Shrishti Reborn

Chapter 08. February turns to March

Next day morning, Shrishti noticed people whispering about her when she entered her class. She ignored it and focused on her studies. She did not have time for such nonsense. She was bad at studies since her childhood and barely passed her exams, especially after she became obsessed with Sharad. Her marks may not have disappointed her father, who did not care about her studies as long as she was happy, but her marks never made him proud of her either.

Shrishti's father was an open minded person who supported women having a career but he also believed that if Shrishti was not interested in having a career, then she can stay at home and he would support her his whole life. And after that, he would leave the house and enough money to her, so that she can live rest of her life happily. While Shrishti appreciated her father's unconditional support, she also wanted him to be proud of her. So in this life, Shrishti decided to put in extra effort in her studies.

As days passed, Shrishti's classmates realised that she really had given up on Sharad and stopped staring at her and whispering about her. They did occasionally glance at her whenever Sharad spoke up in class but seeing her lack of reaction, it started to become boring after a while. Shrishti made sure that she always sat in the front of her class and kept her eyes on the teacher and the writing board.

While Shrishti's classmates may have started to believe that she had given up on Sharad, his friends had not. Pratik especially kept on teasing her and mocking her, asking her what her game plan was. Surprisingly, Arpit started to come at her defence, always telling Pratik to shut his mouth.

One time, Pratik had asked Shrishti if she found someone else to follow and that is why she dropped Sharad, Arpit had turned from his seat and glared at Pratik, 'Even if she has, what is it to you? Please don't tell me!', he had gasped, 'You like Shrishti, that is why you are harassing her daily? Of course, that is why you are asking if she likes someone else. Because you want her to like you. Am I right?'

Arpit grinned as if happy that he had solved this puzzle.

The whole class had stared at Pratik after Arpit's words and the boy started to splutter as he refuted it. But the damage was done. After that, whenever Pratik started to tease Shrishti, some guy from the class would question him if he liked Shrishti or something. After a while, Pratik simply stopped talking to her which was totally appreciated by her. The day after that happened, Shrishti bought a bag of chocolates and gave it to Arpit as a thank you. And when Arpit went wide eyed and asked what he would do with it, she had ordered him to share it with Megha if he did not want it and walked away.

Megha was another new surprise in Shrishti's life. Since the week after the birthday, Shrishti found Megha at her doorstep in the evenings. Shrishti would gladly take her to her own room and spend time with her. Sometimes, Shrishti styled Megha's hair, sometimes helped her with her homework and sometimes just played with her in the front yard of their house. Her father was happy with the new friendship, her Dadi was not. Luckily, Dadi never badmouthed the kid in front of her face. One time she did, Shrishti told her Pappa about it and since then Dadi simply walked away whenever Megha came over. If Megha noticed Dadi's bad behaviour, she was smart enough to ignore it.

In short, since the weekend trip with her Pappa, Shrishti was enjoying her life and found everything much more entertaining. Her studies was still a bore but rest of her life seemed to be fun.

Few days into March, three new things happened in Shrishti's life. First was that food_lover11 finally replied to her question. He explained that he was not much of a talker and hence, was not interested in chatting with Shrishti. Shrishti did not mind his reply and happily told him that she was a talker and she could talk and he could listen! No response came after that. Shrishti was not disappointed. It was clear that this food lover fellow had walls and it will take Shrishti long time to break them. No problem. She had patience!