The morning of the first midterm exam arrived with a moody drizzle and the smell of wet earth lingering in the air. Students hurried into school, umbrellas dripping, socks squelching, and eyes wide with dread.
Inside 11-B, silence reigned. Not the peaceful kind—more like the kind right before a war.
Karthik sat at his desk, tapping his pen rhythmically. His heart wasn't pounding because of the exam. It was because of her.
Ananya walked in with her hair slightly damp, glasses misted up, and a calm confidence on her face that somehow gave him strength. She glanced around the room, her gaze pausing for just a second too long when it landed on him.
Their eyes met.
A beat passed.
And another.
Then she smiled—small, private, just for him.
Karthik looked down immediately, cheeks burning, a stupid grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"Alright, settle down!" the invigilator barked, handing out papers. "No talking. Eyes on your own sheet."
Karthik tried to focus. The first question stared back at him, bland and lifeless.
But his mind kept drifting back to that smile.
---
Halfway through the exam, thunder rumbled faintly outside, but the only sound in the classroom was pens scratching paper and an occasional sneeze. Karthik tried to remember Ohm's Law but found himself remembering how Ananya's fingers had brushed his yesterday when she handed him a biscuit packet.
He groaned softly, shook his head, and forced himself to focus.
Two rows ahead, Ananya scribbled away, focused, her head tilted just so. She looked like she belonged in a painting—quiet, radiant, undistracted.
Except… she turned her head slightly. Just enough.
Their eyes met again.
Karthik blinked.
She raised an eyebrow. Focus, her eyes seemed to say.
He smirked.
Yes, ma'am.
---
When the bell rang and the papers were collected, the class exhaled as one.
"What was question 6, da?" Vikram asked, collapsing dramatically. "I wrote 'resistance is inevitable.' Is that physics or Thanos?"
Karthik barely heard him. He was watching Ananya pack her pens. She turned and caught his gaze again.
"Meet me at the bike shed," she mouthed.
He nodded once.
---
Under the metal sheet near the cycle stand, where rain splattered around them but not on them, they stood close.
"You looked stressed," Ananya said, arms folded.
"You looked like a goddess of formulas," he replied.
She laughed. "I was stressed. I just hide it better."
"Your smile in the morning…" he began, then paused.
"What about it?"
"It helped."
She looked at him, softer now. "Good. You help me too."
The rain danced around them, blurring the world outside the shed. For a moment, it felt like they were in a bubble—just them, just this.
Then, quietly, Ananya said, "We have four more exams."
"Let's fail together," Karthik said solemnly.
She rolled her eyes. "Let's survive together."
He grinned. "That sounds better."
---
End of Chapter 43