Page 22 of A King's Oath

“7.18, ma’am.”

“Give me a good reason why I should allow you inside my classroomafterthe assembly is over?”

Samarth glanced up at her, then at the class of 40. His eyes ran across the room, hoping to see that one face he hadn’t been able to see after the blur of blue on Saturday when he had run his horses up and down the field. By the time he had finished the game and sat through the prize distribution, she had left. She hadn’t come for their Sunday match, which meant she had flown back.

There. His eyes moved over hers, stuttered back for a split second, then moved on. Her partner was absent today. She sat alone on the bench for two. She didn’t look any different. She didn’t look any differently at him. What was she thinking? Was she disgusted that he whipped his horses? Had she seen him slap Bodhi’s neck while riding and given up? But Bodhi knew it wasn’t out of spite. It was part of communication…

“Silence is your reason?” Ms. Shanaya interjected the mess of his thoughts.

“No, ma’am,” Samarth bolstered himself. “I do not have an excuse good enough to be let in, except, that I do not want to miss this class.”

He saw her face change, a smile come and go even before it could stay.

“Oooohh…” Advay and gang hooted from their throne in the back trenches.

“Want to swap places with him, Advay?” Ms. Shanaya zeroed in on him.

“No, Ms. Shanaya.”

She glared at him, and his clan. Then grabbed her whiteboard marker and turned to the board. Samarth figured it was time to go. He could go to the stables and see how the journey had been for his horses. Bella might need a hug and some soothing after the trailer ride…

“What are you waiting for?” Ms. Shanaya’s shrill voice broke his plans. “Get in quickly and close the door behind you!”

Samarth didn’t wait for another order. He quickly stepped inside the classroom, closed the door, and instead of going to his designated seat by the window, veered to Ava’s row.

“Is that where you sit?” Ms. Shanaya frowned.

“Ummm…” he cleared his throat. “No, Ms. Shanaya. I think I have a sinus coming on. The wind might make it worse. If you allow…” he glanced around himself, trying to pretend as well as he could as he zeroed in on the only vacant seat. Beside Ava’s.

“Tulika’s seat is vacant…” he pointed. “May I?”

Ms. Shanaya nodded distractedly, getting back to the whiteboard, drawing topography symbols.

His heart thudding, gleeful as well as terrified of sharing a bench with Ava again, Samarth walked down the aisle to where she sat. Even though it had been a sum total of two weeks since the year began and they were separated, it felt like ages since he had sat beside her, their bags by the ends of their bench legs, their bodies always half-turned towards each other even when they were concentrating on the teacher.

“You want to go in?” She asked quietly.

“Anything is fine,” he croaked, feeling something was stuck in his throat.

“Done chitchatting, Samarth? Avantika?”

“Done, ma’am, done,” Samarth responded meekly.

Ava frowned up at him, then quietly slid in, towards the wall. Samarth stowed his bag under the table, her bag already there. She went to reach for it but he stopped her.

“It’s fine. They can both stay here.”

“Copy these symbols in your notebooks and then we will start defining each,” Ms. Shanaya instructed. Then added with her eyes on the two of them — “And please, no talking.”

Samarth quietly reached inside his bag, pulled out his Geography notebook and began to copy the drawings of topo symbols that looked all the same to him. How was he supposed to rote them, forget understand?

Saddle

Hill

Ridge

Cliff

---