67. Familiar face
Seated on the bench were three extremely familiar faces.
The Principal introduced them "They are the new students. From left to right, Nishith Dey, Sreemanti Sanyal, Koushik Roy, Bikram Sen, Rishi Chatterjee..."
There were a total of fifty-seven students but Olivia did not hear the names of the rest. Her eyes stayed on the trio for a moment before she averted them.
"Okay so now let me introduce the Students Council members." The Principal said, "From right to left, this is Olivia Basu, the School Captain, Ritutandra Chowdhury, the School Vice Captain, Trayee Basak, the Club President, Nilambori Saha, the sports captain, Nidhi Sharma, the substitute School Captain, Arko Guho, the substitute VC, Parijat Mallick, the substitute Club President and Joy Dutta, the substitute Sports Captain."
Bikram was stunned to see the familiar face in front of him. The same white-haired girl with ghostly pale skin and cold grey eyes, whom he had been searching for. Up until now whose name he was unaware of.
"Ritutandra." He muttered softly feeling the name roll off his tongue.
He was so lost in thought that he did not hear what the Principal was talking about next. When he regained his senses the only thing he heard was the Principal saying that they could leave and so was confused about what to do next.
He turned to his right, nudged Koushik with his elbow and asked in a whisper "What did the Principal say? Where will we go?"
But he did not get an answer. Koushik was only staring ahead with his eyes narrowed and brows wrinkled deep in thought.
Bikram nudged him again "Hey."
"Huh?" Koushik asked in a daze.
He did not hear what Bikram said as his mind was occupied with something or rather someone. When he laid eyes on the person whom the Principal introduced as the School Captain he felt a strange familiarity from her. She looked quite like a person dear to him but also not. That is what bewildered him. That figure, look and aura reminded him of two people simultaneously. When Bikram nudged him the second time he broke out of his stupor.
"I asked where we are going?" Bikram repeated his question.
"I don't know. Ask Rishi." Koushik said in a clueless tone.
Bikram gave him a hopeless look and turned to Rishi and asked him the same question.
"The Students Council members will show us our respective classes and the various departments," Rishi explained as they walked out of the Principal's office.
Koushik and Bikram nodded.
"Seven students with each Council member. One student extra in one group. Now separate." Olivia instructed.
Most of the new students were elated to get to meet the Students Council of Ketu and wanted to make an acquaintance with all of them but to their dismay, they were picked in alphabetical order to form a group. Koushik went to Olivia's team, Bikram to Ritutandra's and Rishi was with Parijat. After the students divided, they went to different floors. Olivia and Nilambori to the first floor, Ritutandra, Parijat and Joy to the second floor, Trayee to the third floor and Arko and Nidhi to the fourth floor. On the ground floor, there was only the staircase, three elevators and a garage so they directly started from the first floor and to the next. All the Students Council members took their assigned groups to their respective floors and started showing around.
On the first floor:
Olivia went to the right and Nilambori to the left.
"The dance room," Olivia said.
Everyone saw a huge room with mirrors on all sides and barres on both sides. On the ceiling, pieces of equipment for aerial act were fitted. There were no windows since the room was centrally air-conditioned. At one end, there was a row of seats and a little away from that stood a big cupboard that contained various spare dance equipment.
Olivia showed them how to scan their ID proofs on their watches at the door to enter or exit the dance room. She demonstrated how to register their names on the cupboard door to borrow something from the room, how to retract the barres after use and how to film a routine for assessment.
After that, she took them to the art room. It was also very spacious. About a hundred seats were embedded on the floor. They could be made to stick out using some switches on the wall when needed. A cabinet was filled with canvases, brushes, palettes and other spare art materials. On the opposite wall were several large windows that provided a great outside view.
From the window, one could see the skating arena and the mini forest at the back of the school. Students were often taken there for training in the wilderness.
Just then Nilambori and her team came in too. Olivia asked Nilambori to wait for a moment while she finished showing her group the room.
"The washroom." Olivia pointed towards the cubicles.
At this point, many of the students felt intimidated. Olivia had a deadpan face throughout the tour and spoke in the least possible words possible. Some even started wondering if they offended her somehow and panicked thinking they might have messed up their first impression on the school captain.
"Excuse me, I need to use the washroom." someone said.
Everyone turned to the source of the voice and saw a handsome boy with a lean figure and delicate face raising his hand.
Those who recognised him whispered "He's a member of that famous boy band, Antariksha. I saw him on TV a few times."
"Yes, he's Koushik Roy." One boy said excitedly.
"You know him?" someone asked.
"Yes of course I'm a fan of their band."
"What's a celebrity doing here?"
"Are they here to shoot something?"
As such the murmuring went on.
Olivia looked at him for a few seconds and waved her hand.
Another boy raised his hand and timidly said "I... I need... to go too."
Olivia turned to him and the boy gulped facing her cold eyes. She pointed her chin towards the washroom. The boy thanked her and hurried inside. Olivia then looked at the rest of the five students. When no one said anything she moved towards a wall and leaned against closing her eyes.