Crossing The i's And Dotting The t's

(II) New Neighbour

"I've invited the Dawan family over for dinner tonight, so finish all your homework by eight," ma said, while placing a jug of mango shake in front of me.

"Who are they again?"

"Our new neighbours, they have two children, both around your age. Be polite." The last two words were delivered with an undercurrent note of warning.

Figuring out that a reply was not needed, I sipped my mango shake, my face scrunched immediately. "Did you add turmeric in this?"

"Yes, it is good for you," she replied flatly, not inviting any further arguments.

Finishing up my breakfast, I packed my bag and hurried out of the door, calling out a quick goodbye to ma, who was trying to get Aarna, my little sister, to eat some breakfast.

The elevetor doors were about to close but stopped midway and in stepped a boy, almost the same age as me, give or take a few months.

He was a head taller than me and was thin, but not exactly lanky and had thick brows framing his chocolate brown eyes. A few pimples were sprayed on the surface of his forehead, his face was otherwise smooth.

He raised an eyebrow, as if questioning me. I suddenly realised that I'd been staring and quickly looked down, confused by the dizzy feeling spreading inside me.

"Hi neighbour," he said in a surprisingly deep voice.

"Hi, what is you name?"

"Kian, what's yours?"

"Ashiana..." before I could say anything else the doors dinged open and I stepped out, looked back and smiled at him.

He was about to say something but was cut off by the doors closing and the lift continued moving to the basement.

'Hmm... that was weird,' I thought. Shrugging the strange feeling off, I walked to the bus stop to discover that is was about to drive away.

Quickly climbing inside the bus, I slumped in the vacant seat beside a dozed off Aryan, who was snoring loudly, might I add. All the while, trying to keep my mind from wandering towards a certain pimple faced, but good looking nevertheless, stranger.

{[]}

"Why the long face?" Aditya's voice came from somewhere behind my left ear.

I turned around and saw him standing over me with his hair dishevelled, as usual. He was grinning, eyes alight with a teasing glint. His shirt was covered in splotches of what looked like green paint.

"I am not sad."

"Of course, we all scowl when happy."

"You know sarcasm is the lowest form of wit--"

"Yet half the world population still doesn't get it. What is your point?"

Rolling my eyes I tried to supress my smile, but it managed to surface anyway.

"Nothing and why do you look like a troll puked on you?" I asked, waving my hands in front of his shirt.

"Oh this," he said, pulling on the shirt's hem, "apparantly there was no space left on my brother's paint mixing dish and so he used me. Since I didn't have enough time to change, here I am."

I nodded solemnly, "oh yes, siblings are devils on earth, especially the little ones."

"True and hey about that text, can you come outside, as in now?" Precisely at that moment, Karan walked by, religiously ignoring us.