Jivika~

"Hanumappa and his wife Gangamma are busy making Jaggery out of sugar-cane. They have processed the sugar cane juice to make the molasses—"

Oh wait! This was the 'Hanumappa' question!

Credits to my memory, I knew the answer was 13.97 kg. And yes to answer your question, we were having our Math mock test. Thank heavens it wasn't Social Science. Then I would have intentionally ended up sick today.

Kiara poked my rib. Eyes on her paper, she whispered, "Jivika, give me your kada! I need to draw a circle and I'm lazy to use the compass!". Perks of being a Punjabi, I guess.

Pratik poked his head inside the class and made sure that Sonika ma'am was talking to another teacher. Placing out few graph papers, I watched him collect the money from Amaan and run away within seconds. Confused, I asked Kiara what that was about.

"Arrey, Pratik draws out graphs for people. 5 rupees for less-than Ogive graph and 10 rupees for more-than Ogive graph. He was like, when you are good at something why not earn from it? And surprisingly, lazy people do exist cause he earns around 150 rupees out of those graphs everyday!"

Definitely such crazy things can only happen in our school.

"Yaar! I wanted to stay home and wake up at ten!" whined Lavanya. Clearly, study leave meant different for different people.

"Really? Even when our parents are at home wasting their Child Care Leaves?" questioned Laysa in a confused manner.

"You can't say anything to me today cause—" started Lavanya.

"WE GET IT, ITS YOUR BIRTHDAY!"

The whole class shouted in sync, slamming their head against the question paper. With so much amount of practice in tuitions, Math was easy for me. It was almost mechanical. Like...I knew the answer before I read the question.

"Yeah!" she replied, smiling sheepishly.

Sonika ma'am looked up.

Knowing us, she continued with her notebook correction. Smart lady!

*

"Krish give me your watch."

"No!"

"Pleeaase!"

"No Lavanya."

"That's such a cool watch! Just let me wear it for some time? Please!"

"Lavanya no. No means no, okay?"

"Its my birthday, you can't say no!"

"Arrey baba, I know it's your birthday. Trust me I know my gir—. Uh I mean, friend's birthday!"

"THEN WHY ARE YOU NOT GIVING ME THAT DAMNED WATCH?"

At that point, she was almost on top of him, strangling his neck.While Krish tried to get her off him, Amaan sneakingly got the watch off his wrist. "Here you go!" he said handing her the watch.

"Thank you so much Jivika's future boo!" she replied instantly, and started gushing over the watch.

"I can't believe that she's fifteen. She still acts like she's five!" snorted Kiara.

"Well can't blame her right? We are all gonna turn sixteen this year while she's just fifteen!" remarked Maahi, taking a jibe at her best friend.

"True that!" agreed Rhea, rising her hands for an up high.

"Why did you not give it to her?" I heard Amaan asking Krish.

"She's scary but not," he replied lightly, giving her that whole smitten look. The kind which made me puke.

I guess, her birthday was a lot better now.

*

"Guys lets do something!" voiced out the 'birthday girl'.

Sitting in the ground, exhausted from the fitness test, we were waiting for the medical check ups. "Sure, lets play red hands!" suggested Amaya, her hands swiping over her phone like a maniac.

"Wait, I'll bring the boys!" said Rhea, rushing over to the pack of animals.

Having no say, about thirteen of us started with the Red-Hands.

Within five minutes, our inner ruthlessness was exposed. My hands resembled those rosy Kashmiri apples. Suffice to say, all hands mirrored each other. But the winner was, my thin silver kada (bracelet) and Rhea's long manicured nails.

"Tooh insaan nahi chudail hai!" stated Pranav, skeptically eyeing her long nails.
[You are not a human! You are a witch!]

"Babu ko jalan ho raha hai?" she taunted with a sly smirk, using her nails to trace his jawline.
[Jealous?]

And here we go again. This PDA by god!

*

"Did you know? Pratik is taller than me by three centimeters now. Finally."

"Height uska bada hai, why are you so happy?"
[He grew taller, why are you so happy?]

"When you are in a relationship and the girl is taller than the guy...the struggle, it's real. I mean, being called the mother of the person you like, just cause you're a few inches taller...it's humiliating. Of course, the best part is — outright bullying koyi nahi karta, but judgemental eyes and lingering stares — I was sick of it man."
[outright bullying koyi nahi karta: no one bullies you outright]

And it was true.

When people are harsh without speaking or doing anything, you can't really call them out. It's like, whatever is happening, it happens subconsciously. Not because they meant bad, but it was a norm, an unsaid practice that the guy cannot be shorter than his partner, the girl cannot her older than hers, and what not. It's not acceptable because anything which deviates from normalcy was considered a grave threat to human existence.

Why?

Fear of change, fear of habits. Fear of the living, fear of dead. To the extent that fear fears you — who fears everything.

Shaking off these thoughts, I drift back to this world, which was going through its apocalypse. And no Mr. Robert Frost, you don't need fire or ice for the end of the world. You just need an aggressive banter between Kiara and Amaan, for even if it's not the end of the world you'll wish it were.

"Amaan, stay away from the machine!" screamed Kiara, pleading desperately.

"Weight is just a number, so why does it matter?" he countered, trying to get a glimpse of those digits.

"You go bother about Jivika's weight not mine!" she snapped at him.

"She will be around two-fifty kilos. Now, I'm definitely gonna have to know your weight!" he replied, trying to have a peek at those numbers.

"Amaan, stop yaar! Everyone is not a matchstick like you!" she retorted, clearly pissed. Trying to avoid the fight, I pointed a finger at him.

"Tili!"

"Dhaee Sau!"
[Two-fifty]

"Tili!"

"Dhaee Sau!"

"TILI!"

"Oh! I get it. You are taking advantage of me!" he replied with a smug grin. What advantage? Noticing my bewilderment he continued.

"After all, I'm so hot that even you are taking advantage of the fire in me!"

First it was my stomach, then my ears, then my nose and then my eyes. Every organ inside my body was laughing so hard that even my legs gave out. Crouching on the ground, I locked my head between my legs, my shoulders shaking. Struggling to breath, I lay on the ground and touched my face. Noticing the wetness, I realized that I was crying. Well, crying and laughing at the same time.

Damn, I'm gonna miss this so much.

"No wonder you call him Tili!" snorted Kiara, crashing down to the floor along with me, laughing.

Turning around to give him a piece of my mind, his trademark grin came under my scrutiny. Jumping around the machine like a monkey, he raised his fist in the air as he got a glimpse of Kiara's weight.

"By the way Amaan, have you seen Pratik?"

"Yes, he's up there in his class. Art period for D!"

"But if it's a free period, why is he not coming downstairs?"

"Because, Kiara, your boyfriend is busy getting jealous of Rane sir. The way sir calls you Tiara all the time. I mean, seriously?"

"Really?" she grinned, satisfied that she wasn't the only one in the relationship who got upset because of trivial matters. That sometimes worked as a confidence boost I thought, as I watched her skip towards the washroom.

Bah! Washroom, sure thing!

"Jivika?"

Nodding, I peeked at his weight. Forty-two kilograms for a 5'10 person, it was too less. He was really a matchstick.

"Had Parth not intervened that day, it would've been a no, right?"

Surprised, I turned my neck so quick that I felt pain shooting up there. Pressing that area a bit, I waited for the pain and shock to numb. Eyes steady on that fading 42, I mumbled.

"Why do you think so?"

"Firstly, you've said no before to people. And secondly, you would never be the one to date. Not because you detest it. Not because you are scared and definitely not because you want to be an ideal student. But being someone who firmly believes that dating in school is just the matter of keeping up a status, carrying the tag of 'not-single' and admiring the popularity you get because of that ... you don't want to be one of those. You love our class, you love our batch and you want to keep it that way."

My mouth stretched on its own, turning around the corners. I knew that I didn't have to say anything more, he was smart. He got the point. Mirroring my smile, he got down from the weight-balance. And that's when that smile turned into a booming laughter.

Following the direction of his eyes, I covered my mouth before I could snort. The trees around the ground were shaking vigorously as the white Langoors kept jumping here and there. Chasing anyone and everyone on the ground, I watched people go into hiding wherever they could.

And then there was Arnav from our class.

The baap of all the monkeys in this world.

He walked towards us with a Langoor in his arms. The mammal had its claws in his hair, trying to search up for dandruff and lice. And Arnav, the bigger monkey, lovingly carried it everywhere, smooching its fur every now and then.

Two worlds one family. Literally, metaphorically and biologically.

As he reached closer, Amaan gave a yelp and hid behind me. With all of us laughing at the antics of the skinny boy, I peered over my shoulder, grinning.

I looked.

He looked.

We looked away.

And we looked back again.

~