Cloudy Day

Sana Kohli

“I… feel awful… when my parents fight like that.”

My head was tilted down and my eyes were narrowed. They were sleepy. Kritvik was just in front of me, his back facing me. The whole class was silent, and the only voice which echoed in the whole class was of the math teacher, who was shouting as he rubbed his chalk against the blackboard, “And, students, you need to take this polynomial and then divide it with this polynomial. What this will do is…”

The others had their eyes straight at him as they scribbled on their notebooks. Kritvik too had his head tilted down and his right arm moving. That’s sad.

“And then, what we get as the quotient would be a quadratic polynomial.” The teacher turned to the class, revealing his fat-filled face and belly beneath his white shirt and black trousers. “Then, this quadratic equation needs to be factorized. Now, if you all kids know how factorization takes place, then you’ll just get the answer.”

Everyone’s eyes suddenly turned from the blackboard to their notebooks. They all were scribbling with their pens on the notebook, factorizing the equation, when my head was tilted down in drowsiness. “When will this class get over? Like, isn’t it supposed to be only forty minutes? Why does it feel like three eternities?”

“A really important chapter is going on now, man. You’ll miss something important,” Kritvik replied, engrossed in solving the sum. “No doubt, the questions are gonna get worse from here. Look at the next exercise.”

“Leave that, K,” I replied in a sleepy tone. “I wanna go home and sleep.”

“Yeah, you can sleep all you want. I’ll make sure sir can’t see you.”

“Yeah yeah,” I closed my eyes.

“I thought I’d get some cool dreams, but rather, what I got was…”

“Just sign the divorce papers, mister Kohli!”

“And the next second, I was not feeling sleepy at all.”

***

Kritvik Bhatt

It was lunch period, and the students of the whole class were scattered and divided into groups. Everyone was enjoying themselves in their own ways—some chilling and vibing, some talking over studies, some cracking jokes, and some just laughing and chatting. At the center of the class sat the three of us—Kavya, Sana, and I. I had tilted my chair and kept my lunchbox on Sana’s desk, and Kavya too had tilted her chair to her left so that she could face us as we ate. All of us were laughing and smiling.

“And you know what that bitch did then?!” Kavya said excitedly as she was narrating something.

“No, man, we don’t,” I commented.

Sana smiled a little as she chewed her food.

Kavya narrowed her eyes, annoyed at that joke.

“Cringe, K,” Sana commented as she turned to me with that smile of hers.

“Yeah, I agree,” Kavya said.

“Huh?” I frowned in disbelief. “It was a good one. Damn, man!”

“No, it wasn’t, girl,” Kavya told me as she took a bite in.

I turned to my right at Sana. “Tell her, man!”

Sana turned her head up, and then to her right at Kavya, and then at me again. “Well, I don’t think she said anything wrong.”

My eyes opened wide. “Man… why did you…”

“See, you got it!” Kavya shouted.

Sana then turned her head down on her lunchbox again. It was then that I noticed her. Her eyes felt like they were sleepy, and I felt like she was tired and exhausted, not physically, but… mentally, for some reason.

“I didn’t know it back when, but… it felt like something had changed with her. She didn’t feel enthusiastic as before, and she was not really included. No doubt she was tired.”

***

The whole class was spread all over the badminton court and the basketball courts just parallel to each other. We three were at one corner of the badminton court, playing with others. I stood at the left side as I moved my racket up my shoulder and sliced it midair to hit the shuttlecock approaching me.

The clouds were spread all over the sky, for some reason. Even the sun was not visible, and the afternoon felt like evening. It was a really chilly and windy day too, man, as small breezes of wind passed by.

I stepped backward, looking up at the shuttlecock coming at me, and suddenly, a small breeze of wind passed from my left to my right, and the shuttlecock too turned to right, and as soon as I waved my badminton, it went past it.

It hit the ground.

“Hey! Why did you shit on this one?!” Kavya, my partner in the game, who stood on my right, shouted at me.

“Blame the damned wind,” I replied as I bent down to take up the shuttlecock.

“Yeah, it’s so windy today,” A girl from the other side said. “I don’t think we should play badminton today.”

“Shut up, bitch!” Kavya angrily said. “You’re winning, and now you gotta show this attitude?!”

“Wha—?!”

“C’mon, girl! Imma win this!”

I stood up again, moved the shuttlecock straight on my left arm in front of my waist, and then hit it with my racket. It went up in the air speedily, but for some reason, the wind rose up, this time to the back, and the shuttlecock suddenly started to move downward but not frontward. It hit our own half.

My eyes widened. “What the…?!” I then turned to my right. “Are you sure you wanna play here, man?”

“Yeah…” Kavya said—her voice lower and less confident than before—as she looked at the shuttlecock.

The wind settled, for some reason.

“O-Okay…” I turned to the front, walked to the shuttlecock, bent down, took it up, walked a few steps back, moved it straight up my left arm, and served again. This time, no breeze flew, and it went to the other side.

Suddenly, I turned my eyes to my left at Sana. She was sitting at the corner of the ground for some reason, a few steps away from us, in front of the bushes and little herbs at the boundary of our school ground, on a plastic chair. Her head was tilted down, her back bent frontward, and her hands were intercrossed in between her thighs. No doubt she was thinking about something.

“Now, I was damned sure about it. I just… had that feeling that something was worrying her, and it was getting stronger and stronger, but… but… I didn’t ask her, for some reason. But maybe, I shouldn’t have asked her in the first place. Obviously, I didn’t want to give more pain to her. But, I gotta get this out so that she won’t feel stressed about it.”

***

The clouds still surrounded the sky. The light and brown painted apartments on both the sides of the street stood peacefully beneath the clouds. The street in front of us was empty, with only some gray cars, electric poles, and streetlights. Sana and I were walking beside each other, our talks being the only voice in the whole street. I was smiling as I said, “That episode, for some reason, was the most epic episode of the whole anime.”

“Yeah yeah, must have been,” She was smiling too as she said. “But the anime was still boring.”

I turned to my left at her, “No, it was not!”

She turned at me, her eyes widened, “Yes, it was!”

“No doubt the first three episodes seemed off, but… it was necessary for the series, man.”

“But, like, the first three episodes were so boring! It was a pain to see them, you see!”

“I-I…” I stuttered. “I agree, but…”

“See!” Sana then turned to the front. She jerked her bag up, which was on her shoulders, and said, “Like, why should I even expect anything beyond that.”

“Yeah, but… you shouldn’t judge the whole series just from the first two or three episodes, right?”

“Am I a critic?”

“… No.”

“Then?”

“… O-Okay, man. You won.”

“Whatever.” She was not smiling now, and neither was I. Both of us were walking beside each other slowly. The atmosphere was not really happy and stuff, for some reason. I turned my head down, remembering her sitting at the corner of the ground alone, thinking something.

“I wanna ask you something, man.”

“Yeah?”

“You seemed depressed…”

“When?”

“All day long today. At lunch break, you seemed like your smile was fake, at the games period, you were sitting alone at one corner of the ground, thinking about something.”

She gulped in. She turned her head skyward.

“… So, is something bothering you?”

“No,” Her lips replied.

“Then why were you alone during the games period?”

Her hands were inside her pockets as she walked. “Dunno, K. Like, you’re just overthinking about it.”

“Maybe, man. But… I feel like something is bothering you.” I closed my eyes, my lips smiling. “If there’s something, you can just tell me about it. I’m with you, okay?”

“Y-Yeah yeah…”

I didn’t look at her, so I don’t know about her facial expressions.

Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Our steps echoed. For the next couple of seconds, both of us walked silently on the street, alone with each other. I turned my head up to the front.

“Well, actually, there is something that’s bothering me.”

“No doubt at it.” I turned to her. “What’s—” I stopped as I looked at her face.

Sana had her head tilted skyward, her eyes were leaking tears as they looked at the dark clouds.

The clouds were spread all over the sky, for some reason. Even the sun was not visible, and the afternoon felt like evening. It was a really chilly and windy day too, as small breezes of wind passed by.

Suddenly, a drop of rain hit the ground.

“And, maybe what’s the worst is when… when it rains… on a damned winter day.”

“Y-You can share with me whatever it is, man…” I shyly replied as I looked at her emotional face.

“No, Kritvik. It’s too personal to share it with anyone else. And… I wanna… handle this myself… just for once. I wanna fight more. Just give me another try. If I fail this time—which I definitely will—then… then I’ll really tell you everything.”

I continued to look at her. I then turned my head to the front and then tilted it down. I stayed silent for a second or two, thinking about it.

“… Okay, man. I understand you.” I turned my head to the front. “But remember, you can give me a call anytime. Even though I might not be able to help you solve your problem, I’ll always be there to lighten your mood a little.”

“… Thanks, K.”

“And if you need any help, I’m always here.”