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He had waited so long for this. The chilled November air hit his face, as the bus skidded and swerved around the edge of the mountain, just escaping their deaths.
Tehri was atop these huge mountains. This school trip had to be the most fun he was going to have in a few couple of years. His JEE coaching had to start from next year, which meant forsaking what would have been his last two years at school.
This, he hadn't told anybody. It would raise attention, and he already had too much of that. It was going to last a week, and the ninth standard wasn't that much of a hassle that couldn't wait for a week or so.
That brought him back to the reason for his longing.
Her.
She was beautiful and smart, and bossy, and rude, and prudish, and opinionated. He didn't dislike anything about her, which was in much, much, contrast to what went around in the school gossip.
In fact, she wasn't a subject of discussion, ever, in school gossip. She was too uninvolved and 'good' to be hot discussion.
Maybe that was what attracted him to her.
He had tried everything. He was sad when she cut her hair, but inspite himself a little excited to see the new look, only to be disappointed again by her fixing it again into the same old hairstyle despite the length.
She was boring.
If only they knew.
He knew she wouldn't accept even if he confessed. She was focused and study-oriented, much like him, and he understood.
But this, this was no home. Mildly speaking, it was a chance.
They were in Tehri, far away from parents and constant supervision of teachers and friends. This was the ground for gossip to generate. And if he was sneaky enough, maybe they'd escape gossip as well.
After all, it had taken weeks of planning, persuading, and scheming to get her here, he couldn't let all that hard work go to waste.
"Arhan."
He turned his head to see his friend Parth, who was shaking his shoulder slightly vigorously.
"Wake up, they're distributing more water bottles."
"Arhan! Parth! Help us here?"Ms. Nisha, the teacher in-charge of the supplies, was on pretty good terms with the both of them. Maybe because she had boys their age herself.
Arhan stretched and cracked his knuckles, before getting up. His height gave him the advantage to look a good five seats ahead. She was seated on the fourth seat from the last, where he sat, nothing like the first seater she was in class. He quickly started distributing the water and whatever food packets the teacher gave them.
He was halfway done, balancing the foodstuffs and himself amidst the moving bus, when the bus turned again.
Damn mountains.
He found himself falling, his instincts grabbed onto the handle on his right, as he plopped down onto the seat on his left. He turned to the breathing body at his side, an apology on his lips, which never made it into sound, by the way.
She was sleeping. The book in her hands had now fallen in her lap. The wind from the open window whipped a lock of hair into her face. Willing himself expressionless, to escape the prying eyes around him, he reached carefully-
-Not to tuck her hair, he'd be killed-
And closed the window. Carefully getting up, he placed the packets on the0 seat he'd sat on and made his way to their forbidden seat at the back.
He saw Parth smirking at him, and he broke his expression, smiling back innocently, his ears suspiciously red at getting caught, which caused more laughter from him.
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