New Beginnings

49- Volunteer

Raghav's Pov

The demo lectures we attended were nice but I had already decided to be a volunteer in my mind when Samar and his Mom informed us about the young students here.

I was waiting at a small hall where all the new volunteers were told to wait. We were going to be paired with experienced volunteers, to minimize the errors.

Personally, I thought this was a great idea. There would be stability and no one would get hurt just because new comers were unaware of certain things. Plus having an experienced partner would give us confidence and we could work without second guessing ourselves.

Few head volunteers had already come and took 4-5 new volunteers each under their wing. I was patiently waiting for my turn, when I saw the volunteer who greeted us yesterday enter the room.

She moved towards the person who was managing everything and conversed with him in low voices.

Shrugging, I was going to turn my attention elsewhere but she started walking towards my direction.

Looking here and there, she paused when she saw me.

"Heya! We meet again", she greeted with a bright smile.

"Hii", I greeted back, raising an eyebrow at her in question as to why she was looking at me expectantly.

"Oops. I thought, me coming here was self explanatory. We are volunteering partners. You will be working under my guidance", she explained, her smile not diminishing at all.

"Oh!" I said and looked around for the other volunteers that would be in her group, along with me.

"Come on", she motioned towards the exit.

"Umm...other volunteers?" I asked, a little timidly.

"No one else applied for volunteering in kids section. It's just two of us", she explained.

"It won't be a problem, right?" she asked, biting her lips nervously.

"No, I don't have any problem. May I ask, why no one else applied?" I questioned, while moving along with her towards the door.

"Well, people find handling kids difficult. Plus it is more scarier as these kids need a little extra care", she answered but then paused in her step, groaning.

"I totally sacred you, didn't I? Please don't withdraw. We are in dire need of volunteers", she pleaded, looking extremely worried.

"I am not withdrawing but what if I make a mistake and hurt the kids? You said it was difficult to handle them. What if I can't manage?" I queried, still wanting to help but having little to no confidence.

"No no. It's tiring but not difficult. When I explained, I wanted to say that people assume it would be difficult.

"We may need to read stories to the kids or play with them or just keep an eye on them while they play among themselves. Last but not the least, we need to run around and provide the staff with whatever things they ask for.

"Like I said, It is a little tiring but it's not too difficult. Plus the smiles of the cute little children just makes all the tiredness disappear, atleast for me", she explained with a hopeful smile.

"I am excited. Hopefully, I would be able to help and not make things worse", I spoke, crossing my fingers.

"Don't worry. You won't and even if you make any mistakes, it will fall under my responsibility", she assured.

I snorted hearing her assumption. Shaking my head at her wrong judgment of my words, I told her the real meaning of my words.

"I am not worried about getting a scolding for my mistakes, I just don't want to hurt the kids".

"You are quite different from what I assumed. From our last meeting, I thought you were standoffish but you are actually warm hearted", Naina spoke with a thoughtful expression.

My eyebrows furrowed upon hearing her.

"Was I too rude, yesterday? I just didn't want you to waste your time with us as we already had someone to show us around", I asked, not understanding why she took my words in a wrong way.

"Yeah, don't get bothered. You spoke politely, and not in a rude way. I just felt like being dismissed after hearing you. It's all on me. The people who reprimand in a calm manner scares me more than the one's who yell", she said, looking deep in thought.

I just nodded, not knowing how to respond at her sentence. We weren't too familiar, for me to ask the reason behind her fear.

"Well this is going to be our workplace. Make sure to do things as I direct and don't make mistakes, just so that you could get me in trouble. And most importantly - Don't forget to have fun".

She commented like a T.V host, spreading her arms dramatically along with having a huge smile on her face.

A small smile appeared on my face hearing her last sentence.

"Wow!! You smile!" she exclaimed, acting like it was 8th wonder of the world.

"Gosh! You are so dramatic", I muttered and moved inside the building after pushing her still uplifted arms away.

"Rudeeee", she sang while running to catch up.

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