The new girl with the longest hair was called Deepthi. She was taller and bigger than anyone else in Class 5, Section E, The Holy Cross School. Her hair, which she wore as a long plait, was thick and curly. It came upto her knees. It could be curled around her neck like a snake. At least, that's what Daryush, who sat next to her, told people. In the fi rst period, he couldn't help staring at her long plait. "What are you staring at?" Deepthi had asked, after a while. "Nothing," he said, innocently. "Stop staring!" Deepthi snapped. He gulped.
What a scary girl! He told everybody about it at break, naturally. As more and more people crowded around him, he began to exaggerate.
"She was really scary! She told me she will beat me. And she fl ung her plait around her neck like it was a lasso and she was going to catch me with it! And then, she edged closer…" Daryush said, popping his eyes out.
"No way!" said Asha. She said this with the same expression for the fi fth time and each time, Daryush felt impelled to come up with something new.
"Well, she looks like a hulk!" said someone else and they turned around to face Deepthi. She stared coldly at Daryush. Everyone else edged out slowly, while Deepthi stood there, facing him. She walked up to him calmly and said, "You will pay for this." It was a voice that meant business. Daryush paled. His classmates let out a murmur of disbelief.
News of the threat spread and by the time it reached the higher classes, Deepthi might well have murdered Daryush. Even the seventeen-year-olds weren't acting too cool to be talking about what had happened with the new girl and that poor boy in Class 5, Section E. Everyone tried to be excited about it in the most righteous way possible but the truth was that they just needed something to talk about.
A meeting was called. Daryush's parents screamed at Deepthi's parents. Deepthi's parents didn't scream back. They glowered at Deepthi. Deepthi glowered at Daryush, while Daryush gazed innocently at everyone, now and then, holding his cheek.
"He is a pretender! He was making up stories about me and they were calling me hulk…!" she screamed, and the Principal, a delicate, wiry person, thought she would faint. But then, she caught the expression on Deepthi's parents' face. A look that meant, "Please, we're sorry. Give us one more chance. Please."
Deepthi ran out of the room, her plait swinging behind her. Daryush followed her, making the worst possible face at her back, forgetting to look hurt.
In class, she still sat next to him. "You're nuts," he informed her. She clenched her fi st, but didn't say anything.
