A Perfect Love Story

Meeting with Fate

It was the beginning of the first day at school. Seniors, now the students wore a different attitude altogether. Pratap was in a hurry. He didn't want to be late on his first day. This year a lot of new students were joining and being the school captain he had to make sure all the students were properly seated when the principal addressed the newcomers and welcomed them. Lost in his thoughts he was already in the hall room looking at the seats slowly filling up. He went to the volunteers ordering them what to do as soon as Principal Ma'am arrived.
" Pratap! There you are! " He turned around and it was his best friend Rohan. " I was looking all over for you!"
" Why?"
" Just see, there are a lot of new girls around!"
" Rohan, I have no time for that now, we will talk later."
" But..." Pratap rushed off...

He had forgotten to instruct the volunteers to bring the welcome gifts for the newcomers. The gifts should be there before the convocation. Principal Ma'am had trusted him with the responsibility. As he rushed towards the storeroom, running through the empty corridor, a turn in the corner and CRASH!!!

" Sorry, I ...." He looked at the girl, scared and confused, the sheets of paper she was carrying scattered everywhere. He sat down to pick them up, and so did she.
" Look what you have done! I have to arrange the whole lecture and... and now... I have to do it again." She complained.
" I was in a hurry, I am sorry." He quickly apologised. Her hair was neatly tied in a braid that hung from one side of her shoulder to her waist. Her school uniform (skirt and shirt) was also very prim and proper. Must be a newcomer... He thought. Then the last paper he handed her, he noticed the title " Speech to welcome newcomers".
" You are not a newcomer?" He asked surprised, wondering why he had never seen her before.
" Newcomer? No! Am in 11 this year."
" Hey, me too." They got up. " Hi, I am Pratap."
" Everyone knows you, Captain" she pointed at the badge with a smile.
" Wonder why I haven't seen you before." he shrugged.
" I am...."
"Roshni????? Rosh??" A girl called out! " Here!" She answered. She gave him a smile and a nod as she walked away. He stood there watching as she met another girl in the corridor and both were giggling. Then he remembered " Gifts!!" He rushed off.
" What were you doing with Mr Popular?" asked the curious eyes of her best friend.
" I just bumped into him!" The girl pointed at him across the corridor as her friend looked wide-eyed.
" Lucky you!" The girl gushed. "I have a huge crush on him!"
" Stop it, Phool!" She dragged her friend by the hand and rushed to the hall.

As the convocation started, he was standing in a corner keeping an eye on the proceedings as the announcement caught his attention, " Now we have the welcome speech from a student of class 11; Please welcome your classmate, Roshni." His eyes shifted to the stage as she got up and touched the teacher's feet. In her clear tone, she started " Welcome to Meera High..." He overheard two volunteers say, " This Roshni is so sweet." " Yes, a bit of Behenji too unlike her Bff." His gaze shifted to her friend sitting in the front row beaming with pride. " That's Phool Rathore. Heiress to Rathore Industries!" "So you suddenly like someone?" Pratap was jolted by his friend's voice.
" What? No, No, she seemed new...So?" Pratap looked at him embarrassed. Rohan smiled amused.
" You were eyeing her!" He reminded his friend gently.
" No, I was not! I was looking at her because...." He stopped. Roshni was getting down from the stage and their eyes met. She smiled at him. He smiled back with a little nod. Rohan, who was busy eyeing Phool, now said, " You were saying?"
" Nothing, let's go get our sections."

The principal had announced a change of section for everyone in class 11 so that the newcomers did not feel left out and the new sections according to roll numbers were listed in the corridor. People flocked around the list hoping their friends were in the same section. Pratap and Rohan stood at a distance waiting for the crowd to disperse.
" Come with me Roshni, I am tensed!" Her name made him turn around. He saw Phool drag her by the hand towards the board. " We have been in the same class forever, I can't live without you!" Roshni laughed, "It's just different sections, Phool. Stop being a drama queen."

They went inside the crowd and came out giggling. " Yay, section A, same to same!" As they went searching for the new section Rohan moved towards the list. He came back with a frown. " Me and you in different sections Bro!" He shrugged.
" What?" Pratap was surprised. Principal Ma'am had told him his section would remain the same. He rushed to the list. Rohan... Section B. Pratap.... Section A. He frowned. What will he do for two years in a class without Rohan?

Before they realized the bell rang and they had to rush to their classrooms. On reaching he found all the seats occupied, especially his favourite last benches. Damn, am Late!
" You must be Pratap? I am Phool." The voice made him turn around. The familiar face stood facing him with a smile, her hair was done in a stylish ponytail and her nails were well-manicured and painted. He couldn't help but notice that this girl wore an excess amount of Kajal to school. The classmates stood in awe witnessing their Popular captain interact with the school's most popular girl for the first time." Yes, I am Pratap. Hi."
" You can sit with us." She declared offering him an empty place beside her.
" Excuse me?" He was a little taken aback as he stared at the seat in the first row.
" I noticed you were looking for a seat and ours can take in another person." She pointed at the three-seater bench, two bags neatly kept, one pink and another black. He saw this black one this very morning when he bumped into her. He looked around and there were no options left. He pushed the black bag to the middle and seated himself. A buzz went across the classroom... Phool and Pratap?? Who knew?

Roshni came in after meeting the principal and she found her bag in the middle, her best friend on one side, adoring her hairdo in the little mirror she carried and ... and ... who was that? Roshni came to Pratap's side. " Excuse me but this is my seat!" He got up in a hurry, "Oh, I am so sorry, actually Phool..." " He's sitting with us, Roshni." Phool interrupted.
" What? Why?" She bit her tongue, it sounded rude, and he was looking at her.
" I should find another seat." Pratap picked up his bag.
" No, No, it's okay." Roshni stopped him, putting a hand on his brown bag. He looked at her, her eyes were almond-shaped and dark brown.
" I will sit in the middle" Phool declared smiling at Roshni. Now, Roshni knew why. She smiled back and went to the other side. She could hear Phool ask him all sorts of questions throughout the day... Where do you stay? What are your hobbies? What is your favourite movie? Are you single? The last question caught Roshni's attention as he looked at Phool, a little shocked by these questions when they barely knew each other.

" Hey, listen. I am Sorry Phool was such a pain today, she just loves to talk. And make new friends." Roshni caught Pratap in the corridor at the break. " Oh by talking you mean flirting?" He looked at her hands folded on either side, scrutinizing her. " She is a bit immature," Roshni confessed. " Hence the Ms Popular?" His words caught her attention as she looked up at his face... Phool used to call him Mr Popular all the time!
"I am sorry, I shouldn't be saying this, she is your friend, and she was nice offering me the seat." Roshni nodded. An awkward silence followed.
" Pratap!" Rohan called from behind and walked up behind him with a smile. " So you have already made new friends?" He was grinning.
" This is Roshni. And that's Rohan." "Hi, Roshni!" Rohan waved as she nodded.
"Hi, Rohan." " Call me Ro!" Roshni smiled a little awkwardly. "Let's go..." Pratap dragged him away.

The next day, it was raining heavily and Phool had not come to school. She was like a pampered princess who couldn't afford to get sick! Roshni was in a dilemma. There were no busses and she was standing one hour in the heavy rain under a small shed waiting for a means to get home. A car stopped in front of her.
" Come let me drop you!" Like a knight in shining armour to her rescue was Mr Popular!
Wait till Phool hears this! She thought.
" So where should I drop you?" He asked, hoping to instruct the driver on the same.
" I live in Palm Avenue."
" Hey, that's like ten minutes from my place. I stay at Fort Legend." Roshni knew the building well, celebrities and high-profile people lived there. Hers was a small house in a middle-class neighbourhood.

As the car pulled up at her door, her mother came out worried.
" Are you okay?"
" Mother this is Pratap, from school, I was not being able to get a bus so he dropped me."
" Hello Aunty" Pratap touched her feet, Roshni was a little surprised at that.
" Come in Beta, have lunch with us!"
" Aunty... woh..... actually...."
" Come in ... You helped a lot." Roshni insisted. He nodded a yes, after all, home to him meant an empty luxury apartment. His mother and father had so many differences that he now lived in the adjacent apartment with his grandmother. Their fights at times were too much to handle. Yet theirs was a picture-perfect family on page 3 of magazines! He sighed.

Roshni's home was very simple yet well-decorated and she made him sit on the sofa in their dining space while she went to change.
" So Pratap, what does your father do?" Her mother's question broke his chain of thoughts. "He's the CEO of Sisodia Enterprises" Roshni's mother stopped to look at him in awe. Yes, he had seen this look before on many more also. " Your mother is Jaivanta?" This took him by surprise, Mrs. Singh was always known as that, rarely did people use her name. " Yes, but how..."
Roshni's mother's face filled with a smile. " I am her classmate. Hansa. Hope she will remember my name."
Pratap smiled, " Oh my! You are Hansa Aunty? I will tell her today itself Aunty. Yes, she remembers, she speaks of you often!" He looked pleasantly surprised.
" She does?" Pratap nodded and went ahead to recount all the stories he had heard.
Roshni came in dressed in a jeans and top, her hair undone and wet. " What's going on?"
" He is Jaivanta's son, Roshni!" Her mother said like a child. " What?" She too had heard of her mother's friend who was now some rich lady. They had lost contact after school when Hansa moved to a different city.

Happy at the thought of getting her old friend back, Hansa treated Pratap with extra care. He ate heartily as the food reminded him of his own mother's cooking. She remains so depressed lately that she had stopped all that. Pratap felt alone at times. He wished he could share these feelings with someone, but Rohan was too immature for these conversations. Moreover, Dadi kept reminding him how such issues should stay in the family. He looked across the table at Roshni eating, she had her wet hair, over one shoulder and her face looked so calm and beautiful. She noticed his stare and cleared her throat as he got conscious and looked away. Her mother came in and they quickly resumed eating. After lunch, she came out to see him off. The sun was shining now, and she now noticed that the school dress did make him look handsome.

" Thank You." He said with a smile.
" Shouldn't I be the one thanking you?" She asked.
"I loved Aunty's cooking. So I am at gain here!"
" You can come here anytime for her food, she will love to feed you, as you turn out to be her friend's son!" Roshni laughed.
" A small world isn't it?" Pratap asked with a smile. Roshni nodded. He looked through the side mirrors as she stood at the door and he smiled to himself as the car drove home.

That night, he sat with his grandmother, at dinner.
" So Rohan said you two have been separated?" His grandmom asked.
" Yes, he had been crying over it!" Pratap laughed. "Did he make a fuss about it to you too?"
"He did. And you are happy because??" Her question took him by surprise.
" What did he tell you?" He asked suspiciously.
" That two girls have been sitting with you and one of them is the heiress to Rathore Industries." Dadi smiled. "And then you were missing this afternoon. The cook told me you returned after lunchtime. Just because I went to the Kitty..."
" Ohio, Daadi, I sat with her because I had no seat there. It's nothing like that! She is very spoilt! And I went to drop a friend home." He looked away as he took his morsel.
" What about the other one?" She smiled. He stopped eating and looked up at his grandmother's smiling face.
" She is Roshni, I just got to know that she is Maasa's friend's daughter!" Pratap smiled faintly, trying to sound indifferent."
" That's great! How is she?" Dadi asked again, scrutinizing his face.
" Innocent." He smiled unknowingly.
" Bring her over someday! To this old woman!" He was surprised by her words. "You had lunch at her place, we better invite her once." Pratap looked a little wide-eyed as she smiled.

"You think my eyes aren't on you? I asked the driver!" She smiled faintly "I might not have raised my son well but you..." Pratap frowned at her words. More than once he had seen her blame her upbringing for his father's issues."No. NO. Dadi, I was going to tell you I swear. There is nothing like you think! And why will I bring her over? It's nothing like that!" He protested firmly.
" Baccha, I have been there at your age! I know that smile when I see it." She left him a little flabbergasted as his cheeks grew warm.
" I have only known her for two days Daadi." Pratap shrugged.
" So what? Your Dadaji decided to marry me the first time he saw me."
Ohh here you start! Rohan am gonna kill you! Pratap thought a little embarrassed.

A knock on the door interrupted Daadi's nostalgia about his grandfather, as Pratap got up to open the door and found his mother standing there, fuming in anger!
" Another Fight?" Pratap asked irritatedly. She chose not to answer her son as she walked toward her mother-in-law.
" Come eat with us." Dadi offered. " Your son met some old friend of yours."
" Old friend? Who?" Jaivanta frowned a little at her son.
" Hansa Mausi!" Pratap answered with a smile. Jaivanta looked a little taken aback.
" What? Hansa? Where?" His mother smiled.
" Her daughter studies with me." Dadi smiled as he looked away ignoring the glances. Jaivanta caught the little moment between her son and his grandmother and said, " Why don't you get me Hansa's number? From her daughter... what's the name?"
" Roshni." Pratap tried to sound normal but Dadi chuckled seeing his face!
" What is it?" Pratap asked with a straight face.
" Nothing. Invite them here for lunch Jaivanta. Mother and daughter both." Dadi said. Jaivanta followed her mother-in-law's tone a little amused and agreed.
" I have some work." Pratap left the table in a hurry. "Do excuse me!"

Back in his room he opened Facebook and searched Roshni Punwar. Her smiling face appeared soon, and he send her a " Request". Within two minutes, she accepted it, and then a notification arrived. He checked it. " Roshni had suggested Phool Rathore as People You May Know." He frowned as Phool's request arrived in a minute and he had to accept it before putting his phone down.