CRYONICS

Chapter 4

*Ding dong*

The school bell rang as the student hurried inside their classrooms.

The footstep of the teacher could be heard in the hallway approaching the door. There was still a flood of chaos, going inside the room, few running around and playing some shouting and others either chattering or drawing in the Blackboard. Things cooled down a bit when the teacher entered the room, but still had to raise her voice in order to bring back the silence. First class was the class teacher's period.

" sit down everyone and please give your attendance."

Said the lady in her 30s, wearing a white shirt, black blazer and black pant with a Pixie haircut complimenting her looks. the kids were quite settled by then.

"Mel are you angry at me?" Asked Dhruv hesitantly, after which followed a momentary silence. Melissa replied

" it was fun but.."

before she could finish her sentence Druv added

" right? I'm glad you enjoyed it."

With a huge smile on his face. Looked at Melissa. Melissa, staring at him with a straight face spoke out cutting Dhruv in midway

"you done? Can I complete now?"

Dhruv upon realizing apologized and told her to continue.

" although it was fun. It was certainly not a good decision considering how concerned our parents were and my mother even fainted"

She said, while adjusting her tones few times

"yeah, I'm sorry" said Dhruv with his head down with an expression of guilt painted on his pale face. Realizing this Mel quickly, drew out her hand, to pet him but pulled back immediately.

"It's fine. Next time, we'll tell them before going"

said, Mel brushing her hair with her finger. hearing this dhruv immediately looked up and there lies a big bright smile again on his face.

"Dhruv ? Dhruv ! " shouted, the teacher glaring through her glasses. Dhruv jumped up from his seat to look up and responded quickly,

"I'm calling out your name a hundred times here and you're smiling at her like a stupid" yelled out the teacher. All the kids laughed loudly.

" it seems there needs to be some changes in the seating arrangement."

"No. No ma'am please, I'm sorry. This will be the last time" the attendance continued as usual. The bell rang again *ding dong*

"it's the science class come on let's get out and stand." Said dhruv

"Why?"

" What do you mean why? she's going to kick us out anyways because we forgot our homework today as well" Said drove, looking down at Mel.

"I-I already completed it" said Mel in a low tone.

"huh?" unable to believe what he asked her again to which her reply seemed to remain the same. Dhruv quickly snapped back to reality.

"But you told me you didn't"

"Ehh? I did?"

"Forget it...Then What are you waiting for then? Give me the notebook, I have to copy it fast." He said half panicking half excited now that he won't have to go out. dhruv was at his best speed writing down everything. Suddenly a hand came down on his shoulder

"done writing?or should I give you some more time" said an old man of short statue with a pair of round glasses with a sarcastic smile on his face. Dhruv smiled awkwardly,

"it's not how it looks like"

"of course, it's not. So are you going out on your own, or should I call your mother, dhruv?"

"He Looked at mel with an red face almost about to cry

"Traitor ! This Soldier will never forget this betrayal"

with his nose wide, inhaling deeply. Mel looked out of the window and muttered to herself.

"Sorry, dhruv I had to do it. I can't let my mom down like my father did. Since I love her so much." By this time unknowing to her there was a creepy expression on her face, very similar to that of her mother, that night.

The last school bell rang indicating the departure timing of the kids from school to their house. some excited to go after a long day of taking notes and some a little unhappy to leave the unfinished conversation with their friends, promising to continue the rest the next day at school. The teachers and other staffs look exhausted after standing, working and ripping out their vocal cords all day long.

"Hey" Exclaimed, Melissa.

"Hey wait", she shouted again this time louder. loud enough for everyone to hear it except for dhruv who with the visible grumpy and crooked eyebrows walked out of the school gate deliberately ignoring melissa. Melissa panting heavily started running with her cycle to catch up with dhruv, who was stomping heavily on the road while walking, making it known to her that he's still angry.

"Hey I'm sorry." Said Mel in a gentle and low voice after which a moment of silence followed , in which she expected him to say something in return.

" I am Sorry. All right, I forgot"

" traitor! Now you found some good Excuse there. I could tell from your face you intentionally lied to me"

"No no trust me. I am Sorry. I truly forgot about it. you know how horrible and Troublesome it would have been for Mom if she had to come here in school and receive such complaints on me. And in this state, it might affect her health. Which is why I completed the homework beforehand And because of not sleeping, I kind of forgot to tell you and the thought itself escaped my head, please forgive me."

replied Mel with her head down And with a visible expression of regret on her face. Both of them were standing on a road in the middle of a huge and dense forest On both the sides, covering the road. The road is usually empty at this time of the day, because of which the chirping of the bird returning home from another day of work made the environment noisy. The rustling of the woods added to the enchanting scenario. After a moment of pause Dhruv replied

"is that so"

" yeah. You see coz of her fainting I couldn't close my eyes even for a second yesterday"

"I'm sorry Mel. I didn't know. how stupid of me to imagine all those without knowing your part and calling you a traitor and whatnot."

" It's all right, it was also my mistake. so then should be become friends again?."

" Yep"

replied Dhruv with a big smile on his face. Mel replied back with a gentle smile but it was more of a fake smile on her part.

with her head down walking beside dhruv, she was well aware of his soft nature and while taking advantage of that, she felt miserable and regretted every second of it, but couldn't do anything. She herself didn't know why she did that. Was it out of anger or competition? Confused she looked up towards the flock of birds as the flood of regret crushed her down suffocating her.