Fuming inside, Koushik moved out of the classroom. He saw Olivia slowly walking in front of him.
"Hey, answer me. Why did you hurt him?" He increased his pace so that they were side by side and asked lowering his voice.
Olivia gave him a blank look and continued walking.
"I'll complain about you to the Principal. How can he let such a heartless person be the School Captain!" Koushik kept muttering angrily.
Olivia ignored him. Once they reached the library Koushik walked up to the librarian to ask for the book they needed.
"It's there." The librarian pointed at something.
Koushik turned his head and saw Olivia finding herself a seat with the book in her hand.
'What the? When did she get there and where did she find the book?' He raked his brain trying to understand when she got the time to do all this when both of them entered simultaneously.
He thanked the librarian and went to her.
He took the Board next to Olivia's and started doing the questions. He was only halfway through the questions when Olivia flipped the page.
"Hey, I'm not done yet." He said stopping her hand.
Olivia frowned. She freed her hand and flipped the page back. Koushik noticed her rubbing her hand, where he just touched, with her handkerchief.
He pursed his lips and thought 'Geez, I only touched you for a second, are you trying to say that I'm gross to touch? Did you really have to wipe your hands right in front of me? Thousands of people dream of holding my hand okay?'
But he forgot that he too did not like to be touched by unknown people. He also wiped his hands or washed them but unlike her, discreetly. Olivia's blatant gesture hurt his dignity. On top of that, he was angry at her so he tried to find flaws in whatever she did.
Olivia turned the page again.
"Hey..." Koushik was about to say something when Olivia interrupted him.
"You aren't writing anything so better let me do my work." And she started writing.
Koushik huffed angrily but could not find anything to argue. He was indeed lost in thought. Ever since he saw her, she felt vaguely familiar. Till now, he was too angry to think things through. But now that he calmed down, he felt his behaviour to be odd. Although he was angry at Olivia thinking she behaved rudely with Anupam, it was all his speculation. He never heard the exact words that were exchanged between them and neither did he have any solid evidence to prove that Olivia was rude to Anupam. Hence, his anger towards her was unjustified.
Moreover, since he became a celebrity he learnt how to control his emotions before the public. Although it cannot be said he mastered the art like Bikram and Rishi, he was not too bad. Well, there were a few circumstances where he could not control his feelings. Or a little too many circumstances maybe but still, he tried his best.
But the most perplexing thing was that he was openly expressing his dissatisfaction towards her actions like it was natural for him to question her if he felt she did something wrong, something people did with family, friends and the like. However, Olivia was none of those if he ignored the oddly familiar feeling from her.
Seeing her busy in writing he looked at her face closely. After staring her her face for a good few minutes his eyes widened gradually. Not because he figured out whom she resembled rather he discovered something even weirder. A good part of her facial features, her figure and body language were extremely similar to the stranger he met that night on the roof. While, although quite minuscule, a part of her face resembled someone he knew.
"Ankita," Koushik blurted out.
"What?" Olivia looked at him.
"Ankita?" Koushik said again, aloud, as if questioning himself.
Olivia looked at him as if he was an idiot blabbering gibberish.
'No. What was I thinking? How can that be? How can Ankita and this girl be the same? Ankita was a sweet, energetic and kind girl, unlike Olivia who's always gloomy and so insensitive that she doesn't even bat an eye seeing someone cry. Moreover, Ankita's behaviour is nowhere near Olivia and she was short too. Too short for this girl to be her. Hah, no way. I was probably imagining things. After all, I've been pondering about looking for Ankita after coming here. What's wrong with me?' He lightly slapped his head to drive away those illogical thoughts.
He picked up his smart pen and was about to begin writing when his eyes fell on Olivia's Board. It displayed a screen saying work submitted. Koushik's jaw dropped. He saw her start writing before him but that was only a few minutes ago. And she was done already? Ten comprehensive questions were not something that could be done in a matter of minutes! Or so he thought.
'What inhuman writing speed is this? Are you telling me she finished answering those totally unrelated and conceptual questions in a few minutes? He felt like the paragraphs simply existed to mess with the students and had nothing to do with the answer to the questions.' He stared at Olivia like she was an alien.
"Are you really done?" He accidentally asked his thoughts aloud.
Olivia nodded. Koushik embarrassedly cleared his throat realising what he did. He saw her bringing a book, whose language he did not understand, and starting to read.
"Haaaa, finally done." Koushik stretched his arms and back sighing in relief.
He had been solving the questions for two hours straight. His body felt sore from sitting in the same posture for so long.
"Shhh!" A few other students who were also there hushed him.
Koushik mothed an apology awkwardly. His soreness made him forget he was in the library.
"What are you reading?" Koushik asked looking at Olivia.
She was leaning her head in one hand and holding the book in the other while slouching against the Board.
"...a book," she answered.
"Tsk. That I can see. What I meant to ask was the name of the book you're reading or whatever it is about. Anyway, forget it. But are you really done with the task that the teacher gave? There were so many questions! How could you have finished it that fast? Did you even write anything? You haven't submitted a blank sheet right?" Koushik asked, partly thinking aloud and partly trying to quench his curiosity.
Olivia continued to read without bothering about him. Her lack of response made him click his tongue and sigh in annoyance.
'Just when I thought I would not jump to conclusions and make up for the bad start we had. Looks like we're destined to remain on bad terms.'
"Anyways, I'm going back. What you do is none of my business." He pushed the chair back and strolled towards the door.
"Oh, I almost forgot." Koushik stopped by the door and held the door frame with one hand.
He leaned back saying, "What were you and Anupam talking about? Or rather, what did you say to him?"
Olivia put her finger between the pages and turned to him with a serious face. Getting such a reaction from her, Koushik thought she was probably going to explain what happened between her and Anupam in the morning.
"Ask him." but Olivia's reply shattered his hopes of getting something out of her.