A new chemical bond

Trilok ran towards the assembly hall at the sound of the school bell. He had been playing football and barely noticed the playground becoming vacant. The class monitor was sure to reprimand him for coming late again. He could never convince anyone that his motivation for the school came from its playground.

After reaching his class, he was surprised to see a new girl sitting on the same bench that was designated for him and his friend Tushar. Tushar had moved to the bench in the next row. Their class teacher Nalini announced, “Class 7B, this is Trisha Sen. Her father has recently been transferred here from Delhi. Please extend your co-operation in helping her settle down.”

Trilok gave her an annoyed look. Their school had seating arrangements according to their names in the alphabetical order. That’s how Trisha had replaced Tushar. He decided to ignore her.

For Trisha, this was the fourth city and third school change. She was tired of adjusting to a new environment every few years. She was an outstanding student and very soon became a favorite with the teachers. However, that became a deterrent to fostering new friendships. Her bench mate Trilok had become quite vocal about his dislike for her. For the past one month, the jovial and friendly Trisha had started withdrawing into a shell.

A new chemical bond
A new chemical bond

Trilok hated Chemistry but dreaded his Chemistry teacher even more. Madan Bagchi was capable of spewing venom beyond words. Trilok had been daydreaming about the upcoming inter-school football match during one of his classes when he heard Bagchi calling out his name. He looked at Trilok and sarcastically announced, “Mr.Genius is now going to show us how to balance the five chemical equations on board.”

Trilok had been so caught up in his thoughts that he hadn’t even noticed the questions until then. He stood up in anticipation of getting punished and humiliated. Suddenly a pair of hands pushed a notebook towards him. As he picked it up, he could feel Trisha pulling his notebook towards herself. He walked up to the board and confidently copied all the answers from her notebook.

Bagchi had been too stunned to even utter a word. He could hardly teach anything for the last few minutes and rushed out of the class as soon as the bell rang. Trilok couldn’t help smiling for finally getting an opportunity to get even with him.

Trilok looked at Trisha. She had attempted a conversation multiple times in the past but he had always snubbed her. Today he was ashamed of his actions and decided to seek forgiveness “Sorry for being rude but thank you for still being my savior. Can we be friends?” He extended his right hand towards her but Trisha burst out laughing. “You are so formal. This deserves a celebration, so give me five.” Seeing her raise both the hands for high-five, Trilok gleefully extended his hands to celebrate the new friendship that bloomed in the unlikeliest of classes.

 

This is the fifth post of Bar-A-Thon Blogging Challenge (2nd to 15th July 2018) by Blog-A-Rhythm. The prompt for the day is Give me five! while the theme for this challenge for all the days is run/chase/dash/marathon/sprint. I have chosen to combine both the prompt and theme to come up with this piece of flash fiction.

You can read the first post here, second post here, third post here and fourth post here.

bar-a-thon
Bar-A-Thon 2018

Author: Sonia Chatterjee

Who am I? An erstwhile banker turned blogger/writer/author. Any qualifications? A Post-Graduate degree in Chemistry followed by a second Post-Graduate Diploma in Management. I completed a one-year MFA in creative writing course from the Writer's Village University, U.S. in Dec 2020. Though I must admit that I am still trying to figure out how and when I can connect all these dots. Have I done any real work? If two years in market research, six years in banking as a branch head, three-plus years of blogging, writing, and publishing a book can be considered as real work, then yes! Where do I live? After spending life like a nomad for sixteen years in Delhi, Bangalore & Mysore, I am back to where it all started from - Kolkata. My favorite things - Books, coffee, travel, food, and my five-year-old son. What is this blog about? Through Sonia's musings, I intend to explore writing in various genres, create social awareness, spread laughter, and give words to emotions. Anything for readers? You can check out my book 'Deal of Death' on Amazon Kindle. If you like fast-paced thrillers, this Detective fiction introducing the woman sleuth, Raya Ray could turn out to be your perfect weekend read.

49 thoughts on “A new chemical bond”

  8. Your Trisha reminded me of myself… four schools in all. Different cities and different friends. In fact my daughters say that because of my itinerant childhood I have commitment issues and can’t stick to one hair dresser, one dentist, one profession…. Luckily I’ve stuck with one family!

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    1. My husband is in a transferable profession. We made a conscious decision to stay rooted in Kolkata to ensure that our toddler doesn’t have to adjust so frequently. Though he misses his Dad a lot and gets to see him only over the weekend, we felt it was more reasonable to let him have a sense of belonging. I’m glad you could relate to Trisha.

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    1. It is always a pleasure to read your well thought out comments. You are very right about the variation in talent. Very often we judge kids only on the basis of academic records while truth is that there’s so much more for us to discover. Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts.

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  13. Such a light, adorable story. It could well be turned into an episode of a TV show or was I watching one in your story, Sonia? Fell in love with this story.

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  14. wow! Sonia…as I was reading the story I was wondering how you are going to link it with the prompt and you’ve done it so easily. You are amazing at weaving stories….they are a delight to read.

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  18. Sonia, isn’t that you as Trilok? Of course, sans the huge cloud of dislike for somebody in his heart! I remember you sharing a similar account from your student life.

    You know I always used to judge people wrongly as a child. Furthermore I used to end up being best friends with them & I feel blessed to still have them in my life today as indispensable folks. For that part, I see myself in Trilok. And as difficult apologizing seems, you feel great after doing so. Life is really beautiful & equally unpredictable. People you think may be cold turn out to be your sweethearts & the ones you love & respect with all your heart ultimately don’t have your back & offer cold shoulders.

    Your stories are a treat! With the title, by the way, I had guessed it would be a sophisticated tale of surrogacy or something of that sort. But you see, I’m still a bad judge! 🙂

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  21. Pingback: Her happiness on rightfully grabbing the spotlight – soniasmusings
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