Fast forward to 10 year old Meera....
Hmmm.... Time flies! It felt like I was just a child a few days ago. The careless, free, wild and funny child, who had nothing to be responsible for. And now, I can feel my shoulders hurting from carrying all these responsibilities. Looking back to my 5 year old self, I feel so much at ease to know that she at least enjoyed her childhood. Because we don't know how much more we are going to carry forward and for how long. Sighs!!
I Meera, here at the age of 10. I'm studying in 5th grade. Now if you calculate you'll find something strange, because I was supposed to be in 4th grade now. So what happened is, due to my good academics at the age of 6, they transferred me to 1st grade rather than putting me in Senior Kg. To my parents surprise, I was quite capable of even taking a test of a 1st grade student without any kind of explaining, but they decided to put me in 1st only. Back to present, so now that I'm in 5th grade, everyone else here is 1 year older than me. Yeah, yeah! Cool! I know.
My personality was kind of confusing to the people who don't know me. I was the kind of person who'll talk to you if you'll start the conversation, even when I don't know you. Otherwise, I'll be the most quite person you know. An introverted extrovert if you'd like to describe me. It was hard for me to make friends. I wasn't the person to put efforts in emotions or something like that, and that's why I didn't had any close friends. And to top it all I had to go to a new place. Huh!!
So what happened is, I changed my school for the 5th grade or per say I had to, because my previous school only taught till the 4th grade. Mum said, rather than looking for the continuity she preferred me going to the closest school because she also had to look after Piya and if something happens she could reach to me faster. But now that I am capable of taking care of myself and a bit more road smart she admitted me to a big school across our village. It took us an hour to walk to our school. Because we used to live in a village, automobile services were kind of scars and the roads weren't capable of running vehicles on it. So, as the result, I used to walk to school with some of seniors who went to the same school. It was tiring. Basically because I had to walk almost 2 hrs back and forth and even though I went with the seniors, they would treat me like a pest. An invisible one. Well maybe because I was boring.
Going to school, sitting for the lectures, taking notes, back to home and doing homework was my whole cycle of the day. The bag I used to carry to school had all my six subject books plus six notebooks and other necessary items like tiffin and water bottle, which would make my back and feet hurt the worse. The time I get home from school, I straight up used to have dinner, go do Homework as early as possible and sleep. Somehow, it never felt like I slept well. So whenever I get a day off, it was meant to cover my sleep, that I needed after all the tiredness I had to deal for a week. Not to mention the syllabus, it was getting harder and harder every year. Funny how I just wanted to rest at home rather than the 5 year old Meera who wanted to go for a trip. This 10 year old Meera, was now suffering from physical plus mental pressure. Not to mention the introverted behavior of mine. I used to ghost literally everyone around me. Almost all my year of 5th grade was just being alone doing my things and minding my own business. I even used to here people say if I was dumb and couldn't speak, but answering to teachers question would give them an answer too. My bench mate was not really interested in me, because she had her own group to be involved with. The only reason she was sitting with me was because the teacher made our sitting arrangements. The student next to me was absent for a day and suddenly teacher announced that there's going to be a transfer student joining our class. I didn't affected me, cause I was going to ignore them, whoever it was. And then she entered in our class. I was hearing gasps coming from all the students. What was so special about her? I rose my head in curiosity and all that came out of my mouth was "Wow!!".
Our teacher told her to introduce herself to the class. And she said, "Hi everyone, my name is Ana. It's nice to meet you all. I hope you guys will be nice to me." Everyone started clapping and I came to my senses. All this while I was just looking at her. I couldn't even hear what she said. All I could see was her smile. And since the bench beside me was empty, she eventually ended up sitting with me. I literally went speechless. How can someone be so beautiful?! It must be my first time seeing someone so angelic. She looked at me and smiled awkwardly just for me to realise that I was staring at her all this time. I tried and shook my head and smiled back. I didn't know how to start the conversation, so I just asked her name. She chuckled and said, "I just introduced myself. Where were you looking at. Anyways, my is Ana and you?!" Stuttering I replied, "Oh.. oh... yeah... myself Meera!" I probably looked panicked so she said, "Woh.. calm down. Relax! So, shall we be Friends?" just those words out of her mouth and my eyes widened, like for real? SHE wants to be "Friends" with me?! Without this anymore I replied with a hasty "YES!!" She was laughing at my antiques obviously. But it seemed like she wasn't so proud of her beauty. It was as if she was never told that she was so beautiful. I couldn't stop but steal glances at her. She was so mesmerizing that she literally was shining in my eyes. The lecture was about to start and I couldn't bother her asking stupid questions obviously. So I started to concentrate on study and so did she. She actually visited us almost at the verge of exams. Her father was a bank worker, and because her father's transfer she had to have transfer too. She was a transfer student but she was up to date with the syllabus we were going through. Not to mention her academics were good. Whenever teacher asked any question she was the first to answer. We were all kinda busy with our own things, since the exams were approaching. But sometimes she would sit with me at lunch. I heard few girls telling her not to be Friends with me but she was her own boss and she didn't liked anyone else telling her what to do. I was so happy that I could finally have someone to call me Best-Friend.
Woke up at 6:30 AM. Why?! It's my exam, starting from today. Like every other kid I prayed in front of the God, got my mom's blessing and started preparing for exam taking every important thing I'll need while giving an exam. Writing Pad? Check! Stationary? Check! Scale? Check! Water bottle? Check! Everything was ready, and I was reading some last minute notes. Looking at the clock it was 11 O'clock and my exam was to start at 12:30 PM. "An hour early would be better than late", was my principle. Leaving the house I picked up my back and took my path to school. I reached at school half an hour early, so I went inside and was going through all my last minute notes. Soon enough students started to gather for exam. And right after few minutes teacher came in, telling everyone to keep their bags and books aside and the only thing a student should have while giving exam was a writing pad and their pencil case. So, as per the directions, I kept all my books in the bag and got my writing pad and scale out but somehow my pencil case was missing. I was panicking because everyone else was about to start writing. I couldn't ask for a pencil and pen to write because I knew nobody would give me one, because they hated me. I didn't know what to do. Ana was in another class for exam timetable and if I asked teacher, he would shout at me for being so irresponsible. I was about to loose my mind when someone came running on our classroom door. It was Ana, with my pencil case in her hands. She asked for teachers permission to come in and give me the pencil case. I would have literally cried, but it was not the right time to be weak. She was about to leave when she said, "I'll talk to you later after exam, all the best!! Bye!!" and waved her bye and she was gone. The time I got my pencil case, I got my pen out and started writing my paper.
There was still 15 minutes left to submit but I was already done. So started rechecking my paper if anything was not written by any chance. The last bell rang, and teacher started collecting the paper. I was satisfied with what I wrote. But all this while I couldn't stop thinking what would've happened if she wouldn't have bring my pencil case to me and about how Anna found my pencil case and where? But I was glad she did found it and I really wanted to thank her. She already promised to talk to me after school, so I was waiting at school gate for her to come out. When she came out she told me that she found my pencil case at the school gate when she was coming in. She was late for the exam, so she came running but my pencil case got her attention. Being my friend she could definitely noticed the familiar case and came ASAP to give it to me. That day I promised myself to help her in any situation I can.
I didn't know what I was to her, but for me she became my Best-Friend that I wanted to have for the rest of my life.