A beautiful morning. That's what he thought. In all the times he had woken up in this rundown slum, it was the best morning.
For no reason, he felt it. The sun smiling at him, the wind floating around his body and the people admiring him.
What was even more interesting was that he had woken up an hour earlier with no one's help or alarms, which mostly never worked on his powerful sleep.
Yaksh got ready for school in high spirits. He took out the new pair of school clothes he always had, but had never bothered to wear.
A new tie and belt. Even though their family was going up and down the hill in terms of money, the financial troubles never affected him.
Or specifically, they never let it happen.
He put on the glasses he had always rejected and pulled up his sleeves till they reached his elbow.
The tie hung on his neck, looser than needed and his ID hanging in his pants pocket.
The boy, even with a tummy hanging out looked charming in the red shirt and blue pants.
He would be lying if he said he hated the uniform. It was just the best.
"Mom, I am heading out!" He said cheerfully which surprised Avani, his mother but still waved to him.
But when the sound of the cycle's chain spinning crazily was heard, she quickly moved to the door. And to her greatest surprise, Yaksh had taken out the years-old cycle to ride.
Like God's blessing, it was still in its top condition, despite being put aside like a dump of trash.
He rode away quickly, and his mother felt that it was odd for him to change so much.
Until Anita had woken up, she and her husband hadn't known that he had decided to change from the previous day.
Nonetheless, it was the best news for them.
While they rejoiced about it, Yaksh made his way towards school.
On his way, he met Aarav on his 18-Speed bicycle.
"Whoa, what bit you?" His question was odd but Yaksh understood what it meant.
"Nothing, just want to change a bit. Here and there, or maybe overall." He chattered with a huge grin.
Aarav knew it wasn't ordinary. No, it was so weird that he almost lost the balance of his cycle.
"Damn, you are so weird." He said as he stabilized himself and rode behind his friend.
But only to come to an abrupt stop since Yaksh had pulled the breaks urgently.
"Ack? You, idiot! What are you doing??" He screamed.
"Wh... Who is that!?" Yaksh pointed to the boy in front of them.
He had blonde hair and blue eyes. He was like a doll.
Probably not an Indian. And to add up, he was talking with… Aanya.
"Wow, he is classy eh? You don't stand a chance against him, meatball." Aarav teased but ended up getting hit at the rear of his cycle leading to a fall.
"Ugh,... I can't let my whole day of working hard go to waste!"
He wheeled at insane speed towards them and skidded halfway as he put breaks on in an emergency, stopping an inch from hitting the boy, who fell from the sudden shock and the wind brought by Yaksh made Aanya hold hands in front of her face, reflexively.
"Yo, Anna…"
'Fuck!' He cursed in his mind. Because he was so excited, he called her name wrong!!
"T... That's not me Yaksh" She purposely put force on his name, showing him she hadn't forgotten his name.
"Haha, got you. Aarav was right, girls do get angry when you call them by the wrong name!" Thank god he immediately found a way to make an excuse. Aarav, clueless about his sacrifice smiled like an idiot towards them while he stood his cycle up.
"Ah, sorry for that. I stopped in urgency since Aanya was here." Yaksh stepped down from the cycle and helped the boy up.
"It's alright, I don't care." his attitude was edgy, but Yaksh could care less.
He immediately moved towards Aanya. "Let's go!, We might be late for school," he said, despite knowing they still had half an hour for the school bell to ring.
"Yep, I will see you tonight Kevin." she bid goodbyes with a sweet smile for the kid, which irritated Yaksh.
"So,...who was he?"Yaksh asked, hesitatingly.
"Boyfriend!?" Aarav jumped in between the conversation and gave a new turn to it. Now both his companions were embarrassed.
"No, just a close friend from my previous school."She answered and looked at Yaksh. As if assuring him of the horrible doubts. He too nodded unknowingly with a smile plastered on his face.
While all this took place, Aanya noticed now that he was dressed pretty cool. Even though she also had the same clothes, they looked royal on him.
"Do you have a bad sight?" she asked him.
But before he could reply. Aarav meddled yet again. Öf course. After all, sir has spent most of his life digging in that phone of his sisters reading and reading whatever that mangu or Mungu is."
What were his last words before he was slammed on the ground? "That's manga, you stones for brains idiot."
"Oh, I thought it was because you study so much…" Aanya said with a serious face.
"W..well, I didn't study BEFORE. But now I do. Like, daily you can say." he told her as his index finger settled his specs habitually.
"Wow, so now are you going to start teaching us, mister smart-ass." a voice interrupted them as both walked to the school. When the three turned around, Aarav flinched.
"And you, didn't I tell you to not tag with this idiot?" a girl with long black hair asked Aarav as a punch landed on his head.
"Aw come on, he is a nice boy. It's your girl's fault that you exist around him. Now shoo…" as if indicating to kill him, the girl disappeared into the crowd of kids.
"W..who was she?" Aanya asked with it fright visible on her face.
"That's Divya, Aarav's oh-so-cool girlfriend." when Yaksh said this, Aarav almost melted.
"She is a demon I say, demon. Tsk…"Yaksh had a look of spite n his face.
"Your hate for girls keeps increasing daily. It's scary at this point." Aarav said as both of them parked their bicycles.
"I wouldn't say so…" Yaksh eyed Aanya who was still accompanying them. Aarav who saw this smirked and patted his friend's head,
"You, you shall attain adulthood, my child. Soon, I predict." His words snapped Yaksh and Aanya kept giggling at their antics. Yaksh couldn't help but keep staring at her, receiving two or three hits while doing so.
'Seriously, I keep liking her more and more…' Yaksh patted the side of his heart, calming his heartbeats.