient for his lunch,though Prabir also added some salad and pickles while packing.

Yesterday, he had no rush to prepare lunch early in the morning because his father had made some different plans and enjoyed a meal with his friends in a restaurant near the hospital.

Till Prabir was in standard XII, his father used to helpe him in the kitchen,but now, he would usually prefer to have his tea, and relax reading the newspaper before having his breakfast, as Prabir ensured that he didn't need help anymore.

The idea to obtain his father's permission for hosting a party where he was planning to invite about 50 people jumped out of the window, due to the early morning rush.

It was only fair to consider that he would take both time and will have to put in lot of efforts to somehow convince his father, and this wouldn't be easy.

Three of them had to go in three different directions, using different modes of transportation.

Gulping down the hot steaming upma,  Parul rushed for her school bus, running late as usual.

Mr. Banerjee left the house at exactly 8.30 a.m. driving his car swiftly along the lane,punctual as always.

Prabir left for college on his bike after locking up the doors at last. He was used to getting late and then driving at a maddening speed.

Parking his bike in the parking lot, he strolled in the direction of the main entrance of the college building.

As he was walking up the stairs, to attend his class on the first floor, all of a sudden someone bumped into him from the back with great intensity.

Instantly he stilled and turned around, getting a grab of her arm preventing her from tumbling down the stairs. He could see her panting and gasping for breath, struggling to say something.

Her black shiny voluminous tresses were tied up in a loose neat braid. A brown and golden fabric kurti, with bottom part having burgundy booti (embroidery patterns) detailings,  golden leggings with burgundy and golden dupatta with tassels border adorned her as an outfit. A deep blue string bag with small white flowers printed on it hung on her left shoulder.

A/N: The story is going to get a lot more interesting from here.
So please keep reading.

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