"Well that's mature." She says with an approving nod.
Neha has been my best friend for as long as I can remember. Some people might remember first time meeting their best friends but in our case we both don't. We were classmates from elementary classes onwards and some where along the way I just started sticking to her side and we just ended up being best friends.
We lived close, hardly 5 minutes walking distance. When we were young Neha used to come over to my place often as both aunty and uncle worked. It was awkward at the beginning when she refused to play with dolls or any type of toy in that matter. But slowly we adjusted to each other.
When we were 10 that's when Neha's parents officially got divorced and her father left town for good. Before that also I only have a hand full of memories meeting uncle as he worked in city and came back home rarely. Actually Neha had studied in the city for a few years before her dad relocated them in Grayson hills because the school and housing were expensive over there and he couldn't afford it.
After the divorce uncle stopped visiting altogether even though he only came once or twice a year until then. With time the calls which were daily once, became weekly, later on special occasions and then nonexistent. During this whole charade even though externally Neha looked fine she was very much hurt. And that's when a new item was added to her list of hopus-pocus LOVE...
"Well I'm more mature than you give me credits for." I say sticking my tongue out at her
"Hmm... indeed, very mature. Now are you coming or not?" Neha asks checking the clock for the 100th time
"Ya almost done. I just need to do my eye and we are ready to go... Neha.... Neha?!" I stop with my eyeliner halfway in the air as I watch her get up from the bed and open the door taking a step out
"I'm leaving, you come whenever you want. I don't want to be that last person entering the hall with hundreds of eyes on. Bye!" She shouts in my direction as she walks out of my house.
"Neha..! Ne---" That girl...!
I throw the eyeliner and mascara inside my handbag along with some other stuffs that was on the dressing table even without looking and race to catch up with that ape. Because even after months of practice I gave her. She still walked as gracefully as a giraffe on roller skaters in those heels. And at the rate she was walking either she'll reach school before me or that sari will be down on the street in the next 3 minutes.
Grayson high our high school was originally a colonial school built during the British rule intended to give high and exclusive education to the children of the British officials. Even after the Britishers left Grayson was considered one of the high-end school with strict English education, but as time passed and more and more private schools started coming up Grayson became just a name.
In order to keep the school running the church which had took over the school management after the Britishers left opened the gates of school to children disregarding their social status. And so Grayson high became a small community school. Most of the students either rode cycle or walked to school only a few students took bus.
Another reason why Grayson lost its popularity was because the location was considered remote. Our place is a hilly region with roads that literally goes through the middle of the woods (while traveling you cannot see anything but trees on either of your sides for miles) there are not much of turnings or forks in the road only ups and downs for miles. It's an ideal place for vacation for people interested in nature, away from the noises and pollution of the cities. But most would give a second thought before deciding to settle here. Because there are no malls or branded stores.
Our community is built around this simple town where there is not more than minimum and essential stores. The church and school being the only major land mark structures. We also don't have a big verity of weather around here. Our summers are short with bright cloud less days and starry nights while winter's are long with foggy mornings and breezy nights there is also a hand full rain around the year but I don't know whether that can be called monsoon.
During summer we spent our days running in the woods, climbing trees, playing hide and seek, catch and a number of other games (don't judge us, you would also act the same way if your summer lasted for hardly 6 weeks before the rain starts to pour in and your stuck inside your house for the rest of your summer vacation)
Most of the children stays in town for the first half of the vacation and then goes off to their grandparents or relatives house until school reopens. The first few weeks of our new school year is always filled with damp uniforms and wet squeaky shoes. Then after the rain passes weather becomes more or less neutral for a few weeks before the winter starts.
During winter its as if we are going to night school because there is no sunlight while we leave home in the morning. But its cool we all love our small town (or at least I do) Neha is not a big fan. She finds it boring and under civilized. Growing up she had dreamt of living in a society were there was moving roads all around and you just have to stand, it takes you to your destination or a school where robots acted as teachers. Because to her its was past time we upgraded human teachers.(When we were 10 I was convinced that she was dropped off from a UFO like Jathu)
**Jathu is a alien from an old bollywood movie "Koi Mil Gaya" starring Hrithik Roshan and Preity Zinta