CHAPTER DEAD END

Today being the farewell majority of the senior year students will be dropped off by their parents while some minority fools like me and Neha chose to walk. By the time we are climbing the 3rd slope I started realising what a grave mistake I made by rejecting my parents saying 'I'm not a kid. I know my way to school' when they offered to drop us off. At the time I was so confident after all I have been riding cycle daily with Neha to and from school from 6th standard onwards. There were even days were we walked the whole way just talking.

Hiking up when I almost fall face first on the road that's when I realise that heals wear made to stand and pose in not walk around gutters or disfigured roads. After walking for a while more Neha stops in her track and starts fiddling with her school bag over her shoulder. (Yes she had carried it on despite my threat of burning her hair)

As I watch her struggle to get the hand straps free from the sari I get convinced that directors of those movies where people fight octopus with large tentacles. They planned that scene after witnessing a similar incident. I wait for a while more to see if she makes any progress but seeing that in the next few seconds she'll successfully choke her self to death I take pity and join in the mission.

After a few minutes with both our team effort we managed to get the hand straps free from the sari without killing the sari or striping her naked. Taking the bag from my hand she starts digging around in it and pulls out a pair of shoes a few seconds later. And starts swiping them with her heels.

"Wha-- What's that?" I ask pointing at the shoes.

"They are shoes Jia." She tells me as if I'm a 3 year old.

"I know they are shoes. Where did that come from?!"

"I bought them so that I could change after a while. I told you from the starting itself that I don't want to wear heels." She says standing back up after changing

"But we made a deal that you would wear heels today right? More importantly why didn't you tell me you were bring a spare set?!"

"Because you wouldn't have agreed and if you knew you wouldn't have let me bring mine also." She reasons with me like reasoning to a child that after A its B.

"I would neve--- Ok maybe…. Then you should have secretly brought my shoes along with yours! Haven't you seen any dramas?" I ask feeling ignored.

"First of my bag is not a magic lamp to hide 2 pairs of sneakers and why would I secretly take your shoes. Secondly what sort of psycho shit are you watching?"

"It called romantic not psychotic, okay?"

"Jia in real world such people who secretly take others stuff are called thieves or perverts."

"I don't care…! I want shoes too."

"Sweetie do you see any Adidas store around here or some sort of arrow telling SHOE HERE. Where am I supposed to find shoes for you in this forest?" She points out.

"I don't know…. My legs all sore. I don't want to walk in heels anymore."

"Then we can take it slow. We'll  walk for bit then stop and take small breaks." Neha suggests trying to get me moving

"No way! When will we reach school if we walk like that? The farewells are today not next week." That was the last straw of her patience. Before I could make sense of anything her face turns a shade of dark red and purple and she blows up.

"Jia we are not even half way there! Are your planning on whining like this the whole day? YOU WERE THE ONE who insisted on wearing heels!" She points her finger at my heart emphasising each word with a poke to my ribs.

"You wanted to impress that idiot not me! Then you could have at least asked uncle to drop us off. But no..! If you keep being unreasonable like this then I swear I'll bury you in this forest and tell you parents you went in search of unicorn or some crap!! Understood?!"

I nod my head full speed making me a bit dizzy. If you know Neha then you would also know not to piss her off. While I was defenceless with a small bag full of useless shit who knew what else she had in that bag.

"Then walk." She orders before marching off in front of me

After walking in silence for a few minutes I turn my head to the side and call her.

"Neha…"

"Hmm…?" She answers without looking at me and keeps marching forward.

"Don't call Krishna an idiot." I say looking at any thing expect her face. When I look up at her after some time because she didn't respond. I see her watching me with her mouth half opened.

"Waaa…. Even after I threatened to kill you and after all that I said. That's the only thing you heard? Me calling him an idiot?" She says rubbing her face with both hands.

"No..!no… I heard the whole thing. Its just I don't like you calling him names. You know he's smart." I say pulling her hands to the side so that she doesn't ruin the light makeup that I managed to put on her. After fighting tooth and nail for weeks.

"If there's anything I know for sure that will be that your beyond repair."

"Neh--"

"Just walk Jia. That's better for your health." She said with a defeated look on her face

The rest of the way we walked silently beside each other. Even when she increased the pace or when the heels started digging into my calves. I made no complaints and followed her silently. Fully understanding that I was walking next to a nuclear weapon and if I did not handle it carefully it will go off taking me out with it.

And so after a long walk we finally reached school. I pull Neha to a stop a few feet away from the gate and try to straighten out her sari and do some fixing on her hair. When I start to pull out some makeup from my handbag she gives me the death glare. So I retreat.

The school ground where todays event will be held is bustling with colours of all shades and hue. While boys rock in their formal suits with sun dancing on their gelled hair and variety of ties. Girls look gorgeous with hair straightened, curled, pulled into different styles, nail painted to match their outfits. (I seriously don't know the name of half of their outfits)

Entering the school I start scanning for Krishna. And find him standing along with Sid Maier his best friend across the ground in the basketball court. (now transformed food court where the buffet is arranged) I take Neha's hands in mine so that we won't get separated in the crowd and start walking in the direction of the court. We take twice the time we would have normally taken to reach the court. Partly because we stopped in between to greet people and other partly cause we didn't want to trip and fall in the crowd.

"Hy Jia, you look as gorgeous as always." Sid says as a greeting when we reach them

"You know that if you weren't dating this idiot every guy in our school will be hitting on you right now, right?" He adds winking at me

"Hy Sid. You look nice too." I smile back at him

"Nice..? More like a mice who got run over by a truck." Neha retorts from my side shaking her head at his jeans

"Ohh….. Hy geek, didn't see you there. Well you look different. Decided to take a bath?" He greets her back with a Colgate smile

"Well at least I have a new look Frankenstein. What about you, want me to lend you some money or better I'll stitch it up for you." Neha offers pointing at his ripped jeans

"It's called fashion... Never mind, you geeks won't understand." He says adjusting glasses

"Ya actually, I don't understand nerds who inspite of wearing those thick glasses consider themselves fashionable." She deadpans

"You—"

"Now now you two. Don't fight today at least." I say breaking them both apart

"Ok…. Only because Jia told." Sid says stepping away from the battle position

"Or else wha--" She asks determined to see it to the end

"Neha be nice." I say holding her tight so that she doesn't get in his face

Sid and Neha has always been like this. I rarely see them taking to each other normally. If your caught between them during one of their battle always walk away or better if you can run, run with your life. After staring at both of them for a while. I turn and look at Krishna. He's wearing a full sleeved white shirt with cream pants. (Not the thin school uniform type where whatever you wear inside the shadow can be seen from outside but the more casual kind which has a different colour material inside the collar and handcuff)with sleeves rolled up to his elbow, no gel or tie. I would say he's the most handsome boy in our school.

"You look good." I manage without stuttering feeling my stomach explode with butterflies

"Thanks. You too." He says running his hands through his hair. A gesture that he always did when he was nervous.

Maybe he's as nervous as I am.

"We'll leave you love birds to talk then. Come on geek I'll show you how to eat food tha--" Sid said leaving us and pulling Neha along with him

"I don't want to come with yo--" I hear Neha's roar as they join the crowd

Those two never fail to make you laugh.

"You want to walk?" As I turn back from watching them Krishna asks me

I nod my head and we start walking away from the crowd in the opposite direction. After walking for a while when the silence starts getting some what awkward I start talking about the first thing that comes to my mind.

"You know I brought this sari for my cousin brother's marriage last vacation." I blabber without a second thought.

"You remember the one I told you about? Nora aunty the one who laughs like a parakeet? Her son. Anyway thank goodness, otherwise mom wouldn't have let me buy such an expensive one for farewells." I say as we walked through the trail that leads to the football ground. The football ground was a huge muddy playground at the very back of our school perimeters close to the woods.

We stop dead in our track seeing 3 garbage bin roped together with a sign on the middle one telling NO ENTRY.

"Ohh…. It's closed. I think the school doesn't trust us after what they did last year." I say looking at the barricade closing of the trial like a dead end.

Last year some of our seniors 'not to mention any names' where caught drinking in the football ground during farewells. You can imagine what followed.

"It's over." He says looking at me

"Not exactly, its just a few dustbin. If you want we can cross over or do you want to walk back?" I ask him pointing at the direction we came in

"Not that Jia. I meant this is finished." He says throwing his hand in air pointing at everything around us

"I know right. Even I can't believe our school life is over just like that. I'll really miss---" I say thinking he was upset about us leaving school

"Jia I mean we are over! I'm breaking up with you!" He says pointing in-between us