CHAPTER 21: AND...“BAM”!

He opened his eyes and saw a really close-up view of the floor. His head was ringing. A side of his forehead felt sticky. He tried to move his body…and couldn’t. It was aching all over.

“You okay?” A familiar voice asked.

Then someone grabbed his right hand. Another hand grasped his left and two hands gripped his sides.

Sensing their pull, Aakash let go of their hands and reached up rather blindly to clasp their forearms.

With immense effort, the two people managed to pull him up as he pushed against the ground.

Blinking rapidly as he looked at the ground, he let go of one of the arms as he pulled down his spectacles to a further distance from his eyes. They had become quashed against his eyes...but had miraculously not broken.

He raised his head to see who had pulled him even as he touched his forehead to see why it felt so sticky. That’s how he met the gazes of Cabir and Harshil and saw the gazes turn from concern to horror.

As he looked at the palm with which he had touched his forehead and saw the blood on it. The next moment, assaulted by a wave of sudden dizziness Aakash would have definitely fallen if he wasn’t still holding onto Harshil’s arm.

“Oh, it’s just blood.” Aakash flashed a weak grin at the two when he had recovered from the dizzy episode. Even as he spoke, he felt something drip down his forehead and wiped at it, his hand coming away bloody.

“Just blood?!” Cabir snapped at him. “Do you- Forget it!” Moving quickly, he drew Aakash’s handkerchief from his pocket without asking him and pressed it into his palm.

“Press that tightly to your head!”

“Dude, it’s just a little blood! Why are you being such a chicken?”

Aakash was not feeling any pain in the area and just felt a little itch. Nor could he see the amount of the blood that was flowing out. He just thought that a little was dripping and felt a little dizzy. Thus, to him, his classmates seemed to be too panicked.

“Can you just listen?!” Cabir was near hysterical. He latched onto Aakash’s back and nodded at Harshil who simply asked, “Medical Room, right?”

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As he carefully pulled Aakash out with Cabir; Jeet and Jatin also went with them, concerned for their friend.

“Uh…can one of you tell Sutapa Ma’am? It’s her period next.” Harshil called casting a glance behind.

“I’ll tell, Ma’am. Just take him to the medical room safely.” A girl’s voice answered him.

“OK, thanks, Janya.” Harshil nodded at her.

“I’m the Class Monitor, it’s my duty.”

Without further ado, she returned to her seat.

With that sentence, the boys carefully walked their friend towards the Medical Room who was still oblivious to the extent of his injury.

*****

“Oh, stitches? I’ve had them before...” Aakash began cheerily as he pointed to his left temple. Then he scrunched up his face, “...Though they were quite itchy later on.”

“You have? I’ve never had stitches before! Is it painful?” Harshil asked excitedly to the boy lying on the bed. “I’ve broken my arm once before though!”

“And I’ll break your leg if you don’t move it!” Cabir growled from between gritted teeth.

“Oh, sorry!” Harshil stuck his tongue out sideways with an “Oopsie!”

He hadn’t noticed that in his excitement, he had put his foot down on Cabir’s shoe and was pressing down quite tightly.

The boys were in the Medical Room. The doctor had quickly bandaged up the wound and made Aakash lie down. After that, she had called his mother and had informed her that he would need stitches which weren’t feasible in the school.

The boys, present nearby had heard the conversation and were talking about that.

Jatin addressed Harshil as he cleaned his spectacles, “Why are you excited by the fact that stitches might be painful? Are you a masochist?”

“Maso-what?” Harshil made a face at the unfamiliar word.

“Plebeian.” Jatin mocked.

“What now?!” Harshil, Cabir and Jeet looked at each other, totally confused.

“Masochist- Someone who likes painful activities. And “Plebeian” refers to a commoner...mainly used to insult someone as commoners don’t have as much knowledge as others.”

Aakash supplied from the bed. The two spectacled boys shared a conspiratorial grin.

Being voracious readers, Aakash and Jatin knew new words more than the others and they had hit it off well from the beginning. They loved using words that their classmates couldn’t make any sense of and laugh among themselves at their baffled expressions.

“You guys are in Class 3, right? Like us?” Harshil cast a doubtful glance at the two.

“Nerds!” Cabir murmured then flashed a proud grin at the two readers who glanced up in surprise. “  What? I know a few words too!”

Pointedly ignoring Cabir’s statement Jatin replied to Harshil, “As for what you asked about the pain...it won’t! The doctors will anesthetize the area.”

“The what?” Harshil literally yelled out.

“They’ll numb the area so that it doesn’t hurt.” Jatin sighed.

“Oh, I see.” The spiky-haired boy nodded. He then pointed to the scar on Aakash’s left temple, “Is that what they did that time?”

“Probably.” Aakash shrugged.

“How did you get it?” Cabir enquired.

“I don’t exactly remember how. It happened in kindergarten. All I remember is that I was running after a ball my friend Samarth had thrown and saw something grayish from the side and...“Bam”!”

Aakash threw his hands up in the air theatrically.

“Mom later told me that a swing was moving forwards and hit my head.”

“Woah!” The boys echoed.