The Strings Of Heart

“Sitara...sitara... b***h wake up! You will make us all late!” I groaned as I rolled on my bed. “The f**k?!” I opened my eyes to see Krishika putting on her sweater. “Get up! We need to assemble in the grounds. I don’t wanna get caught on our last day.” I groaned as my head hurts, I looked at the mess and closed my eyes as I recollected last nights events. “Oh God! What the f**k? Everyone is on the grounds! The dorm president is on the second floor!” I heard Becca’s voice who threw a pillow at me. I stood up as I felt like throwing up. Last nights vodka really took a toll on me. “Mama(dude), just get ready! We can’t get caught. If they know you drank alcohol yesterday night, you will lose your captaincy!” krishika tells as I look at my reflection in the mirror. “f**k!” I cursed as I don’t even have time to take a shower. “Becca, take out my uniform from the wardrobe.” I brushed my teeth quickly. I washed my face with water. I changed my clothes and braided my hair into two. Makeup and all aren’t allowed here. “Why you two are here?” I rolled my eyes as I heard Seema’s voice. I walked out of the bathroom and her gaze shifted to me. Seema Sharma, the dorm president of Hebron. “Oops... We three had stomach upset and we don’t want anyone smell our farts early in the morning, that’s why we are taking our time to come out.” I stated as her gaze became cold. I gave her a fake smile before walking out. Krishika and Becca giggled as we left an angry Seema. I smirked as we three wandered towards the stop. “What we are going to say to Mrs Sharon?” krishika asked. “Daro mat, mein unase baat karaloongee.” (don’t be scared, I will talk with ma’am.) “What a chicken you are,” Becca commented on krishika as I shook my head. I looked at the corners of this dorm building. It’s a shame if I call this place as a dorm building, it is like a home to me. I have been here from my fifth standard. I met Becca and krishika in my fifth standard. My Amma (mom) decided it’s better if I did my education in a boarding school far away from home. That’s how I ended up in Hebron international school in Ooty. I’m happy that my mumma sent me here. I love here, no tension and it’s my own world with my friends. It’s been seven years that I started attending this boarding school. I found friends who are more like a family to me. The whole school is situated on a hill station. It’s of 22 acres divided into two campuses. Lushigton and Selborne. 25 nationalists are studying in Hebron. Becca is one of them along with my other best friends from other countries. Lushigton is the main campus which contains administration, health centre, auditorium, sports facilities and it’s also the residence of older boys. While the Selborne is the residence of girls, we do have a sports area, lounge room, health centre. The Selborne campus is a little bit far away from Lushigton so we need to take a school bus. There are people who walk to Lushigton and others who are lazy take bus. Outsiders aren’t allowed except the faculty and students. It’s like it’s our own world away from everyone. “s**t! We have to walk, we missed our last bus.” Becca groaned as I waited for Abhinav to come with watchman’s auto. “Chup raho donno. Abhinav aaraha hain.” (Be quiet, you two. Abhinav is coming.) Abhinav, Gaurav, sung-ho-park, Joel, Aryan, Becca and krishika are my best friends. Sung is Korean who studies here along with her cousin Joel. “He is here.” Abhinav winked as he saw us stopping the auto. “Sung told Ms Sharon that you three had stomach upset because of last night’s food,” Abhinav said as we three got in. “Cool.” Today we are leaving for summer vacation. We celebrated our last day of junior high last night without anyone knowing. “Gaurav is having a massive headache and Ms Rupani already know what we did yesterday night.” Abhinav looked at us. “She won’t be saying anything. We are her favourites.” Becca said and I smiled because that’s true. Ms Rupani or Tanaz dee(sister) as we call her when we aren’t in class is very close to our gang. We were her first batch when she came to this school as a teacher. She has been seeing our faces from the fifth standard. I did a two-finger salute to our favourite Nasim kaka who is the oldest person who stayed in the Hebron. He is the watchman and security guard of Lushigton campus. “Bhootnee, yeh time hain Kya morning assembly ka?” Nasim kaka poochha(asked). (Devil, is this the time of morning assembly?) “Jab ham aate, vah assembly ka time hain.” (When we come, that is the time of assembly) I said which made him laugh. We don’t have any classes today as today we have parents and teachers meet. My teammates who were standing in the grounds waved their hands and I waved them back. I’m a junior basketball girls team captain. I will be senior captain next year when we start our senior high after the vacation. Abhinav wrapped his arm around my shoulder as we walked towards where Sung, Joel and Aryan stood. “Where is your skirt?” sung asked as she looked at my sports pants. “What’s the point of wearing when I skipped the morning assembly,” I replied looking for Gaurav. “Where is the dummy?” krishika asked. “He is throwing up.” “Ohh.” “You guys are coming right?” I asked them all, Gaurav walked with his pale face. “Yup! Can’t wait for this vacation to start.” Aryan said. “Have any idea about the results?” Gaurav questioned. “We wrote everything from Sitara’s paper. I’m sure we gonna get an A or B.” Abhinav said and the boys agreed. “Who is going to come this time?” Aryan asked sung and Joel. “Joel’s dad.” sung replied while I thought about who is going to come from my family. I don’t think mumma will coming as she is busy with her work. Maybe my sister Elora will be here this time. “Let’s go to the class, they told everyone to gather in their classes,” Joel said. We all wandered while commenting on random things. Abhinav is the junior basketball boys team captain while Joel is the football team’s captain. Gaurav is into cricket and he doesn’t like captaincy. Aryan is the volleyball player while sung is in music. Becca took drama classes while krishika took art classes. As we walked into our class I saw the only people who were missing is us. Aman signalled towards the left side while I gave him a puzzled look. He mouthed something which I didn’t understand. “Bhagwan.” (God!) I heard Abhinav mutter to himself. That’s when I turned my head to see our class monitor Mehak Gandhi standing along with our class mentor Yutika ma’am. Yutika ma’am glared at us for being late I guess, while we all stood there not knowing what to do. “Abhinav, you can remove your arm.” Yuthika ma’am said and that’s when it hit me that Abhinav still had his arm around my shoulder. “What time it is? Is the time to come?” “Sorry ma’am, we had stomach upset,” Krishika said. Yutika ma’am shook her head while her eyes were on me and Abhinav. “Sit in your places.” We wandered to last benches where we all sit. Gaurav, Becca and Joel sit in a bench while I, Abhinav and Sung share one bench. Krishika and Aryan share one. The wooden bench which we sit on is spacious for four people to sit comfortably. “Why are we here?” Aryan asked. “For the yearly book,” I replied as the teacher called by roll call number to give us a yearly book. “Let’s play football after this,” Gaurav said and we all agreed. We have so much time before our parents come here to take us home. We all decided to spend our vacation at my home. We get 45 days of holiday, so the last 20 days they will be staying in my home.