A Race For Two

Chapter 1: Akari

Dear Father,

I miss you.

I know I say this every day and I know you're tired of hearing it from me, but I will never be tired of telling you. I am moving on, as you would have liked me too, but know matter how much I distance myself from the past, you will always be a part of it.

And I want you to be.

I cannot forget you, and don't want to. I can proudly say that I am coping well, but the same cannot be said for bhaiyya (elder brother). I still don't know where he goes every day when he misses school and what he does. He still returns late every night, and sometimes, doesn't show up at all. After the new year, its like mother has also stopped bothering. I don't know what came over her to act that way that night . . . but let's not go there right now.

Today was the first day of school after the winter vacations. While cycling, I felt a rising dread of facing my teachers again. What if I had to redo my holiday homework, because of a tiny thing that went wrong?

What if I had forgotten to make a whole project that had been set for us in the vacations?

What if? My mind was racing as I thought of scenarios, each one worse than the previous. But all these misgivings gave way when I saw my friends.

It wasn't as if I hadn't met them during the holidays, but the sight of them standing there in their school uniforms, in front of the school gate, talking, laughing in a carefree manner, somehow relieved me, and I stood my cycle in the stands and approached them.

"Hey, look! Akari's here."

"Hi!!! What did you do in your vacations?"

"How's aunty?? You trouble here any less!?"

They all spoke in a rush and I had to calm them down for me to be able to distinguish between their voices properly.

"By the way, I don't see your brother anywhere," Kavita aka Kiwi inquired.

Obviously she had to ask that question. She has been hopelessly crushing on Mayank ever since we arrived in Delhi. I might have found that to be odd then, but now, not so much. I know her better now and, frankly speaking, she crushes on almost every guy who has okay features and a mysterious persona.

Despite all her misgivings and her extremely questionable choices *cough* my brother??? *cough*, she is my best friend, for the simple reason that she is always there for me.

"Did you read the book I gave you? Did you read 'The Lost Symbol'?!!" was what Vanessa promptly asked me.

Although we are in the same class, she is like a junior to me. This is because she actually is a year younger than the rest of the class. She was born in Canada (Indian father and Canadian mother) and has completed her junior school there itself, where admission is at the age of 3, rather than 4 like in our school, which explains why she is a year ahead of her age.

But she shares my love of reading. Correction: she is the only one who shares my love for reading. And I know what you're thinking, "You have so many friends who read!"but the truth is, they like reading. And I love books. Its like they are a fibre of my being, the bane of my very existence, and the only one who relates to this is Vanessa. We're both equally crazy fangirls.

"Calm down, Vanessa, I did read it. And yes I have brought it back. Here— "

"Oh my baby! How much I missed you from my library! Now I'm not going to lend you any other person for a month."

We all laughed at Vanessa's possessiveness over her books, sorry, her babies.

"How's aunty doing now?" Anika asked me softly.

I gave her a look that clearly saidLater.She, understanding my discomfort in discussing my mother changed the topic quickly. No one had heard her though. A good sign.

Anika is actually one year senior to me; she studies in class 9. But we have always regarded each other as friends. You can tell your best friend anything, but I have always preferred to joke around with Kiwi, while Anika is the receiver of all my rants. She is understanding in a big-sister-ly sort of way, which is why I go to her with all my problems. Kiwi knows all about my issues, but I only extensively discuss them in Anika's presence.

It's not like I would need an elder sibling if Mayank were here.

"Find the prince of your dreams yet, Akari?"

It was Kiwi who asked me this with a smirk on her face. I knew where this was; I tried my best to stop it—

"How's Allan doing, by the way?" said Anika.

—Mission failed.

"How many times do I have to tell you, do not ship me with that guy!" I complained.

"Its not like you've given us much of a choice, Akari." Replied Kiwi with a smirk.

Oh! what I would do to wipe that stupid smirk off her face!

Vanessa had wandered off somewhere else to talk with some other people. Good, as I did not want to discuss all this in front of her.

"After all, there is no other guy in your life, is there?" said Anika. They were not going to budge from this stupid whim of theirs.

Allan was my neighbor, and our families were kinda close. When we had first arrived in Platts Lane two years ago, they were our first acquaintances. And now our families had developed a bond together.

Only our families!

His mom and dad were cool of course, and they did come over to our house for dinners, and we did go over to their house for lunches, and maybe we did have a few outings together, involving movies and popcorn, and maybe we did homework together a few times, and maybe I did doubt my feelings for him,but that doesn't mean they can ship me with him!

There. I said it. Ididdoubt my feelings for him.

But no way was I going to tell them that. No need to give them more leverage than they already had over me.

The truth was, we didn't talk much. We didn't even know each other that well. He was this distant kind of person no one really knew much about.

"Okay, so I don't have any crushes. Sue me!"

Anika replied exasperatedly, "I have had so many crushes—"

No one knows about her crushes and neither does she tell anyone. She just has many crushes.

"—and Kiwi has a new one every month! —"

Kiwi looked a bit disgruntled but didn't dare interrupt Anika.

"—and Vanessa lives in her own world with countless reel crushes—"

Maybe not countless . . .

"—but when are youfinally gonna grow up!"

"Maybe you should blame the guys in this school for having such unappreciable countenances!" I said and stood my ground.

The bell sounded and all of us rushed to get back in our classes.

"See you later, Miss-high-and-mighty-standards!" and with the last word in the argument Anika was off to her class.

Author's note: This is my attempt at an epistolary approach. It isn't encompassing the whole day, but will in small parts. Comments are always helpful!

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