Right Here [Regular Updates]

Chapter 8

One week had passed. Shreekant was left alone. He had already got into a second fight with the same bunch of guys taunting him for the same reason once again. It was understandable that no one would want to be friends with him. With all that had happened, people did not feel pleasant about him. The seat beside him during lectures was reserved for the last student to arrive.

That day they had their first lab session. They were to do the experiments in groups of twos. Shreekant was in fact happy to have all the equipment to himself, although some unlucky fellow would have to pair up with him since their class had an even number of students.

Soon the unlucky one appeared.

Dhriti smiled sheepishly. She was intrigued by this boy ever since that incident.

Many eyes were on him that day. But one particular pair, that especially got lost in the crowd, had the most questions. While she sat in a corner on the farther side, Shreekat sat relatively close to the lecture board and in the middle. And so, she would observe him from the back whenever she was bored in class.

However, she was not so interested as to partner with him that day! She was looking around with uncertainty and soon everyone had paired up and she was left without a partner.

After all, she was not very comfortable yet with the other students. She did not belong to the elite club of top rankers. In fact, she got in through pure luck when a seat was emptied out at the last minute. It was a godsend of being at the right place at the right time. It did create a dent in her self esteem whenever she was asked about her rank, although she told the truth and shrugged it off.

Now she had no other choice. She had to work together with the brightest boy who made the dumbest mistake on the very first day. Back then she had bowed her head down and hid her expression that was full of gossip like the rest with raised brows, down-turned lips and her tongue in cheek. But now she was slightly worried. He would not hit her, a girl, would he? She still decided to be careful and not piss him off.

"So, who goes first?" she said, eyeing the microscope. She was trying to sound confident, but her demeanour did not match her stance. Why was she paired with this student out of all?

"You can."

"Okay! Thanks!" She looked at the tissue and adjusted the microscope a little, before sneaking a glance at Shreekant. He was looking into the material. She quickly turned back to the device and looked on at the blurry image for a good two minutes.

"I've seen!" she said and turned to him, only to see him frown at the adjustment screw.

This was it, she thought, and put her hand on the screw. Now she just had to act like the screw 'accidentally' moved and her adjustment was ruined. But before she could, he stopped her, shielding the screw. "What did you see?"

She heard the sarcasm.

How embarrassing to be caught in a lie.

He adjusted the microscope and studied the image. He did not spend even half the time she did.

"Take a look."

With her head down, she took his spot.

Unexpectedly, he repeated to her what the professor had. He directed her where to look and what it was that she saw with such great precision, she was in a trance just following his words. He even added some bits of information about those parts. When they were done, she was in a daze. She blinked and looked around him. The orientation of the image was different from what they had on their books and different from every other sample, so where was his reference?

"What?"

"How?"

"What?"

"How... How did you know what I was looking at?"