Lost and Found

Rasika entered her classroom and quickly took a seat beside Saloni. She bent down to check the desk and to her immense relief the diary was still there. She pulled it out to keep it in her bag itself. "what is that?" Saloni asked her. "oh, this is Vihaan's diary." she replied. For a while she was silent "okay... who Vihaan?" she asked. Rasika chuckled and answered "the boy I met in the garden yesterday. I told you." Saloni nodded "yeah but you said you didn't know his name." Rasika replied "He told me and I forgot. But today morning he told me again-" "you met him this morning too?" Saloni cut in. "umm, yeah." She stated flatly. But the reaction of her friend was not flat. "oh. my. god" she said with her eyes bulged out and her hands on her chest. "You got an admirer." she said and squeezed Rasika's shoulders.

But Rasika shrugged her hands away. "what even." she said as she placed his diary back in her bag. "no Rasi-" Saloni began but Rasika silenced her by putting a finger in her lips. "You should use the time you spend overthinking to cope up with your lack of sleep." She said. Saloni removed her finger from her mouth and stood up, with one hand on her chest and other hanging in the air pointed towards particularly nothing she said "Don't ignore thou cousin's words you dumb soul, for the lad truly admires thee." Rasika looked at her with a bored face and asked "are you doing drugs by any

chace?" Saloni huffed and sat down. "but like see, he calls you pretty, waits for you just to walk with you, openly states he had noticed you... he is dropping hints stupid." she persisted. "whatever" Rasika dismissed her with a wave of hand.

"Rasika.." Saloni whined.

"Saloni..." Rasika mocked.

"fine. stay single for the rest of your life." she said angrily. "woah woah... we are just 15 there's literally the whole life in front of us." Rasika said dumb founded by her friend's paranoia. "yeah but we are 15, it's completely natural to have a crush." she insisted. "I think as a student our topmost priority should be studying." Rasika defended. "who says it's not, but like besides studying... it's really fun you know." Saloni said raising her eyebrows. Rasika huffed "fine, he has a crush on me. so what?" "so nothing... you should find out yourself." Saloni said as she shrugged. Rasika sighed in relief as the topic finally closed. After three lectures it was recess time so she decided to go to the lost and found centre. "you can just give him when you meet him." Saloni suggested. "no!" Rasika exclaimed "then he would know that I knew about it and I lied on his face." Saloni hummed in agreement "but since when did you care what people think about you?" she asked. "are you coming or should I leave?" Rasika threatened her and that shut her up.

Rasika was about to reach but from the opposite side she saw Vihaan coming as well. "oh god" she said and quickly hid behind a pillar. "what happened?" Saloni whispered. "Vihaan is there, he is asking for the diary." she replied. Saloni's eyes drifted to look at him and when she did, she almost screamed. "what are you doing?" Rasika whisper scolded her as she dragged her back to the staircase and headed upwards towards their classroom. "When you said Vihaan you meant this Vihaan?" she asked. "yeah, what is wrong with you?" Rasika said irritatingly. "That hotshot has a crush on you?" she said. "oh please keep it low, if any teacher hears you..." Rasika motioned her index finger slicing her throat. "and no one has a crush here." she said. "and what's so special about him?"

Saloni crossed her arms. "for once get engage in the gossips. I think he is quite popular, I don't know but maybe a lot of girls have a crush on him." she explained. "he is overly sarcastic." Rasika stated. and then she suddenly realised that now she cannot give the diary back in the lost and found centre since he probably won't search there again. "oh god, now how do I give this back?" she asked.

"he had lost it so tell him you found it." Saloni simply stated. "yeah sure." Rasika said before going back to the classroom. "he likes you so he won't be angry." she said. "oh please, don't start with that shit again. he surely doesn't." Rasika scolded her. "then let's check his diary, he must have written about it." Saloni suggested.'he actually wrote about his love' Rasika thought remembering the first few lines she read. "mad or what? reading someone's personal diary? it's so... " she couldn't find the right word to describe it. "it's not, not when he has written about you." Saloni insisted. "oh please, stop being delusional and tell me what to do." Rasika pleaded. Saloni thought for a while before saying the plan "okay, I have a friend in his class and I can just ask when they have P.T. or ICT, where they will have to leave the class. we could just slip the diary in the class rack." listening to her plan Rasika heaved a sigh. "finally, you said something useful." Saloni hit her playfully "I never say useless things." Rasika rolled her eyes at that "sure"

As usual Rasika was walking from that silent paradise of hers. This time she made sure to pack his diary. "hey there!" a voice made her look up. Vihaan was leaning against a wall as he flashed a smile at her. "hi" she said timidly. He started walking along side her. "were you waiting for me?" she asked him and immediately felt like slapping herself. "yeah, I like having company of a friend." he said. 'oh so now we are friends' she thought. "so friend, did you find your treasure?" she asked. "don't tell me you forgot my name again." he said and she rolled her eyes again "I remember it's Vihaan." he gasped "I knew it... it's Sourabh." he said and that made her stop in her tracks. "what?" she asked. With all seriousness he said "yeah, I was just kidding." That took her a while to register and as soon as she realised he bursted laughing. "oh god... you should have seen your face.. don't worry, you remembered correctly." he said still laughing and that made her smile too. Seeing her smile he stopped slowly "you should smile more." he said. That caught her off guard and she felt blood rush to her cheeks. she cleared her throat rather awkwardly and started walking again. "so did you find your diary?" she repeated her question although she knew the answer. He sighed sadly "no... looks like all my works are really lost." he said. Hearing that she really felt guilty. "don't worry, you will find it soon."