The New Family

Chapter |06|

The Choice

© Vaani

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• Proofreading & Rewriting Credits: Arthi V K.

     I was walking behind Miss Richa as she held my hand tightly, dragging me towards the class. The din only increased as we approached the classroom step by step. Then came a sudden silence as we stopped.

     I had been looking down at the floor and as I continued to do so, I noticed the door. I assumed that we stood in the doorway of my classroom.

     I raised my head slightly and tilted it a little to see what was going on and to my surprise, Vidhi was standing at the front of the room, in front of the board with a piece of chalk on her hand. She must have been monitoring the class for there were 2-4 names written on the board. Vidhi stood there, frozen for a second before she ran off to her seat.

     Miss Richa entered the classroom. She continued to hold my hand as she dragged me into the room along with her. Mid way between the door and the standing desk, she let go of my hand. I stood there frozen while she continued to the desk and went behind it.

“Everyone, meet your new classmate. Introduce yourself, little girl”. Miss Richa pointed towards me.

     I kept my head down in embarrassment and turned towards the assembled students. After gathering up all the courage left in me, I raised my head. The view of the class, from where I stood addressing them, seemed terrifying to me.

     As soon as I looked up, my eyes met Vidhi’s. She was seated on the third bench in the middle row and her eyes were wide open with her mouth slightly agape. I understood that she was a bit shocked as well.

     Just behind Vidhi was another face I knew. It was none other than Anjali. She saw me dressed as a girl for the first time and I knew she would be most surprised. Her eyes were also wide open but unlike Vidhi, a slight smile played on Anjali’s face. She seemed happy for some reason.

I heard a loud clap!

I turned towards the direction of the sound. To my surprise, the sound came from the bench I had been sitting on.

Who else could it be but the monster of the class, Rajiv.

     I saw his eyes glittering. He had a huge smile on his face as if he’d won the lottery. I knew this guy was trouble. I knew that he wouldn’t let me live happily but I was determined that I wouldn’t let him do anything to me.

I looked back at Miss Richa. She was staring at me without batting an eyelid. “What’s your name?“ She asked suddenly. Before I knew it, I’d blurted out, “Vicky”.

“No, a new one will suit you better”. I couldn’t say a single word.

“Miss Richa!!”. A hand was raised in front of me.

“Yes Vidhi, do you have anything to say?”.

Vidhi stood up in place and looked at me for a second before answering.

“I have a suggestion. As she doesn’t have a new name, we should all decide on one”. Something was up with Vidhi. She was planning something but I was in no position to say anything to her.

“Nice idea Vidhi. To make it fair and quick, I will only allow the girls to participate in this as she will be joining you and will be part of your group. Girls are better at names anyway. I will give you twenty minutes. Decide and tell me and we will finalize the name”.

This is getting out my hands. I wondered what I should do now ☹

“Till then, go and sit at the last desk, behind the new girl” said Miss Richa pointing at Anjali.

Behind her, I could see three unoccupied desks one behind the other, in the girls’ column.

     I went slowly from the right side because, on the left, was that monster sitting in between. I avoided eye contact with him but I noticed that he was constantly looking at me as I walked towards the back.

     All the girls crowded around Vidhi’s desk and started chattering. It seemed like Vidhi was writing something in her notebook. I noticed that Anjali amongst the girls as well.

     As I sat down, I remembered how Vidhi had taught me to sit when wearing a skirt and I followed her instructions. I sat there silently and my eyes met Miss Richa’s once again. She had been noticing me. I could see her lips tightened. “She must be trying to conceal her smile. Oh god, what I have done? This small gesture can do a lot of damage”, flashed through my mind right then.

“Have you girls finished? “ Miss Richa asked.

“Yes ma’am“, said Vidhi and taking her notebook to Miss Richa and said something in her ears. She left her notebook with Miss Richa and walked back to her desk.

“Come here”, Miss Richa beckoned to me. I went back to the front of the classroom, standing in the middle.

“From today on, your name in this class will be, will be… Will be… “. She seemed to be building up the suspense like we were on some reality show.

“Vaani“, she announced with a flourish as if it was supposed to followed by some fanfare. I understood why Vidhi had offered up the name to Miss Richa now. She’d managed to retain the name with which she and Di call me. Now, no one would get any doubt about my past. I didn’t know if I should feel happy or sad about it. I felt a little relieved. I noticed that both Vidhi and Anjali were smiling.

     I went back to my desk as it was almost time for the period to end. Miss Richa started taking attendance. She started, in alphabetical order, with boys first followed by girls. As my name was added in alphabetical order, my roll call was before Vidhi.

     Miss richa left the classroom and the whole class became a war zone. Everyone started talking and chattering. Vidhi came over to my desk and as Anjali was sitting just in front of me, she turned around.

“So baby girl, now you are one of us. Don’t be sad. We will make sure that our friend stays safe and happy but, as a girl” she said seemingly joyful.

“Now that you will attend school as a girl, you won’t need to worry about the hair, dress up, earrings, makeup etc. anymore. No one will ask you over and over again”. Anjali was right. Now that I was a full time girl, at least in school, people wouldn’t judge me for being different but that didn’t mean that I was going to have an easy time.

     The next period commenced and soon it was time for the lunch break. We had a half day at school again that day. Many students left for home. I was waiting for mom to be free but luckily, I had brought my lunch. Both Anjali and Vidhi had to leave for their homes. There weren’t many people around and specifically not that giant. So, I decided to have my lunch in the classroom. I went to the washroom to wash hands.

“Wait a minute…” I thought. “Which washroom am I supposed to use now?” 😦.

I was confused. “Should I go to the boys’ or girls’? If I go to the boys’ washroom, they’ll make fun of me but how can I use the girls’ washroom? No way that I would go there”, I thought to myself.

     I stood there having trouble deciding which washroom to use when a huge figure appeared behind me. The voice sounded familiar and as soon as I turned, my doubts were confirmed. It was Rajiv! Yes, the same giant, monster, whatever I call him. His stare was so fearsome that you’d get a chill through your spine.

“I am just heading over to the principal’s office as she sent for me”, I said and rushed from there.

“Excuse me ma’am, which washroom should I use?” I asked the principal in an innocent way.

“You can use the one right here in the office. You have my permission to use it anytime, sweety”.

“Tha… Thank you ma’am.“ I said and entered the office to use the washroom. This whole incident was so embarrassing that I couldn’t believe that I’m going through all of this. I went back to my classroom to have lunch.

     I took out my lunch box and started to eat. Suddenly, a hand reached into my lunch box and took a small bit of my lunch. When I saw, it was him again.

“Why are you doing this? Why are you chasing me? What do you want?”. I wanted to ask all these questions but they just rattled around in my head and I couldn’t utter a word.

“I don’t want anything. I just want to know the truth. Who are you? Are you really a girl or a boy?”. He took another bite.

“I’m a boy. I told you this before. You seen me as a boy“ I replied but his expressions didn’t change a bit.

“Is that so? You weren’t looking like a boy even then. How can I trust what you are saying? Do you have any proof?”. He took another bite. I could hear him chewing the food as, with every question, he brought his face closer to mine.

“How can I prove to you? Don’t you see what happened to me? They made me a girl”. I raised my voice a little.

“They made a girl even more of a girl. That’s what I see”. Another bite and his scary face came a little closer than before.

I stood up and saw that we were the only two people in the whole classroom. I got scared. My heart started racing. I quickly grabbed my bag and ran leaving my half eaten lunch in the room.

When I stepped out of the class, the whole school seemed to be empty. I ran to another wing, took the stairs, kept running, and reached the terrace. I saw what looked like an extra washroom and I quickly went inside. It turned out to be just another room with nothing in there. I closed the door from inside and kept quiet.

I heard footsteps approaching from a distance but then they faded away. “Maybe now I’m safe”, I thought.

“But what if he is still out there? What will I do? I should stay inside till I am sure that he isn’t outside”.

     I was still hungry not having finished my lunch. I checked my bag’s side pockets. I always kept chocolates or something to eat. I found some some chocolates and slowly unwrapped them and ate them trying to keep the noise as minimal as possible.

I didn’t know when he might go. I stayed in that small room with hardly a place to lay but I was able to do so because of my smaller body. I made my bag a pillow and tried to rest for a little.

[After some time]

“Why is it so dark here?” I stood up in the room and tried to pick out from the small opening above me in the door.

“Whaaat!!!!!!!! It’s already night! Oh god, for how long have I been asleep? Mom and Di must be looking for me. What should I do? What if he is still out there waiting for me?”. All these questions arose in my head.

“I have to do something”. I looked out again and saw that the door to the stairs was still open but it was dark in there and I couldn’t see beyond the first few steps.

“I have to run if I want to go out and save myself”. I turned on my phone as it had gotten switched off somehow. I thought that I should at least inform mom and Di.

“What!!!…. There is no network here and the phone is about to go dead. No way I can make it. Only if I can get out of this room then maybe I can get some network”.

I slung my bag over my shoulder and trying to be as silent as possible, I opened the door and I ran towards the exit door as fast as I could.

I looked around while running and there was no one. I went to the stairs. It was dark. Still there was no network on my phone, I turned on the flash torch and went down the stairs as fast as possible.

“Why is it so dark here?”. I checked the time and it was already past 10 PM. “I had slept for so long that everyone must be so worried about me, I have to go”.

“Tudum”, came the tone from the phone.

“Oh no😱. The phone is already dead. How will I inform mom? I have to do something. Why is it so dark here? Looks like a power cut”.

Using the wall as a guide, I was able to come out of the school building and I could see some street lights. “There must be a guard at the gate. I will take his phone and call mom”. I went to the guard’s cabin.

     I looked around but no one was to be found. I wasn’t sure where the guard was. The gates of school were already locked. I had to find a way out.

     It’s very hard to climb the gate wearing a skirt but fortunately there was another smaller gate. I climbed it and managed to jump to the other side.

     By now, I was hungry again. But, I didn’t have anything to eat on me anymore having consumed all of it earlier that day. I checked my bag again and found some change. I thought that it’d be enough to reach home but, I had only a rough idea of which way I had to go and it looked like the city’s public transport had already stopped plying for the night. I didn’t have enough to hire an auto or a cab.

     I saw a vendor with a street food cart in the distance. It was obvious that he was selling something by the way the cart was decorated with lights and music was blaring from the cart.

     I went up to the cart and found that the vendor was selling some momos and I was hungry. The money I had could buy me around 3 plates. I ordered one and was so hungry that I finished it in the blink of an eye and then ordered another one. Finally I was full and now I could think properly.

     I tried to recall the paths that we took to get to school. What I could recall was that the route between school and my home was almost straight, but I couldn’t be sure. When traveling by car, it seemed like we were going in a straight line but there could have been some branches in the roads that I had not registered.

     One thing I was sure of, was that I’d have to walk a very long distance. And that’d only make me hungry again. The money I had left was enough to buy me another plate of momos. It’d have been foolish if I got stuck elsewhere because I didn’t have the energy to move.

     I ordered the another plate with the last of my money and got it packed. I saw the seller had a charger. I asked him if I could just charge my phone a little bit so that I could inform my mom and Di.

But, it turned out my phone didn’t support his old type charger pin. “Uhhhh, I have the worst luck ever”.

     I started moving towards the more densely populated parts of the city. The school was almost outside of the city as was my house but on a different side of the city.

     After walking a few meters, I saw more light and more people but the night was getting colder by each minute. Maybe it was because I was in a skirt. I was wearing black leggings underneath but it was too thin and ineffective. I had to keep moving to not feel the cold.

     The cold breeze changed direction. It was good that I hadn’t brought much stuff I’m in my bag today. It was lighter to carry, but the new hair style started to bother me.

     The bangs in front of my forehead were a little longer. I noticed they were almost close to my eyes and my vision was being obstructed. I used my hands to push them away from my eyes but the wind just pushed them right back. Earlier it hadn’t been that difficult to handle because, with longer hair, I could keep them behind my ears but these weren’t long enough to reach there.

     I was almost in the city. The crowds started increasing. Since I couldn’t check what time it was with my phone being completely dead, I thought of borrowing someone’s phone. However, I was scared. What if that person tried to do something? I wanted to but I couldn’t gather enough courage to ask anyone because most of the people who were standing on the sides of the road were men and I didn’t find any of them reliable.

     I saw a closed shop. I took a seat in front, took out the packed momos and started eating. I didn’t know how long I had been walking non stop or how much longer I had to walk but I’d started feeling hungry. I estimated that I was probably almost half way home.

     Soon, I’d be upon the landmark that I knew of, a meeting of two roads. The one on the left would go towards Vidhi’s home while the one on the right went to my home. The road home, though, was less populated. It was a less developed area unlike the area near Vidhi’s home. As I mentioned earlier, my home was on the outskirts of this city but in a different direction than the school. So, it was going to be really difficult for me to walk that way but I had no choice.

     I untied my two ponytails and tied them as one. Next, I tried to make a bun but this new hairstyle was so terrible and the bangs in front wouldn’t stop bothering me. I couldn’t tie them behind nor could I tuck them behind my ears. “Miss Richa is a terrible hairstylist”.

I thought that I must have my cap in the bag and so I started searching for it. “Where did I keep it?”. I checked my bag completely but it was nowhere to be found. “Where did I lose it? Oh no… I left in the principal’s office. What now?”.

“Wait a minute, What is this soft cloth in my bag?”. I took it out and paused at a little more well-lit area and wondered when di had put it in my bag.

     It was the headband which she’d given me on that day to collect and tie my hair. I thought that it could be used to hold the hair back.

I undid my bun and stretched the headband and slide through my head and took out the ponytail from it. “Now, which is the top part 🤔? Looks like this bow will be on top”.

I slid the headband from front moving my hairs back. “Oh, it really works. That’s awesome. Finally! Hmm, it feels little weird though, What’s went wrong 🤔? Aha now I get it. I have to move it above my ears”. I slowly moved it above my ears to avoid the studs getting stuck in it. “Now, it is perfect”.

“You are a genius, Vaani. Oops 🤭. Looks like even my mind likes this name. It’s time. I have to get home before it gets too late”. I had to hurry. So I packed my bag and started walking.

A little while later, I reached the place where I have to take the road to the right.

     I started walking and turning right onto the road, kept walking. Just after a few steps, the area started to be more dimly lit and was getting less populous. Only a few tea and food stalls were open. Major shops were closed unlike the main city where the market was still open.

I kept walking straight ahead. The weather was getting colder and colder. I could feel the chill in my legs and hands. “Damn, this skirt and leggings are not helping at all in keeping the cold out”.

“This place – it’s so dark and I can barely see the road. It is dead calm. I can hear the insects. It is getting creepier and creepier”.

“Tunnnn”. [ The sound of metal sticking something]

“What was that?”. I turned to look back. I could see nothing behind me but I could heard something.

“Shak shak shak shak”. [The sound of someone or something walking on the road]

“Damn, something is out there. Someone is following me for sure. Should I stop? What should I do? I should run. What if they catch me? Oh god”. My heart started racing.

Even as the weather was turning colder I started to sweat. “Oh no. I have to run”. I looked around a little and found no one that I could get help from.

I started increasing my pace so much so that I almost started jogging. “Damn, this skirt is making it difficult to run”. Even so, I started running at my full speed in the dark based on a hunch. The footsteps behind me started getting louder and faster.

I almost started crying but the cold wind dried them instantly. Someone caught my hand, my heart stopped.

Just as I turned my head, a hand suddenly closed my mouth. In that deep dark place I couldn’t recognize the face, but I was sure it was a man and whoever he was, he wasn’t joking around. Something really bad was gonna happen.

“I can’t even shout. What should I do?”. My heart was beating like a super fast car engine.

     I started moving my hand and legs trying to shake loose from the tight grip but the man was super strong. He caught both of my both hands with one of his hands and closed my mouth with the other. I was almost losing my consciousness. My vision started to get blurry. I tried to bite his hand but to no end. It was as if he was made of metal. My eyes started to tear up like there is no tomorrow.

The man started dragging me towards the side of the road. There was a small space between two shops just like a narrow street but very small to fit even two people.

Somehow, he tied my both hands and with his other hand free, he tied my mouth with a cloth.

“I don’t understand what this man wants from me. I don’t have anything to offer him. No way is he gonna do something like that to me 😵”.

“This world is full of filth like him. They can go to any lengths to pleasure themselves. They don’t care who the person is – kid, adult, old, in full dress or in short or even the gender doesn’t matter to them 😡”.

     He started touching me here and there. He pressed on my chest. I didn’t know what he wanted to do. He, then, touched me on my belly like he was measuring it and slowly started moving his hands towards my legs. My eyes were not stopping with the tears. The only thing I was capable of at that moment was crying.

He moved his hands to the end of my skirt and started sliding it upwards. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. “How am I supposed to live now?”.

[Flash of light]

A ray of light escaped through the side of his head and entered my eyes. What I could see was just light. His face was still invisible in the dark.

The light started getting brighter and bigger and there was a sound. It sounded like a vehicle.

Suddenly, the man who was on me was pulled back and the light from the vehicle fell directly on my face.

Even then, I couldn’t make out the face of the man who was doing this to me but I saw another person – one with a taller and heavier body. This person was holding the man.

I started hearing loud voices of beating and screaming from both of them. To me, it seemed like the person on the vehicle was beating the man.

I started to get dizzy but I kept my head up a little to see them through my blurred vision.

     Finally the screaming stopped and the heavier person walked towards me. I started panicking. I tried to move away, beating my legs on the ground and scrambling to push myself back in there.

“Hey… hey…. Vaani!! It’s me don’t worry you are safe now”, I heard the voice telling me. “This sounds a little familiar”. I couldn’t see the face because it was silhouetted by the light coming from behind and because my vision was already blurred by my tears.

     He unbound my hands followed by my mouth and helped me to an upright position. My whole uniform was really dirty because of the dirt in which I had lay.

He took my hand and led me out of that dark place. I turned to face him and I saw his face.

It was… the person from whom I’d run today. It was the person because of whom I was in this situation.

I shook my hand off from his grasp and shouted.

“Why are you here? What do you want from me? Leave me alone. I’m in this situation only because of you. Go away. Otherwise I will scream my head off and call everyone”, I said still crying.

“So why didn’t you? Why didn’t you shout before?”. He came closer to me.

“Get away from me”. I stepped back.

“Wear this. It is cold here and you will need it. Your skirt is torn below and your shirt is torn at your shoulders“. He took off his jacket and gave it to me. I checked my shoulder and it was, indeed, torn. I quickly grabbed his jacket and wore it. It was super big for me.

“Listen, I’m not here to harm you or anything. I was going to your house. As soon as I got the information that you were missing, I went towards your house but then I found you here in this situation”.

He turned towards his scooty and said, “Come now. I will drop you to your home. Everyone is so worried about you. Everyone is searching the whole city for you from midday. Your mom was crying in the school a lot. I heard from Vidhi. She is out there searching for you with her mother. Now come on. You should reach home as soon as possible“. He turned the scooty towards my home.

I looked at the person lying on the road. He was beaten badly by Rajiv. “What about him? Aren’t you going to hand him over to police?“ I asked him with watery eyes.

He turned off the scooty. “What will they do? They will do nothing. These creeps will get out of jail just after few days and do the same thing again. I can’t tolerate these useless waste. The only thing they deserve is death but I’m not the one to taint my hands with the bloods of filth like them. I made sure that not just him but his whole gang will never look at any girl in their entire life“. His voice started to break. The deep hatred he carried for these people must have been immeasurable. I couldn’t see his face because he had turned off the scooty.

“You… What happened? You must have gone through something. Tell me”.

“Now is not the time. First, you need to reach home. Now, come sit”, he turned the scooty on again.

“No I won’t go with you. What if you are the same? You take me to a lonely place and…“ He got off the scooty and came near me.

“You compare me to these people. Do you understand the situation you were in? If I hadn’t arrived, you wouldn’t have been able to see tomorrow’s sunrise”. He sighed and went back.

“Ok, I am sorry. I know you ran off from school because of me but I was trying to be frank with you. You see, I had no intention bringing any harm to you”.

There was a long pause.

“I don’t care if you are a boy or a girl. I see my younger sister in you. She was just like you. She was tiny, fragile, cute and my life. When I saw you for the first time, you reminded me of her. Even your arrogant behavior towards me was exactly the same. I used to love her a lot, a lot a… “. His voice got heavier with a long pause.

“What??!! I thought you were trying to hit on me”.

“You know what? Why I’m like this? I’m just a teen but I look like a bodybuilder. And way older than others. I wasn’t like this just a year ago. One of these filthy creatures was responsible for my transformation. Just like you, she was coming alone from somewhere back towards home but unlike you no one reached her in time to help. We found her body behind some shops just few steps away from my own house three days later. We complained to the police but still they haven’t done anything. I had an idea of who it could have been – one of those roadside romeos. I directly went to confront him but I was in no position to beat him. Instead, he and his gang beat me up. From that day on, I trained and built enough strength to beat him. Just recently, before the start of school, the day of retribution arrived. I found him alone and beat him to the brink of death. Now he’d crave to die but won’t be able to. I made sure that even the thought of looking at any girl would make it painful and he’d remember the moment. I hit him so hard between his legs that he won’t be able to call himself a man anymore”. Rajiv’s tone changed, got clearer and I could feel the anger burning inside him.

     The reason he wanted to be frank with me was because I reminded him of his younger sister. I believed that I could trust him. I silently went to the scooty and sat behind him.

     When we reached home, I saw the police car parked outside. Rajiv held my hand and took me inside. And the moment I entered, Di ran towards me and hugged me so tightly that I could hear her breathing and heart pumping loudly. Soon, mom came running from inside and hugged me tightly. All three of us hugged each other and cried.

     I saw Vidhi standing there wiping her tears from her eyes but she didn’t approach me. She must have been having a hard time herself. She stayed there so as to not worry me but I could see in her eyes that she was struggling to contain her emotions.

     Later, I explained everything to everyone and the police there and clarified that it wasn’t Rajiv’s mistake. Rajiv took the police to the person he’d beaten up and handed him over to them. After that, he went home directly.

Vidhi and her mom also left for their home.

     I slept in the hall resting my head on Di’s lap as she tried to help me sleep. When I woke up the next day, I was still on her lap and she was asleep. I slowly got up so as to not disturb her. I was still wearing the torn school uniform. The shirt was torn near the shoulders as was the skirt down below and to the side but I had no memory of how this happened. Mom was also asleep on another couch.

I checked the clock and it was around 12pm already. We’d all missed school that morning.

I went up to my room, plugged in my phone to charge and went to take a bath.

After taking my bath, I took out one of the new shorts and a long sleeve t-shirt which Di got for me. I felt that the fabric was softer. “It must be girls’ wear although it doesn’t look like it. Let it be. I’m hungry”. I left my hair loose.

But mom and di both were asleep, but it was already noon. “Let them sleep a little more. They must be tired from yesterday”.

     I went out on the balcony and sat on the chair. Although it was noon, due to the rainy weather it felt like it was early in the morning. I saw a flock of birds flying in the open sky and heard the music of their chirping. I saw kids playing in the garden.

I stood up and went down in the hall to wake mom and Di up.

“Listen Di and mom, I have decided something…”.

“You are already awake! Oh, you are looking beautiful today,” Di said in a sleepy voice.

“Wake up! It’s important. I have decided something“. I stood in front of them.

“What have you decided?” mom asked.

“I’m not going to dress like a girl anymore from now on…”.

“What!!!!!!“ Both of them jumped up from their places. Mom stood up and came near me.

“Look, I don’t want to force you. I know what you gone through but my hands are tied after all. If you don’t want to, you can, but there is something you should know before you decide anything. We know we have troubled you enough and you have done a lot for us specially for Priya but you have done more than we deserve. We don’t want to force you. You’ve just faced a very big situation and I don’t want you to go through this ever again. But listen…”. Her eyes were still sleepy but there I could see the tears started forming.

“Before we get into it, tell me this first. Why didn’t you or the principal stop Miss Richa from doing this to me? She is just a teacher. How can a higher up, like Vidhi’s mom, who owns the school, be so helpless? And you being my mom could have stopped it too”. I shouted which I hadn’t done in a long time. Mom hugged me more tightly. I felt guilty for shouting at her.

“Miss Richa is not an ordinary class teacher as you may think. She has 50% ownership of that school. Not just that. She has more power than principal herself”. Mom looked down helplessly.

“How is that possible? She has 50% ownership. So what? That means that the principal holds 50% authority too, right? She should have equal power as Miss Richa. How can Miss Richa do whatever she feels?“. I was frustrated but I didn’t want to shout at mom because of Miss Richa.

“She owns the whole international branch of this institute’s chain worldwide. She tied up with this school recently”, she explained.

“Then why is she teaching here? Doesn’t she have enough money? If she owns a whole chain of institutes, then why come here to this small city?“ I asked her back to back questions.

“I asked this of the principal too. You have to promise that you won’t tell anyone else about what I’m about to tell you“. She brought her hand in front of me.

“Ok, I promise“.

“Miss Richa has connections with a big businessman who has influence internationally. Both the principal and I don’t know the reason behind her joining as a teacher in this school. It was sudden. She just came and took charge one fine day. If principal had tried to defend you in any way, it would bring her a big loss not only financially but in other ways too. On top of that, the mistake was ours because we convinced the principal to allow you to keep long hair”. She stood up and sat back on the couch.

“If long hair is the root of the problem, then let’s cut it short”, I screamed.

“No use now”, mom sighed and took a glass of water from the desk.

“Why? What’s the problem? If long hair caused all of this, then let’s cut it short like a boys’ cut. I will remove my studs too”. I started removing my studs but mom stopped me.

“Miss Richa has already made up her mind. She won’t accept it. You heard her, didn’t you? No matter what, you have to go to school as a girl even if you cut your hair, remove studs and look like a boy. She will still make you wear girls’ uniform to school. We won’t be able to raise a finger about her decisions”. Mom kept her hand on her forehead while Di was listening to all of this silently.

“But why me? What I have done wrong? Is it a big crime to keep ourselves happy? If she won’t accept it, let’s change the school”, I suggested.

“Listen, I know it’s not easy for you. Even if we change schools, we won’t find one this good. If you change, I have to change as well. If I try to change, I won’t be able to get into any school. I’m not that good. They won’t give me a job. It’s all thanks to Vidhi’s mom that we are in such a good condition. Otherwise, we may have been in very bad shape. After all she’s done for us, don’t you think we should do enough to not land her in more trouble?”. She was almost begging, her eyes again became watery.

“I know what she did. She gave us a home when we shifted. She gave you a job and helped us in other ways too”. I recalled her all the help she’d provided.

“Listen baby, it’s just for few days. We will convince Miss Richa to stop treating you like that. I promise you this suffering will end soon. You just need to wait a little longer. It’s not bringing any harm to you. From now on, I will make sure that whatever happened yesterday won’t happen again“. She came closer to me.

“Just few more days right? You promise me?”. I put out my hand in front of her.

“Yes I promise. I promise, my baby. Thank you so much”. She hugged me tightly.

“I’m gonna get a few more days with my little sister, yay!!“. Di hugged both of us from behind.

“Welcome little sister“, said Di as she hugged both of us tightly.

     Soon, we had breakfast and had enough rest for the day. I went into my room and switched on my phone and found thousands of messages from my classmates that made me so happy.

     I called Vidhi and Anjali one after the other and made sure that they know I’m OK and that they should stop worrying about me. I had a long talk with both of them.

Next day I woke up early, did some exercise, took a bath and went to Di’s room where she was getting ready.

“Hey di, I need something”.

“What do you need, my angel? It’s all yours. Take anything you need. Come in”. She won’t change a bit for sure. I went in.

“I need a skirt for school. You have extra. Give me one”. I couldn’t face her and so I looked everywhere else except at her.

“Awwwww, my little sister needs my skirt 😍“. She sounded so creepy. “Here you go. Anything else, my angel?”. “She is really creepy 🤦🏻‍♀️”.

I took the skirt and headed back to my room.

“Oh wait, come back after you dress up, ok? I will help put your hair into a ponytail“.

“I can do it myself“.

“Please 🥺🥺 let me help my little sister“. “She is so damn creepy when she makes puppy face🤦🏻‍♀️”.

“OK, OK, I will come back”.

After putting on the school uniform, I went back to her.

“My skirt is a little longer for you. I will tell mom to buy you new ones”. She started working on my hair to make sure that it adhered to school regulations. “Ouch, do comb slowly and don’t tie it so tightly“ I screamed. She’d made two pig tails tied with ribbons with bangs in front.

“Stop crying like a girl! Oops 🤭. Hehehehe… You need to grow your hair so that I can make two braids like mine 🤭”. After she was done, we all had breakfast and headed to school.

I was nervous, but I didn’t know why. I had already faced everyone as a girl but still there was this nervousness again. I reached the classroom and it was empty. “Looks like mom brought us too early today”.

     I went back to my desk and sat there. As the classroom was empty, I went to the desk near the window. I really liked the window desk but from now on, I wouldn’t be able to sit there. For now though, I could sit.

     The view from that window was beautiful. I could see the mountains, fields and birds flying from there. It was so beautiful that I almost got lost in the scenery.

“So you have made a choice after all”.

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| 6,995 Words || Published On 19/FEB/2023 |

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