Only Mine
Chapter 5: The Cards of Destiny

The Saturday afternoon was quiet and peaceful, and Sameer felt a rush in his veins as the ball hit his bat and sailed over the boundary. It was his fifth boundary today, and he couldn’t stop grinning. The practice was going of perfectly, the inter-school cricket season was about to begin in a few weeks, and he needed to be in perfect form for it.

It had been almost a month since he had wished goodbye to Naina outside her school gates, and since then he had spotted her sometimes, but hadn’t ever crossed her path on purpose. He had noticed that she had also seen him, but neither of them made any move to acknowledge the other. It seemed that that day was really a goodbye. If sometime he missed the equation they shared, he ignored it. If sometime someone’s laughter reminded him of her, he ignored it. If sometime he felt like starting the game all over again, he ignored it. In short… he had started to ignore a lot of things when it came to her.

The practice ended in another hour, and as he wiped his face, someone slinked up next to him. He glanced to his side and sighed aloud, “what is it now?”

Tanvi smiled, fluttering her lashes, “let’s go for a long drive on your bike.”

She can’t flutter her lashes like Naina.

Ignore Sameer…

He stepped back a little, “no, we can’t. And how many times do I need to tell you that I am not your boyfriend?”

“But you can be”, she immediately countered.

He picked up his bag, “sorry. Not interested…”

Eager to take a shower and be far away from Tanvi, he almost ran to his bike. As he sped down the road, just by chance he took a turn in a lane, and cursed… This led to Naina’s school. No, he didn’t want to see her again. He stopped intending to turn back, but just then heard two rings of cycle bell. His head snapped up so fast, that he might have got a crick in his neck…. And there she was… Cycling towards him, along with Preeti beside her. Why this way? Her home is on the other side. However it was obvious that the bell hadn’t been for him. She didn’t even notice him as she crossed and he closed his eyes feeling disappointment and anger both.

Of course she didn’t see you Sameer… She ended the game… remember?

Driven by impulse he turned around and sped past her, honking twice. He didn’t turn to look, but the rearview mirror confirmed that she had heard it and looked up… He was satisfied on seeing her mouth fall open and cycle wobble a bit.

So she still remembers you. Good for her.

Ignore… Ignore… Ignore…

He increased his speed and soon was back on main road. Upon reaching home he took a quick shower, had lunch and then called up his friends to discuss plan for evening and next day.

On the other side Naina and Preeti stood at a big stationery store, buying things for their project and Naina wondered what was Sameer up to. Though they had seen each other a few times none had reacted, but today he had honked again. Had he wanted to talk? And if he had then why didn’t he stop? In this one month she had even spotted the “S” inscribed beside her own initial on her desk. Enraged she had tried to scratch it off but Swati and Preeti hadn’t let her, finding it too amusing to tease her with it. And just because they knew Naina would never listen to them, they had made her swear upon friendship that she will not scratch off the initial. The persistently glaring “S” on her desk had made her think about him quite often in the past month, and once especially when their trustee Mr. Maheshwari had come over to school. He had seen her and recognized her immediately, and they had chatted for ten minutes. He had not mentioned about Sameer, and she had not asked. Instead they had talked about the upcoming interschool fest. This was a special initiative by the state government where 11^th and 12^th grade students of every school in Ahmedabad participated in a series of contests including debate, exhibitions, sports and several other activities, finally the top three winning schools were narrowed down in terms of points scored by students of each school. Every year two school were chosen to host the event in partnership.

It was for this contest that she was also preparing for, as she had chosen to participate in science exhibition and debate both. Preeti was participating in singing and speech competition, while Swati had chosen debate and dancing. Arjun bhaiya was only going to be part of cricket tournament as he was the captain of their school team. She deliberately pushed thoughts of Sameer aside, though the incident in afternoon still confused her, and focused on her project for exhibition.

Next day was Sunday, and Chachaji had decided to take them out for some shopping and dinner at Law Garden. Naina and Preeti dressed up, excited to go shopping. The lush green lawns of Law Garden always attracted her and she couldn’t help but spend some time over there whenever she visited. That evening was no different as they reached a little early and immediately Naina demanded to go the garden. She removed her sandals and walked bare-feet, enjoying the feel of grass against her sensitive sole. Preeti was more interested in eating, so she asked her family to go on and said she would join them in few minutes. Left on her own she strolled around the perimeter, thinking of nothing in particular. Suddenly a whiff of smoke wafted through the air, and she wrinkled her nose… how she hated the smell of cigarette. God knows why people smoked. Maybe they thought it made them look cool, but she thought it made them look foolish because they were literally puffing out their lungs with each circle of smoke they blew. She ignored the smell and increased her pace but just then a familiar name caught her attention.

“Sameer… Let’s have another one before we eat.”

Naina whirled on the spot and saw the three boys beneath a tree, puffing on cigarettes. The voice might have belonged to Munna or Pandit, she didn’t know for sure, but her eyes riveted on Sameer who was leaning against the tree with one leg bent supporting his booted foot on the trunk, and his expressions reflected that he felt stylish and cool. She had known from Kamya’s information that he smoked, yet why the sight shocked her so much she didn’t know.

Suddenly Munna noticed her, “oh shit… Look who’s here.”

Sameer glanced in that direction and immediately straightened, and he didn’t know why he felt the need to hide the cigarette behind his back. He saw that her gaze was transfixed on him, and he found it too odd, too unsettling.

What was she doing here anyway? That too alone… Didn’t she know that boys lurked around in this park in evening?

He walked up to her and gently said, “you should not be here.”

She took a moment before asking, “why?”

His eyes roamed around the garden trying to spot errant boys in every corner he could see, and then fixed on her again, “it isn’t safe for girls to roam here alone at this time. There are many… well… you could call them bad boys here. They would not have much good intentions…”

Her lips curled up in a sarcastic smile, and she scanned him head to toe, “bad boys… indeed… I can see that.”

His eyes widened in surprise, but before he could answer back, she had fled from there. It was the first time he had seen her in normal dress and not a uniform. The blue frock and two ponytails made her look like a kid instead of a teenager, a tiny girl who needed protection. He had forgotten that she could spit fire not just with her eyes but words too. So… after stupid, childish, silly, boring, now he was a bad boy too. Well… who cared. He only hesitated a little bit before bringing the cigarette up to his lips again, but somehow the expensive stick had lost its taste, at least for today. Cursing he dropped the cigarette on a mud patch, and stubbed it with his foot, “enough for today. Let’s go eat.”

Pandit looked at Munna, “don’t you think he is affected a lot by her?”

Munna glanced at Sameer once to check he was out of hearing range, “yes he is. I wonder why. She is not even his type. I mean… he royally ignores Tanvi who is the most beautiful girl in our school, but cannot ignore this Naina Agarwal.”

“You think we should keep an eye on her?” Pandit enquired. “Just so we know how she really is, apart from being good at pranks.”

Munna watched Sameer standing with his fists clenched, staring at Naina and her family in the distance; and sighed, “yes, maybe we should do that.”

Naina was lost while they were shopping, and didn’t pay much attention to what they bought. Seeing Sameer smoke shouldn’t have bothered her, yet it had… and then his concern… she wondered if it was genuine, or he was just trying to be a hero. Maybe it was hero syndrome… he was smoking, feeling all cool and trendy, and then felt that next up in line would be protecting the damsel in distress. Well… she was not that. And he could just… Gaah… She felt so frustrated.

Sameer didn’t even notice that the pav-bhaji was spicier than usual, and kept thinking about Naina terming him as a bad boy. Did she even understand what he had meant? Just because he was smoking she categorized him in that kind of group. Or worse she understood what he had meant and still classified him like that. Why did he even have to talk with her? Hadn’t he decided that he needed to stay away and ignore?

He paid the bill for the dinner, popped a gum in his mouth and sauntered over to buy some cold drinks while his friends chattered about the cricket match. On his way back, he held two bottles in left hand, and sipped from his own bottle using his right hand. Suddenly he stumbled over a rock, and choked on the barely there sip he had taken, and somehow also lost the gum from his mouth. He managed to save himself and the bottles, and looked around to check where he had dropped the gum. It might get stuck on someone’s shoe, he needed to pick it up and discard properly. But even though he looked around for several minutes he couldn’t spot it.

Just then he heard Preeti’s voice call out for her sister, “Naina… listen…”

Leave Sameer… It is no use seeing her or talking to her.

Without looking in that direction, he left from there, not realizing the prank destiny had played on him.

Naina was waiting in queue for the papdi-chaat she had ordered when she heard Preeti’s voice. She watched her sister hurry up to her, and asked, “what happened?”

Preeti huffed, “can we order two dishes?”

Naina rolled her eyes, “I already ordered one, and it is taking so long that I am almost ready to let go of it.”

Preeti chuckled patting her back, and frowned, “what’s this sticky thing?” She pulled her hand back and then gasped, “eww shit… It is a chewing gum.”

“What!?!?” Naina yelped. She pulled her ponytail forward and looked at the small round gum stuck in it, her voice miserable, “oh no… what will we do now?”

“I will bring mummy, you wait”, Preeti said and rushed back.

Naina stood there dejected, trying to free her hair, and then she heard something that made her freeze to the spot.

“Another chewing gum?” Munna asked, “where’s the one you just ate?”

Sameer replied, “It fell… somewhere.”

It was him!

She couldn’t believe what she heard, and so she looked up to confirm. And there he was… striding past her, dressed in jeans and checked shirt, and pretending as if she didn’t exist, acting as if he didn’t really know where the gum fell or rather he threw…

He was so annoying. The last whole month she had been confident that things had ended, and she had nearly managed to forget everything, even the way he had held her hand. But today… he had started the game again. Or maybe it was from yesterday when he had honked twice… had it been his signal to let her know that he was coming back again? She didn’t know… But he had started the game again; and this time it was much more serious than before.

Naina came out of her thoughts when Bela arrived. She exclaimed in anger over the nerve of people doing such things, and said there was no other way apart from cutting her hair. As they took the dish of chaat and made their way to Chachaji, Naina slowly whispered to Preeti, “I know who did it… him.”

Preeti was surprised, “again?”

Naina’s eyes gleamed, “yes, and I know how to return the favor.”

Next day, Naina sneaked inside St. Peter’s once again during break time, armed with a scissor and cut through every wire she could spot on his bike. Her fury didn’t vent in just one cut…  She imagined how the parlor lady had to snip at her hair for so much time, and she equated it by cutting most of the wires into tiny pieces until they lay around on the floor.

When Sameer saw his bike at the end of the day he couldn’t believe it. No. It couldn’t be… Not her. Not again… He left Munna and Pandit staring at the bike in horror and ran at full speed up to her school. She was just exiting on her cycle, he stood in front, forcing her to brake, and grabbed the handle bar as soon as she stopped, the front tyre of her cycle half between his legs.

“Tell me you didn’t do it”, he hissed leaning towards her, his eyes glittering.

Naina eyes also glittered, the intensity matching with his, “yes, I did.”

He snarled, “why? We had decided it was over.”

“It was”, she declared, “until you played that cheap trick yesterday. And now move away… I don’t want to talk to you.”

He didn’t know what she was talking about, and right then in his anger he didn’t even care. Rather he warned her, “I was not doing anything… but now… you better watch out. Play with fire and you shall get burned Naina.”

She smirked, “thanks for the warning Sameer… would be interesting to see who gets burned.”

His nostrils flared once, and he swallowed, then left her cycle, stepping back to let her go. As he walked back, he felt thrilling energy flow through his body after one whole month, and wondered just one thing… Did she get a haircut?

This marked the beginning of a journey of pranks… they were not frequent as before, but definitely more impactful than before. If he added pepper in her drink, she dumped excessive salt in his halwa. If she tripped him into mud, he made sure to punch holes in her umbrella so she would be all wet in rain. If he dismantled whatever screws he could find in her cycle and hid the parts all over her school, she somehow managed to paint his bike in shocking pink color. What they never noticed was that somehow they ended up watching over each other too. When she tripped him into a muddy puddle, she hung around to see that he wasn’t hurt in anyway. When she cycled home, wet in rain, he followed her at some distance to see that she safely reached. Just like pulling pranks on each other became a habit, watching over each other without expressing it also became a habit. And as the number of pranks increased with passing months, the anger inside them started to fade and turn into a sort of companionable acceptance and gradual smiles when they came face-to-face.

The month of December and January brought the rounds of several competitions in the interschool fest. Each competition of fest was held in different schools, and Naina’s debate competition was in another English medium school. It was not hard for her to win it, but what she didn’t know was that Sameer had come over to watch and was rather surprised on hearing her speak so fluently. She also didn’t know that he clapped the hardest when she won. That day when she saw Sameer at the end of school she lifted her trophy to show him, and he grinned at her showing thumbs-up from distance before speeding away. That was the kind of relationship they had developed. It was not necessary for them to talk, but still somehow they managed to convey anger and happiness both; and of course the pranks never stopped for a long period of time. It was as if pulling pranks on each other, continuously challenging each other, gave them energy.

And finally it was time for the cricket match between PVKM and St. Peters, which was to be held on the grounds of PVKM. From the list of team members, Naina had gotten to know that Sameer was the captain of St. Peters team. Now she didn’t know who to cheer for… Well, of course she would always cheer for PVKM, but if Arjun bhaiya hadn’t been their school captain then she might have felt some amount of excitement of seeing Sameer perform. But now… she schooled her mind to remember that her loyalties should lie with her school.

The big common room had been given to the players for final prep before the match, and no one except the teachers and prefects had access to this room. Naina being the prefect had full access naturally, which she used. Twenty minutes before the match started she entered the room armed with a small box and a spoon. She spotted Arjun bhaiya in one corner with his team, but what she hadn’t anticipated was seeing Sameer in the same room too. He was in the other corner with his own team.

She gulped at his sight… somehow he looked different… more grown up. He was dressed in all white with St. Peters logo on his back in deep blue and his name printed just over it. His arms were slung over the backs of other two team mates as he discussed some probable strategy and Naina could see the bulge of his biceps. She had never noticed him so much in uniform, but now he seemed to be very tall, and his legs looked so long. His hair of course was his best feature, but his side profile that she could see also looked… well… great.

“Naina”, Arjun called, “what are you doing here?”

She jerked, “uhh… I came to meet you bhaiya.” A quick glance at Sameer told her that he had heard and was looking at her now. He gave a slight nod, and started talking to his team again, but now he positioned himself in a way that he could see Naina.

Arjun asked impatiently, “what is it? You shouldn’t be here… It’s all boys.”

“Prefects are allowed to come in”, she replied calmly.

Arjun snapped, “I don’t care. You shouldn’t be here… I don’t trust them.” He gestured to the boys from other school. Naina saw Sameer scowl, and stated, “bhaiya… they might hear you. And I will leave from here, just came to give you this.”

He looked at the small box, “what is this?”

“Sweet curd”, Naina replied, and opened the box, scooping up a full spoon, “here… it is for luck.”

Arjun accepted it, but added, “I don’t believe in all this. I am the best player, you know that right… And I will win.”

Instinctively she looked at Sameer again, as she knew he didn’t like challenges, and sure enough he was staring at Arjun bhaiya with narrowed eyes and determined expression. She smiled, “yes… you are the best bhaiya. But no need to jinx it. Good luck.”

Arjun shrugged and left, and his team followed. Sameer stared at her for some time, before commanding his team, “let’s go guys.”

Naina stood aside for Sameer’s team to leave, and watched her brother and his team move to the ground. She smiled, and started to close the tiffin. But just as she took out the spoon from the curd someone held her hand, and she gasped in surprise to see Sameer in-front of her. She hadn’t noticed that he had not left. She opened her mouth to ask something, but he used the hold on her hand to lift it up and closed his mouth over the spoon, licking off the curd.

“Umm”, he licked his lips, “could have added a bit more sugar. It is not sweet enough.”

She found her voice back, “what did you do? And leave my hand.”

He smiled and left her hand, “I just ate the curd you brought for good luck.”

“It wasn’t for you”, she huffed, “it was for Arjun bhaiya.”

He leaned against the wall, “in war you wish luck to both the sides and say that may the best one win.”

She frowned, “war? It’s just a school competition… a fest… not a war.”

His mouth curled in a lopsided grin, “Oh Naina… this might not be war”, he said gesturing to him and her, and then gestured to the cricket ground and added, “but that is definitely a war.”

“I don’t understand”, she stated.

“I know”, he declared fondly, “but I understand and so does your brother. You remember the day when we started this game again, when I came to talk to you, and we decided to see who gets burned at the end?”

She nodded, and he continued, “this match is just like that… only a bit more intense.”

She understood it now. He meant it was a challenge that either side was going to try and win in every way they could. They wouldn’t cheat, but they wouldn’t show mercy either.

Sameer watched her gaze at the ground, and was slightly surprised at how smooth her skin looked up close. The only time he had been this close to her was on that day when he had leaned towards her in anger, but at that time he hadn’t really noticed her features. But now he did… she had big almond shaped eyes, whisky brown in color, smooth skin, pinkish lips, sharp little nose and her hair was black but still dipped in oil… coconut oil to be exact, he thought inhaling the smell… The new hairstyle however made her hair look less sticky; maybe it was good she cut her hair, although the length was too short now. He softly asked, “won’t you wish me luck?”

She enquired, “why me? Didn’t your girlfriend wish you luck with curd?”

He smirked, “no… she kissed me luck.”

“Eww… Gross”, she imitated puking.

He laughed aloud, but then asked again, “so…?”

Naina looked back at him, and bit her lip, debating in her mind as to what she should do. He expected to feel angry, but somehow only felt a little disappointed. Giving a slight smile, he straightened and started to leave. However, just before he stepped out of the room, she called him, “Sameer…”

He paused and turned. She walked up to him and extended her hand, “good luck.” He smiled and shook her hand, “thanks Naina. I am sure your luck is going to work.” They both looked down at their joined hands for a brief moment, before pulling back.

Both teams played well, and no one could say that the match was one sided. Arjun’s team batted first, and he put up an impressive 75 on the score board, taking up the team total to 180. Munna’s ball stopped Arjun’s scoring track, and the St. Peter’s team celebrated it by almost squishing Munna to the ground. After the break, Sameer opened batting with another boy called Ravi for their team. Naina didn’t want to be actively involved but she couldn’t help it. Whenever Sameer hit a boundary she clutched Swati’s hand, and pursed her lips to control herself from cheering. Twice when he almost came close to being caught out, she squeezed her eyes shut silently praying to God. Once he had to run and then dive to avoid being run out… As he slid on the ground, his bat extended to touch the white line, Naina gasped, her hand over her mouth and all she could think was he would be hurt. But when Sameer stood up, brushed his clothes and signaled to his partner that he was okay, Naina also breathed a sigh of relief.

Sameer seemed unstoppable; he continued till the end of match and ended it with a winning six. The uproar that vibrated through the St. Peter’s stands nearly shook the whole stadium. Naina hugged Swati in excitement, and then frowned; trying to evaluate how the happiness of Sameer’s win was overshadowing her sadness for Arjun Bhaiya’s loss. Swati looked at her friend and smiled, understanding her state of mind. Sometimes the person who was in the middle of an emotional change didn’t realize what was happening, but it was very easy for a third person to observe and understand. Swati wondered if she should talk to her friend, but then remembered how stubborn Naina can be, and so chose to stay silent and let destiny play its cards.

The St. Peter’s team had lifted Sameer in air, and from top of everyone’s shoulders he kept looking around until he spotted Naina… She looked lost. Was she sad that her brother didn’t win? But before he could evaluate further, Naina looked up and their eyes met… It didn’t even take a second for a wide smile to bloom on her face, and Sameer felt the rush of his winning six anew as he grinned back at her. During the presentation ceremony when he collected the trophy he again caught her eye, and raised it a bit as if trying to show it to her. She grinned and signaled wonderful using her fingers, making him beam with pride. When Sameer came down from stage, Naina saw a girl run up to him and cling to his arm… She wondered who the girl was, maybe his girlfriend, the one who had kissed him luck… She didn’t wait to confirm, rather turned and left to go meet Arjun bhaiya.

Munna and Pandit noticed all this silent exchange between Sameer and Naina, and then smiled at each other. It was becoming too evident now that somehow Naina had become important for Sameer, maybe he didn’t realize it yet, but something was changing. They had spent a lot of time in these months to observe Naina and find out things about her. They knew that she went to temple every Monday; she loved her family a lot especially her Chachaji; even though she was mischievous she was good at studies; she was an obedient girl at home; she didn’t have much freedom but whatever she had she utilized well; her family was conservative and very strict. It would not be wrong to say that they approved of her; only thing they didn’t know was what she felt for Sameer. Their friend was like their brother, they knew how much he had been through since childhood, and they didn’t want him to have feelings for someone who would break his heart. That is one reason that sometimes when they saw Sameer lost in thoughts, even though they felt sure he was thinking of Naina, they never asked him about it. If something was meant to happen, it would happen in its own time… Till then they could just wait and watch.

Sameer somehow managed to extract himself from the clinging hands of Tanvi, and went to his friends. After a brief congratulatory hug, he thrust the team trophy to Munna, “here hold this. I will be back.” Before they could question something he sped away with his man of the match trophy, going inside the school building to look for Naina. He didn’t know why he was doing that but the sight of her turning and running away from the crowd didn’t bode well with him. It didn’t take much effort to locate her; she was in the courtyard that spread in the middle of the school, standing near the water taps with her brother. He hid behind a pillar and shamelessly eavesdropped.

Arjun seemed to be in a bad mood, “just go away Naina; I don’t want to talk to anyone.”

“Calm down bhaiya”, Naina pacified, “it is just a game.”

Arjun raged, “not just a game… it was the final match of this tournament. We put in so much effort to reach here… and then… all because of that rich brat… Our trustee’s grandson…”

In war you wish luck to both the sides and say that may the best one win.

Naina recalled Sameer’s words and sighed, “I don’t understand what you mean. It was a competition out there… Our team and Sameer’s team both did their best… They won because their best was little bit better than our team’s best.”

“How do you know his name?” Arjun snapped “And how dare you favor him?”

Behind the pillar Sameer stiffened. Naina however didn’t feel scared, “I know his name from the team manual. And I am not favoring anyone. I am just stating facts. I have seen you play all these years, and I know that for the last two overs before you got out, you played at a very slow pace… probably because you were tired, or because you wanted to be cautious. Maybe if you had played your usual shots then we would have scored more and it would have been difficult for St. Peters to catch up.”

Arjun didn’t seem to take it well, “are you trying to say that we lost because of my performance…? I put up the best scores.”

Naina was losing her patience, “the best was Sameer’s 90, and you also know very well that if he had stuck there on the crease still needing to score he would have made a century. I am not criticizing your performance or praising his… what I am saying is that instead of cursing fate or Sameer, you should be with your team right now because they are also dispirited and they need their captain to tell them that they played well, and there’s always a next time.”

Sameer was surprised and impressed at the way Naina was talking, and it seemed as if she did understand the game, because he too had noticed that Arjun wasn’t playing up to the mark for some overs. However, Arjun didn’t seem to be impressed with his sister, and glared at her, “you don’t need to tell me what to do. Can you imagine what will Papa say?” Then he stormed off from there without waiting to hear if his sister had anything more to say.

Sameer waited for half a minute, and then stepped out from behind the pillar. She heard his footsteps and looked back. He saw her eyes widen, but she held her ground, and asked, “what are you doing here?”

Was he here to look for you?

“I came to drink water”, he replied and moved past her to one water tap. Keeping the trophy on the cemented parapet, he opened the tap and started to drink. From the corner of his eyes he saw Naina slowly lift her hand and touch the small trophy. But when he straightened, she hastily pulled back her hand.

“It’s okay, you can see”, he said softly.

She smiled slowly, “congratulations… must be feeling good.”

“It usually does”, he replied.

She hesitantly moved towards him, then closed the tap that he had left open, and again asked, “why are you here? There’s water in the team room for all players… you need not be here.”

He didn’t toy around further, “you left from the grounds.”

Oh… so he was here for her.

She nodded, “I clapped for you… but then I needed to be with my brother.”

“He doesn’t appreciate you, and neither your efforts and thoughts”, Sameer declared.

Naina shrugged, “he is family, and you don’t know him well enough to judge his words.”

Sameer thought about it for a moment before saying, “it is not necessary that everyone in family likes one another.”

She wondered about the meaning behind his words, but didn’t ask. Instead she replied, “maybe… but then if you are family you always watch out for one another.”

“So do friends”, he supplied.

“Yes”, she agreed, “so do friends.”

He wanted to know if she left from the grounds because of Tanvi, and so he again asked, “why did you leave?”

She thought about the girl almost hugging him, and repeated, “I told you… I had to see my brother.” Before he could interrogate further, she asked, “Sameer… How would you have felt if you had lost today?”

He again took some time to reply, but did it honestly, “I would have been seriously pissed. Probably storming around, trying to think what made us lose the match, until Munna and Pandit would have knocked some sense in me, and of course told me that I was the best out there.”

Naina laughed aloud at the last bit, but she appreciated his honesty. It was obvious he had overheard the conversation between her and Arjun, but he was not trying to pretend that he was better or perfect in any sense. She enquired further, “and then…?”

This time also he replied honestly, “then I would have gone to talk to my team, and we would curse the winning team some, and then grudgingly accept that they played well. We would eat together like we always do in the evenings of match days, and then the next day we would all come up with our observations on where we went wrong.”

“Impressive”, Naina smiled.

Sameer shrugged, “not really. It took me a lot of time to learn this and again a lot of time to put it into practice. And I still rage around until my friends calm me. But, I guess next time would be different.”

She was puzzled, “why?”

He smiled, “because someone just explained to me very clearly for the first time that both teams do their best, it is just a matter of whose best was better.”

She chuckled, “sounds like a good teacher.”

“The best”, he declared, “but needs to improve her pranks. That bread-jam with neem paste hidden inside was an idiotic one.”

“Hey”, she replied hotly, “it was good… and your face was worth seeing. And what would you tell about the prank of replacing my normal shoes with squeaky ones. That was si… umm… like an ass.”

His eyebrow quirked, “ass?”

She nodded, “yes… you hate all the normal words and yell at them… so ass it is.”

He laughed, “alright… I think I can tolerate being called an ass sometimes.” His eyes suddenly glittered with mischief, and he tilted his head sideways, as if trying to see something behind her.

She queried, “what are you doing?”

“Trying to see your ass”, he replied nonchalantly.

She gasped and moved backwards, plastering herself to the tap stand, “stop it.”

He tried to look confused, “what? An ass can see another ass.”

“Go see your girlfriend’s ass”, she suggested, “seeing as she can’t stay away from you, I don’t think she would mind.”

Ahan… so he was right… that was why she had left the grounds.

His lips quirked, “jealous, are you?”

Her eyes flashed, “like hell…” She tried to leave from there, but he was quick… He caught her hand and tugged, making her stumble and come quite close to him. Their eyes met, and time seemed to stand still, his hand still closed over her forearm. Silence permeated the environment. But it seemed as if her senses sharpened, she could feel each of his fingers; hear the bees buzzing over the flowers, the gentle rustling of leaves mixed with his breathing. While for him it seemed as if all his senses muted and focused only on the girl who was standing inches away from her. Somehow in that moment he was not bothered about her oily pigtails, but rather seemed fascinated with the color of her eyes.

She came out of the trance first, “leave my hand.”

He lowered his eyes, but didn’t leave her hand. Instead he pulled out a somewhat squished chocolate from his trouser pocket, and offered it to her, “I had thought I would give this to you if I won.”

She resisted, “you don’t go around giving chocolates to everyone. And we are not friends.”

He nodded, “yeah, we are not friends… yet you were genuinely happy for me when I won. This is just for whatever relation we share… I don’t know what to name it as.”

She hesitated a bit, but then accepted the chocolate, and eyed him suspiciously, “you haven’t mixed anything in this… right?”

He laughed, and left her hand, stepping back a bit, “no… you can trust me somewhat.” As he picked up his trophy and left saying he should be with his team and that he would see her later, she stood gazing at his retreating back, thinking about what he said, and murmured, “I don’t know why… but I do.”