Struggles of The End

Chapter 2

"Shubham, come out, the teacher in-charge wants to see you."

Shubham was confused, there is just 5 mins left for his exam to start and he is being called by the teacher in-charge.

He came out of his bench and started walking out of the classroom.

Just while he was about to cross the first bench, "Don't mess with me ever Shubham, you would understand what happens when you mess with me."- Divya said to him.

Shubham understood what happened. It was an exam day and as usual Shubham did not study anything and chose his favourite bench to sit- the last bench so that he would at least be able to cheat.

That Divya came out of nowhere, already late and asked him to move to the first bench. He denied and Divya told him that he would repent it. Shubham knew now exactly that the time to repent is near.

He knew now why the teacher in-charge was calling him exactly and he knew that no one would believe him.

But there was nothing to do. He started walking towards the staff room.

The staff room always had an eery feeling to it. The doors were all brown in colour and too old, as if they would fall off someday by the weight of the number of students who had to open it and go inside to get a good punishment for things that they did or did not do.

He opened the door and it creaked to make a noise.

"Ma'am, may I come in? You asked to see me?"

"Yes Shubham, I hear nowadays you are aspiring to become a gangster?"

Shubham knew where this conversation would go the moment he heard this.

Priyanka Ma'am was such a person who everyone feared in the school. She never shouted, she never seemed angry. And this is not in the good way, she is a person who seemed utterly cold hearted. She would very sweetly suspend the students after having a very polite and nice conversation.

He looked at her, her face was as calm and still as water.

"Why Ma'am?"

"You threatened the girl that you would hurt her and that too with a compass?"

Shubham was right. The girl came and made up a story to Priyanka Ma'am.

He stood there silently for a moment not able to understand what to say in this moment. Because as Divya said, anything that comes out of his mouth, Priyanka Ma'am would not believe him.

Somehow he still took the courage to speak. "But I am an arts students Ma'am. I don't have a compass."

"Oh, so just because you are an arts student, you cannot bring a compass, the shopkeepers ask you to submit your school id card before letting you buy a compass from them, is that so?"

He knew that he has lost the argument before it even began. There was nothing he could do anymore so he became silent. There was a fire burning inside him though.

He was never a good student. He was never good at communicating or expressing and so he had very few friends who were alike.

Mostly he kept to himself which created a reputation of him that he was a freak. He never participated in anything, half day he didn't come to school even.

Somehow unknowingly he became an easy target to put blames on, the primary reason being his communication, he never defended himself that way. He just let it be. Mostly because he was hurt that his fellow classmates, who were the same age as he is can do things like this to him. He was hurt, so he never tried to explain himself at times like these.

"You don't have to come to school from tomorrow."

She called the peon to her desk. "Bring me his mother's phone number."

Shubham was standing there seeing and listening to everything that was happening, he thought that for other students she asked the mobile number of their parents from them, but for him, she didn't even ask, maybe she thought that he would give a wrong phone number.

Again an assumption.

Again, he kept quiet.

"Mrs Aggarwal, your son has been running around the school threatening everyone, we don't allow this kind of behaviour in our reputed school. We are suspending him for one week. Please ask him and request him if need be to improve this behaviour that he has and then only we would allow him to attend classes henceforth."

She did not even allow his mother to speak, she just made that call, informed her and hung up.

It was like a notice, his mother might have asked what happened, but the phone was already disconnected.

All throughout this Shubham still stood there, silent. His eyes were starting to become wet, not because of what is going to happen when he goes home. Because he was hurting inside.

He was trying all he can to stop the tears from rolling down his eyes because he knew that would have created another scene. One tear from his eyes and he would have been told that he was acting up trying to mend what happened.

He did not want that.

"Go now, pack your bags and go home. I have informed your mother. And also, you would not be allowed to give the test today. When you go back to the classroom, do not dare to threaten the girl again or as a matter of fact, anyone."

Shubham understood that the girl did not come alone, she came with her friend, otherwise Ma'am would not have said that anyone part.

He turned back and started walking towards his classroom.

He kept his head down trying to hide his wet eyes. The floor was all hazy to him that moment but he kept on walking.

Before going to the classroom, he went to the washroom.

There was a pungent smell, they didn't clean the washroom properly but he didn't care, he found a clean wall and stood up leaning against it and let his tears roll down.

He stood there thinking that his mother had to listen to this, she did not have any fault, she maybe was just having an afternoon meal and relaxing when suddenly this happened.

At tuitions, the guardians did not usually talk to her because she was his mother.

He felt like everything was his fault.