A week passed in the blink of an eye and it was the day of the first periodic examination for class ten. Students crowded outside classrooms, taking a last look at their books. During the exams, they could not log into their NB at school. It was only accessible while the test ran, that too for the answer sheets only. So revising notes was not an option. The entire floor was buzzing with murmurings. Once or twice the teachers had to scold them for making too much noise. Anyways, the dreadful moment eventually arrived and the everyone had to enter the hellhole — classroom.
Since they had to sit according to roll numbers, much to Ankita's disappointment, she and her friends were all seated far away from each other. The class teacher walked in and started taking attendance. Boards were reset for the exams such that students needed to register on the ones they were seated at. After confirming that everyone had signed in, ten more minutes were spent checking and rechecking if all the Boards worked properly.
Once that was done, they were given two minutes of meditation break. Koushik gave Ankita a thumbs up and mouthed All the best, before closing his eyes. Ankita also returned his gesture.
Then, the class teacher opened the teachers' Board to display the question paper on a big holographic projector.
Ankita studied the questions with utmost concentration. Then, took a moment to think about the answers and picked up the smart pen. She started gliding the pen slowly, taking time to check if she made any mistake before proceeding to the next question. It was a twenty-mark test, so they had forty minutes to complete the answers. Ankita was done answering in twenty minutes as she skipped quite a few questions. Then she, or rather Olivia, reverted to the first page and started adding mistakes to the answers. She confidently changed the correct spellings to the wrong ones, deleted some important parts of the answers and clicked on the wrong options for many of the MCQ questions. Satisfied with her work, she dropped the pen in its case after clicking on the submit button.
There wad still ten minutes left. So she rested her chin on her hand and looked out the window, gazing at a plane passing by, leaving a white-tail in the bright blue sky. Soon, the bell rang and the teacher urged those who were still writing to quickly submit their answer sheets. Ankita walked out of the class and found the others discussing their answers.
When she came nearer, Koushik asked, "Ankita, did it not go well?"
"It was okay probably? I couldn't answer quiet a few and of those that I did, I dunno how many are correct," Ankit shrugged.
"Don't fret, you'll do better next time." He ruffled her hair.
Ankita grabbed his hand so that he could not mess up her hair any further.
"By the way, how did you know I was having trouble answering the questions?"
Koushik ran his hand through his hair and winked at her, "What can I do? I'm the embodiment of talent. And among my numerous talents, one is mind reading."
He expected her to roll her eyes or make a sarcastic remark, but Ankita's reaction was the opposite of his expectations.
She said with utmost seriousness, "Really? Well, it won't be anything surprising, though. You really are very talented."
Koushik was speechless.
Breaking out from his stupor, he chuckled, "Silly. It was just a joke. I wanted to lighten your mood but I didn't expect you'd be this serious. Anyways, thanks for the compliment."
He passed a flirty smirk.
Ankita stared at him round-eyed for a moment and then said, "But I really think you're talented."
Apparently, Koushik was much taller than Ankita. So when he bent over to bring their faces were on the same level, there was a very small gap between the tip of their nose.
He said in a low voice, "Say, Ankita, do you have a secret crush on me? You're so generous with your compliments."
Such sudden closeness made her cheeks flush.
Tilting her head backwards she said, "Uh... no. I... I don't have a crush on you. Your fans compliment you too, right?"
"But most of my fans do have a crush on me," he said, smirking.
"I... I..." Ankita pouted.
She could not think of anything to express herself.
Seeing her face, Koushik laughed, "You're so cute when you're angry. Relax. I was just teasing you."
He pinched her cheeks.
"Looks like you forgot me after you found a celebrity friend," Rishav made an aggrieved expression and clutched his chest.
Ankita scrunched up her face and said with disdain, "Ew. Don't make that face, you look disgusting."
Rishav wiped invisible tears and said, "See, you even hate me now."
Smack.
Ankita slapped him on the shoulder.
"Oww. Dam* that hurt!" He rubbed his shoulder.
All sadness vanished.
"See, you don't feel sad anymore. Every problem has one universal solution —beating. Be it a TV remote, a watch or an idiot." She said the last word, pointing her chin towards him.
Rishav pulled her hair lightly. Then, the inevitable happened. They broke into a fight — pinching, pulling hair, even biting!
"Oye. You two. What are you? Escaped zoo animals? Do you think we're done with all the exams? Don't you need to go home and study?" Rai came from somewhere and separated the two.
Both of them started complaining about how the other was responsible for the fight, simultaneously. A vein popped up on Rai's forehead. She grabbed them by their elbows and dragged them out.
"Oh! Yeah, sorry, I forgot. Bye guys, I'll dump these two home."
She turned to look at Bikram and Rishi, who had also joined Koushik at that moment, and were watching her friends fight with stunned faces. She could not wave since her hands were occupied by two big puppies. That's what the two behaved like. Slapping and punching whenever they got a chance.