You know how when you go in places with extreme weather conditions, they first make you acclimatize to it before diving you into it? Well, for a good month or so, that's what we all were doing.

Teachers were acclimatizing to the horrendous bunch of students they had received, and students were acclimatizing to the horrendous syllabus they had received.

Everyone was trying to gage who was like what. Girls were trying to decide which other girls were cool enough to hang out with and boys were deciding which girls to hit on. And I witnessed some things I would never have in girls school.

Like this one time a guy called Vikram (whose name I only knew cause he was known to the whole class since like the first day) just went down on one knee and proposed to this random girl on a dare. Then there was this guy called Saurabh who literally asked other girls to scoot over a bit, just so he could stare at Riya, a girl sitting three rows in front of him, in midst of lectures. Personally, I found it really endearing.

Then there were whispers of plans of groups of people hanging out at some or the other place, and deciding whom to call or not.

I never tried actively participating in those conversations, still whenever I saw people in groups talking, discussing about some after college activity, I'd find myself looking around.

I did somewhat engage socially in class, I talked to other students as they crossed my path, but mostly I stuck to my own kind, that is girls, which I knew best. Only in my coaching, did I talk to the guys.

What I liked most about being in a class was: answering whenever questions were asked, be it in English, German or Math class. The joy of getting things right and being appraised for it never lost its charm for me.

But here it wasn't just me, whose answers were good, Myra and Rekha were the actual stars here. Whenever Mayra and Rekha answered in class, nobody wanted to hear what anyone else wanted to say, even the teachers, because both of them were so good at it. And for the first time in class, I didn't like the one thing that I'd love in school : answering in class. Now, it just made me feel inadequate, like somehow I majorly lacked. I was so intimidated by both of their's strength, that whatever answers I gave lacked confidence.

Still, Myra and I continued to be friends and would sometimes sit together for lunch. And I couldn't help and notice how she was sometimes surrounded by girls who were already considered popular. I also saw that guy Vikram, the popular one, trying to strike up conversations with Myra. And I felt, in my gut, a lingering thought that the friend I made on first day, slipping far from my reach.

I had to yet, see her clearly for myself.

***

It was a german lecture where we were being taught how to read numbers in German and our teacher asked for volunteers. Habitually, I raised my hand and noticed Myra raising her hand. Our mam told us to write down our phone numbers and read them out loud in german, one by one.

While I was mentally preparing to say those numbers out loud, Myra had already started reciting the numbers first and when she did, some guy from the back said,"lets write her number down," and some guys cheered to that. That comment creeped me out a bit , as I didn't want anyone to have my number, also I didn't have any experience with guys so I didn't know exactly what they would do. When it was my turn to pronounce a number, I decided I wouldn't exactly recite my phone number and as I began, my voice was shaking, words were mispronounced, as compared to Myra's confident, clear pronunciations.

And slowly I heard chuckles starting from the last bench , followed by laughter, students pointing at the stuttering girl, which was in this case me.Myra who was standing closed to me told the german teacher joined them and said,

"Look the number she's trying to say, she hasn't even written it, in her book," and as she said it, there was such mirth in her voice, wanting to appease the german teacher, while getting a go at me and in that moment I felt just another part of me crumbling. I didn't want to be the centre of attention any more, atleast not like this.

The worst part wasn't that others were laughing, or poking fun at me, it was the part where my supposed friend joined them. After a while, I thought that maybe that moment didn't happen as I thought it had, maybe she hadn't actually laughed at me and she was still the friend I had hoped she would be.

So even after that, I was always civil with Myra. Yet, gradually I found her distancing from myself. Eventually she was surrounded by people whom she called friends, who were popular enough to hang around with her. I realized then , that the closeness in the initial days was something that I had assumed, something conjured up in my mind. I saw how she back handedly insulting her friends and I decided I didn't care anymore.

***

While college was hostile war zone, where I just tried to observe everything from the sidelines and never really dived in, my coaching classes were a place where I for the first time in life, really lived.

Till the lecture would begin, we played games on phone, laughed on jokes that weren't even that funny, poked fun at each other, gossiped about all the mutual friends we had (and it turned out there were many), and it all made me want to prolong this time.

The cherry on the cake was that Khan sir, our math teacher would himself go around cracking double meaning jokes. He always had a wooden stick with him and hit the guys with it whenever they did something or sometimes, simply for coming to class wearing shorts. He was the only teacher whom everyone was so informal with.

Being in class with all these people around, I realized that I had a different side to me that even I didn't know. It was like with just a few of us, it was easier to say anything and gave me a weird sense of emancipation. I felt giddy, on a high, whenever I was in class.

Gradually numbers of students in our coaching classes were also increasing, but at a minute rate. While I tried making friends with them, I found myself caring more for the existing students, one guy in particular.

That guy, Mohit had now started doing his crazy antics around me too. If he happened to sit behind me, he'd disturb me in the whole lecture by tapping me from behind. Or he'd pull my rubber band or do something like that. I found his antics endearing and annoying at the same time. But that same thing did not extend to Tanya. I don't know why, but the two just never could seem to stand each other.

I also discovered that the guy could go on talking about himself forever. He'd tell anyone who'd listen about what he likes to eat, or not (Still he ate whatever he said he didn't like to eat too). He liked acting cool, so he'd talk about all the people(especially girls) he knew from all the different schools, and how he hung out with his friends and constantly had company.

Whenever he'd talk about stuff most people knew about, I'd nod my head but he would call me out on the fact that I had no clue who or what he was taking about.

Most of my friends believed he was really selfish but he would do things like give me money for petrol when I was a few bucks short, and had to make it home, or tell people to steer clear and not make fun of me when I was studying.

And that one day, which was Dixit sir's birthday I purposely went to his section in the college under the pretence of meeting Anjali, Sarika and Zeenat (I had recently started sitting with them in my lunch break), even though I knew that those three were just about to exit their classroom.

He saw me and asked, "Listen, Pia we'll be going together to get Dixit Sir's birthday cake, is that okay? " To which my only response was a nod, and then he turned around to talk to some girls.

I knew he'd ask me that, because if anyone liked poking around and doing things in my coaching, it was him. And I was the only one with a decent bike.

We walked towards my bike after class and then he insisted on driving my bike, to which I pretended to fight with him on, but relented anyway. For the first time in my life, I sat behind a guy on a bike. And it was thrilling in its own way. I imagined me as that heroine in a movie who sat behind a guy on a bike and then they would eventually fall in love. It was also a first to me.

They were small firsts but they were important first to me. And as we walked to the door of the cake shop, he did a thing, I would never expect from a guy like him : he opened the door for me.

After looking at all the cakes, we both ended up liking two different ones.

"This one looks so much better than that one," he said pointing out at a black forest cake with intricate frosting.

"But this one tastes so much better," I said pointing out at a dark chocolate cake that I had too many times from the same bakery and still loved it.I gave him a puppy dog look and made googly eyes and he relented. We packed the cake and headed out.

Then we went to class and as all the 12th graders opened the cake in front of Dixit sir, they looked at the cake and then they glared at the two of us, cause what was written on the cake was:

Happy birthday Dixit.

No sir, no Mr, no full name just Dixit. And guess which coward pointed out at whom to take the blame? Yes. That coward whose name started with an M.

I just gave him an annoyed look.That guy really riled me up sometimes, but at the same time made me think about him so much.

After everyone was done eating the cake, Mohit asked me if the cake was eggless. We both had no idea and we guessed it maybe contained egg. So we just slyly agreed to not tell anyone.

We shared a knowing smile, and that unknowingly made me really happy.

Author's Note:

So what do you think about this chapter. Do let me know!

Also, to clarify the freak out on cake I'll have to tell you that a lot of people in India are vegetarian, due to religious or various other reasons and strictly do not have egg even in cakes.