Page 5 of A King's Oath

“So you don’t like any animals?”

“My sister,” she responded, making him laugh softly. He glanced at her book and she was going wrong.

“Sin 2 theta is 2 sin theta into cos theta, Avantika,” he nudged.

She stopped, went back to her original formula and made a hissing sound.

“Shit, yes…”

“This is slow then,” he tapped the back of his pen to her temple.

“Oh yeah? Give me my window seat back then.”

“Ok, ok… you are anyway getting it back in Ms. Veda’s period.”

“Yeah but I want it back now.”

Samarth exhaled.

“Avantika,” he tapped his pen into her bicep which was pretty hard. He forgot what he was about to say — “This is… do you play a sport?”

“Cricket.”

“Are you serious?”

“If you say girls can’t play cricket I’ll push you out of this window right now.”

He laughed quietly — “No, no… I was just surprised. I never see you on the field.”

“Girls’ practise happens after boys’. I have never seenyouplaying either.”

“I played in the first term because my Papa wanted me to try. He is a master player by the way.”

“Siddharth Solanki, right?”

Samarth nodded, proud of his father for playing and winning championships after championships in county cricket across India and even abroad.

“Ooooh! He was so good in that Nawanagar VS Devgadh Bhattacharya Trophy game…”

The period bell rang. Samarth didn’t even realise it.

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The second time Samarth noticed her was on the first day of the first term of standard eighth. She walked into Class 8-E after thesummer vacation, her straight hair cut shorter and skimming her shoulders, some shorter hair in her eyes. It was a new year, new class, new class teacher. And new seating arrangements.

She waved at him and was about to move to the back of the class.

“I’m claiming the window seat for all periods this year,” he called out to her. The last year had been him taking the seat for all periods except Ms. Veda’s.

“Your horses are not visible from here,” she pointed. Samarth noted with disdain that this new classroom did not overlook the stables. But he still liked the window seat. The air was fresh on one side and he could easily let his posture relax between periods, lounging back on the window as Ava kept yapping.

“This or nothing,” he gallantly negotiated.

“Half and half,” she negotiated back, as he knew she would.

“Fine,” he clicked his tongue and got to his feet, pushing out of the bench to let her slide in.

“So, how was vacation…” she started, and before he could answer, began to answer her own question. Samarth just sat down, pulled his bag from near her knee, and listened to her tell him all about the new heated swimming pool her uncle had installed in their winter palace’s bougainvillea garden — only for the kids.

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