‘Syrene’ a newly admitted girl of the class. She is stylish, funny and interesting to be with. Her parents are rich enough to entertain her with a glamorous, expressive life style. Syrene’s father started a new business recently, which made them move out to this new city.
The very first day itself, everyone marked her presence, except Hannah. Hannah hardly noticed her as she was not able to get out of her previous days near to death drowning experience. Syrene tried to introduce herself to Hannah which she refused with at most arrogance.
“Leave it” Natasha commented.
“She is pain in the ass.” Benetta added.
“But she is curvy.” Ron added
“Oh really, you think she is sexy.” Natasha got irritated.
“How can someone tolerate something like Hannah, even if she is Miss Universe?” Ebony remarked.
“Guys, it seems like you love her too much” Syrene finally responded.
“Is that a question to ask?” Irsham said. “Have you ever seen her books?”
“What wrong?” Benette got curious.
“It seems as if a dog scratched and peed on it”.
“Eww……. Please Irshan, I need to munch my sandwich.
Don’t let me puke buddy.” Benetta conferred her discomforts.
Syrene said nothing; she simply sat and observed Hannah, who conveniently ignored those losers. Hannah was actually busy googling on migratory birds.
For weeks Syrene ignored Hannah, but one day it took a different direction. Syrene had to finish an assignment; her bitchy and bossy friends were then relishing in the playground.
The class was empty, even the nerds took refugee inside the school library. Only few more pages to go. So Syrene forgot her surroundings and focused on her work.
Then a mysterious breeze flew in through the window. It got a bit stronger as it dusted away few papers from Hannah’s notepad. Strangely those papers flew towards Syrene, grabbing her attention.
On those papers Syrene saw strange pictures. Tree houses, which are not so familiar to her knowledge. Syrene had travelled to the different tourists destinations of the world. Amazon to Africa, India to Australia. In fact she had many adventurous trekking too.
“But a tree house of this kind? Wow! What an imaginations?”
She said to herself.
Then from nowhere a hand came and grabbed it away
“How dare you intrude into my private stuffs? You nosy brat.” Hannah insulted her in every possible way she could and ferociously walked away from Syrene.
“Hello, you can be rude, that’s your personal priority but who gave you permission to shout at me without knowing the facts”
Syrene retort back,
“Facts! What facts?”
“It’s the wind, who trespassed your privacy, not I”
“So what?”
“So what! Calling one nosy brat for nothing”.
“Go file a complaint, you moron.”
Hannah was in no condition to apologize to Syrene.
“You arrogant scumbag.” Syrene fired back.
“How dare……..you?” Before anything could be said Hannah hit hard on Syrene’s nose.
No further explanations required. Syrene fell unconscious. Hannah felt sorry for a second. She made her sit, and then shook her.
In the meantime her batch mates started to show up. Hannah wanted to escape from that scenario but she stood there firmly.
“What the hell happened?”
“Oh my God!”
“Jeez”
“What the ………?”
“That bitch is jealous.”
Expressions and exclamations like this started to flow in. Finally, Syrene was taken to the infirmary. Hannah expected a suspension or dismissal as she sat alone in the class.
“Call Mom?” Hannah thought. “Annie what shall I do? How to escape dear? Annie…”
In a faraway land Annie too was in the middle of her classes, she heard a voice calling out for her but could not hear it clearly. Still she replied.
“Yes dear.”
“Annie what is it?” Her teacher enquired.
“Nothing mam. I was just thinking…”
Annie looked outside into the deep red sky, checking for a blue heron to fly in.
…..
Next day Hannah came prepared. She did not inform her mom.
“Whatever it be, I will face it alone?” She decided.
As she entered the class, everyone looked at her like a player from the opposite team. She ignored them and got seated.
Surprisingly the class went on as usual, like everyone ignoring her. Hannah expected at least a harsh look from Syrene, but that too was avoided by Syrene.
The classes went on as usual. When last bell rang Hannah felt a bit relieved, she congratulated herself for not informing her mother.
“But Syrene will act.” Hannah was sure about that “But how?”
When these thoughts got into her mind, she slightly deviated from Annie’s world and there Annie felt a missing.
“Is there something wrong with Hannah?” Annie thought as she collected huge flowers from her garden for supper.
Yes! In Annie’s land, they ate those fleshy huge white flowers. It really tasted like jack fruits.
In the evening Hannah walked towards the lake. In the joint, where park ends and the pavements towards lake started, a black Sedan car came rushing towards her. It was about to hit her but stopped just in time to save her.
When the windows went down, Hannah saw Syrene on the seat. On the driver’s seat, a man was sitting.
The doors got opened and both of them stepped out. Hannah wanted to run, but she stood still and looked courageously at them, even though her heart panicked.
“Hi there. I guess we need to settle something?” Syrene said that with an attitude.
“Won’t you introduce me to her Syrene?”
The man, who was somewhere around his mid-20’s expressed his wish
“Ok…. This is the wild awkward cat, dog or buffoon of our class Ms.Hannah Ali”.
“Great” The man complimented.
“I don’t wanna waste time”
Before Hannah could react, Syrene slapped Hannah heavily on her right cheek, which somehow led to bleeding of her gums.
Syrene smiled with his stuffy nose, which was also bandaged slightly due to Hannah’s last day’s aggression.
“Now we are even, or you want more?” Syrene challenged her.
Hannah got charged up, in spite of her pain and she moved forward in attack.
“Wow! Girls……… stop that’s enough”.
The man interfered.
Hannah and Syrene, automatically stopped. Still they continued to stare at each other.
The man then offered a handkerchief to Hannah, which she took reluctantly to stop her bleeding
“Tit for tat, that’s it, now both of you must come to terms”.
He ordered “Syrene get back” and he went back to his driver seat.
He turned on the engine and Syrene got in obediently. The Sedan started to gain its momentum. Ten meters away the car stopped, Hannah who was in pain noticed it. Then it reversed and stopped near Hannah again.
“Oh my God!” Hannah said to herself” More to come or what?”
She thought.
The car had left hand steering, so when it winded down its side window, the man appeared again.
“You get in…….. I’ll drop you”
Syrene was not feeling comfortable still she said nothing.
“No, I can manage” Hannah said arrogantly.
“Get in” The man said again.
The next thing Hannah did was to get herself seated at the back of that car. The firmness in his voice, simply made her obey him. Then the vehicle sped peacefully through the roads.
“What the hell, am I doing?” Hannah asked herself. These stranger are no means, good to me, still why the heck am I with them? “Hannah pitied herself.
Syrene never looked back. Silence went on. But the man was enjoying the scene. Two girls, sitting quietly after a big fight and that too as per his command.
Syrene, he knows her perfectly, but the other one is a wild cat, still he found something attracting in her. Some kind of innocence behind her arrogant outfit.
“Where do you live?” He asked
“Two streets away from here, you can stop there, I will walk”
“It’s okay I will drop you”
“She got legs, leg her walk “Syrene mocked.
“Sir, turn left then take right. That apartment over there” Hannah directed him to outwit Syrene’s intentions.
He smiled at the cat fight.
“I am not your driver.” He said smilingly in order to please Syrene.
“I did not ask for a drive.” Hannah retorted.
“This is what you get in return for ungrateful favours”
Syrene pulled his leg.
The car stopped. Hannah rushed out of the car and banged the door tightly. She then stormed away, towards her apartment.
“You idiot…….. How do you feel now?” Syrene asked him.
“Happy… and contempt”
“Well…………
Before Syerene could finish her line. She saw Hannah knocking at the side window of the car.
“What the heck?”
They looked and found Hannah screaming something, from outside. He unrolled the window pane
“Please Please, come with me please…… My Mom.” Hannah could not complete, she was sweating and shivering.
Both of them looked at each other and stepped out of the car. They rushed along with Hannah and found Mumtaz lying unconscious on the stairs.
The man observed the situations. He checked her symptoms as if he is a doctor.
“What is wrong? Please tell please”. Hannah panicked and asked him.
“Syrene make her quiet or else I will leave”
“Hannah shut up. Just shut up and let him handle the situations”.
Syrene said firmly to her enemy.
……………………………..
Mumtaz was taken care inside the intensive care unit while Hannah waited impatiently outside. Every time when the door got open, she frantically peeped inside the room, since Mumtaz laid closer to the door.
Syrene and the man waited outside the ICU. They sat and watched Hannah from a distance.
Then the door got opened again and the Doctor came out.
“Who is with Mumtaz Ali?”
“I am.” Hannah joined.
“Has she got any medical history?
“Yes, she has got cardiac problems”
“Is she taking medicines?”
Hannah explained about her mother’s previous medical history.
“Don’t worry, I think her blood pressure went down. Nothing to worry. She is safe. Still let her stay here for a 24 hrs. Observation”
When doctor left, nurse came out with a bill.
“How to pay? I am cashless.” Hannah thought.
The man who came with Hannah extended his arms to grab that bill, but before that Syrene got caught of it.
“Just wait, I will pay it.” Syrene then left Hannah in the company of that man. Hannah now felt awkward. Few hours ago they were the most heartless humans on this planet for Hannah but now they became “Angels”.
“Well Hannah, It’s time to know something. “ The man said.
“What?” she looked at him.
“My name” He smiled and said.
She smiled.
“I am Siyad”
Hannah smiled, so he continued “I am Syrene’s friend”.
She looked at him pleasingly. “In fact best friends, we are childhood buddies”
“Oh nice”
“You need to know something about Syrene too, since I think you two can be best friends in future.”
Hannah looked in surprise.
“Syrene’s mother is sick and bedridden”.
Hannah said nothing, but looked down.
“What’s wrong?” She asked.
“Got few cancerous cells growing inside her brain. Recently she had a surgery.”
Hannah now felt really bad in smashing her nose into pieces.
“They are rich, so got people to nurse her. Syrene’s mom too wants her kid to be happy, with her own age groups”.
‘So that’s why Syrene’s seems so mature among her weird class group’ Hannah though to herself.
“I hope your issues could be patched up into a good relationship” He said with confidence.
Hannah said nothing but just gazed at the wild blue sky, thinking about her Annie.
