LEECH

CHAPTER TWO - VAANI (NOW)

Aisha's pretty furious. As furious as a person like her can be. And right now, she's rambling and chewing my head off for something I didn't even do.

"What does he think I am? Some minion of his?" She bites off a piece of roti angrily, glaring at the wall. I gulp and reach for my sandwich slowly, which is currently in my tiffin, on her lap. And right now, it's in the danger zone.

It's recess, which means Neil and Samaira are busy doing what couples generally do in a corner of the classroom. Not anything dirty — our school is strictly against PDA — but rather cringe stuff like making heart eyes at each other which make me wanna throw up.

Or maybe the ache in my heart is because I want something like that for myself. Maybe I just want those cringe moments with someone too, a reason to wake up and get out of bed and welcome life with open arms.

I shake my head. Shouldn't spiral down that rabbit hole right now.

Beside me, Aisha is still speaking. Tara has gone downstairs to meet Aryan sir for the Cluster 100 and 200 metre race registration, and she dragged Jahnvi away with her, so it's just me stuck with Ash. Tara wanted to take us all down with her, but Aisha apparently didn't want to 'to do anything with Aryan sir and his sorry face', so she was here. And so was I.

"It was a good opportunity, though. Cluster is a huge deal, Ash. You should take up the offer. Kids from all over the country are going to be here. There's going to be sports programmes, cultural programmes, speeches, meet-ups, what not." I suggest her, but she adamantly shakes her head.

Aggressively biting off another piece of her roti, she says, "No opportunity is better than a cosy day curled up on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate and a book. Plus, I want to spend just one event relaxing. They can choose someone else. There's a lot of fish in the sea."

"But you're not just a fish, Ash." I say earnestly.

"Yaass babygirl, I'm the cutest and prettiest dolphin, swimming in the sparkling blue waters." She says dreamily.

I cough. "Well, I was going to say you're the blobfish, but whatever floats your boat."

She whacks my arm with my tiffin lid. Told you, it was in the danger zone.

I lean against her. "If you'd look past your book mania for a second, you'd notice how much fun we could have in those two months." I stretch my legs. "I'm one of the leads for the inauguration dance ceremony, Mohit sir contacted me today. Imagine the amount of pretty pictures we could get if you'd just agree to the anchoring." I clap my hands in glee.

Despite being in the same school and in the same class for over two years, Aisha and I don't really have a lot of pictures together. Phones aren't generally allowed during school hours, and when we meet up after school, we mostly spend the time engrossed in gossip. Also, my phone is dead almost all the time, and hers is worse, so that's that.

She sighs, exasperated. "You don't get it, Vaani. I'm not saying no because I don't want to do it, I'm saying no because he's bossing me around. Like, so what if you're teachers? You don't get to boss kids around, especially not me. When I asked for the anchor's position for last year's annual function, Priya mam didn't listen. So now she can find one of her pets who are always scurrying around her. Or Aryan sir can fetch one of the big, hulky boys who'd lay down the world for him. I'm out." She crosses her arms.

Oh, so this is just a classic case of Aisha being petty. Which is just Aisha being Aisha.

I roll my eyes. "C'mon, we can go costume shopping together. It'll be so much fun! Tara's already participating, and maybe we could rope in Sam too. Aarush will be there as well."

"Sonam won't."

"Sonam doesn't participate in anything that isn't books. But even she'd want you to do it." Honestly, I wish Sonam were here. She'd kick some sense into her tough brain.

She didn't budge.

"It's a national event!"

Nothing.

"The next Cluster will happen after four years, we won't even be there in school then. We'll be in twelfth next year, we aren't allowed to participate in anything in twelfth."

She just sighed like a grandma. I throw my hands in the air, feeling very done. There was only so much a girl could do to bring erratic classmates and friends back into track. My head was already aching from all the screaming I had to do to shut up my classmates. A pack of wild wolves, they were.

Just then, Aarush trots into the class, a chocolate ice cream in his hands. He fist-bumps me and Aisha, eyes roving around the classroom.

He finally pauses. Looks at us. "Where's Jahnvi?" He mumbles. "I got her this." He holds up another ice cream.

Aisha and I exchange a look. "She's downstairs."

I feel my heart melt for the poor kid. "Um, Aarush? Not to rain on your parade, but Jahnvi doesn't like ice cream."

His smile falls. I feel worse for telling him that tid-bit.

"What kind of human being doesn't like ice cream?" He says, flabbergasted.

Ash shrugs. "Your crush, apparently. Gimme, I'll eat that."

I shake my head, amused. At least let him wallow in self pity for a few minutes before you jump at food, Aisha.

Aarush grins, back to his cheery self. "By the way, Aish, I heard something cool. Bayview is going to be here, do you know? That's your old school, if I'm not wrong?"

I sit up, curiosity piqued. Aisha has always been rather closed off about her old place and something had always struck me as odd.

Beside me, she stills. Stares intently at Aarush, to the point that he begins squirming and looking at me as if he did something wrong.

"Ash?" I call out.

"Are you sure, Aarush?" She asks.

"Um, yes. It's written in this document, right here, along with the athlete's names." He says nervously, unnerved by the edge to her tone.

She peers into the folder in his hands, grabs it, flips through its pages. My hands are itching to snatch it from her and look at what's captured her so intensely, but I refrain from doing so. I'll let her have this moment.

She hands the folder back to Aarush, lost in thoughts, her gaze contemplative as she stares off into the wall. Suddenly, she jumps down from the desk that we were sitting on, steely determination in her eyes. I frown.

"Vaani?" She calls.

"Yes?"

"I need to go meet Aryan sir. Wanna tag along?" She turns to look at me.

I stare at her wide-eyed, wondering what in the world her mother had eaten before giving birth to her.