Inquest (Completed)

A Surprising Phone Call

The weather chose to become colder, especially with the early-morning-breeze. People started wishing for the warm presence of the sun. Dhruv didn't experience the chills, for he got out of bed only at eight. His practical-exams (experiment-based) had begun in full swing. But they weren't always on consecutive days, offering him intermittent holidays. 

While preparing for the practical-exams, Dhruv also simultaneously and mentally started the countdown to Krupa's birthday: the 26th of December. Dhruv had absolutely no plans for her birthday, barring staying awake to wish her at midnight [through a phone call, but he wasn't sure what to talk about after wishing her]. He didn't think he would meet her on her birthday. 

Krupa's Preliminary-exams (written) were to begin on 15th of that month. Dhruv and she were chatting on the night of 13th. She asked him whether his Preliminary-exams had begun as well, he said his practical-exams had begun, but the written-exams for the same would begin only in January. Dhruv was in a particularly happy-mood, and said: 'Your birthday is on 26th na? That's like two-weeks from now!'

That day onwards, Dhruv started texting her 'Fourteen days left!','Thirteen days left!' and so on, everytime they had a chat [which meant about four-five times a week]. It so happened that on the 20th of December, Krupa finalized a plan to celebrate her birthday at home. Over chat, she asked Dhruv whether he would be available on the 26th of the month. Dhruv took a few moments to conjecture the reason behind her enquiry. He tried to convince himself, that Krupa wasn't inviting him to her birthday-party, but Krupa specified the cause of her enquiry, leaving no place for doubt in Dhruv. She added- 'u hv 2 cm. My parents will finally get 2 meet u'. Dhruv's mind stormed with a variety of emotions, mainly anxiety. He wondered whether she had started developing feelings for him, but he promptly rejected the thought, considering it to be ludicrous.

Dhruv's first response was to deny the invitation. He apologized to her, explaining that his parents wouldn't allow him to go to a girl's birthday-party unless Dhruv had a male friend --whom his parents were well-acquainted with-- to give him company. Krupa said that she would talk to his parents. This statement gave Dhruv another bout of anxiety, (this time) accompanied by an adrenaline rush. His thoughts returned to his school days.

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As a school-kid, Dhruv used to relate his entire school-day-events to his parents [usually mom] after returning home. When he entered teenage-life, he started having casual-crushes on girls from his class. He would always be wary while mentioning any girl's name, while narrating his school-day. He didn't want his parents to even get a slight idea about his love-interest [or 'interests' in plural, if we include casual-crushes before Krupa]. Since the second half of ninth-grade, the casual crush on Krupa became a serious one, with Krupa. Dhruv always kept in mind not to speak of Krupa as a 'protagonist' in his narrations, lest his parents come to know about his feelings.

During the preparations for the school's Geography-Exhibition, Dhruv used to refer to Krupa's group, with no special emphasis on Krupa's name. So his mother distinctly knew Krupa's name [parents, especially mothers, have specially-reserved storage spaces in their mind only for names of the 'friends', whom their children mention, and even better retention capacity for the names of 'opposite-gender-company'; You shall comprehend clearly when you yourself become a parent].

When Dhruv's parents visited Geography-Exhibition, Krupa and Sheetal were representing their exhibition-project --the Titanic-- in the same classroom as Dhruv. Dhruv's group included three other boys: Karthik, Prateek and Harsh; on that day, Karthik and Dhruv were representing their project: Coral Reefs. The Geography-exhibition classroom was decorated in blue. The theme was displayed decoratively on the classroom-door and on the black-board. The three-sides of the classroom [except the one with the black-board] were draped with an off-white-coloured-bedsheet. Many charts and decorative-motifs made by the students hung on those bedsheets, fastened using safety-pins. The 3-seater-benches were arranged in a line laterally, with their lengths touching the walls. The models and projects of each group of students stood on the desk of the bench. The centre of the classroom thus gave space for covering it with sheets of blue-gelatin-paper. The Titanic [intact] stood on this water-body towards the far side of the classroom, while the Coral Reefs were closer to the door, on the same makeshift-surface of water.