1– The new boy

February, 2016

Preetah

“Finally,” Roshni leaned forward in her desk and nudged me on my shoulder. “Finally, someone cuter than Manu. Let's hope he at least has half a brain.”

When I took too long to respond to her, she nudged me again, this time harder. “Did you hear me?”

“Ow!” I complained looking back at her.

“Preetah, did you hear me?” She asked me again.

I didn't respond, I turned to the front and continued staring at this new boy. No, he wasn't just cuter than Manu, he had the most beautiful face I've ever seen in any other guy before. He was tall and had pink lips, like a female. His hair fell over his forehead and almost touched his eyes. As this new guy stood looking down at our dusty classroom floor that Mr Kapoor tried forcing us to take turns sweeping after schools, I felt awestruck. I couldn't take my eyes off of him. He was gorgeous.

“Can you introduce yourself to the class please?” Mr Kapoor told the new boy quickly. Mr Kapoor looked like he didn't have time for that, and that he had only said it out of courtesy.

The new boy quickly glanced at Mr Kapoor as if giving a speech about himself in front of forty-two strangers was the last thing on his mind and he had just been caught off guard.

Mr Kapoor nodded at the boy impatiently. “Go on. Everybody does when it's their first day. Nothing special. Just your name and whatnot.”

The boy shook his head slightly, looking at Mr Kapoor, his eyes begging for a little mercy. The classroom started buzzing with whispers. I looked around at the other classmates. I could see the girls leaning over to each other, discussing, and analysing him. They looked excited for the cute addition to the classroom. The guys didn't look that fazed. They just looked at him like they wanted to hear what would come out of this new boy's mouth.

“Boy, it's almost been two minutes. Time is very precious in this class. Do you know why?” Mr Kapoor was still holding his piece of chalk. The boy shook his head as a response.

“This is Mathematics, the most important subject in the world. You know why? Because the entire world works on maths. There's no career that doesn't use mathematics. You know why?” Mr Kapoor gave him time to answer this time, but he just shook his head.

“Because in every career there's money involved. So, counting and records need to be kept.” Mr Kapoor said to him.

“Then isn't that accounting?” Manu shouted out with a pleased grin on his face. “That makes Accounting the most important subject and not maths.”

The class laughed, feeding Manu's ego, like he liked. Although Manu was the cutest boy in the class, well not anymore, his attitude wasn't so cute. And I didn't find guys like him amusing. Intelligence is everything to me. You don't have to be Einstein but at least be intelligent enough to know when to speak and when not to.

Mr Kapoor shook his head at Manu. “Whatever.” That made the class laugh even more.

“Boy, are you going to speak or not?” Mr Kapoor turned to the new boy. Mr Kapoor's impatience was even clearer now.

The new boy tensed up. He looked nervous and I don't know if the others could see it too, but I saw his hands shaking. I smiled to myself. I could understand how he was feeling now. I felt like that every term in English class when it was my turn to give a speech.

“Good morning, everyone...” He began. He spoke so softly that I had to frown and lean forward in my seat to try and hear him. The class went still. They wanted to hear too. “I'm Arjun Korana and... uh... uh... yeah. Thank you...”

Arjun looked at Mr Kapoor like he was trying to tell him that that was the end of his introduction.

Mr Kapoor's wrinkled face crumbled even more when he frowned at Arjun. “You're done?”

Arjun nodded slowly.

This made the class laugh.

Mr Kapoor shook his head and propelled Arjun forward. “Go find yourself an empty seat. Okay class! As I was saying, who can give me the derivative of this?”

This time I held my breath. Roshni began rocking my chair in excitement. Because the only open seat was the one on my left which belonged to Arya, who was absent. I watched Arjun Korana slowly walk forward and look around with his eyes. He saw the open seat and then looked at the people he'd be sitting next to. He looked at the person who'd be on his left and then he looked at the person who would be sitting on his right. Me.

When his eyes met mine, my heart stopped beating. Literally. I felt something crawl up my stomach and my face felt hot. Of course, he looked away fast. He didn't expect me to be watching him. He quickly walked towards the open seat, trying to minimize the time he spent being the attention.

I kept my eyes on Mr Kapoor, feeling so embarrassed that Arjun caught me staring.

“Oh my God he's so cute!” Roshni whispered in my ear.

I shook my head quickly at her, trying to tell her to leave me alone. The last thing I needed was Arjun hearing me speak about him. Besides, Mr Kapoor was watching us.

“Roshni...” Mr Kapoor was shaking his head and scratching his head at the same time. “Do you mind sharing with us what is so important and can't wait ten minutes until break time?”

I didn't turn to face Roshni like the whole class was doing now. I didn't want Arjun to think I was childish. He didn't look back either.

“Uh…” Roshni sounded nervous. “Just that...” And then with her voice sounding overly confident, she said, “I know how to get the derivative of that problem, Sir.”

“Oh, then come show us on the board.”

I knew Roshni wouldn't have a problem solving it. It was easy. I heard Roshni's chair skid against the wooden floor. As she walked past me, she pinched my arm and gave me a mischievous smile, widening her eyes. She knew I hated being pinched but she often did it whenever she was excited about something. I touched my arm where she had pinched me, but I didn't make it obvious. Very sly, I looked over at Arjun to see if he was seeing this. He wasn't. He was looking forward, waiting for Roshni to solve the problem.

Looking over at him, I could see his long eyelashes, like a girl. His tie was not hanging down like most of the other boys at school. His was against his collar like the school rules wanted. His school shoes looked polished. I tried my best not to be too obvious, so I used the corner of my eye to look him down to his school shoes. He looked neat. His shoes and the dusty wooden floor were not a match. His hair looked combed. He looked so clean with his new uniform.

I've had my uniform for three years now, my right shoe already had a small hole at the heel. My father had said I'd have to finish high school with it. Well, less than two years to go anyway. The only time I noticed it was when it rained. Everything Arjun was wearing was screaming new. Even his school bag.

As if Arjun felt my stare, he immediately looked over at me and again, he caught my eyes. We both looked away quickly. This was embarrassing. I felt like crawling under my seat and staying there until he left the class. How could I let him catch me staring twice? I swear to God I won't look at him again. Ever.