Grace's Fusion

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚Loud Noises˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧˚₊‧꒰ა ☆

𝓐𝓻𝔂𝓪𝓷'𝓼 𝓟𝓞𝓥

 "Come on, Sharma, you can't just do that!" Vikram yelled as soon as he heard my declaration, but his words fell on deaf ears as I was already pondering the things I could make him do. Hell, I could even make him a makeshift chair.

 "Should've thought about that before making that ugly graffiti. On a side note, your writing is still bad either way," I spoke smugly, though it came out way more smug than I intended. In a swift motion, Vikram grabbed my collar and pinned me against the wall.

 "You want me to be harsh on you, huh?" he spoke through gritted teeth, his eyebrows twitching with annoyance. Instead of being intimidated, I laughed. "Be as rough as you want, Vikram. But I should remind you that neither the school, your parents, nor Tara's parents will hesitate to be harsher than you are on me," I warned, immediately making him let go of my collar.

 "Aryan, you're doing this to me again, that event damaged me," Vikram tried convincing me now, but it didn't sway me from what I was compelling. "What event?—" Atharva questioned, but I cut him off once again, "Damaged you? You were and still are selfish to think that it only damaged you. And I think there was no better happening than this that I could use to my advantage and find it amusing," I argued with a sharp edge to my voice as I turned the other way to head out of the abandoned washroom, while Atharva and Vikram watched with confused and wearied expressions, respectively.

I sighed, as I made my way from these empty corridors to the main hallways. Our school is vast, they say it used to be a church and was owned by Father Marcus's great-grandfather during British rule, and developed into an institution and a convent school by his grandfather. That's why it had a few places such as this abandoned washroom and an outhouse, specifically a big one that we used as an auditorium or practice halls during events that were organized. Though our school was big, it lacked students not because it was expensive but because of its location, miles away from the urban area.

Honestly, this was the only moment I had been so sassy with him, I don't think I even knew how to act like that but damn, it came all in so naturally.

I was still deep in thought within these lonely corridors, it wasn't the first time I roamed around here, it was daily. All my years in this school, I always came here whenever things got overwhelming in those busy and noisy classrooms. 

I never liked loud noises though when Vikram came into my life as a friend years ago, he made me like those loud noises, and then hate them all over again just by those hurtful words which sounded like a quiet insult to the world but for me, it was loud enough to make my soul ring and vow not to like these shrill sounds ever.

• ｡⋆𓇼˚ 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 ˚ 𓇼⋆ ｡ •

26 January, 2020

Republic Day flag-hosting

Amma was fixing my costume, it was a flag-hosting ceremony, though Vandana (it is a dance done on the Mantra itself in which salutations are given to Goddess Saraswati at the beginning of ceremonies for it to go well) was a girls' thing, but Father Marcus insisted for me to perform as he knew I belonged from a traditional background.

 "Amma, amake kemana lagache? (Mom, how do I look?)" I asked as she gave my dupatta a few last tugs. "Sundar, amar chela (beautiful, my boy)", she smiled as she took some kajal from her lower eyelid with her ring finger and marked a small, faint dot behind my ear. "Nazar na lage, mere roshagulla ko (may the evil eye ward off and not affect you)," she smiled, before waving me bye.

 I stood there before Mrs Kaveri led me into the auditorium backstage. I sat with Advika, Shanaya, and Advika number 2 (Advika Gupta) as they were arguing about which shade of lipstick went the best with them. As they did so, I noticed Vikram walking shyly towards me. I took a closer look but before I could, he shoved a daisy flower in my face. "Put it in your hair, just because you're a boy doesn't mean you're restricted to putting a simple flower in your hair." I picked it up, smiling brightly at him, "Of course I— Vikram?" and at that moment, he was out of sight. I sighed as I put the flower in my hair. And no longer that I had fixed it, a few 8th graders loomed around me, pulling my hair. 

"Look at him, trying so hard to be a girl," One of them piqued. "I wonder if his father can even call him a son," Ah, there he was, Ashok, the senior we all collectively hated. I refused to show how frustrated I was, not to make them emerge victorious in an imaginary competition these delusional people had of how they could infuriate me. Before they could continue, I rushed to Mrs Kaveri, who glared them off.

After my performance was over, I came backstage and sat with the others, only to see Vikram rushing to me once again, this time a little nervous. "Aryan, don't tell the teachers I locked them in there" he spoke before running off again. I didn't know what he was talking about until I heard the anchor calling out Ashok's and his friends' names who'd be performing with him.

 That's when it made sense, Vikram locked them. The girls backstage immediately approached Mrs Kaveri and started complaining it was Vikram, as he spoke a little too loud to me. She approached me with a stern look on her face and questioned, "Was it him? Aryan, tell me truthfully", I heard a girl yell at me, "Don't ask him, ma'am, he'll lie to you", a few girls continued making such statements. I felt pressured before Mrs Kaveri shushed them and went away to find Vikram. My face turned pale after I realized how rough this situation was going to be and would result in a heavy impact on our friendship.

The flag-hosting ceremony was now dismissed with only one performance done while there were ten more in the queue.

 I felt someone pat on my back, I turned to see who it was and to my unfortunate, it was Vikram's parents. "Aryan, do you know what happened? What did Vikram do?" his mother questioned, she trusted me a lot if it came to Vikram's doings.

 "Aunty... He locked the seniors somewhere because they bullied me," I didn't hold back from telling the truth, knowing she'd try her best to defend him with what I told her. She nodded before they both head to Father Marcus' room AKA the principal's office where they had been called.

Half an hour later, I saw Vikram coming out of the principal's office. I immediately drew closer to him, wanting to know what happened, and apologized.

But the words he spoke next felt more than the word heartbreaking itself. 

"Now I understand why you never liked loud noises, because you felt irritated when someone else raised their voice for their concerns metaphorically, while you wanted to remain weak and put others down as well, and you did and congrats you are successful."

I stood frozen, and that's when we became rivals. Neither of us was wrong and neither of us was right, that's what destroyed the base principle of our friendship.

• ｡⋆𓇼˚ 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 ˚ 𓇼⋆ ｡ •

Well, recounting those memories was never a good occurrence. Now, I was back in the main hallways and made my way to the next class which was our P.E. or sports period, and went down the stairs to the ground.

"Tu mazak kar raha hai na, Aru? (You're joking right, Aru?)", they looked at me with a bewildered and amazed look. "I mean we should've known it was coming but damn Aryan you took it to the next level!", we high-fived and noticed Shanaya's gaze fixed upon Atharva. Me and Advika shook our heads with disappointment.

"Anyways," Shanaya began, "What are you going to make him do? Like with that 'do my work or I tell the teacher' policy, hm?" they both looked at me with teasing looks. I laughed, shaking off the guilt I felt. 

"Abhi toh picture shuru hui hai, dekho aage hota hai kya (it only has begun, wait and watch)"

.𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚

A/N: Back with another chapter😏. Don't mind my bengali, I don't speak much of it and to be brutally honest, hindi phrases in english kill the vibe of its humor. This is it for chapter 7 of GRACE'S FUSION. Sorry... NOT SORRY FOR THE ANGST MWAHAHA😛😘. Until we meet again♬ ₊˚.🎧⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧