Solving Her!

New development on Tertia

"Dude! The results are out"

"What? Already, how bad is it?"

"Well...why don't you see it for yourself?"

And that's how my Monday morning got off to a rocky start. Its midterm season and the roads leading to midterm are filled with weekly tests. According to the school, they help us prepare but for us, these are just mini time bombs strategically placed to set off every week till dooms day itself. A weekly reminder of how screwed we really are. The first results are up and lo and behold yours truly is leading the list from the bottom. SCORE!

"Hey look who is in the top five."

"Who?"

"Tertia. Brains and brawns. Hot!"

I closed my eyes. Fuming I left my best friend's side. I don't need this today. It's been months now. 3 months to be exact and this annoying female has evaded my every move. Don't get me wrong my intentions are pure. It's just that she's a mystery and I am not a patient guy. Everybody in school knows her or knows of her. But nobody really knows her at all. She is at school and then she is at the park and just like clockwork every day she is gone by sundown. No school events. No outings. No social life with her girlfriends and no social media. I mean who does that? On weekends she is seen reading on the terrace or she is gone with her folks. No siblings. No cousins. As far as I have seen. And it doesn't help that she lives opposite the graveyard in a house that was inhabited by a man who committed suicide 10 years ago.

Hate to sound like a stalker or a paranoid novelist looking for a story where there is none. But you have to admit coincidences can only go so far. From the looks of it that girl is a witch well she is a monster in my opinion but an intriguing one at that. My friends think it's a crush or an infatuation but I disagree. See I'm not into her I'm into her story.

Wait. Got off the track. Today just isn't my day. So after my impressive result here I am outside the principle office waiting for my dad to show up. Lucky me. It's been half an hour now, and the drilling continues. The same speech every time. Your son is lacking behind and will not be able to pass this class if he keeps this up. You need to take control blah blah blah. Moving on. Since it's still the 21st century, I'm grounded for a week. No computer. No laptop. No going out with friends and no games physical or digital. It's just school, work, and back home for the next 7 days.

I'm bored. Did you know the human attention span is only 20 minutes and since we are social animals depriving us from human contact is detrimental for our mental and emotional health? 8 hours into my punishment and I was on the verge of killing myself. I tried bargaining, emotional blackmailing and even making empty promises but this time my parents would not budge. So here I am in my room playing basketball with a crumpled up piece of my essay and the dustbin. 5 minutes later the doorbell rang. And since I was desperate to get out of the room for anything I rushed to get the door.

"Hello, is your mother home dear?"

"Yes, come on in. I'll go get her. Mom there's a guest here for you"

"Coming honey."

With both the ladies settled into their seats in the drawing room. I took my leave and was about to go upstairs to my room when I heard her name. Tertia. That's her mom. She looks nothing like her mother. I mean it's like an angle gave birth to the devil. It's good to know there is some human blood in her though. And that is how I end up eaves dropping on my mom's conversation with Mrs. Devin. She left an hour later and took some of the mystery, surrounding her daughter, with her. Turns out Tertia isn't the only child, she had two siblings but they died young. Twin brothers met their death in a road traffic accident. That's why they named her Tertia meaning the third one. My mom is a gynecologist so Mrs. Devin came in to see her for an appointment. Tertia might be having a living sibling after all.

Somehow this knowledge made me feel bad. I felt for her. To have to face so much loss at the age of 12 must be daunting. I understood her a little better now. Tertia Devin may be a mystery but I'm one step closer to solving it.

Being grounded is the best thing that's happened to me so far. :)