Everyone else in model school was having a normal July afternoon, except Harika, who was sitting at the window, impatiently making excuses in her head to go down to the ground and watch her only crush, Dhruv. She’s been thinking so hard that she comes up with the most cliched excuse- the medical room, which is immediately next to the school grounds. She went to the teacher for permission and came up with yet another pretext that no one could refuse- period cramps! She was delighted she was a girl at the time. She dashed down the stairs and got to the grounds before the medical room, where she saw the match in progress and Dhruv about to bat. She went to the clinic to finish the formalities of entering her name in the record and everything, but she wasn’t the only one; ten other girls pretended to be unwell simply to see Dhruv play. “How can I forget that he has so many fans?” Harika pondered.

 While waiting in queue for her turn, a few more girls arrived, and their expressions were as disappointed as Harika’s. “I wonder why so many girls have period cramps, especially today?” remarked the nurse sarcastically. Harika became more eager and agitated as the noise in the cricket stadium increased; all she wanted to do was go out of the room and watch him play. After an eternity, her turn came, she drank the dreadful potion, scribbled her name, and hurried towards the ground.

 She reached out and saw nothing; the match had already ended, and she was left staring at the dhruv-less ground. Now that she had regained consciousness, she could taste the bitter flavor of the dreadful drug she had consumed earlier in her mouth. She could feel the bitterness in her heart as well, and after accepting her fate, she returned to class. 

When she walked into the classroom, it was mayhem because the boys had returned from playing and it came out that they had been vanquished by other teams, so the atmosphere wasn’t exactly cheerful, and neither was Harika. She observed some girls on her desk offering condolences to Dhruv, telling him everything was OK! This upset Harika, but she was in no mood to face them or, more specifically, Dhruv, so she sought an empty desk at the back of the room and sat there waiting for everyone else to disappear. Harika had her head down at the desk with her eyes closed.

 After a few minutes, when something touched her leg, she opened her eyes to discover that she had been seated exactly next to another person all along! He was PRATEEK KAPOOR, the class topper, and the teacher’s favorite! She recognized him but had never noticed him; they had been in the same class for the past two years but had never spoken because they lived in two very different worlds. He was always on the front bench, whereas she was always on the back bench. This was most likely their first encounter.

 “Oh! I’m so sorry, I didn’t notice you!” said Harika. ”When was the last time you noticed me?” Prateek asked. Harika had a confused expression on her face when Prateek half-smiled and motioned for her to sit down. ”I didn’t anticipate you to be sitting on the last desk,” Harika observed. ”Apparently, my desk is occupied by Dhruv’s fans,” Harika added, ”mine too!” they both smiled awkwardly gazing in the front. Harika then observed Prateek’s sports jersey and asked him if he played as well, to which he said, ”Sure, other lads other than Dhruv played”. Harika grinned as she noticed the caustic tone in his response. They both continued to talk and laugh, and they were so comfortable that they didn’t notice when the school bell rang for dismissal. As Harika stood up to get her bag a hopeful yet confident voice came from her behind ” Would you like to explore how is it like to sit on the first bench tomorrow?”.

 She turned around and gave Prateek a coy smile, Prateek smiled back and maybe all things didn’t seem so bad THAT AFTERNOON.