Chapter 1: Something Insane

Have you ever been privileged enough to witness a scene that's insane yet incredibly suave at the same time?

Well, Mira Mohan had.

In all her high school life, Mira had crushes on numerous guys. But she never really said anything or did anything about those feelings. They weren't strong enough so they consequently disappeared.

But on entering eleventh grade, she was completely infatuated by this one guy.

He was none other than the school topper.

Sort of shy and innocent looking, yet he was savage when he crushed everyone around him in the fields of academics and sports. A name which sent sparks of jealousy as well as admiration, Abhinav Bansal.

The worst part though, was that his best friend was a kid with a completely different personality. A prefect, he was the best speaker in the entire school with uncountable awards to his name. A "knight in shining armor" called Apoorv Gupta.

Why was he the worst part?

Because he was the guy Mira did not like.

But she was a person who could have the most crushes in a lifetime and still end up single. She couldn't care less about being noticed by people. All she cared about was noticing them. And everything else would be normal. Or something like that.

So she did nothing about her feelings and just observed from a distance.

Obviously her friends didn't care much about such stuff either. Kind of… At least, her best friend Kriti didn't.

Besides, they had way too many other things to do, like study, study and study.

Now, she wasn't the type to talk to guys on her own. Not at all. Obviously you must've understood that part of her personality by now. She was a genuinely benign kid who would lend and share things with the other gender and the interaction that took place during that exchange was all that she ever participated in. Mostly.

So, not a popular girl.

Although that didn't mean she couldn't strike up a conversation with absolutely anybody if she wanted to. But she'd rather indulge herself in extreme book reading than go over and manipulate the guys she liked into talking with her and continue talking till the end of eternity like the so- called popular girls from the other sections did and the guys so ceremoniously fell into their traps every time. Ugh.

So she usually sat in her seat and completed her work. Boring and usual.

But it all changed one day when she got herself in an insanely awkward situation to make the people she didn't want to notice her, notice her the most.

"So you're participating in the inter school poetry competition, right?" Asked Kriti, the best friend.

"Yup. It's day after tomorrow. We're going to DPS, R.K Puram." Mira said, flipping through her physics notes, pen in the other hand.

"Who's going with you?" Asked the other, eyes on the chemistry textbook.

"What do you mean? The teachers and the other students who're participating in the other events obviously."

"No, I mean your partner, Mira. Who's the other kid in your event?"

"The poetry competition is a pair event?" She asked dubiously.

"It isn't?"

"Nanditha Ma'am never said anything about it to me actually. She just said I'm participating and it's this Saturday."

"Well then," Kriti closed her book, "I dunno. I just think someone mentioned it being a pair event. Every school requires sending two kids for it. Forget it then."

Mira made a mental note to confirm things with her English teacher later.

"How's your brother doing by the way?" She said to Kriti. "He's fine. He sent me a picture of the campus yesterday. I'll show it the next time you come over."

"Obviously."

Kriti's brother, Kanishk was three years older than them. He was currently in his first year at Manipal University, Karnataka. A former student of Apeejay NOIDA, he used to be the head boy. He had a special talent of befriending anyone wherever he went. Probably one of the reasons why he had many contacts at Apeejay that helped him earn said golden batch. For example, Apoorv. Both of them had been integral parts of the student council since the beginning.

The day was as normal as normal could be. And by now you must've guessed that Mira was a poetess. She loved reading and writing—her ultimate hobbies.

Suddenly someone spoke up behind her.

"Abhinav!"

Her ears perked up. But she did not look up.

The girl who had called out rose from her seat and walked over to where Abhinav stood near the doorway (for he had just entered the classroom).

"Help me with this question." She asked in the dramatic tone some girls used to express their extreme distress for getting softer results. Sometimes.

There was a three second silence. And then—

"Why don't you ask Mira over there?" Replied Abhinav.

Mira put down the pen in her hand at the mention of her name. And looked up.

Their eyes met for a split second. Then Abhinav looked away.

Nina Sanon, the girl in distress, seemed genuinely disappointed while Abhinav walked over to his desk and sat down beside Apoorv.

Mira was too busy calculating whatever had happened right then so she forgot to flinch when Kriti waved a hand in front of her eyes. The principal's son from the neighboring class walked in right then, to put some checked notebooks on the teacher's table, glancing furtively at Mira before leaving.

"Can you believe her? She just wanted an excuse to talk to him. Girls like her ruin the rep of all others. Tsk." Kriti said and Mira turned to her. As expected, she looked back and saw that Sanon had sat back down in her seat, her doubt unanswered (if it was one).

Somehow she felt this weird mixture of happiness and jealousy in her heart.

For that was the first time, Abhinav had called her name since eleventh began. (Even though it was only the third week of April).

Like I said, he was a shy guy. He never even called anybody's name to address them, except his good friends.

And he knew Mira's name—

Moving on.

After the weird event at the start of the morning, the rest of it Mira spent immersed in the scientific depths of physics. Only when it was the period before recess, did she look up from her work again. And she had no idea how, but her eyes strayed over to where Abhinav was and she stared at his back for a few seconds. Observing him laugh along with his other friends, as merry and cheerful as cheerful could be.

That period was library period so they had to leave the class and journey to her favorite place in the school. A huge place filled with huge shelves of books arranged in lines with tiny spaces in between the aisles that diverged at ninety degrees. And the smell of books, old and new, everywhere. The place where Mira could stay foreve—

Anyways.

She greeted the librarian with a smile and a vibrant wish. Even though it was eleventh grade and she had not much time for anything other than studying, she could always find some time for reading. The other kids in her class, however, preferred to stay in class and do their stuff (mostly because they couldn't talk in the library).

Mira strode swiftly to the teen fiction section and began her search for a book by Anusha Subramaniam when the librarian called to say that she was heading out for a second and would return in a few minutes. She could be quite loud for a librarian.

When she left, Mira figured she was the only one left in the library.

Cool. She thought.

She'd found her book and had started walking back to her seat in the library (a seat by one of the windows at the back of the place), happily cherishing the fact that she'd got the whole library to herself, when her balloon was burst by a sound of silent laughter coming from the part of the deserted library she liked the best.

Okay then. Not the only person here, I guess. Damn. She thought.

Slightly dejected, she resumed walking to her seat and had only to turn a corner when she got a view of the only two other people in the place and immediately jumped behind the bookshelf lining their seat. Two guys. She hasn't seen their faces yet but she could tell they hadn't noticed her presence because they continued talking blissfully in low tones; huge textbooks open in front of them both.

Now she wasn't one to eavesdrop on people and she really was going to leave to walk to some other part of the huge place when a sudden silence that dawned on the two attracted her curiosity. Trying to put a foot on her unusual inquisitiveness, for she really wasn't the nosy type, she turned back to steal another peek at them just to confirm that they indeed hadn't passed out and were merely solving difficult math sums.

And she wished she hadn't.

The only way to describe such a scene as this would probably be to draw a picture of it maybe. But since this is a story and words are required—

In simple words, Abhinav Bansal, yes, the guy Mira liked the best in her class, the nerdiest yet coolest guy in all of eleventh grade, was either so engrossed in talking with the other guy with him that he'd forgotten to realize that their lips were touching or, he indeed was… kissing him.

At least three seconds passed. Three whole seconds, Mira counted, had passed until they regained a normal distance between them. All her other feelings were crushed. Like paper. Paper crushed into shabby paper balls.

She was at a loss of everything. Words, thoughts and actions. Her feet and eyes refused to move. Until the librarian's voice called her name to let her know she was back and she started, foolishly letting the book she was holding slip from her hands and make its resounding thud on the ground.

Shit!

Instantly, as if a switch had been turned on, the heads of the two boys shot up in her direction.

One, beautiful, beautiful Abhinav.

And the other guy, she identified as Vidit Pilani, a student of section D, not many laurels to his name. Just an identity. But now he was super important. And supposedly the school topper's frigging boyfrie—

She helplessly fumbled with the book on the floor, managing to pick it up at last.

Run. Run. Run. Run. Run.

And yet her stupid, stupid, heart directed her brain to direct the nerves to not work intelligently at all.

So instead, she stared at them. Like a broken doll.

Abhinav and Vidit stared back. Stricken like the tiny squares in a checklist. Possibly… terrified.

"We—"

"I—" Interjected the foolish girl, throwing her gaze away, "I was just passing by... continue doing whatever you were—I mean—don't mind me..." She blurted like a malfunctioning AI and started backtracking.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Abhinav got up.

"Wait, Mira—"

But she waited for none, turned and started walking faster—almost running, her heart thumping like the footsteps of a giant that hadn't eaten a thing for an entire century.

She did not look back until she had safely crossed the threshold of the "sacred" house of books after getting the quick consent of the librarian.

Right outside, she crashed into somebody.

"Jeez— watch where you're going!" He said.

She recognized the prefect's voice immediately as Apoorv tilted his head to take a better look at the staggered, panting girl.

"Uh… you okay there?"

Mira cast him an unfathomable look.

Your best friend is…

Did he know about it?

Maybe he did. He must. They were best friends. Or maybe not. But what was Abhinav thinking, doing something like that in the open where he could easily be seen… But then again, the library was empty, maybe he thought there was no one else there…

But Apoorv though…

She continued staring at him without realizing it, without realizing the proximity between them and how Apoorv kept closing in on her with his eyes just as fixated on her as hers on him.

"Is this a staring contest?" He said.

Mira snapped out of it. All thoughts ceased.

His face was inches away from hers.

She took a step back immediately.

"What? No."

Dumbhead.

She suddenly became conscious of how tall he was.

"No? Then were you appreciating my good looks?" He smirked, a bit more mockingly than intended.

And this was why she didn't like this guy. He was so goddamn arrogant. And tall. Ugh.

"Definitely not." She deadpanned.

The boy smiled, a bit more genuinely than intended.

"Then what's got you so ruffled up?" He continued.

Mira shook her head.

"Nothing, nothing."

They barely ever talked, what gave him the right to speak to her now as if they'd known each other forever?

She walked past him, resuming her sprint, her train of thoughts slowly sliding back in her mind's station.

Apoorv turned to look at her receding figure, considering her actions, contemplating her behavior.

While the whole time, only three concluding words echoed through Mira's head.

This is insane.

~ ~ ~ ~