It was a cloudy day and we were practicing (in class hours… It’s
always fun bunking classes in the pretext of practice) as the annual district
sport meet was just a month away. I had just got into the ball-badminton team
from badminton after severe arguments with the badminton coach.
After about two hours we were tired and we as a team went
over to see how the hockey team was doing. Our School hockey team had won the
state championship quite a couple of times, so the team was always good. I was
the vice-captain of the team for a brief period (1 month) before my over protective
parents thought I would get hurt and pulled me out of the team.
They were on recess too. And we went over to the team’s
goalkeeper who was lurking around the goal post and started chit chatting. I
heard someone call out “TOM!!” and I turned around to see my friend Sam running
to me.
“Got a minute?” he asked and we went aside and he asked me “Do
you know anybody named Steffi?”
“No I don’t, Should I?” I asked him curiously as he never
talked about his girlfriends to me and I never bothered to ask. In the
meanwhile was racking my brains out trying to figure out who it could be.
“The thing is she is a friend of my friend”, “don’t ask” he
added quickly seeing the smirk on my face. I told myself one day you are going
to tell me all about those girlfriends.
“This concerns me how?” I asked him and he replied “She has
been asking around about you, any idea why?”
I became a little too curious now because I was in a boys
only school and haven’t talked to members of the opposite sex in a while (not
counting the relatives). So I asked him “I’ve told you before I have no idea
who she is. But why on earth would she ask around about me?” trying not to show
him that I was interested in the topic.
If you have been in a boys only school you will know how a
news like this can spread, the worst part is not the spreading it’s the taunting
the other friends will do if they come to know about it. I have seen my seniors
do it. Nobody in my class was in a relationship back then, so we had not
started the taunting.
“It seems she likes you, and has been asking other girls
about you. As they didn’t know anything about you they turned to me for help”
He said. “And I just told her that you were a great guy and if you want to know
more you should talk to him rather than ask me” he replied even before I asked
him what he said.
I didn’t know what to do, this was way back when Nokia 1100
was a premium handset, and not many had it. And to talk to me someone has to
call my landline, which the whole family used. And if a girl were to call me
and my parents picked up the call, I am screwed.
Now I was worried. He just asked me to take care and was
about to leave when I asked “which school is she from?” He just said “Little
flower”. I could see a broad smile on his face as he walked away.