Only Mine
Chapter 4: Goodbye

Sameer Maheshwari woke up early on Tuesday morning; he was surprised with his own self. He attributed the reason to his need to plan the next prank. Naina had played well. The pani-puri and grease trick both had been pulled off perfectly, and if he discounted the slight uneasiness in his stomach last evening he could say that he had enjoyed it. And what was that pose she had struck? How could a normal human being suddenly be all flexible and bend like that? And her lashes… Was it normal to be able to flutter them like that? Had he ever seen any other girl do that? He didn’t think so… She must be having some mystical powers.

What should he do to her? What would make her frustrate? Inspired by her he thought of messing about with her food, but where would he get access to that.

And why are you even following her ways? Can’t you think of your own prank?

That was right… He needed to think of something of his own, something she wouldn’t anticipate. Ahan… He had just the thing… and that way he would also get access to her tiffin box. A 2-in-1 trick sounded like a perfect idea. And what else… she had again targeted his bike, so maybe her cycle… hmm… yes!

Pleased with himself he hummed while taking a shower and after a quick call to Pandit, he then skipped down to breakfast. Nanu again questioned him about his good mood, but he just said that was because he was doing lots of cricket practice. Nanu chuckled, “sure? This is only because of cricket? And not someone special?”

Sameer’s brows furrowed, “special?”

“Yes… maybe… a special friend”, Nanu suggested.

Sameer laughed, “you mean a girlfriend? C’mon Nanu… you know I am not interested.” Then he teased, “but what do you think about Tanvi?”

Nanu scowled, “Tanvi… you mean Mr. Mehta’s daughter. No, absolutely not. She is the most arrogant girl I have ever met, and I don’t see any qualities in her to become your wife.”

“Wife…”, Sameer choked, “Nanu, I was just teasing you. I am just about to turn 18, how can you even think of marriage?”

Nanu shrugged, “I was married at 18. And… before you start about your dreams and career, I am not telling you to get married now, but maybe when you finish college… that should be the correct time. I have always wondered about what kind of girl could be your wife…”

“Nanu please…”, Sameer stopped him, “I am really not interested in marriage or any discussion about it. There is still a lot of time… And about my future wife, I know… she would the most beautiful girl on this earth.”

Nanu smiled, “aah… I see. But, you have got the equation a bit wrong there.” When Sameer frowned, Nanu continued, “you can’t find the most beautiful girl on this earth, there is no one like that… However, once you fall in love, she will become the most beautiful girl you have ever met for you.”

Sameer thought about it, and somehow a vision of oily pigtails and socks till knees popped in-front of his eyes, and he felt like laughing. Curious he asked, “what if the girl has oily hair and doesn’t have even an ounce of fashion sense?”

Nanu didn’t understand why Sameer asked this, still he replied, “these things would stop mattering to you… because you would be in love with her soul, her heart… and so everything about her would be precious to you.”

“Impossible”, Sameer scoffed, “this might have happened in your generation Nanu… but this is 1996… it is not possible to fall in love like that. A girl has to at least look good to be noticed by me or any other boy. And same goes for boys… they have to be handsome and smart for girls to notice them. Isn’t that why there are so many girls after me, but not after Munna and Pandit?”

Nanu shook his head, “young minds… always shallow. You just remember my words… and we will have this discussion when you have truly found love.”

“I don’t think I would”, Sameer declared, “but if I do, I will tell you… else you find me a girl who you think is most suitable for me. But not before I turn 21.”

Nanu tilted his head, “sounds like a good deal to me.”

He rushed to collect his friends, eager to execute his plan. As soon as Munna and Pandit hopped on he asked, “any luck?”

Pandit replied, “yes, the 4^th period… just before lunch break.”

“Perfect, it’s the same for us”, Sameer beamed, “that means I can watch.”

He waited excitedly until the 4^th period, which was sports time for them. After a round or two of kabbadi, the trio managed to sneak out of their school and ran to PVKM. This time they circled the perimeter from outside and then jumped up the wall, landing up behind the classrooms. According to Pandit’s information 4^th period was sport for Naina’s class too.

Munna panted, “How do we know which one is hers?”

“I know”, Sameer replied, “just follow me.”

He still remembered the class in which he had seen Swati, and stopped there, “this is it.” The open windows were iron movable ones which left gaps, but it was not enough for any of them to enter. But on his last haunt he had noticed one screen to be broken and it was removed to the side, leaving a sizeable gap. Sameer cautiously entered inside, taking care to avoid the iron nails. He gave a thumbs-up to his friends and then went to Naina’s desk. First thing he noticed was that his mark was still there…

Why didn’t she scratch it off? Surely she has seen the S by now… Did she not want to erase it?

Pandit gave a low whistle which brought him out of trance and he quickly pulled out her bag. Opening it he placed something inside it, trying to be quick and not look at the contents inside. He didn’t want to pry, just tease… He then took out her tiffin box and emptied the contents of it in a polybag which he had brought. Then he filled the box with small paper bits and a gigantic something. That should do it…

Then he again slid outside using the same window, and to the parking stand up to her cycle, and after a few minutes out of the school. They loitered around a small thelawala outside her school, and when the break bell rung, Naina came out with her friends. She was sweating a lot, and wiped her face. As soon as she was out of the gates, first thing she noticed was Sameer and his friends. Her eyes narrowed…

“Hi”, Sameer waved at her, making quite a few people notice them.

What was he upto now?

Naina, Preeti and Swati looked at each other once, and then as if in agreement, ignored the boys and went towards the stall. Kamya came running behind them, “Naina wait… you forgot to keep the ball back in sports room.”

Naina huffed, “oh it is still in my pocket… Don’t worry, I will keep it. Let me get a Frooti first.”

Kamya however was not listening to her anymore, and was staring at the boys. She indignantly asked, “what are you doing here?”

Pandit grinned, “I came to meet you.” Kamya wrinkled her nose, and turned away. Pandit was not dissuaded, “want some chips?”

Munna chuckled, munching on his own pack of chips, as Pandit kept pestering Kamya, and Sameer focused on Naina. As soon as Naina had bought what she needed, Sameer walked up to her, “can’t even say a hi? why are you being so rude? Yesterday you were laughing so much…”

Naina stopped to look at him, and stretched her lips in a fake smile, “Hi… Can I go now?”

Sameer laughed, “are you scared?”

“No way”, she replied immediately, and then her eyes narrowed again as she spotted a roll in Sameer’s hand, “what’s that?”

He smiled, “my tiffin”, and held it in-front of her lips, “want some?”

Naina drew back a step, “is that… paratha?”

He nodded, “yes… my favorite alu paratha… it is so tasty. Try some.”

“No, thank you”, she replied, “enjoy your meal.”

Sameer watched her leave with her friends, and mumbled, “oh… I will enjoy.”

Pandit found the boys he had befriended and they sneaked inside with them. Sameer wanted to enjoy the sight of Naina… And so the trio again picked their way back to behind the classrooms. Sameer peeked inside, his face lit up with anticipation… Naina was just pulling out her lunch box, when something touched her hand and she quickly withdrew it… Kamya and Swati screamed as something fell out of the bag, but outside Sameer frowned as Naina did not even react… Instead she bent and picked up the thing and laughed, “a rubber snake… really?”

Preeti also laughed, “where did this come from? I like this one better than the one we have at home.”

Naina’s eyes gleamed, “doesn’t matter where it came from… it’s ours now.”

“She is not scared”, Pandit whispered in a tone of admiration.

Sameer scowled, “there still her tiffin box.”

Swati backed away from the rubber snake, “keep it inside, and let’s eat please.”

Naina stuffed the snake back inside, and took out her tiffin box. The other girls stood up to leave, but Naina opened her box, murmuring something about it feeling light. Her friends gasped as she opened it, the small steel tiffin box was filled with bits of paper. Naina sighed and picked up a fistful of it, letting it drop back slowly, but something was clinging to her hand… something that made the girls scream again, even Preeti this time. But still Naina didn’t scream…

“What the hell”, Sameer muttered, “she is still not affected.”

Naina stared at her hand as a large fat caterpillar crawled over the back of her palm. She chuckled, “it’s okay… Just gross… I will go throw it and wash my hand. You all go to the canteen.”

The boys especially Sameer were dejected. He mused, “how come she never screamed? Girls are usually so afraid…”

None of them could decode why Naina wasn’t scared, and Sameer kept thinking about it the remaining day. He didn’t even pay attention when Tanvi tried to talk to him. Munna and Pandit noticed this and tried to cheer him up. He sighed, “it’s alright. There is still the cycle. She will be frustrated… I am sure.”

After school, he again went back to PVKM to see the effect of his prank. Hiding behind the shed the boys watched the girls come out, and then laughed on seeing Naina struggle to walk her cycle and rotate the paddle… but it didn’t work.

Yes! This was what he had needed to see… Will she kick her cycle again?

Naina was puzzled and bent to inspect. Preeti crouched down too, “is the chain stuck somewhere?”

“Not somewhere”, Naina replied, “it is just stuck… with fevicol.”

Swati frowned, “fevicol? How?”

Naina rolled her eyes, “I know how… wait a minute.”

Sameer watched her rush back inside, and murmured, “what is she doing now?”

In five minutes Naina came back with a bottle of something, a pair of tongs, a wad of cotton and some cloth. She poured out the liquid onto the cotton, which she held with the help of tongs and then applied it liberally over the whole glued up chain. The boys watched the whole process puzzled, wondering what she was doing. After a minute or so, she rubbed the chain with the cloth; Sameer presumed she was rubbing the liquid she had smeared. Then she opened her water bottle and poured the entire content on the chain slowly… and then she tried to rotate the pedal with her hand… and voila! It worked.

Sameer’s mouth fell open in shock… and he was even more shocked by what she did next. Naina stood up and called out, “Are you going to come out from behind the shed, or do I come find you?”

The boys stared at one another, and then came out. Naina grinned, “ahan… so the whole gang is here today.”

Pandit pointed at the cycle and asked amazed, “how did you do that?”

Naina chuckled, and looked at Sameer, “is that all you had for today? A rubber snake, a caterpillar and this fevicol… really?”

Sameer was flummoxed, “you weren’t scared… and how did you get rid of the fevicol?”

She rolled her eyes, “of course I wasn’t scared. I play pranks too… what makes you think I don’t own a rubber snake myself? And that caterpillar… you found out things about me, but maybe you didn’t know that I have a brother one year older to me, and also a kid cousin brother… I have grown up with them… And young stupid boys think they are brave when they pick up an earthworm or caterpillar and scare the girls with it. I learned not to be scared a long time back.”

Sameer gaped at her, and Munna asked fascinated, “and the fevicol?”

“Acetone”, Naina replied immediately, “I am a science student… I guess so are you? Didn’t you know that acetone can be used to remove any hard glue?”

“Wow”, Pandit muttered despite himself.

Naina tilted her head up and looked at Sameer, “so?? All done? Shall we end this stupid game and forget one another? Anyways it doesn’t look like you can match my caliber… Such childish tricks are so boring. Oh and by the way, thanks for saying that my lunch was tasty… I made it for the first time today.”

Sameer acted puzzled, “what? It wasn’t your lunch…”

“Yes it was”, Naina grinned, “I almost burnt some parts of the paratha while cooking… so when I saw you eating I knew it was mine. And you found it tasty…”

“I did not”, Sameer said sharply.

She laughed, “yes you did… you said so yourself.”

Sameer was irked at the way things had turned out today, and hearing her taunt about young stupid boys he realized that his prank was indeed too simple and childish. He had assumed she would be scared because she was a girl. He didn’t like losing… All his hopes had been on the fevicol prank, but she turned out to be way smarter and cleverer. And he didn’t like losing… He could feel the anger increase… She was laughing… on him. The same laughter which had brightened up his mood yesterday fueled something foul inside him today.

“Stop it”, he fumed, “stop laughing.”

Naina laughed harder, “I can’t… you were so silly today Sameer.”

Stupid. Boring. Childish. Silly.

The words rang in his ears, overlapping with another voice which was of his mother. And that did it… He clenched his fist and took a step towards her, his voice almost threatening, “you find me stupid…? Childish? Am I so boring? What do you even know about me?”

Naina’s laughter died in her throat, “Sameer… what?”

“Stop it”, he ordered again, “stop messing with me… with my mind… it was all because of you that I couldn’t think of a serious prank… I didn’t want to…”

“Sameer”, Munna interrupted him before he could speak further, and grabbed his arm. Pandit held on to his other hand, “let’s leave from here.”

They pulled Sameer away from Naina, but he kept looking at her, his eyes raging, his face tensed. Naina watched them leave, completely confused, replaying Sameer’s words in her mind, and murmured to herself, “what did I do?”

That night neither Sameer slept well, and nor did Naina. Sameer kept on thinking about her taunts and how his friends told him that he was getting obsessed with a girl. He tried to analyze if that was true… but he didn’t think so… Yes he was playing some kind of game with her, but that didn’t mean he was obsessed. But then, why did her words affect him so much?

Only because they reminded you of mummy.

Yes. That was it. How often had his mother called him stupid, silly, categorizing his tantrums as childish? Today Naina had done the same. And that was why he had been angry all of a sudden. He wondered what was wrong with him; his pranks were below primary grade… he should have played smarter. Instead all he had wanted to do is continue this game as soon as he could.

And what was that you were about to blabber… were you really going to say you didn’t want to hurt her?

Maybe Munna and Pandit were right… He should stay away from her… He might not be obsessed but he couldn’t deny that she affected him, he had never thought of anyone so much as he did of her… and he didn’t want to… Definitely he didn’t. But what if he saw her again? Pull off some small quick tricks… yes… keep it limited… funny… not any more serious pranks. After all… what was the guarantee he would see her again anyways.

But one question bothered him… why was she playing this game with him? Was it all revenge for her because she disliked him? Or had she really enjoyed the pranks as much as he had?

Naina on the other side tried to read a novel but slammed it down on the desk instead. She couldn’t concentrate.

Damn the boy. What did he think of himself?

How dare he scold her like that? His prank was indeed stupid… and so she had called it as such. What was need for being so angry about it? She hadn’t cursed him. But still he had yelled at her.

Stop messing with me… with my mind…

What did he mean? How had she messed up with his mind? What was he saying that was left incomplete… He didn’t want to… what? And why was she thinking about him so much? If today’s incident meant that it was all done and over then it was good… right? She didn’t want to have anything to do with him. It was better if he stayed away. They can never be friends, and they couldn’t keep playing pranks on each other all the time… yes, so it was better if he stayed away. But what if they met again sometimes? What if he played another prank? She would wait and see… then decide if something needs to be done.

A day passed in between before she saw him again, and both looked at one another wondering if the other would make some move. But neither did. The next day however, Sameer decided to get an answer to his question. So when he saw her just about to enter her school gate, as usual late, he honked twice hoping she wouldn’t ignore it. To his surprise Naina stopped and turned to look at him. She gestured Preeti to move on and then snapped at him, “what?” She observed that his friends were not with him, but didn’t ask anything.

He quirked an eyebrow, parked his bike, got down and stood in-front of her, “bad mood is it? I was just wondering when is your next prank.”

So he still wanted to continue.

She also kept her cycle aside, thinking about what he said. Keeping her expressions neutral, she replied, “I am not interested… Getting yelled at for such small things is not something that I like.”

Does that mean you affect her Sameer?

He smirked, “well… I thought you would let that go after what you did to me.”

She narrowed her eyes and enquired, “and what did I do?”

“You mixed so much chilly that day in the pani-puri that I fell sick”, he replied, rubbing his tummy, “spent almost the entire night in toilet.”

Her eyes widened, “oh no… really? I am so sorry… I didn’t mean to. I just added two spoons to make it spicy. I had got to know that he keeps aside that small pot of chutney especially for you three, so I knew no one else would eat it. But… I didn’t want to make you fall sick… Are you alright now?”

Ahan… she didn’t dislike him… that was a prank, just that… she didn’t want to hurt him.

His one eyebrow quirked, “quite some information you collected… didn’t you? And… apology accepted. Though I was kidding about the night in toilet… You were smart, it was spicy and we couldn’t understand why.”

She gasped, “you were lying…!” And to his immense surprise she suddenly swung her bag and neatly caught him on the arm. He couldn’t help but laugh, and tried to deflect her blows, grabbing her wrist to stop her.

She froze, gulping at the sudden sensation of a boy holding her hand. Struggling to ignore the new reactions, she demanded, “are you trying to make me feel guilty?”

He chuckled, and left her hand, “not at all… I need to go now… will wait for your next trick.”

“There will be none”, she replied, making him look at her again. He asked, “what?”

She took a deep breath and repeated, “there will be none. Those snake and caterpillar, I don’t consider them as prank. So, I consider the game ended that day. I have other important things you know… can’t go on playing games forever.”

He bit his lip, and then shrugged, “alright… it’s not like I am interested anyways. I just don’t like someone challenging me.”

Naina nodded, “so, I guess this is it… Goodbye Sameer Maheshwari.”

He tilted his head considering her, “Goodbye Naina Agarwal.”

Even after the goodbye they stood there for a minute, until the ringing school bell broke the trance. Sameer nodded at her once, and then slung his leg over his bike, kick starting it and left. A few paces away he glanced at his hand which had enclosed around her wrist…

Why did you do that Sameer?

Naina walked her cycle inside the school gates, her eyes fixed on her wrist… She sensed as if she could still feel his fingers wrapped around it, the coldness from his inwardly turned rings a contrast to the warmth of his palm.

Why are you feeling so strange? Must be because it was the first time someone held your hand.