When you Say Goodbye

Prologue

The ball went Flying to the 

basket

The memory's so dear, how can she 

forget 

The atmosphere was intense and electric. The timer indicated 27.5 seconds. The scoreboard read 45-45. Most of the students in Delhi public school's multipurpose hall were too nervous to sit for the end of Game 1 of the 2007 Basketball match. Agni house's point guard Ditiya appeared to be the calmest person in the building.

She stood near half court, bent over at the waist with her head up, surveying the scene. She dribbled the basketball with her right hand. The Jal house's 5ft 9 Tanya stood guard a few feet away but Ditiya paused. The seconds ticked off the clock. With the clock down to 14 seconds, Ditiya began to move. She dribbled to a spot just above the top of the key. Then she quickly darted to the right toward her teammate, Aisha.

As Ditiya moved to her right, Tanya followed her. Tanya rushed around Aisha. She got in position to deny Ditiya an open shot when she came around Aisha's screen. Suddenly, however, Ditiya stopped. She planted her right foot and pushed off to her left. She flicked the ball on a bounce from her right hand to her left hand as her body moved to her left. It was a perfect cross-over dribble. Tanya was now trapped behind Aisha.

So Ditiya had created a wide-open shot from the basket. She set her feet, squared her body toward the basket, and put up a high-arcing jump shot. It plunged through the net with 3.4 seconds on the clock. All the teacher and student present at the stadium rose to their feet, clapping and yelling their appreciation of Ditiya's shot that gave the Agni's a 47-45 victory.

Girls of losing team began to scowl and mutter irritably among themselves and glared stonily at Ditiya. Ditiya giggled and threw carefree arms around Aisha, "we won, hurray!" Aisha shouted out still jumping around hug.

This is the time to meet Ditiya. She was one of the most carefree girls one would ever meet. Ditiya had shoulder-length, curly black hair which, she always kept in a ponytail, as she never liked her curly hair. She'd always wished for long, straight hair like her sister did, that she would never dare to show her face. She was always dressed in pressed jeans and a button-down flannel shirt, with some Nike running shoes. For a fact, she was as much as Tomboy you could get.

Ditiya Virk never minded standing up to the guy or anyone else for that matter. At the age of sixteen, she already had a good figure that reached up to 5ft 6. They were two sisters and were exactly different; it was hard to tell who was prettier among them. The first thing most people notice about her was her dark eyes with the fleck of brown at the center...like a chocolate melting in warmth. The front of her knees and elbows had visible scars from falling during basketball practices. Her liking for independence and sports had kept her away from teen love affairs, but it did not really matter to her that much.

After the tournament director and the school principle distributed trophies, medals, and other awards. It was time to celebrate the victory of Agni's basketball team. They decided to celebrate their victory by walking to a small open-air café.

When Ditiya and her teammates reached the café, they all sat down together at one big table in the café.

"I will order the food," Ditiya announced and walked toward the food counter. Five minutes later when she was still standing in a queue at the fat butterfly bakery waiting her turn to order. Someone came and scooped her into their arms from behind.