"Students, pay attention."
Ankita flinched hearing Miss Dutta's voice. She could also feel her specifically staring at her while saying pay attention.
"I'm going to show you how to give your attendance. Look carefully and do this every day after the bell goes. If you forget you'll be marked absent even if you're physically present. Some of you may have used this same procedure in your previous school but still, watch carefully. Especially who used a different method."
Ankita sat straight with a super serious expression so as not to cross her again. Koushik smiled seeing that funny reaction.
Miss Dutta demonstrated how to turn on the desk-like device before them, called Board. She then showed them how to open the attendance application and scan their hand print. For disabled students who could not used the scanner there was an iris scanning and voice recognition system.
"Uh, Koushik, may I ask you a question?" Ankita looked at his face cautiously.
Koushik looked up from his book and said with a smile "Yes?"
"Koushik, may I ask how your life was before enrolling here? Nothing personal or sensitive. Just simply things like how did you get education during the time you guys were trainees? How old were you all when you first joined? How did it feel working under such a famous company? You can avoid any question you don't want to answer. No pressure. I just wanted to get to know my desk mate better. " Ankita finished in one breath.
Koushik laughed. "So many questions in one go. Now tell me which one am I supposed to answer first, hm?"
"Uh... hehe, sorry. It's my first time meeting a celebrity and sitting beside one at that so I was overly excited to know about the celebrity world." She scratched her head and smiled embarrassedly.
"But wait! Please don't think I'm fishing for gossip or I'm only curious about you because of your popularity. Absolutely not. I went that way because that's the only thing I know about you. So please tell everything from the perspective of an individual and not a star that always needs to appear perfect. Um... Well, if you want to answer that it."
Ankita gulped nervously realising her enthusiasm might've appeared intrusive to him. Koushik laughed again.
"I did not crack a joke. Why are you laughing?" Ankita tilted her head and asked blinking in confusion.
Koushik replied, "You didn't crack a joke. I just found you getting excited, nervous and concerned, all at the same time funny. So, regarding your questions, my other two bandmates, Bikram and Rishi did attend school but I was homeschooled. After joining Bali Entertainment, the three of us had to spend most of our time training. But tutors were assigned to teach us everything others leant at school. Vikram and Rishi joined B.E. a few months earlier than me. We were fourteen then and of course, nervous about working under such a big company, but we pulled it through and I am very happy that we made it till today."
Ankita watched how Koushik's expression softened as he was telling her about their trainee days at B.E.
"Your hard work indeed paid off. Look at yourself now. You're one of the most popular upcoming band in the country." Ankita said nodding.
Meanwhile.
"Damn her. How dare she steal my coveted seat! And how could my baby let her sit beside him when he refused me?" that girl, who was glaring at Ankita earlier huffed angrily.
"I know right? But what can we do? Even if we want to kick her out of that seat we can't do that without proper reason. But no worries I know you will think of a plan to get back at her, Deepa." Deepa's deskmate said in a flattering tone.
"You're right but I just can't tolerate how close she is to my Koushik. My hands are itching to scratch her face, Shreya." Deepa said to her deskmate.
"Yo! You dumped me the moment you got a handsome deskmate, huh?" Rishav said to Ankita making an aggrieved face.
Ankita just rolled her eyes at him and kept walking.
"Oh! By the way, what were you chatting with that pretty boy earlier that you ignored your bestie completely?" Rishav wrapped one arm around her neck and asked.
"It was nothing, you idiot. Get your filthy hands off me." Ankita said as she slapped his arm with a disgusted expression.
"You don't love me anymore," he said pouting.
"Oh, you want me to show you love, huh? Ankita pinched his back.
"Ouch! That hurt!" Rishav screamed in pain and rubbed his back.
"Do you want me to show some more love?" Ankita smiled scarily and started closing in on Rishav.
"Aaaa no no no Anu, Anu, you don't need to show me any love. At all!" Rishav backed away.
"Why? I know I neglected my bestie so I want to make it up to him. Come here bestie." Ankita grinned creepily and walked towards him slowly with both of her hands raised like a paw.
"Aaaa, no I'm no one's bestie. Get away! Aaaa." Rishav broke into a sprint.
Ankita also ran after him.
"Wow! Who are you? What did you do to our Koushik? I've never seen Koushik Roy talk to a stranger so readily. Who was that girl? Love at first sight? My future Sister in Law?"
A curly haired boy came up to Koushik and said, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. Giving the latter a teasing side eye and a cheeky grin, he wiggled his eyebrows. Two cute little dimples formed on his cheeks as he grinned.
Koushik shrugged his arm off and said in a hushed voice looking around cautiously, "Dhyat! What nonsense is that Rishi! What if someone heard you?"
Rishi Chatterjee, the second member and the main dancer of Antariksha was known for his bubbly and adventurous personality.
"Hey, Vikky! Do you also think it's our future sister-in-law?" Rishi asked the boy standing beside him.
"Why are you becoming more and more like those gossipy neighbours day by day?" The boy sighed.
Vikky as in Bikram Sen, was the third member of Antariksha and also the group leader. Because of his calm and composed aura their fans called him the big brother of their band. And it really was quite true, his hair was always neatly arranged, he never wore a shirt without buttoning up all the way and he often had to meditate petty bickering between Rishi and Koushik.
"But Koushik, Rishi has a point. I'm also curious to know. You usually avoid interacting with strangers outside work but you were chatting quite nicely with that girl." Bikram asked.
"Arreh Bikram, it was nothing much. She was but a happy-go-lucky type of person and genuinely friendly too. A little silly at times but overall she was not a bad desk mate. Most importantly much much better than those people in the morning." Koushik explained.
He shivered a little remembering how they were falling all over him gushing about how much they loved him and all, asking for his contact number, autograph and so on completely disregarding his personal space.