School Redux

Dhulikhel

"Come here, guys."

"Let's sit together." Nischal pulled his friends up and hurriedly occupied the end of seats of the bus.

Dawa leaned against the window and closed his eyes. Nischal was very excited about the trip. He didn't disturb Dawa and turned toward Samir. "I heard that the view is spectacular there."

Samir nodded his head and said regrettably "Yeah, but it's a pity that we can't watch the sunrise."

Samir's parents had informed him that the sunrise view was the best one. He wanted to see the same view his parents had seen but it would be too late after departing at that time.

Dhulikhel is a great tourist attraction, surrounded by six World Heritage Sites. It also had quite an attraction toward Nepalese.

"Forget it. It's already too early for us." Nischal struggled very heavily just to wake up at 5:30 today. He would have missed the bus if it had been some time earlier.

"Only for a pig like you." Samir rolled his eyes when he remembered the sleeping habits of Nischal. His memory went back to the time when they planned to come early for the morning classes, but then he was left all alone in the class waiting for Nischal.

Nischal shrank and cleared his throat, remaining silent, knowing that for a time in the early mornings, his friend didn't have the best experience with him.

"I know that I can't wake up early, but don't call me a pig just for that." Nischal protested. It would be okay if he had even said dogs. There are no handsome ones in pigs. How could he be a pig?

"Ah, I don't know why, but my eyes fill with tears when I remember the times I waited for you, feeling very lonely." Samir rubbed his dry eyes and wiped his fingers on Nischal's clothes.

"I-I am sorry. You know my problem, I can't get up on time and I always forget about appointments in the morning, but I really didn't mean it." Nischal panicked when he saw that his friend was in tears. He really had selective amnesia about morning appointments.

"I know that it's annoying, but I can't help it." Nischal never knew that his behavior had offended his friend so deeply before.

"I am really sorry." Nischal watched as Samir hid his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking intermittently. He didn't know what to say anymore. He felt his throat starting to get sore and his eyes moistening.

Nischal grabbed Samir's hand and pried it off his face. "Don't be like this. I feel awful."

Samir slowly raised his head and showed his perfectly normal face, no tear stains, no sad expression, everything normal except a big grin.

Nischal widened his tear-filled eyes, a small tear escaping in confusion.

"Poof-" A low laughter bubbled in the quiet situation.

Nischal's gaze shifted toward the source of the laughter, and he spotted Dawa, hastily shutting his eyes and pretending to be asleep.

As Dawa pretended to be asleep, Samir's composure finally cracked. Unable to contain it any longer, he erupted into loud laughter.

Dawa tightly pursed his lips and successfully blocked his laughter that was starting to spill out. He became motionless waiting for the storm to pass.

Nischal hurriedly wiped his eyes and looked at Samir angrily. He felt that his feelings were fed to a donkey. He glared at his classmates who were watching the fun and finally sat down covering his face with his hands.

"Alright. Don't be angry, I was just joking with you." Samir took a deep breath, finally suppressing the bubbling laughter and patted his cheeks which were stiff by laughing too much.

Dawa listened to Samir, who was asking for forgiveness, and Nischal, who was making angry demands like being treated to momo, having his homework done and even more outrageous things.

It was quite lively.

It had been too long since he had last sat together with his friends, listening to their playful jabs and tricks.

Dawa felt someone's presence, who abruptly sat beside him and the conversation between his friends stopped as if some pause button had been pressed.

Dawa glanced beside him and saw someone who he hadn't seen for almost a week.

"I thought that you had transferred back to your old class." Dawa looked at Neeraj with half-lidded eyes. He was feeling sleepy, but he still wanted to hear his answer. He didn't want to believe that the rumors that were flying all around the school had anything to do with his deskmate.

Looking at the boy who had close contact with him, he hoped that he could spend his time living a fulfilling life as a teenager.

It was a strange feeling when he, who was actually not very interested in others' affairs, took time to think about someone else other than him.

Neeraj lowered his eyes and pursed his lips. "I had something going on," he replied somewhat evasively.

Dawa waited for something else, or maybe he was hoping to get another answer, but all he got was a long silence from Neeraj.

Dawa hummed and closed his eyes. Soon he drifted into sleep, his breathing long and quiet.

The scenery outside the window changed as the bus quickly crossed koteshwor.

After a long time, Dawa felt himself being shaken gently, and he was pulled out of his dream where he was back to his normal grown-up life. He groaned and opened his eyes, looking at the face that was close to him.

"Here, the teacher gave it to us." Neeraj handed the boiled egg and biscuits to Dawa.

Neeraj's, his eyes lingered on Dawa's face, who was blinking away the remnants of sleep.

"Umm. Thank you" Dawa stretched his back and took the initiative to pill out his hand from his.

"I was sure that we would have this as breakfast." Nischal complained, but shoved the whole egg in his mouth.

"It's not like a day or two to happen

Something like that. Stop complaining."

"You are ruining my appetite." Samir pushed his half-eaten egg into Nischal's mouth. It was not appetizing, and his complaint was not helping at call

Nischal mumbled some intelligible words from his stuffed mouth which were ignored by everyone else. Nischal quickly chewed and hurriedly drank water.

Dawa pulled out the water bottle to drink with the dry biscuits. He glanced at Neeraj and saw that he had already finished eating the egg but was holding the biscuits without opening its package.

"Here." Dawa handed his egg to him and took his biscuits from his hand. He was not much of a picky eater. It was all the same when he was feeling hungry.

Dawa chewed the biscuit and drank a sip of water. "Eat it." He saw that Dawa was looking at the egg seriously without taking a bite out of it.

If he didn't know any better, he would have thought that Neeraj was looking seriously at the shining bald head of the egg, or body?

Neeraj finished the egg in two bites and took the water from Dawa.

"Students, we are here. Come down slowly and make a straight line." The teacher suddenly clapped his hands, demanding their attention.

The bus slowly came to a stop and the students started walking down oderly.

The bus was parked beside the main road, very close to the path they had to take for the long walk.

Dawa, Ms, and Sabine walked out amd quickly formed a line which was challenging.

The teachers walked in the front showing the path, while a few wandered between the middle and end of the students' line. They had to watch out for the students who would wander around and not follow them seriously.