Sanaya Sarah Chinnadorai - 8IGA - 2018-19

There Is A Rainbow At The End Of Every Storm

Deepika had slept on her study table. The text books were all open around her, the laptop was on with pages and pages of notes. “thap, thap, thap!” Deepika’s mother knocked on the door, waited patiently for a few minutes and slowly walked inside. She carefully picked up the text books and placed on the on Deepika’s bed. Mum gently shook Deepika on her shoulders and whispered, “Deepika you have to get ready, come on”. Deepika woke up, rubbed eyes and wiped her lips. She looked at the looked at the clock, and suddenly got up with a frightened look on her face. Deepika didn’t want to be too harsh to her, because mum has been struggling to walk. Her mum had tendonitis, her tendon was damaged and so she couldn’t walk without feeling pain.

“ Ma, why didn’t you wake me up earlier? Ugh!” Deepika stomped into the bathroom. She scrubbed her face, gargled some mouthwash and stomped back out towards her closet. “Orange and blue right?” Deepika asked in a hurry. Mum was standing at the far corner of the room, staring at Deepika pacing back and forth like an un-tamed dog. “Yes dear”, “Hurry up now, you have ten minutes!”. Mum walked out of Deepika’s room. Deepika buttoned up her shirt, tightened her shorts, slipped on her socks and tied her shoe laces. She hurried towards her bed picked up her books and put them in her bag making she didn’t bend any of them.

Deepika was pretty surprised, she had never been this dis – organized in her life! She grabbed her bag, took her phone in her hand, and ran down the stairs. Fifteen missed calls from; Lily, Prajakta and Patrisha. Deepika switched her phone off and gulped a cold cup of lemonade. Deepika never really ate much in the morning or rather never ate anything besides ‘junk’. At this point nothing really mattered to her other than getting into the car to reach the bus stop. The bus had pulled up right outside the gate. Deepika waited in the car with an irritated look on her face. She was definitely not a morning person.

“God bless, do well!” dad said with a gentle smile on his face. Dad would say that every day. Deepika slammed the door and hoped that the young children don’t chat about superman and would let her sleep in peace.  Deepika had woken up. “ How was your sleep?” Talia said. Talia was her bus friend. Talia was really sweet and friendly, she would know that Deepika wouldn’t be in the mood in the morning to talk. “Um, good I guess?” Deepika said rubbing her eyes. She walked out of the bus and headed towards her class.

Deepika reached the loud and crowded hallways. “Dude, she must slept off!” Patrisha said. Deepika had been studying all night. “Oh! There she is, hi Deepika!” Lily said waving her hand back and forth with excitement. All the three girls were waiting at the entrance for Deepika. Deepika needs simply raised her hand towards them and walked away. “She has changed so much, Deepika needs to know how rude she is becoming”. Prajakta said in concern. The three girls ran towards Deepika, while carrying their heavy bags on their back. “Bro Deepika, all ok?”. Still no reply. Patrisha questioned again, “I called you five times, in fact we all did!”. “ Can you guys leave me alone, I have had enough!” Deepika said while looking into their eyes filled with anger.

She was really angry, stressed and tired, the last thing she needed was her best friends nagging her. “Come let’s go, she is too busy with her studies and sports, there isn’t any room for her best friends!”, Lily said while pulling the girls back in anger. Deepika was feeling bad who she was from the beginning. She wanted to be ‘perfect’. She had this feeling that everyone is good at something or everything, but she wasn’t good at anything. Deepika had forgotten who she truly was. She had been working really hard to be like the ‘other kids’.

Deepika continued to walk ahead towards her class. “They always have to create drama, stresses me out all the time!”, Deepika said to herself. She dropped her bag on the floor, folded her hands and put her head on the table. “Dude you good? , drama huh?” , Pratiksha said to Deepika while pulling up a chair for herself next to Deepika. Deepika slowly picked her head up from the table, and looked at Pratiksha. “Ya perfectly fine, just a little tired” Deepika said with a slight smile on her face. “Oh! Ok …” “ Friends fought with you right?” Pratiksha said. “ Ya, they’re just being insensitive and illogical”, Deepika said irritatedly. “Ugh I hate my life!”

Deepika said that all the pretending that the world was on her head. “It’s ok, I’m lonely too! We could hangout”. Pratiksha asked politely. Deepika giggled and said ,” Ya sure!”. Pratiksha was her new friend. Lily, Pratiksha and Prajakta were still upset with Deepika. Deepika was never like this, she would sort things out and patch up again. She has changed, so she moved on with her new friend.

It had been a week since the drama between Deepika and her best friends, or now enemies? Pratiksha and Deepika seemed to be getting closer day by day. While Deepika was studying and practising for try outs, she was getting more and more tired and stressed. Sleeping late at night and waking up early in the morning didn’t seem very healthy. Monday the start of a boring and tiring week. “Ugh, math first period!” Deepika said while reading the time table pinned up on the board. “Plus Hindi tution, are you serious!”

Deepika had tution almost every day, Friday and Sunday were her off days. Although, she would revise her subjects and go out to play some sports. “Ok children settle down , I have to take attendance”, the teacher yelled while struggling to search for the attendance book. “Deepika?” “Yes ma’am”. Deepika waited for all the names to be called out. The teacher shut the attendance book and yelled once again, “take out your math text books, and start exercise six point one”

“Great, she’s back” Pratiksha said. Lily, Prajakta and Patrisha were giving her stares from the corner of the class. Deepika tried her best to concentrate in every period. “triiing” the bell rang, the first period was over! The second period was physics. “ Kids today, we will be doing an experiment, so be in the lab in five minutes”, the teacher announced to the class with books cupped in her hands. Deepika got up, took the books from her bag and walked out the door with Pratiksha. “Dude, I just went to the mall the other day and I got some stuff!” Pratiksha said in excitement. “Oh, ya really. Nice!” Deepika replied with dis interest. She was starting to worry about the relationship between her ‘old’ best friends.

Deepika walking up the stairs, listening to Pratiksha yapping away. Suddenly, she tripped on her laces and fell flat on her face. She didn’t scream or cry. Deepika picked up her books lifted herself up and continued to walk ahead. Pratiksha kept on asking Deepika if she was okay? Deepika continued to walk and didn’t listen to anything anyone said. The day went by slowly. Deepika reached the bus stop , and limped home. Her foot was wrapped in crepe bandage, she reached home and mum had asked her what happened to her foot. Deepika didn’t answer, she took the pack of chips from the table and walked up to her room.

Mum knew that Deepika needed some space and so didn’t want to bother her by asking again. Deepika never really expressed her feelings she would keep her sadness and stress inside herself. After spending a few minutes having snacks and checking a phone, she sat down to study. “Four to five I will do bio and five to five thirty I will do economics. After that I have Hindi tution. Six thirty to seven thirty I will go out to play and seven thirty to nine I will do some more revision.” Deepika reads out her time table. It was a Friday, Deepika’s favourite day. Her ankle seem to be becoming as the week was ending and so started to practice her sports.

Her parents were not very strict with her, they had a lot of faith and trust in her and knew that she would put her best efforts into everything. Mum and dad knew she was really stressed and so allowed Deepika to play till late evenings. Her friends, were the only people she felt calm with. Basketball try outs were also happening so she spent mornings and afternoons for studies and evenings to practice. She followed her schedule and felt a little weight had been reward from her shoulder.

The weekend passed by quickly. It was another Monday morning. Deepika had woken up by herself. She wondered why her mother didn’t come upstairs to wake up. Deepika got ready, her bag was already packed. She would always  pack her bag the night before. Deepika went down for breakfast. “Mummy’s foot has become really bad. She can’t walk. So please do not trouble her” ,Dad said. “Oh…ok”, Deepika said. Mum’s foot has been for a while, Deepika didn’t know it would become this bad. Mum was sitting on the sofa, “hi” she said with a smile on her face. “Ma, are you ok?”, Deepika said in concern. “Ya, ya just a little pain”, mum said.

It was time for Deepika to go now, “Bye ma, get well soon”. “Yes I will”, mum said waving bye. As usual Deepika slept in the bus, but also prayed to god her mother would get well soon. Dad said they were going to the doctor today. Deepika doesn’t know whether to come back home or do her basketball try outs. Deepika was really confused at this point, she had already lost a lot of people she didn’t want to upset her mother one bit. Pratiksha came running towards Deepika , “How is your foot, if you need any help, I will be here.” “Ya, thank you!”, Deepika said with a slight smile. She wasn’t really comfortable to tell Pratiksha about her personal life, in fact she just wanted to run away and apologize to everyone who she had hurt.

The day passed by and Deepika didn’t know whether to stay back nack for tryouts or back home to help her mom. Lily, Prajakta and Patrisha were teasing her, Pratiksha was yapping away, she was picturing her mother in pain, the teacher was talking about the exams. Deepika couldn’t handle it all, she went to the bathroom locked herself and cried. She was so confused, stressed and in pain. It was like Deepika was hiding behind a mask, her true feelings, her true personality was all behind the mask.

Deepika sat in there for the entire period thinking about what to do and how to get out of this situation. She wiped her tears came outside the bathroom, looked into the mirror to see if her eyes were red. Deepika filled her had with water and splashed her face. She wiped her face with the tissues and headed to class. She was quite upset inside but she made sure no – one knew how she actually felt. Deepika ‘used’ to tell her best friends everything, but now she has no – one to trust! Deepika re – traced her steps, walked back into the bathroom, and thought to herself.

“I mean, how have I changed, why have I changed? I’m trying so hard, I spend half of my day studying and late evenings to play. What am I getting out of this?. It’s not like studies and sports is everything like daddy says, “little bit of everything””. She walked out of the bathroom, with confidence. Deepika knew she would continue to put in hard work , but not to the extent where you lose yourself. Deepika made sure she believed in herself and will let life carry on, after all the storm will end!