Only Mine
Chapter 1: The First Time

Just like the colors in a Kaleidoscope would turn and twist to reveal new formations, the mind of the two people in Marina café also started to swim through flashes of colors, from clear to blur images. Time stood still as the tale of destiny started to play like a roll film unraveling to reveal the perspectives of past.

Dating back to a few years…

A 16 year old Naina Agarwal was cycling along with her sister Preeti, and chattering about the latest songs they had seen on Chitrahaar. It was the first day of her 11^th grade in school, and she was extremely excited. Add to that, they also had the first rain of the season; monsoon had come early that year in Ahmedabad, and she enjoyed it. They stopped at a shop to buy new pens for which Chachaji had given them money. As they stood selecting from the few options, suddenly they heard a roaring bike, and Naina watched three boys drive by on a bike, hooting with laughter. The bike crossed a recently formed puddle and splashed muddy water on the surroundings and Naina’s cycle as well.

“Oi, Can’t you see?”, Preeti screamed.

The boys stopped and looked back at the girls, who had now run up to their cycles. Naina stood staring dejectedly at her cycle, and then looked up at the boys, her eyes stormy as she enquired, “are you going to get down and clean this?”

The trio looked surprised, and a curly haired boy sitting at the end scoffed, “why should we?”

Naina’s eyes shifted from one boy to another and landed on the one who was driving. She noticed that he was looking at the cycle, and then his eyes met hers. She observed that he was extremely good-looking, with lustrous hair, clear defined features. The watch he was wearing, the bike he was driving, and the shoes he had put on told her that he came from a rich family. But his act, and now his inaction, clearly showed that just like other richie-rich kids this one was also a pampered mumma’s boy who got away with everything he did.

Rich spoiled brat.

Her mouth twisted in disgust, as she asked again, “it’s your fault… are you going to clean it?”

The boy tilted his head, shrugged, and then revved up the bike again. Preeti and Naina stood watching as the boys left.

Naina requested for a bit of cloth and water from the shopkeeper and started cleaning her cycle. Preeti helped her, but couldn’t contain her curiosity, “why were you so polite with them?”

Cleaning the last bit of mud, Naina stood up, “it was no use fighting with them. I knew they won’t clean it…”

“How did you know that?”, Preeti enquired puzzled.

Naina washed her hands, “didn’t you see the boy who was driving? He is most certainly rich, and so definitely spoiled. Arrogant.”

“But he looked good”, Preeti commented, “almost like Salman.”

Naina rolled her eyes, “come out of the film world… Heroes don’t exist in real life. Yes, he looked like Salman, which is why he would be rude, arrogant, and a pain.”

Preeti chuckled at her sister’s logic, “so… you are going to let them go? That’s unusual… aren’t you the same girl who dumped a bag full of garbage, by mistake of course, on Anita Aunty when she said rude things about me?”

Naina’s eyes gleamed, “I don’t think dumping garbage would work here. In this case, it has to be a little bit more. C’mon let’s go… we need to sneak in St. Peter’s during break time.”

Preeti started pedaling her cycle, and looked at her sister in confusion, “St. Peter’s… Why?”

“They all were dressed in St. Peter’s uniform… so I am guessing they study there”, Naina replied.

Preeti raised her eyebrows, the prospect of adventure gleaming in her eyes, “I see…”

Naina’s school PVKM was located just at a little bit of distance from St. Peter’s and quite often she had wondered how would it have been if her family had accepted Chachaji’s wish of sending herself and Preeti to that English medium school. It wasn’t the first time that she had seen students from that school roaming around on the same road… the girls seemed to extremely stylish, and the boys ridiculously smart… and all of them seemed to be so rich. Naina would have liked to explore the privilege of studying there, but at the same time she also felt as if she wouldn’t have fit there… Not with her oily pigtails, old cycle, and orange school bag.

When the 30 minutes break time bell rang, Naina and Preeti looked at each other excited, and then pulled Swati along with them. The distance to St. Peter’s was only five minutes’ walk, and if they ran it was even less. According to Naina, they would only need fifteen minutes to sneak in, finish their planned task, and then return to PVKM. Swati was utterly confused and kept asking where they were going. Preeti briefed her about the morning incident, and horrified Swati pulled the other two girls to a halt.

She shrieked, “have you gone mad? You want to sneak inside another school to take revenge on a boy? And why…. Only because he splashed muddy water on your cycle accidentally?”

Naina tilted her head, “no… anyone could have splashed water accidentally, I know that… It had been raining after all. The revenge is because he did not clean up the mess he created.”

“You seriously wished for him to clean your cycle? He would never do that… He is from St. Peter’s”, Swati reasoned.

Naina huffed, “and that makes him what… a hero? Or a God?”

Swati tried to explain, “but…”, and was interrupted by Preeti, “are we doing this or not? We are wasting time here.”

“Yes, we are”, Naina affirmed, and looked at her friend, “are you coming?”

Swati debated mentally for some time, but then gave in, “when have I ever not been with you? I must be crazy to do this… but… let’s go.”

Naina grinned, and the girls started to walk towards the big gates they could see at a distance. Swati and Preeti always tagged along with her in whatever she did… Preeti never needed any reason, while Swati even though being more sensible had never been able to refuse Naina. The three girls had been studying together since the first day of their school ever… Naina recalled how on their first day in junior KG a boy had pushed Preeti calling her fat, and Naina had taken revenge by tripping him in class. When the boy had complained, the teacher had asked Swati because she was sitting on the desk adjacent to Naina, but Swati had earlier seen the boy pushing Preeti so she had lied to the teacher, and Naina had escaped punishment. Since then the three girls had been inseparable.

Sneaking in the big school was easier than expected as the watchman was distracted by two fighting dogs. They could see a playground at one end with lots of students, and avoided going in that direction. The parking lot wasn’t visible to them, but Preeti suggested it had to be on the right side, closer to the school building. Making sure no one spotted them, they sprinted around the edge of a small garden, and were ecstatic on seeing the bikes parked in a row and the cycles just opposite them. But as they neared the parking area, the gardener saw them and shouted, “what are you girls doing here?”

The trio stopped, suddenly nervous, and wondered what to do now. The gardener squinted at them, “speak up… you are there aren’t you?” Then he mumbled to himself, “just the day to break my glasses, can’t even see a thing properly.”

Naina sighed in relief… He couldn’t see clearly… Her confidence returned, and she spoke clearly, “hello uncle. My brother left one of my books on his bike… such a careless boy. I just need to get it back.”

The gardener nodded, “well… don’t step on the lawn then. I have just watered it.”

“We wouldn’t”, Naina affirmed, and quickly started to walk towards the parking lot.

Preeti quizzed, “brother? Bike?”

Naina giggled, “I don’t know how much he could see… If I say cycle, and then we go towards the bikes he might wonder if we lied to him. Hence bike and brother was safer.”

Swati was always astounded at Naina’s ability of smoothly lying with conviction, and also how quickly her brain worked in such situations. She considered herself prettier than Naina, but also acknowledged that Naina was much smarter than herself. However, this time Naina’s plan had a flaw. She asked her, “how will you know which bike is his?”

Naina chuckled, “GJ6S 488. That’s the number… You seriously did not think that I wouldn’t have taken note?”

Swati couldn’t help but laugh. What had even made her think that Naina had planned this whole revenge later? No… She would have planned it the moment she had sensed that the boy would not clean her cycle. And of course… the first two things she would need to know would be his school and his bike number. So well… here they were, because Naina along with being smart was exceptionally good in these kinds of petty revenge plans. Her plans were quick and extremely effective. She had no doubt that the boy, whoever he was, would regret his act of not helping Naina clean her cycle.

The three girls spread along to find the bike; soon Swati spotted it and called them over. Preeti bent over to undo the small black cap that was screwed tightly to hold the air in, but Naina stopped her, “we don’t want to remove the air from the tyre, we have to puncture it.”

“And how do we do that? Hair pin wouldn’t work”, Preeti replied.

A sly smiled crept on Naina’s face, “no… but a cutter would.” And she fished out a lime green paper cutter which she had sneaked from the class cupboard. Her friends grinned as Naina crouched on her toes and slashed the muddy black tyre… two quick slashes and she considered the job to be well done. Just then she heard laughing sounds, and looked about to find three boys stepping out of a gate leading to the parking lot. Shit… They were the same boys from morning…

“Run”, she commanded to her friends and they fled.

The boys heard the voice and looked in that direction to see three girls fleeing. Pandit observed, “they are not from our school.”

Sameer narrowed his eyes, the uniform seemed familiar… but then his gaze shifted to his bike standing a few paces away, and horrified he saw the almost flattened tyre. “Dammit”, he cursed and ran towards it, “look what they did.”

As he gazed furiously at the fleeing girls, wondering who they were, one of the girls halted for a second and looked back at him with a triumphant grin… almost as if she wanted him to know it was her who did it. And then she ran away, but he had recognized her. His eyes widened, “it’s the same girl from morning… she did this… to take revenge.”

Munna looked at the long slashes, and said in a tone mixed with anger and admiration both, “she was vicious… we will have to get the tyre changed. It can’t be fixed.”

Pandit was also almost awed as he mused, “they sneaked in just for this…”

Sameer sighed, his friend was right… the slashes were long and deep… probably she had cut through the inner tube as well. For a moment it almost made him feel that he should have gotten down to help her in morning. And he would have… if he had not noticed the disgust curling her lips as soon as she had looked at him… He didn’t know why, but it had seemed that she hadn’t liked him for reasons quite different from muddying her cycle. That is why he had not helped her even though he had not splashed her cycle on purpose… and so, she had taken revenge. Grudgingly he too admired her plan and her guts… How did she know which was his bike? Had she noticed his bike number and school in morning? Did that mean she had planned this right at that moment? It was not easy to sneak inside their school, yet she had. It must have taken some quick observation skills to know which school he studied in and what was his bike number, yet she had done it. It must have needed perfect planning and courage to execute the plan, yet she had followed it through. Yes… he admired her for all that. But that didn’t mean he would let her go and consider it tit-for-tat. That was not his style… If she liked to mess around like this, then this time she had messed with the wrong person. She might be smart, but so was he, and he needed to prove now that no one messes with Sameer Maheshwari without suffering the consequences. She would soon know that this time she has stepped into the wrong territory. But first…

“I need to know who she is”, Sameer demanded of his friends.

Munna and Pandit looked at their friend’s determined expressions and nodded. They knew Sameer would never let it go and stay quiet. The girl had not just punished him, but also challenged him. And they were always with him… since the time they were 7 years old. That was when Sameer had arrived in Ahmedabad, and joined their school. Munna and Pandit were cousins, and had studied in a mediocre English medium school before… But then Munna’s father had done very well in business and had shifted both the boys to St. Peter’s when they were 6 years old. The first year in St. Peter’s had been boring because it was almost all study and no fun. They had missed the rowdy behavior of their old school friends, and the pranks they would pull on others. Next year when Sameer had joined, they had considered him to be the good, obedient, pretty boy who would be teacher’s pet… An easy target… And so they had troubled him for the whole day… placing squeaky toy on his seat so that it would fart when he sat, pouring crumbled popcorns in his bag, tripping him over with a thread, locking him inside the bathroom… Sameer had never said a word the whole day; rather he had simply focused on getting out of the unusual situations he was placed in repeatedly… But at the end of the day when Munna and Pandit were laughing their heads off while discussing the pranks, someone had poured icy cold water all over them and then wrestled them to the ground, rubbing their faces in the dirt. They had obviously hit back too, and the scuffle had lasted for ten minutes with Pandit pulling in the last punch on Sameer’s face. With grimy torn shirts, dirty faces, and messy hair they had sat on the playground panting for breath, and looking at each other. Munna had gotten up first and then extended each of his hands to Pandit and Sameer. They had accepted the gesture, held hands and stood up.

Munna and Pandit had looked at each other, silently communicating, then with a slight nod had turned to Sameer and introduced themselves. Pandit had asked, “friends?”

Sameer had wiped his hands on his pants, and nodded, “yes… but just one thing…”, and he had punched Pandit back. They had been astounded, but Sameer had shrugged, “I don’t keep debts.”

Munna and Pandit had laughed, graciously accepting that Sameer had been plucky to bear all of the pranks for the whole day, and since then he had been their friend. Now, none of them remembered a time when they were not friends. They were together almost the whole day, and they believed in executing all plans and pranks together. Sameer was the mastermind, Munna was the validator looking out for loopholes in plans, and Pandit was the most resourceful person who would gather all information and things they needed.

Now it looked like it was time for another adventure, another plan… and naturally information was the first crucial thing. And so Pandit offered, “I will get it by this evening.”

“Let’s meet at Law Garden for dinner and discuss”, Munna suggested.

Sameer squinted at the open school gates through which the girl had disappeared. A determined smirk curved his lips, and his eyes glittered as he thought… Whoever you are… be prepared… Sameer Maheshwari is coming for you.