Love At Last

The Emerging Nation and Blood

As August rolled in, it rained more than ever and the river that flowed by the side of Primus, threatened to flood the grounds. Students were seen huddling in the corridors during breaks, since the classrooms became colder than ever. Though there were five minute breaks every two hours, many of them interrupted teachers very often in between lessons for permission to go to the toilet. Even the teachers who rarely complained of the classrooms being cold, wore jackets or sweaters over their dresses to keep warm. Every day dawned with very heavy showers and chilly weather; one factor that aggravated the desire, for the occupants of Primus to remain in bed (the other being late night homework). And each morning, Zaara woke up dreading the thought of sitting in the freezing classrooms.

"Why c-cant t-t-they switch off t-the A/C f-for a w-while?" Zaara asked Anakha, as they sat in class one day, her teeth chattering and her hands numb. Professor Paul had left their class early to go to the Seminar Hall, telling them to wait in their classrooms till they were called to attend the same meeting.

"D-Douglas." said Anakha.

"Douglas w-what?" Zaara snapped, hearing her incomplete sentence.

"She asked us prefects to not switch it off, unless absolutely necessary." Gaurav said, skipping towards where Zaara and Anakha sat (Apparently, the cold hadn't affected him). He and Maya, a very ambitious and studious girl from their class, had recently been made prefects, after majority of the class voted in their favour for the position.

"W-what?! Everyone's f-fweezing
h-here!" Zaara said feebly. She felt her voice crack with every sentence she said."T-this is an emergency, G-Gau-"

"Yeah, but Douglas says you have to get accustomed to this." Said Gaurav "In the corporate world-"

"T-To h-h-hell with t-t-the c-corporate w-world!" Anakha exclaimed, wrapping her shawl more tightly around her. "If t-this g-goes on, we'll h-h-have to enter t-the c-c-corporate w-world in coffins!"

"Get up you two! We'll go stand outside for a while. It'll be warmer. And I'll go switch off the A/C." Said Gaurav, hoisting Anakha by the elbow.

"But you said Douglas -" began Anakha.

"Anu, you both look like zombies now. God knows what'll happen in two minutes. So for me, this situation is an emergency." Gaurav said, grinning.

"V-Very funny." snapped Anakha.

Zaara laughed.

Zaara, Anakha and Gaurav spent most of their free time together and had grown close. Zaara felt that they weren't as close as best friends ought to be, but still, they were closer to each other than to anyone else in college.

Gaurav came from a very rich family. So rich that they needn't work for generations to come, to earn a living. He was of the opinion that every moment of life should be enjoyed to the fullest and he seemed to live up to it. He had the ability to make people laugh even when they weren't in the mood. Anakha, was the most lively and bubbly person one would ever meet. She was both hardworking and fun-loving (and a bit crazy, in Zaara's opinion). She would toil for six days a week and enjoy the weekend to the fullest. The only drawback that Zaara found in her was that she loved hearing gossips. But most of the gossips that she heard and told Zaara and Gaurav use to end up being truths.

After a couple of minutes of standing in the corridor outside their classroom and rubbing their hands together to warm themselves, Zaara could say that she and Anakha felt better. Some colour had come back to their hands. Following their lead, all of their classmates had come out to warm themselves. Gaurav, who had gone to the switch room to switch off the A/C hadn't come back.