It was the first day of my 10th board exams. Exam fever had taken over me, and the very first exam was English. My English teacher was an ex-military officer, and she was from Uttarakhand. She was the head of my house, Willows, and we always used to chitchat during assembly sessions. Later, they stopped the assembly sessions for Grade 10 students. Everyone used to hate those assemblies except me, because I was so interested in talking with her.
On the day of the exam, it was around 7:30 in the morning, and I was staring at the railing in front of my class. Somehow ma'am noticed me in the crowd and came up to me, calling my name. I was so lost in my thoughts, but not because of the exam.
Before that hour, when I called my parents to talk and get some wishes, I realized there was something wrong with my mom's voice. I also noticed there was something going on in the background, but she hung up, telling me to call later.
Then I started calling my grandpa, not to ask what was wrong but to take wishes from him. He took the call while riding his bike. I could hear the sound of the wind, and he was saying that he would be there in five minutes, and then he hung up. So he must have mistaken me for someone else, and I didn't bother calling again.
Next, I called my aunt. At that moment I got to know everything. After hearing what she said, I forgot literally everything else that was going on around me. All I could think of was my uncle, who had died that very morning due to liver cancer.
After that, everything got paused.
I was walking alone downstairs to my classroom, thinking about how it could be possible. Every morning when I was in Grade 4, I used to walk around the balcony of my home, watching him cleaning his bike and asking me a hell lot of the same questions. Suddenly, all those questions hit my brain after such a long time. Before that moment, I had never recalled them. They just spawned in my mind.
I sat at my desk, staring at the railing.
I felt a gentle pull on my shoulder, and it was my English ma'am. I didn't talk about the death. I don't know why. But she understood that I was nervous about something. She made me close my eyes and kept saying something, but nothing got into my head. But after opening my eyes, I never felt the same as before.
I was sitting next to her from the school to the exam center with Joshik, but I didn't say anything about my uncle's death because if they didn't respond in the way I expected, it would ruin my exam, and I didn't want that to happen.
I told ma'am that I would do great in the exam, but I wanted to speak to her after the exam, or else my brain would fall off from my skull.
Her face looked more tense than mine.
Then I left for the exam.
And then I got some unexpected attention from Sanvi…
Sanvi had completely taken my attention.
But not because she was beautiful or gorgeous. There was something else about her. Somehow, she seemed to know that I was sitting next to her during the exam. I found it strange that she kept making eye contact with me again and again.
The exam was three hours long, but strangely I couldn't feel the pressure of it. Something else had already taken over my mind.
Not even the attention of a perfect ten-out-of-ten girl could pull me out of that feeling.
While I was trying to recall answers from the chapter Footprints Without Feet, a sudden memory flashed through my mind.
It was from 2015.
I had been playing with the handle of a paint bucket when suddenly something splashed into my eye. The pain was unbearable. Everyone around me was too scared even to look at me.
But my uncle wasn't.
He immediately took me to the hospital. If he hadn't been there that day, I might have lost my eye.
I still remember the way he spoke to me the entire time, calmly and carefully, making sure I wouldn't panic.
All those memories came back within a single second.
Before I realized it, tears had started falling from my eyes. The question paper in front of me slowly became blurry. My nose felt blocked and my chest felt heavy.
And suddenly I asked myself a question.
Was the exam really bothering me this much?
Or was it the sudden death of my uncle… just days before the exam?
I cleaned my eyes with hankey and remembered those words which ma'am said while my eyes were closed, and those words brought me back to the pace of writing the exam and making me remember the first priority of my life at that very moment was to give it all.
I heard a whisper from side it was Sanvi,"25 min left you hardly wrote anything".
My pen was movie faster than the bullet train.
Everyone has finished their exam, and I could sense someone was staring at me from the outside but i was in such a rush of completely filling the booklet.
Closing cap and grabbing things on my table I gave a look onto outside the class but the corridor was already empty but i could hear loud noises from the students who are leaving the center discussing how great their exam went.
On the stairs I saw Sanvi waiting for me, but purposely I acted as not cared of to be on safe side if not the case what I was imagining.
But she called Loudly and confidently my name and I'm no less shocked in that situation and I was waiting for the words come out of her mouth.
Then I thanked her for informing me about the time and took a pause to see what she would say.
She simply smirked at me and left and at the end she smiled for no reason I felt annoyed during the smirk and awkward during the smile.
Sanvi got me into this constant overthinking zone because I couldn't figure out a single damn thing about her, and now all I could think about was who she really is.
Later, I asked myself if she was doing this on purpose so that she could conquer my mind.