This is a conversation between two high school students who are in their final years. The two are from highly varying social strata. One is the head girl of the school and everyone’s favorite. She is quite popular in school and top of the class too. This conversation takes place from her point of view. Another is the misunderstood bad boy of the school. He had been in trouble countless number of times and had been on the verge of expulsion. Fate brought these two in an awkward situation together as they are on the pedestal of life waiting to start a new journey.

 

I put in the final name in the entry and I was done. I stapled all the sheets together and put them in the folder labeled ‘Swim-Meet Contestants’. Being the head girl is not an easy job. Some people think that it’s just a position of power and meant to exploit and demean others but no, there’s no other person who needs to be this responsible in the school. I had just finished printing the list of participants for tomorrow’s Swim-Meet. I could do this at home but the Coordinators instructions were clear – “All activity work in school”. I had sacrificed on the time to study for an important physics test tomorrow to complete this work.

Thunder rumbled outside as I was packing my bag to leave. It could rain and I hated rain. Getting wet was one of my worst nightmares. I liked everything clean and ordered. The library was completely deserted and why wouldn’t it be. It was well after school hours. I knew the Librarian well enough for her to trust me with the keys. She is a sweetheart by the way and the library is my favorite place in the whole school. It’s somewhere people rarely come and hence is always peaceful.

As I was locking the library gates it started to pour lightly. Cursing the rain gods, I made my way through the hallways towards the exit gate. I didn’t see a single soul in the hallways. Wow, everyone leaves this early or was I working too late. As I reached the gates I saw that it’s closed completely and a huge lock dangled on it. My panic level rose even more when I saw that the security guard is missing too. I called out his name a number of times but there was no one.

It had started to rain heavily now and I didn’t even have an umbrella. I quickly ran to a nearby tree to take cover. Thank God, our school has countless number of trees to run to in such situations. Standing under the tree, I reached for the lock on the gate and started to pull it frantically as if I could break it. This couldn’t be happening. No, this can’t be happening.

A strained cry escaped from the back of my throat and I backed away from the gate my eyes widening in horror. Ragged short breaths escaped my mouth and my heart pounded rapidly against my chest as I came to the conclusion that I was indeed locked inside my school and it was freaking raining.

I put a hand across my heart and tried to steady it. Calm down, Amelia, it’s okay. You can find a way out. You are smart and intelligent. You are the head girl, for Christ’s sake. What I did next can only be categorized as barbaric if not wild. Screaming like a mad woman, I started pounding on the gates and pleading to let me free from this dreadful campus.

It was a mixture of a war cry and wailing that escaped my lips as I practically tried to break the whole gate down.

Huffing, I pressed my forehead against the cold metal gate when I got tired. The cold metal against my warm skin did little to calm me down. I closed my eyes begging all the gods for some kind of miracle to happen. That’s when I heard a slight scraping sound behind me. I whipped my head so fast in the hope that it could be the security guard that I nearly got a whiplash from it. But a whole different sight awaited me.

Standing in front of me was a boy. He was wearing our own school uniform, so yeah, he must be going here. He had deep brown hair and his face had a bit of stubble, the look of a late shaver. He looked almost my age. But, I hadn’t seen him anywhere. I felt so stupid right now for not knowing his name. Some head girl, Amelia.

“What were you trying to do? Break the gate with your ear-shattering scream?” He asked me mockingly.

“I was just calling for help.” I defended myself.

“Yeah, okay.” He rolled his eyes before walking towards the gate. What an ass, no wonder I don’t know him.

He started pounding on the lock but nothing happened. Yeah, no shit Sherlock.

“It was open when I came here a few minutes ago.” He said looking intently at the lock. He dropped it against the gate and turned around to face me.

“I guess we are really locked in and there’s a great rainstorm coming. A big one.” As if sensing his words it began to pour even more strongly. The poor tree above us couldn’t protect us enough as rain started wetting my clothes completely. Thunder rumbled above us vigorously and I shivered from within.

“Oh my god, what do we do now?” I asked him as I held my face to keep it warm.

“Wait, till someone comes. Until then, I guess it’s just you and me, head girl.” He said and a smirk materialized onto his face before he started walking away into the building.

I had two options:

1. Wait here getting completely wet until someone comes.
2. Follow him inside and be warm and dry until someone comes.

Well, the second one seems better and it felt even better when lightening boomed above me followed by an ear-shattering thunder. I ran from the tree-shelter behind him shouting, “Wait up, please.” He looked back momentarily smiling lightly before walking away again. God save me, I am stuck in my school with an arrogant ass!

I followed him to the school building. It was really hard to catch up with him and I am a really slow walker. I hate it when people walk so fast. Do they have a train to catch or what?

“Hey, why are you walking so fast?” I said as I almost reached him huffing and panting. We were in a hallway somewhere; I think it’s the senior wing first floor.

He suddenly stopped and I almost bumped him due to the abrupt stop. He turned around and faced me; his face looked completely pissed off.

It suddenly dawned on me how dark the hallway was. I could hardly make out his facial expression.

He stepped forward and his face became a little more visible.

“Why, did princess break one of her shoe straps?” He asked tauntingly.

“Look,” I said and raised my finger to point at him but decided against it when his eyes angrily flicked towards my finger, “I don’t know what your problem is? You are being really-,”

“My problem?” He interrupted, “My problem is you. Of all the people, I got stuck here with you. That is my problem.” He folded his hands and just stood there challenging me to speak.

Oh no, If you thought you could intimidate the head girl like this, you got another thing coming mister!

“What did I ever do to you? Huh? I don’t even know you. If you were not in the uniform I wouldn’t even know that you went here.” I spoke a bit too harshly.

“Oh of course, why would the princess know about me, right? A mere low life.” He spat venomously.

“Why do you keep calling me ‘princess’? I have a name. Okay?” I said getting irritated with him by the minute.

“Oh, would you be comfortable with ‘your highness’, huh?” He bowed down a bit and then looked up angrily before turning around and walking away.

Where was he going, now?

I screamed to stop but he didn’t. It seemed as if he was headed to the reception. Well, he had a point anyway. Reception wouldn’t be locked and there might be phone we could call from. I followed him there.

As I entered the reception, I saw him on the phone. He listened for a while then threw it back. I jumped back startled by his actions.

“No freaking network.” He said and sat down on a nearby chair.

I went to the phone to pick it up and brought it to my ear. I heard the distant ‘ping ping’ sound of no network. Guess he was right. I kept it back lightly before turning to him.

“Of course, why would you believe me, right?” He scoffed and looked away.

I sat on a chair opposite him. We sat there in silence which was unexplainably uncomfortable. It was like the silence at my dinner-table at home on the rare occasions when mom and dad both were present. Over the years, it had been pretty clear that they had lost the bond. It was all an act now and often it gets stuffy when they are both in the same room.

“It’s Amelia by the way.” I said suddenly unable to stay put in the silence any longer.

“I know.” He said slowly after about two minutes. I lifted my head to see no emotions on his face. He was looking sideways at the window. Rain was pouring heavily against the window and the glass was making a spooky noise hitting against the sill again and again. This was by far the worst rain storm I had ever seen in this city.

“Dean.” He said suddenly. I looked at him questioningly not understanding.

“My name, Dean Mathew.” He said.

That’s when it hit me. Of course, I’ve heard about him. It’s Dean Mathew. The bad boy of our school. His name had often cropped up on the ones who were suspended. He was well known for creating lot of ruckus around the school. He was even rumored to have beaten up a boy so badly that he was hospitalized for days. Of course, I haven’t seen it happen but everyone talked about it. It was even talked around that once in middle school, he let in a snake into our then math teacher’s cabin.

“So, you have heard about me. All bad things, I hope.” He just smirked. He must have caught the realization dawning on my face.

“I don’t necessarily believe all the rumors.” I said. For some weird reason, I didn’t want him to think that I think he’s a complete bad news.

“Save it, Amelia. I don’t care anyway.” He spat irritatingly.

I was confused. Who doesn’t care what people think of them. I know it’s cool to have the ‘devil may care attitude’ but no one actually has that. It’s all an idealistic outlook on life and it never happens.

“Why don’t you?” I asked him.

“Because I don’t live in your world, Amelia.” He stated. Okay, now his constantly addressing me as ‘Amelia’ weird’s me out a bit. I kind of miss ‘princess’ now.

Stop it, Amelia. What the hell are you even thinking?

“What is that supposed to mean? My world?” I asked him.

“Your world, the perfect world. Where everything happens according to your wish. Being top of the class, school head girl, popular, rich.” He snorted.

His face showed pure mocking.

“You don’t know anything about me.” I said a bit too loudly. He didn’t look the least bit startled. Instead, he smirked at me.

“Oh, I know everything about you. You are ‘THE’ girl. You are there in every ‘IT’ group. Everybody loves you – teachers and students alike. Dates the most popular guy in school. Have rich influential parents. Gets everything at her foot the minute she wishes. Never faced any difficulty.”  Each of his words was making me angrier by the minute.

How dare he speak like that? He doesn’t know anything about my life? I was like an anger bomb ready to explode.

“Look, I don’t know where you get all this but let me tell you don’t know any shit about my life. You don’t know the hard pain ass work I have to put in every day just to be at the top. You don’t know anything about how it feels to be like the second child to a doctor and a lawyer and whose elder brother got into the best law school in the country. You don’t know anything about the expectations I have to live up to. You wouldn’t know how it is to be around people who pretend to like you and then talk about you the minute you turn your back. And don’t even get me started on that jerk of a guy I called my boyfriend who was cheating on me for months. You don’t know anything. No freaking thing!!” I screamed at the end of my minute long speech breaking into tears.

I just couldn’t control them. Great, just great, Amelia. Now I am crying in front of him. Yeah, that was the only thing remaining and you’ve done it.

I turned my face away from him and wiped away the tears that fell off unwillingly and held anymore that threatened to fall off.

“You can quit, you know?” he said in his deep voice. I looked at him and was stuck. He just stared at me with so much intensity that it blew me off.

“It’s not that easy.” I said so softly that I am not sure he heard me.

“When did you start doing easy?” He shrugged and a small hint of a smile broke onto his face. His face just brightened due to that small gesture. His smile was breath-taking.

Nobody spoke for some time but it was a very comfortable silence that prevailed. It was as if we were weighing each other down. Trying hard to find the right words to break the silence but failing miserably. I noticed a slight cut by his forehead. His deep brown hair hid it formerly and now when he hesitantly swiped his hair, the cut was visible. Small amount of blood was covering it. It was not a big one, though.

“What’s that?” I pointed to his forehead. He was very quick in reaching his forehead and swatting it with his fingers. He winced when his fingers made contact with the cut.

I bent forward and swatted his hands away. “You’ll infect it. Wait,” I brought out my hander kerchief and started cleaning the wound. Although, my eyes were on carefully wiping the wound clean I could clearly notice his eyes searching my face as if to detect something fake. He had confusion and desperation in his eyes.

“There, all clean.” I smiled when the work was done. I quickly fished out a band-aid from my bag and applied it gently on his forehead. I always carry some first aid for emergency times. He stiffened a bit when my hands touched his forehead and slowly let out a breath.

I sat back in my chair beaming at the dressing which was neatly done.

“Doctor in making, huh?” He smirked. God, I’d grow old counting the number of times he smirks.

“Not quite good enough.” I said.

“For what?” He asked.

“The best medical school in the country.” I simply stated.

“Oh come on, what is it with the ‘best in everything’?” He asked.

“My parents want me to get into it. So, I do too.”

“And, what do you really want to get into?” He asked a bit amused.

“What do you mean?” I asked him, not amused at all.

“Amelia, what do you wish to do with your life? That’s what I am asking?” He stressed on ‘you’.

I stayed silent. This is the scariest question and I could never muster the courage to answer it.

“Come on Amelia, you don’t have your parents here. It’s just me. A nobody.” He said.

“I want to write.” I blurted out suddenly. Soon enough, I covered my mouth not believing that I actually said it.

“I’ve never thought that it would be that difficult in your world to speak out your heart’s full. But, you should do it, Amelia. It might be hard to go against everybody but it would be hellu’va fun when you do it. And you have the strength to do it.” He said.

I was a bit taken aback by his words. I stayed silent for a bit and he didn’t talk too. I was glad that he was letting me get everything in.

“Can you not refer to it as ‘my world’? We live in the same world.” I said after about five minutes.

“We don’t live in the same world, trust me. Mine is very different.” He said looking down. I missed the smile that was on his face as it formed a frown.

“How so?” I asked. I was not expecting him to share anything with me but he did surprise me with what he said next.

“My father killed himself,” He said.

“Oh-,” I was shocked, was an understatement.

“In front of me and my brother, right after he shot my mother.” He said. His face looked pained as if it took him all his strength to say it.  At that moment, he didn’t look anything like the badass they all talked about. I didn’t see the intimidating boy who used to stand in the shadows. I didn’t see the arrogant boy who always replied back in rude and crass words. All I saw is a mere boy of seventeen who is scarred.

I don’t know what made me do it, I guess it was just the fact that I had expected all along that there was something behind his all hard-ball attitude. I stood up and sat beside him on the chair and hugged him from his side. I was sure he was taken aback due to my sudden contact, but he didn’t push me back. Now that would’ve been really embarrassing.

After what seemed like an eternity but had only been mere minutes, his hands went up and he hugged me back. His hands covered me in his warmth and a smile reached my face automatically. I would never have imagined in my dreams even that I would be hugging Dean Mathew and he would be hugging me back.

It was me who broke the hug first. I wriggled out my arm out of his embrace and he too took his arms back and looked away. I smiled as I spotted a very slight tinge of pink on his cheeks.

“I am sorry.” I said rather softly.

“For what?” He asked turning his head to look at me.

“For all the things you had to go through your life. And for judging you too soon based on the baseless rumors that were spread. For treating you inferiorly if I’ve ever done so.” I said.

His eyes looked stormed with emotions. He was surprised, I was sure of that.

“Come on, I am not that bad as you think.” I said and tapped his shoulder lightly to lighten the tension which was quite thick in the air.

“Actually, I don’t think you are bad at all. You are quite a goody-two shoe.” He said casually a slight smirk materializing on his face. Oh, how I missed it.

“Hey! I’ve done bad things too.” I defended even though I don’t what I am talking about.

“Okay, what is the worst thing you’ve done lately?” He asked his eyes challenging me.

Yeah, what did I even do to be relatively considered badass? I came out blank after few seconds of thinking. Then, I remembered.

“I’ve bunked two classes yesterday.” I said smirking at him.

“With permission of course and that too for some activity work I bet.” He said casually.

“Hey, that’s fun too.”

“Yeah, right.” He rolled his eyes, “Nothing else?” He teased, his eyes dancing with amusement.

“Okay, fine. I play safe, I am not a badass.” I admitted.

He suddenly got up from the chair and looked at me, mischief filled his eyes.

“Where are you going?” I asked him slowly already anticipating his answer a bit.

“Come on.” He held out his hand.

I looked at it and then at his face. I was unsure.

“Trust me.” He reaffirmed and I gave my hand in his. He pulled me up and I was a bit startled and fell onto his chest. I shivered slightly.

“Steady, Amelia.” He held me by shoulders and steadied me. “Are you cold?” I nodded slightly. I had forgotten to bring my blazer today and I regret now. He removed his blazer and slowly wrapped it around me. His warm and cozy smell filled me instantly. I was pulled out of my trance when I felt him pull me out of the reception.

“Where are we going?” I asked him again as he led me upstairs to the first floor. I saw that he was leading me towards the teacher’s lounge. What is he up to?

As we reached the Lounge door, I saw that it was locked. I looked at him questioningly.

“I guess it’s time to do something badass, princess.” He smirked and rammed into the door. The door shook with a mad voice. The rain had also slowed up a bit so the voice was more pronounced. It echoed through the empty hallways twice or thrice.

“What the hell, Dean? You are trying to break in?” I asked him flabbergasted.

“What does it seem like, princess? Join in. I swear you’ll love it.” With that he rammed into the door once again. I frantically looked around to see if someone saw us even though I knew that there is no freaking soul in the school. Suddenly, I saw a stone by the open elevator. It was kept there as a support to the elevator which had stopped functioning two days ago. The stone was not needed there. I went forward and picked it up and flung it at the lock on the door hard. It broke open and fell off.

I beamed at Dean, who was looking at me with his eyes wide open. I opened the gate of the Lounge and held it open for him, “After you.” I said courteously trying to mimic British.

He snapped out of his shocked expression and walked in smirking at me all the way in. He went and sat on the cushions stretching his arms along his shoulders.

“Badass enough for you?” I asked him once we were both inside.

“Not even close.” He said as he looked around.

“Why did you want to come here, anyway?” I asked him.

“To eat something. There’s food in the Teacher’s Lounge.” He stood up and went towards the mini-fridge on the right end of the room. He picked up an apple from there and started munching on it.

“How boring, let’s look up some teacher’s documents? Test papers?” I asked him out of the blue.

He was about to take a bite of the apple but stopped, mouth wide open.

“I always wanted to mess with Mr. Nelson’s desk. He so hates me.” I walked to Mr. Nelson’s desk. He was a teacher who was hated by all students alike. He used to give the most difficult worksheets and very less time to finish it too. I reached his table and saw it neatly arranged with all his test papers and assignment sheets. I started to un-organize everything, mixing everything up. Oh, he would be so pissed to see this tomorrow. Dean was beside me soon enough, staring at me. I bet he didn’t see this through.

“Come on, join me. I swear you’ll love it.” I shot back his own words at him.

“You are on fire, Princess.” He laughed heartily before joining me in messing Mr. Nelson’s desk up. His laugh was so pure and full of amusement. I smiled at him seeing him flinging the sheets here and there.

Soon, he sensed that I had stopped and his hands stopped too. He looked up at me and my cheeks turned beet red at him catching me staring at him. I looked down not daring to look at him. I saw him inching closer to me slowly. He slowly raised my chin to look at him, his touch feeling hot against my skin. He tucked a loose strand of my hair behind my ear as his face inched towards me. My heart was pounding so hard against my chest, that I felt like it could just burst out. His other free hand snaked around my waist bringing me closer. His breathing was ragged too as I felt it against my cheek.

His lips had hardly touched my cheek when out of nowhere, a song broke out. Yes, a freaking song broke the moment. We quickly broke away looking here and there. It was a person singing it but there was no one in the room. It sounded distant and I followed the sound to see that it came from outside the building. We both ran towards the window of the Lounge and looked down to see the security guard leisurely walking towards the gate. Dean looked at me and me at him for a second, before we screamed, “Hey!!” at the top of our voice.

The security guard stopped in his tracks and looked here and there. He finally spotted us waving our hands. He looked absolutely freaked.

“Wait, we are coming. Let us out.” I shouted at him and then turned around to run out of the room. Dean grabbed my hand softly and we ran out together. I was smiling all the way down. We quickly collected our bags from the Reception before running towards the gate.

The rain had stopped completely now. It’s a surprise, I didn’t notice this soon enough. But, then again, I was preoccupied.

The security had already opened the gate as we reached it.

“Where the hell were you?” Dean asked him roughly about to pound him.

“I went to my house. I didn’t know anyone was inside. It was raining badly, sir.” He said. He seemed so scared.

“It’s okay, thank you.” I said and pulled Dean outside with me before he could rip the guard’s head off.

It was really dark outside. I checked my watch to see that it was seven in the evening. Wow, time flew really fast.

“How are you planning to go?” I turned around and saw him walking towards a motor-cycle. It looked deadly. Of course, the bad boy rode the death vehicle.

He looked at me from the bike, flashing his million dollar smirk, “Wanna ride?”