Tenth Grade was Fun!

PROLOGUE

The little five years old girl walks out from the backstage to the dark, now-curtained center stage.

With a frown, she tries hard and stops herself from fussing over the tiffany blue chiffon dress she's wearing as it feels uncomfortable on her, unlike what she wears while she's with her brothers.

As the curtains lift up, a spotlight shines on her, making her squint initially, but her eyes adjust eventually and she looks ahead at the now-visible audience.

She tries to make out her parents and her two best-girl-friends' parents who told her earlier that they'd be sitting together towards the right side in the dark auditorium.

However, her attempts go in vain and she gives up when a voice—that belongs to her teacher, she had known, from all the times she had practiced in school—booms across the auditorium.

"Please welcome Rithvika Sharma on stage. She'll be giving us a solo musical performance today!"

Just as the voice stops, the audience starts clapping for the little girl onstage.

Heart beating wildly against her chest, she takes a deep breath as her palms sweat lightly.

Rithvika clears her throat a bit nervously before beginning.

The little microphone attached to the collar of her dress screeches and she immediately stops, panicked.

She frantically looks towards her left and sees her teacher instructing some men something before turning back to the girl and motioning her to start over again.

Her breathing rate only increases in the panic she feels but she remembers what her dad had told.

"Just remember that you're there for singing. So don't worry about anything else at all, okay? Anything goes wrong, screw that shi— shenanigan, it isn't your fault."

Nodding lightly, she takes another deep breath.

It's okay. That mic thingy just went squeaky squeaky. Just sing. Screw that sheni— shenagi— whatever that is like Pa said.

This time when she opens her mouth, fortunately, her voice reverberates across the auditorium smoothly.

It puts a smile on her face and from the corner of her eyes she could see some of the other performers peeping from the backstage area.

Completely comfortable with how she owned the stage, she closes her eyes, getting lost in the song as her head sways and her right hand moves according to the notes; going up during high notes and going down during low ones.

Once the song ends, she beams widely, pleased with herself as the audience cheers for her that she even forgets about the uncomfortable dress on her.

After a light bow, she makes her way back to the backstage where she sees her two best friends.

One of them hugs her tightly with a true smile while the other says, "Even I can sing like that.", with her nose in the air.

"Of course you can. I know you can." Rithvika replies with a genuine smile, meaning every word.

Even though at times like this her friend's words do hurt her, Rithvika loves her and tries to do whatever pleases her to show her that she was worthy of her friendship.

Before she can hear her friend's response, she gets pulled further into the backstage by her smiling teacher.

"We'll take this off now, okay?" the teacher asks, gesturing to the microphone clipped to the collar of the dress.

Rithvika nods and while the teacher gently pulls at the wires and clips, she asks, "Did I do good, ma'am?"

Chuckling, the teacher speaks, "It's 'did I do well', and yes, you did very well dear!"

The teacher turns her around to unclip the transmitter as Rithvika grins to herself at the teacher's words.

She looks around at the various performers of her age in the backstage and her eyes catch those of a boy who seems to have been starring at her for a long time.

The little boy kept his eyes on the girl for a long time, hoping that the girl in the blue dress who had just completed her performance would catch his eyes. And when she did, his eyes slightly widen and he feels some fluttery feelings.

The feeling only intensifies when she grins at him and waves tightly as she tries not to make much movement while her teacher works on the microphone.

Snapping out of his stupor, he smiles and waves back, euphoric that she had noticed him.

He wishes he could walk to her, talk to her, get to know her more and become friends with her and something else that he couldn't quite understand.

Both of them hold eye contact—smiling at each other—but the little girl alone keeps picking at her dress—for a long time until the teacher beside the little boy calls out.

"Nikhil? You're after him okay?"

He looks at the boy before him, smiling and nodding at the teacher as she gives more information before turning back to look at the little girl but frowns when he doesn't see her there or anywhere nearby.

Lightly sighing in defeat, Nikhil slumps in his seat wishing he had more time to interact with her, but nevertheless, he was happy that he at least got to smile and wave at her.

Rithvika waited for the boy to turn back patiently—her heart still beating a bit wildly as it had the whole time when they interacted wordlessly, something that she hadn't felt even when she used to talk with that cute boy called Ved in the music class where she had recently joined.

Suddenly her teacher pulled her hands away with the wires and microphone in them and right at that time, her two best friends came and pulled her away towards their parents.

She slightly grimaces as she gets pulled away and lastly she glances over her shoulder just before completely turning away from the entire backstage to see the boy frowning as he sits slumping against his seat.

She wishes she could walk to him, talk to him, get to know him more and become friends with him and something else that she couldn't quite understand.

Lightly sighing in defeat, Rithvika lets her friends drag her away wishing she had more time to interact with him, but nevertheless, she was happy that she at least got to smile and wave at him.

But what both of them aren't aware of is the fact that both of them had felt the same longing to want to get closer to each other mutually.

A/N: I've used past tense for overlapping scenes, so it isn't a grammar mistake. It's just that it had already happened but was shown in another person's P.O.V. and the unparalleled scenes are continued in present tense.

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