This is the very first story I had written... I hope you like it :)
She was heartbroken. He’d dumped her. It had been two weeks but she still couldn’t believe it. After all she’d known Aakash for two years now. He’d started staying aloof, not calling her up, not responding to her SMSes. She thought maybe it’s just a phase, maybe he was worried about something he couldn’t share and she gave him time but then this bombshell dropped. Sitting in one corner of the room, stroking her pug unconsciously, she was looking out at the grounds of Jain’s International School (JIS), thinking about the old happy times, when she realized that tears were rolling down her cheeks. She wiped them hurriedly and looked around to see if any of the others had noticed. Yes, someone out there had. Nisha was glaring at her.
Nisha came up but when she looked at Natasha up close she softened. Nisha and Natasha were the best of friends. They’d known each other since they were kids. She sat down beside her and held her hand. She knew what Natasha was thinking about. Natasha’s eyes were searching for Aakash. She saw him reciting his part of the play, looking down now and then to catch a word. She wanted to go and help him with his lines like she did earlier but she knew that wasn’t possible. Since their break-up, Natasha hadn’t approached Aakash. She hadn’t even bothered to ask him for a reason. How could she when she still couldn’t believe that it had happened? During the rehearsals she would just go and enact her part of the play and not involve herself much. She wasn’t the old cheerful Natasha. The entire group would try to cheer her up and yet give her time to gather the pieces. They desperately wanted the old Natasha back. Such was their bond!
“Natasha let’s go down to the grounds for sometime. Don’t worry there’s still about an hour for the play. You can come up and do your make-up, rather a touch of your make-up!” Natasha smiled. Natasha was playing the part of Fanny Price, a girl with no extraordinary beauty but a golden heart who lived life in a simple way.
They’d come to JIS to participate in an inter-school drama event. They were doing a modern adaptation of the famed Jane Austen novel Mansfield Park. They had tried to fit the entire novel within the ten-minute time slot. The important and more dramatic events where emotions ran high, audiences could be captivated, some humourous or interesting sequences wren being enacted by them and the rest was being narrated by Nisha between the acts. For the past six weeks the group had given it their all. Be it dialogues, costumes or even make-up, it had been approved by all. The only reason why they’d called it a modern adaptation was because they couldn’t get costumes of that era! Apart from costumes and sets each element of the play was as close as possible to the novel. Natasha’s pug had been kept to retain the closeness of the adaptation with the novel! The pug had been Natasha’s seventeenth birthday gift from her dad and it was very special to her! The entire cast knew how Natasha loved it!
“The pug?” Natasha asked. But Nisha had already picked it up and was going towards Shruti. She handed over the pug to Shruti and said a few words to her. Shruti looked towards Natasha and smiled as if encouraging her to go ahead with the plan. The group obviously knew about her break-up. They tried their best to behave normally with both of them. And Natasha was thankful to them for this. Because she couldn’t bear to see people chiding Aakash for whatever wrongs he’d done. Even now she couldn’t bear it!
Natasha and Nisha went down to the grounds admiring the small flowerbeds as they passed by. Even Natasha couldn’t stop herself from showering a few words of praise. The grounds of JIS did lift her spirits, though not for long!
Shruti came running towards them. “Natasha I have bad news! We can’t find your pug. No don’t shout at me! Please.” She said it all in one breath. Natasha opened her mouth to say something, but this time both Nisha and Shruti spoke together, “No, please don’t shout!” Natasha couldn't hep smiling at their frenzy!
To be continued...;)
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