I woke up in an unfamiliar surroundings. I blinked several times to clear my vision and head. I was in my mom’s room.

  How am I here? When did I come here? I thought

  Last night I was having a nightmare. Not that horrible one. But still it felt bad. I couldn’t sleep again. I was gazing at the ceiling thinking about my crazy dream about my career.

  I was always good at psychology, neuroscience etc. Well mind you, I don’t have much interest in the mysteries of human brain like you are thinking. But I definitely do have interest in knowing fatal nerves of the human body. Like which nerve to struck to make someone crumple in a heap or some thing like that. It’s also going to help me in what I was thinking about as a career.

  Let me not make anymore mysteries about that and come straight. I want to be a professional martial artist. As about why? I don’t know. Just it’s the only thing I am really good at. Why not use what I’m good in career? I know many kinds of martial arts. Karate, Judo, Muay-Thai, Taekwondo, all that. And after the day’s incident, it’s safe to say, they come a lot of use in my life. Speaking of which, now you learned that I know so many kinds of fighting techniques, you might think that I look real strong and scary. But no, I look nothing threatening. I am quite beautiful, charming, cute, good looking, and all that. Yeah, yeah, I know, I am praising myself, but believe me, I hate my beauty.

  Every time, I walk past by a crowd, a lot of eyes drift toward me. You know, how irritating is that? It’s so hard to make people respect you when their first thought on seeing you is to flirt with you.

  So anyway, I thought of telling mom about my choice of profession. How will she take it. She always wanted me to choose a career which has a secure future. Which being a professional martial artist isn’t one. And I understand why mom says that. And I am going to study psychology. If I don’t succeed in professional martial arts then I will have another way of career to make.

  I lied there debating with myself whether to tell my parents or not for half of the night. Then I decided that I will. But not now. Mum’s already in a tension after the incident. I will tell her when she calms down.

  But even after settling the matter in my mind I couldn’t sleep. At last I took my pillow and came slept with mom.

  I tried to get up. But my limbs felt sore. My wounds were aching. I groaned trying but got on my feet somehow. I have to look for mom, but my voice was heavy and would not come out easily, maybe from crying and wailing last night.

  After calling mom twice when I didn’t get an answer, I myself limped out of the room.

  Mom, was in the kitchen, apparently cooking something good, the smell was good, and she didn’t pay attention to me. It happen when she cooks something special.

  As I reached the drawing room, a feeling of disbelief, surprise and delight passed through me. On the sofa, fiddling with the newspaper, sat a middle aged man with messy hair and trimmed beard.

  “ Dad!” my raspy voice cut through the air. I wanted to run and give him a hug, but as I said, my limbs were sore and every movement hurt. So instead, he ran in and gave me a bear hug.

  “ Ouch! Dad, watch out” I huffed as my sore muscles screamed resistance at being squeezed.

  “ Why you woke up so early?” Dad pulled away and asked “ You need rest princess.”

  I groaned “ Dad, you should really drop that nickname” I complained. “ By the way, how early is it?”

  “ 7 O’clock “

  “ That’s one hour later than my usual wake up time “

  “ Still you should rest, you have got an abundance of wounds” Dad said eyeing me head to foot.

  “ Nah, I am good as long as I don’t go to school “ I said as dad helped me over to the washroom.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “ If you are good, then why ditch school” mom teased from the kitchen and we all chuckled.

  “ Not done physics assignment. And you know Malini ma’am “ I explained “ She’s not a person to give excuses, not even this “ I pointed at my bandaged arm and bruised legs “ she will just say ‘what is the use of left arm and legs in writing? I never knew you to be a left handy’ “ I imitated my teacher’s voice.

  My parents let out small laughs, and I closed the washroom door.

  I brushed my teeth and did my natural duties with a lot of grunting and came out. Dad was still waiting outside. He assisted me over to the sofa, then sat beside me.

  “ So, dad, when did you arrive?” I asked. My Dad, is a bank manager of BOI. And he gets posting all over the country. So, I haven’t actually got much of his company from my childhood. In that time, he was posted in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.

  “ Half an hour ago” he said, “ your mom called me last night and told me about the incident, I couldn’t resist so, I wrote a leave-letter, E-mailed it, and came straight here. Luckily, I got the flight ticket “

  “ That was no need, I’m okay” I said, “but still, I’m glad you came. I missed you”

  “ I missed you too. So, what exactly happened?”

  “ what exactly happened? Let’s see….” I described the fight briefly.

  “ So, basically you held all of them down” he exclaimed proudly.

  “ I couldn’t have done it if Oli hadn’t kept two of them busy constantly, I doubt I could have defeated seven armed men alone “ I retorted. Ignoring Oli isn’t fair, though her main role in the fight was maybe getting beaten up and making me desperate enough to use my deadliest moves which saved the day, rather than keeping two men engaged. She made my all goody goody hero instincts kick in and blah blah blah. Now you may think wow Nyssa, you are so noble and stuff. So I say no, you are wrong. Completely, totally wrong.

  I doubt, if it was someone else I would have been worried the lot, except it was my family.

  I’m not the Save The Weak kind. My motto is ‘Never wait for someone to come by and save you. Become strong enough to save yourself. The life is yours, the dangers are yours, so you are the one who should save you’. See, don’t get me wrong ( not that I care anyway ) I do not despise the weak, I despise the people who think they are weak, if that makes any sense. If you don’t understand, leave it. Me and mum’s complicated philosophy.

  So as I was saying Oli’s case is different. I know her struggle. Raised by single mother since the age of 6. After divorce with her dad, her mum had done everything from spice packing to work in 12 hours receptionist to raise Oli. Later Damini aunty got the job at Indian Railway and they saw the end of poverty.

  I remember the first day we met. Oli had been a student directly transferred to high from the primary section of our girls school. And I had been someone who took admission in class 5. Starting of High School.

  Oli the topper who didn’t talk much and avoided everyone was considered snooty by other students.

  It was my second week at new school. Tiffin break. I was roaming the school field munching on my apple. I didn’t feel much like sitting with my old friends and the new ones I made. They all were talking about some actor they find super handsome and gossiping.

  Boooooorrrring.

  Suddenly, I caught sight of a small girl sitting alone, eating the mid day meal provided by School. Well not eating exactly. She was picking at it, having a few bites and swallowing it forcefully. I heard the mid day meal that day was way too salty.

  I walked up to her. As I went nearer, I recognised her from the same section as me. The two weeks I am here I saw her getting all the answers right and solving maths faster than anyone else. Though she didn’t brag about it. If I were like her you would never hear the end of it.

  I closed the distance “ Hello !” I said and asked her if I could sit there. She nodded.

  “ What’s your name?”

  “ Alaka Bose “ she replied after a pause, “ and yours?”

  “ Tanisha Saha “

  She nodded and went back to picking at her food.

  “ Not good?” I asked and she nodded.( doesn’t she know anything except nodding?) I felt bad for her( yeah, yeah, I had a soft heart in my childhood, now stop cooing ) “ Wait a second “ I said and sprinted off towards the school gate. There was a small shop near it. I bought a 50-50 biscuit with the 5 rupees coin I had.

  “ Here, have it” I said holding out the biscuit for Oli. She looked at me questioningly “why?”

  “ Because clearly you can’t eat that” I said, directing toward the mid day meal in her hand. By the looks on her face, she completely agreed with me and dearly wanted to take the packet but instead she said “ No, thanks”

  I shrugged and sat beside her in hope of convincing her with more words. But before I could say anything she said with her head hung “why did you want to help me?”

  “ Friends help friends.”

  “ We are…….friends?”

  “ why don’t you want to be?” I said and faked wiping a tear. She looked at me. Oh god, can’t she smile?

  “ Why would I want to be friends with you?”

  “ oowww, you need advantage from a friend? The girls were right, you are snooty.”

  “ No, I am not” she snapped, red faced.

  “ Then be friends” I held out the biscuits.

  Now I caught her off guard. First she looked hesitant, then outraged, and then finally she understood my plan of catching her off guard and force her to take the biscuit by challenge and laughed taking the packet.” Thanks”

  -“ No need” I said “ By the way, for once I thought no one taught you to laugh” and chuckled. She frowned. She had already tore the wrapper and was pouring a biscuit in her mouth. “Why do you think that?”

  “ No reason actually. Just your face was pretty scrunched up.”

  “ It happened when you are swallowing food which is too salty” She replied with a shrug. I didn’t know what to say after that so I went on munching my apple.

  When the bell rang, we went to the class together. Before we went into our seats which were quite a distance of apart, Oli paused and turned to me. I held out my hand “ Friends then?”

  Oli smiled and took it. “ Friends”

  This is how our friendship started and now we’re besties. After that day Oli has slowly opened up. She was not snooty like people said. She was shy and scared. She had seen the horrors of the world in a very early age. Domestic violence on her mum because Oli was born a girl. She was scared of the world. And that’s fair. And since she couldn’t open up or wasn’t friendly but had a genius mind people started thinking her to be over proud of herself.

  All she needed was a friend who will understand her. I had always tried to fill that spot. Our bond is so strong I view her as my own sister and try to protect her in that sense.

  “ Nyssa! Nyssa! Look here “ Dad’s voice cut off my thoughts. He was waving the news paper and pointing at a specific report. “Sudha(mom’s nickname), Sudha” he called mom as I took the newspaper

  The report was small. I read it once, twice, thrice and would not have stopped if mum hadn’t come over and took it from me. The news about two teenagers getting blocked by several armed men in an empty alleyway and beating all of the up and getting out of their themselves. The teen girls were none other than Tanisha Saha and Alaka Bose.