The Unforeseen Path

Chapter Nine

Finals came and went. A few days later it was the day of our results.

When I entered my college on the day of the result ,everyone told me that I stood first in my class. I couldn't believe it until I saw it with my own eyes.

Not because I was so overjoyed, but because I didn't think I had worked hard enough for that. I knew I didn't study as much as I usually did. I didn't understand how I had managed to get 90% with my scatter brain.

It was almost as if I felt guilty for coming first, like I had cheated them into making them believe I was something I no more felt I was.

I wasn't like Rekha, who had dreams of becoming an IAS officer i.e an Indian Administrative Officer and she only concentrated on that. I didn't think I had that kind of dedication in me anymore.

I no more felt the need to hole up in a corner. I wanted to have fun too. I wanted to go out and chill. I too wanted to goof around like Mohit. I wanted to talk to other people and make friends.

These things never seemed important to me before, I always just focused on studying, I still did because my career was important to me but I realized other things were important too.

That's the reason I felt like somehow I wasn't a 'pure' nerd. But the people around me never registered the change in me and continued seeing me as they always did.

Whenever I do something like abruptly make weird noises, or crack some lame ass joke that sometimes landed, sometimes didn't, Vikram and Myra would often tell me to shut up.

Vikram even once told me, "You don't have a life and you'd probably end up marrying your books."

As usual I didn't have a reply to him.
Their comments almost made me feel like I should stick to being the nerd that I was.

Almost.

***

The summer after that was weird.
Myra behaved very nicely with me.
She would often talk to me about wattpad books that were going to be updated and we would speculate what would happen next. We would sometimes discuss Sydney Sheldon books too. It felt like we were friends.

I wasn't the only one though with whom Myra behaved nicely with. Everyday she'd come to 12th grade extra classes with her wet hair down, that were a bit short and devoid of blond highlights. Somehow she managed to look even more prettier than before. Then she would come and sit right next to Mohit. They would talk like they knew each other from ages.

He even commented on how he liked her long hair better. I knew he had a thing for long hair and he liked commenting on everything.

Still. Didn't she have her own boyfriend to sit with? Couldn't she just stick to one guy? I would avoid the pang of jealously I felt and think maybe I was just assuming more than there was.

Sometimes I'd see Myra, Mohit and Anjali talking like nobody else was around, they'd laugh on something one of them said and I'd end up wishing that they would notice me lurking around and include me too in their joke.

It wasn't like they weren't being nice to me, it was just how inclusive they were being.

A couple of times Mohit would notice me seeing things and then he would look at me like he saw through everything I felt. I wished he didn't.

There wasn't anything I could say to them. Myra had finally put down her attitude and was counting on me as a friend.

With Mohit I knew that I didn't have his attention the way I did before, I could slowly see it slipping away, but it wasn't like we were back to being like we were before.