“Ahh, school!” I said with a sigh of relief as I woke up the next morning. Nobody would have ever been as pleased to go to school that day as me. And while all dwarves were early risers, I preferred to sleep in. But school came as a welcome distraction.

Last night had been too nostalgic, and I had went to bed still crying. But that day would be better, I just had a feeling in my gut. The first day of grade 10, the year in which I would have to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I jumped up from my bed, rushed through all the getting ready, and in twenty minutes stood in front of the door, waiting for my sister. She was still reading BASICS OF THE OUTSIDE WORLD when she emerged. “It’s good to see you studying for once,” I joked, “But unless you want to plummet to the school instead of walk, you better keep that book down.”

“As if you aren’t buried in a book every single minute of your life,” my sister ruffled my hair that I had so carefully set into a bun with my flicks coming out from the sides.

“Hey!” I tried hitting her back, but she dodged away. We followed the Paths to the West corner, which was the closest to our house, and made our way to the school in the centre ground level. I would have loved to say our school was a huge, majestic building with hundreds of students, but I would be lying. It was a dilapidated mansion, once owned by the wealthy dwarf who had funded the construction of our city Rothem. The paint was cracked and falling on all walls, and the government was yet to give the funding for repainting the century old walls. Thankfully the furniture was more recent, and didn’t break apart every time we sat on it. But it was known to make creaking noises and bend at strange angles. Since it had been a mansion, it had bedroom sized rooms that were not large enough for a class. So the walls had been demolished to make a classroom with three parallel rooms, which always had at least one adjacent bathroom. the plumbing and the smell was another problem altogether.

I climbed to the third floor of the for that the mansion somehow upheld, where I made my way to where I thought my new class would be. Instead of grade 10, I saw students of grade one milling around, just as lost and confused as I was. I saw one of the teachers trying to calm them down, and I went over to him. “Sir, do you know where i can find grade 10? I thought it was supposed to be here?”

“On the fourth floor,” he snapped. “Don’t go to the left wing though.”

“Why?”

He was a mess as he tried to organise the kids and make them go into the classroom. He yelled at me in his frustration. “The roof caved in! Are you happy now! As if this building wasn’t already falling into ruins!” he was breathing heavily.

“Did that help?” I smiled at him.

He nodded, a bit ashamed for screaming, and turned to the little kids again. I took a u turn and made my way to the right wing of the fourth floor, where I found my classmates who had managed to make their way to the relocated classroom. Before I could greet any of them, a huge ball of white barricaded into me. “Melga!”

I barely managed to not fall down the stairs as I hugged her back. My best friend, Urna, definitely loved hugs. She was the most confident person I had ever seen, who loved her life and had no worries. She never let anything disturb her, and was comfortable just the way she was. “Oh, Melga! I’ve missed you so much!”

“It’s been five days since we last met,” I reminded her.

“But those five days were unbearable without you!” she whined, a twinkle in her black eyes that came barely to my chin. She was of average height in our grade, but I towered over her. She never let that disturb her. Why would it, she was a normal dwarf. I, on the other hand, couldn’t help worrying.

We walked into the class arm in arm, my head hitting the top of the doorway and ruining the awesome entrance we had planned. “Oww!” I rubbed my forehead as I made my way to the fourth bench with Urna. We had an understanding between us. While I would love to sit in the back benches with a book in my hand, away from the prying eyes of teachers, she loved to sit in front and hang onto every word they said as if it dictated the course of her life. So we sat roughly in the middle, on the fourth bench.

And then came in Sempa, the topper. I never understood how she topped, considering I had never seen her paying attention. Urna, on the other hand, worked day and night and only managed to come in second. Sempa might be beautiful and popular, but she had her head in the clouds.

“Blocking the board now, are we?” she pouted at me as stood in front of the black board. My height sometimes caused problems to the kids sitting behind me when they couldn’t see the board over my head. I wanted to say something back to her, make a witty comeback that made me a star in everyone’s eyes, but my brain was fairly blank. “It’s not like you even want to see the board. Could you please move aside, because your big head is blocking my view,” Urna was my saving grace.

Sempa winced as she pulled the two guys tagging to her to the last bench, while some other kids in the class smirked. I gave Sempa another hug, and she beamed. Last year we had been in different sections, and it seemed like an eternity before every such break we would meet. I had one good friend in my own section, Karir, but he was in the other section this year and I missed him. He had been fun to hang around with, always making jokes, and we had gotten quite close, but I was happier to have Urna by my side.

Urna’s cousin Roney sat down in front of us, and flash us a grin. “Nice one, cuz.” He was one of the taller boys, about my height, and his face had a mischievous cheeky look all the time. Sharp black eyes perched over his straight, even nose and his wide mouth was ever ready to break into a smile.

“Thanks,” Urna smiled, but the moment was interrupted by the teacher barging in.

“To your seats, now!” he yelled. He walked over to the front bench and banged his hand on it. “And everybody, quiet. I will not have any talking in my class!”

I stared at him, taking in his crisp business suit and polished shoes. The others scurried to their seats, a bit scared. I had never seen him before, and I guessed he must have been new. As soon as the silence settled in, he climbed atop the small stage with a chalk and started writing. His hand was unable to reach the top, his head only came up till three feet as he wrote Mr. Monor on the board.
He turned around and tsked. “I will not have such a haphazard arrangement in my class. All of you pick up your bags. You must sit height-wise, a boy on the left and a girl on the right,” he declared, in a voice a quarter of his previous volume. We all shuffled around in silence, trying to sit close to or friends as we found places in the two columns and eight rows.

As I expected, I ended up in the last row, sitting with Roney in the left column. Urna was up ahead in the third row with another guy, and we both were staring into each other’s eyes as we were separated again. Roney was in a good mood by my side as he high fived with the other guy on the last row. I moaned for Urna.

We spent the rest of the day studying maths from Mr. Monor in his incredibly soft voice, until it was finally lunch time. Mr. Monor let the room, and I leapt up to go to Urna when Roney grabbed my arm and pulled me down to my seat beside him. And whispered into my ear, “You are beautiful, Melga. I love you.”