Living with my tutor

Ch 17 The first Class with Headmaster

We filed out of the assembly hall to make our way to the first class. There was a flurry of activity and chatter as students quickly made their way to class. Me and Sanaya thought that it'll be fun to have a quick walk in the campus as many things seemed to be changed after the new headmaster's arrival and we had a few minutes left for our class to start.

We were just wandering around the halls and just the bell rang, signalling the first period rang.

"Crap!" Sanaya exclaimed. "Do you think Headmaster will punish us for being late?"

"I don't know, maybe not. It's the first day only."

"Yeah. Hope so. Let's be positive."

We ran two flight of stairs and finally reached the classroom, panting and out of breathe. Headmaster was already standing there, looking handsome as ever, and preparing to start the class. Both of us thought, it'd be better to sneak inside rather than disrupting his class and face his wrath. But before we could put our thoughts to actions, headmaster turned and both of us froze.

"Mind telling me, why both of you are late on the very first day of the class? I think that I could not make myself clear to you in the assembly that I do not tolerate any sort of indiscipline."

"S-Sorry Headmaster." We mumbled.

"This is not the answer to my question. I asked you why are you late?" He said sternly.

"Ugh.. S-Sir actually, when we were dispersed from the assembly hall, we still had time before the first period started, so we thought to-" I was cut by the headmaster.

"-To roam around the campus! Right?"

"We are sorry sir. It won't happen again."

"Ok. Now since this is your first offense so I am forgiving you but remember, This is the first and last warning for all of you." He said while turning towards the class.

"Now, both of you tell me your names so that I can tell you where you have to sit. I have already made the seating arrangement as per your academic performance till now."

"S-Sanaya Malhotra."

"And yours?" Headmaster said while turning towards me.

"Kiara A-Agnihotri." Then he checked the list and spoke-

"Kiara, you are on the top of the class so you will be sitting on the desk closest to me."

"And Sanaya you will be sitting beside her. Now quickly take your seats. Already you have wasted a lot of time."

I gave a high-five to Sanaya when the headmaster wasn't watching and then moved to my seat. We were very grateful that we had each other's company.

Headmaster stood in front of the room and addressed the class. The class was quiet as everyone tried to complete the set work before we had a class discussion on the answers. I had finished quickly and saw Sanaya put her pen down not long after me. We started to whisper quietly to each other, continuing our earlier conversation.

"There is to be no chit-chatting." Headmaster demanded. We both quickly stopped whispering and sat quietly.

A note slipped towards me and Sanaya smiled. I opened it. "OMG headmaster is so frightening." I read it. I quickly wrote a reply under the table and we continued trading notes under the table.

"I was in such a hurry this morning, that I did not had breakfast. Now, I am feeling very hungry." She wrote. Then I brought out a biscuit packet from my bag and passed to her.

Suddenly there was a loud 'Thwack' beside me and I realised headmaster had slammed a metal ruler onto the table. Both of us were so consumed in our note trading that neither of us had noticed headmaster approaching.

"Stand up, both of you." He stated in a calm yet demanding tone. We quickly got to our feet, my heart racing and suddenly panicking.

"I was being lenient today when I gave you a warning to be quiet but the two of you still chose to ignore it. I should have punished the two of you for chattering during the assembly this morning, on top of being late to class but I decided to let this one go since it is the first day and you haven't learnt the rules yet."

My heart sped up faster and I could see the colour drain out of Sanaya's face too and her hands started trembling.

"Hold out your hands."

Slowly I raised both my hands in front of me, palms out and flat, ready for headmaster's punishment. He held the metal ruler out in his right hand and raised it high, bringing it down with a loud c***k on both my palms. I sucked in a breathe at the tinge, but held my palms without moving as it would get worse otherwise. He smacked both my palms 10 more times and then he moved to Sanaya.

She held her palms up with shaking hands. He brought the ruler high above his head, bringing it down on her palms with a mighty Thwack. She yelped and I felt bad for her. He repeated this 10 more times with her.

"You may sit back down."

"Next time anyone misbehave, there will be no more warnings and punishments will actually hurt and involve more than a ruler."

Then the bell rang and headmaster asked me to stay back. I was very scared if he was going to punish me more. Sanaya too gave me a sympathetic look. I slowly walked to his seat.

"H-Headmaster di-did y-you call m-me?" Oh god why was I stuttering. All my fear could already be seen on my face.

"Yes. I did."

"W-Why?"

"You are Kiara 'Agnihotri'?" He asked putting a special emphasis on the word Agnihotri.

"Y-Yes. Wh-Why?"

"You are Shlok's daughter?"

"Yes headmaster. I am." I was surprised by what he did next. He hugged me. He freaking hugged me! Oh god, what is this happening? I can't believe it.

"H-Headmaster! What are you doing?" He instantly pulled out from the hug.

"Oh God. I can't believe it, I'm finally meeting you. I am your father's old friend. College friend you may say. But our friendship broke due to some misunderstandings. After that, I had no clue of his whereabouts. I tried to contact him many a times but failed. I can't tell you how happy I am on seeing you, his daughter."

"S-Sir. I m-mean Headmaster. What are you saying? I am-" he cut me.

"Listen. Don't talk to him about me being your headmaster. Don't you even tell my name to him. He freaking hates me very much. But you are a kid and I can't tell you everything. But just remember one thing, I am a fatherly figure for you. Ok? You can come to me anytime you want or whenever you have a problem. Ok?"

"Yes headmaster." Then he lifted my palms and asked- "Did I hurt you?"

"N-No headmaster. I am fine."

Then to my surprise, he again came back to his strict teacher mode. I was not able to process all of this that was going on. I mean what a sudden change of expressions. I think something bad happened in the past between him and dad. And dad hates him. Means I can't ask him. Yes! There's one person who can help me. Coach Sid. Dad told that Coach Sid was one of his best friends. He must be knowing what happened between them. I hadn't ever imagined that I will see headmaster in such a heartbroken state.

"Kiara, I want you to know one thing. You are just like any other student to me in school. Don't think that I'll go easy on you just because you are the daughter of my best friend. Okay? I just want you to forget everything that happened in the past 5 minutes!"

"Yes headmaster."

"Do you have any brother or sister?"

"Yes headmaster. A-Atharv" 

"Okay."

"And let me make one thing very clear to you. Don't you dare think that I'll give extra credits to you just because your father is a trustee of this school and gives fundings for running the school."

"Yes sir."

"Ok. You may leave. Here's the late pass for your next class."

"Thank you headmaster." Again he was back to a stern expression and a cold glare on his face.

A/N

So this was a pretty different chapter from others. Did you enjoy it? Please let me know.

And Prompts and suggestions are always welcome.

Do vote if you like the chapter. Have a good day ahead!