Shrishti Reborn

Chapter 57. Shrishti does not care!

Shrishti entered the college and was welcomed with derision and scorn. People glared at her, badmouthed her when she walked past them and then later some even asked her rude questions to her face.

In her classroom, on her bench, people had left papers filled with messages that were crude and hurtful or so Shrishti was told. She never got the chance to read those papers. Her friends spotted them first and confiscated them and did not let her even touch them. Shrishti was touched by their care and promised to herself to buy them something big on their birthdays.

Just then the thought of the birthday made Shrishti freeze. Her expression must have scared her friends because they were surrounding her asking if she was alright.

'I am not alright.'

'Oh.' Her friends looked at her with worry.

'I just realised that Raghav's birthday is coming and I have got nothing prepared.'

'Huh?' Her friends stared at her as if she was an idiot.

'That is your worry?', Daljeet asked incredulously.

Divya's worry turned into an expression of pride. 'Good job. You are not caring about things unimportant and focusing on what is important! Good girl!' She patted Shrishti's back.

Arpit huffed. 'Ah! So that is your secret on being nonchalant. Nothing bothers you as long as it is not related to my Bhai!' He shook his head in disbelief.

Shrishti pouted. 'Not just your Bhai. Your Bhai and my Pappa! As long as those two are fine and you three are with me, I am happy.' After all, she had been outcast before. At that time, nobody was with her! Raghav was not this close to her! And the distance between her and Pappa had increased since her engagement. Yes! The current life was lot better than the last life despite all the problems!

'You know, I am shocked that Lekha and Babita are not here with us. Surely, they know you are not like the way people think about you!', Daljeet murmured as they collected the papers to handover to the Professor. It was safer to keep the higher ups informed, Divya had explained.

'They are playing it safe.', Divya explained, 'If they side with us, people would treat them like they treat us! They would be ostracized too.'

'So? They are scared of that?', Daljeet asked, as if she could not fathom people not siding with right thing out of fear.

'Not everyone is brave like us, standing beside Shri because she did nothing wrong!', Divya replied with a teasing smile.

Daljeet shook her head. 'So they are cowards!'

'Hey!' Divya looked at her with disapproval, 'Not everyone has the guts to face the whole world for someone they knew only for few months!'

'We did it! Why not them?', Daljeet sounded indignant.

Shrishti sighed. 'What is the point of this argument? Fact is they are not with us! And that is not important! As I said, right now I need only five people in my corner, Pappa, Raghav, you three! And you five are in my corner! As long as one of you five don't abandon me, I will be fine!'

Daljeet hugged her sideways. 'Don't worry. We three won't leave you.'

'And your Pappa will never leave you because he is your Pappa and you are a good person.', Divya smiled at her.

'And you know my Bhaiyya...'. Arpit sighed dramatically. 'I doubt even Gods could pull him away from your side.'

Shrishti laughed at that.

Once the Professors were informed, the class was once again given a lecture, this time about harassing their own classmates. After the Professor left, Shrishti was called a Tattletale. Shrishti just rolled her eyes. Her classmates were so childish! After going through what she went through, death, accident, her father's heart failure, and hatred of the whole society and her own family using her, these people's harmful attitude meant nothing to her. Unlike these people, who were still teenagers, she had been an adult and also faced adult situations. She was much more in command of her emotions and she was much more rational than rest of them.