You Are Beautiful

You are beautiful Part-I

Sumi was nervous. It was the first day of the school starting her 8th grade and her heart was beating fast just thinking about going to school. She wasn't a new student or anything. Even though it had already been 7 years since she started going to Mount View School, she still got anxious on the first day. Her mom called her down for breakfast so after getting ready, she went downstairs. Her mom braided her hair while she ate. "Are you excited about the first day?" her mom asked just as she finished tying ribbons on the braids. "Hmm..." muttered Sumi. She didn't want to embarrass herself by telling her mom that she still got nervous on the first day of school. "Did you pack your Tiffin?" her mom asked. "I did" answered Sumi. After taking the water bottle from her mom and saying goodbye, she started walking to her school. It was only a 10 minutes' walk to her school. She wished it was longer.

Her heart started beating louder as she neared the school building. The building was large, it was 5 storied and she couldn't believe that after all these years, she still found it intimidating. Sumi passed by a bunch of 10th grade girls. She automatically looked down. One of the girls asked the other, "What's up with her frizzy hair? Didn't she comb her hair in the morning or something?" The other girls laughed. Sumi became red faced. She walked as fast as she could to her classroom. Then she remembered that it was the first day and she didn't know which class was assigned for the 8th grade. She had to go downstairs again to look at the notice board for the room number. Just as she had started panicking about facing those senior girls again, she saw her friend Pratima in the hallway. She was so relieved to see her best friend that she almost hugged her. Pratima was the first person to talk to her in 2nd grade when she didn't know anyone because her mom had decided she would skip the 1st grade. And they had been friends ever since. "You won't believe whose classroom is next to ours. "Pratima said excitedly. "Whose?" Sumi was still happy that she didn't have to go downstairs. "The 10th graders!" squealed Pratima. Sumi got terrified at the thought of having to walk by their class everyday and facing those girls. No matter how much she convinced herself to never lose her confidence, every time she walked by them, she always felt small and unimportant. She couldn't help but compare herself with them. They were all pretty and always looked so confident. They made the junior boys carry their books sometimes and the boys actually did it. Why wouldn't they? Those girls were probably the most beautiful and popular girls in the school. Even though they all wore the same uniform, she could never look half as good as they did in it. Wearing big glasses and braces didn't help either. And of course, the 'frizzy' hair. She'd tried taming it down by putting oil on it. But it only made her hair sticky and worse. The boys teased her endlessly about it. She could never forget that day. Hence, the frizzy hair. She'd already accepted that nothing ever worked in her favour anyway.

"This is going to be the best year of our school!!" Pratima jumped as she said it and Sumi came out of her reverie. But Sumi understood why Pratima might have been so excited. While the 10th grade girls were terrifying, the 10th grade boys were equally cute. And one of them was Sagun, the guy that every girl on the school crushed on, even Sumi. Though she had never admitted this to Pratima. She couldn't because Pratima had practically been in love with him ever since he asked her for an extra pen during the exams in 4th grade. But every now and then, Sumi would steal glances at Sagun each time he walked by. She couldn't help herself, he was charming. And he had this amazing smile. He was also one of the best basketball players in the school. When he played in the game, naturally no girl could keep their eyes off him. But of course she would never tell these things to Pratima.

After 3 periods, the lunch break started. They were sitting outside their class in the hallway having their lunches. "Ugh...Seems like this year's maths is harder than the last time!" exclaimed Pratima. Sumi just smiled since she didn't share the same sentiment. Pratima realized this too. "Oh, who am I telling this too? The math genius!" "But I'm not that good." Pratima just rolled her eyes. Suddenly her eyes became wide. Sumi turned around to look at what had caused the reaction. And there he was, Sagun, standing merely 10m away from them. But he was with a senior girl. She was the same girl who made the remark about Sumi's hair in the morning. "You look really good today, Nina." Sagan said to the girl. "Really?" she said shyly and then giggled. "Yeah..."Sagun smiled. Pratima was looking at Nina with envy but Sumi was just looking at the way Sagun's eyes crinkled when he smiled and how innocent he looked. She really liked his smile. Then Sagun suddenly turned their way but quickly looked away as if they weren't there at all. Nina saw them looking their way as well. Then she touched his arm and said, "Sagun, let's go have lunch, I'm really hungry." "Alright." Nina glared at them before walking away with him. Pratima was stabbing the omelette in her lunch box with her fork. "Are you okay?" asked Sumi. "Yeah, I'm fine..." Pratima replied gritting her teeth.

Sumi didn't do well in crowds. She always felt self conscious. Today was even worse. While eating fried rice during lunch, a piece of vegetable dropped on her t-shirt leaving a yellow mark. Now on her way to the bathroom, she felt like everyone was watching that yellow stain on her t-shirt. "Don't worry. It's not that big. No one can see it." Pratima tried to reassure her but they both knew she was lying. It was their leisure period and as soon as Pratima saw Sagun and the other guys playing basketball, she dragged Sumi near the court. Sumi wanted to escape to classroom but Pratima pleaded with her. "Please...It's the best way to spend our leisure." Pratima sighed watching Sagun play. Sumi had to admit it was true. Though she didn't visibly sigh. After playing for a while, Sagun jogged to the other side of the court where there were a bunch of seniors sitting on the bench. Sumi tried not to look too conspicuous that she was staring at him but it seemed like Pratima was doing a very bad job in doing so. To Pratima's dismay, Sagun went to sit by Nina. It was possible she was shooting laser beams through her eyes to that girl. And then all of a sudden, Nina looked at them and smiled. She said something to the group of 10th graders sitting on the bench with them and they also looked their way, including Sagun. Sumi immediately looked down and Pratima seemed like she was too shocked to do anything. But as Sumi looked up, she realized that they were actually giving them friendly smiles, even Sagun who had looked through them like they were invisible just 45 minutes ago. The bell rang and Sumi quickly stood up and pulled Pratima with her since she was still shocked and they walked to their classrooms.

The bell for the final period rang and as Sumi was putting her copies inside her bag, Pratima grinned. "I can't believe they acknowledged us! Us, the 8th graders!! They actually smiled!!" She practically squealed. Sumi couldn't believe it either. "Maybe they were smiling at someone behind us." Pratima scoffed.

As they were walking in the hallway, Sagun suddenly appeared by their side. Both of them stopped at their tracks. And then the most unbelievable thing happened. Sagun said, "Hey." And he was looking at Sumi when he said that. Sumi was at a loss of words. It felt like the time had stopped. Sagun looked at her curiously expecting a reply back. But all she could do was blush hard because it seemed like her brain got rid of all the alphabets to answer back. Sagun just smiled and said, "See you around." and walked away.

After Sumi reached home, she replayed that conversation over and over in her head. She didn't remember how Pratima didn't talk to her on the way home, didn't even say goodbye when she left. All she remembered was Sagun's smile and how this time it was directed at her.

                                                                                                   ******

If by some miracle, any of you made it to the end of this chapter, I want to thank you for giving your time to reading this (even if you didn't like it) and if you didn't make it to the end, I still want to thank you for looking it up in the first place. :)  This is my first short story ever and I'm so happy I finally wrote something since I've been wanting to write for a long time. There is a high possibility no one is reading this and I'm possibly just talking to myself. LOL. But anyway thank you!! :) I will be updating with the second part soon.. 

Love,

Shreeka