Last night, Manav had dreamt that he had touched a Siberian crane with his Uncle Anush. He got up, kicked his bed sheet off, and touched his head where his uncle's binoculars had hit him. But it was only as he brushed that he really woke up from the dream. Uncle Anush would have never tried to touch one!
"I wish Uncle Anush went to school with me, Ma," he told his mother, as she brought him his sunny side-up to eat.
"You wouldn't say that if Uncle Anush actually went to school with you. He would stick out in class and you wouldn't like that," said Ma. "You want a friend your own size."
"I wouldn't care how big or small or fat or thin he was!" said Manav, fiercely. "I like him better than anybody else. I wish I had been small when he was small!"
Ma wanted to come with him to the gate and stand till the van came, but he refused. It wasn't like he didn't want her around. It was just that he didn't want the van kids to yell ‘Princessissy' on the very first day school re-opened.
Swinging his Milton waterbottle, he spoke to himself, "I hope everybody in the class is new. I hope Chaitanya and Aditya are not in the same section or have changed schools. I hope everyone forgets about ‘Princessissy'." The van arrived. Chaitanya and Aditya weren't there! Yay! But they were there when he got to class. Sick. Sick. Sick. He tiptoed in, and dumped his bag on the last but one bench.
There was somebody else sitting next to where he had kept his bag. A new girl.
The only new girl. She didn't say hi as was expected. He wanted to change places soon. Aditya and Chaitanya hadn't noticed yet because they were busy showing their new beyblades* off, but they would and then he…
The new girl spoke, "I think I am the only new girl here."
He relaxed because he could see that she was really nervous. He was new last year, and he still hadn't settled down. He had been named ‘Princessissy' on the very first day of being new. At break, they had gone to the mango tree in the middle of the playground. Everybody had climbed the tree and he had hung around at the bottom, with his hands in his pockets.
