"Twelfth graders may clear out their lockers today evening and take all their belongings home", Principal Rajvansh announced on the intercom.

It felt like a huge stone had been pelted right at my face.

I glanced sideways. Everybody looked pretty emotional. Riya was already wiping her eyes.

After lunch, I was sitting cross legged on the corridor at the foot of my locker, just like the rest of the class, sorting out all the stuff inside it.

A few feet away from me Riya and Reyansh who shared adjacent lockers were constantly getting under each other's feet and snapping at each other. A little beyond them, Mishti was neatly putting away her stuff.

"I must remind you that it's not enough if you just empty your lockers", said the stern looking administrative staff who was standing at the end of the corridor waiting for the keys to be handed over, "You also have to clean them. Can't have dirty lockers handed to new students next year".

Our class let out an audible groan which was gloriously ignored.

I sighed and stared at the inside of my locker. The amount of stuff inside was more than what was in my bedroom back at home.

Principal Rajvansh had said 'cleaning' but I actually felt like I was going to wage war on the locker.

There were the tons of reference books, notebooks and record works that I had forgotten to throw away after they had served their purpose, my swimming costume, my Ghungroos and my sports shoes.

There was a copy of After that Riya had bought for my fifteenth birthday and I hadn't taken it home at all feeling that mom wouldn't approve.

There were also plenty of scrunchies and tic tac clips I had removed and thrown inside over the years, few pairs of socks that were practically stinking, a raincoat that was too small for me now, the nail cutter that had saved me plenty of times from Miss Mathur an empty bottle of sunscreen, a broken face mirror which I had used plenty of times before stage performances, a spare hoodie clinging to the removable hook I had once fixed inside, stashes of Polo mints and dozens of Diary Milk wrappers.

There was also a bunch of photographs I had tapered to the inside of the door. Me, Riya and Mishti stood in all of them.

There was one where we were in school uniforms with a plate of Baimbale Curry infront of us taken at our Coorg excursion in seventh grade, one at Riya's fourteenth birthday party, one at Juhu beach and another outside PVR theatre during the first screening of Avengers Infinity War.

There was also our eleventh grade class group photograph. Forty of us were beaming around a severe looking Principal Rajvansh and inscrutable looking Loukya ma'am.

I tried to take off the photographs without tearing any of them and failed miserably.

After I had taken out every last thing. I felt a pit in my stomach.

On my left, Riya had burst into tears.

I tried to ignore my own moist eyes as I got to dusting and cleaning and wiping every corner of the locker. Soon there were specks of dust and grime flying in the air all over the corridor. The corridor was filled with the sound of coughing and sneezing.

As I was dusting, something silver fell from the top row and landed with the clatter on the floor.

Even before I looked down I knew what it was.

I picked up the charm bracelet Rahul had given me and tucked into my skirt pocket hoping nobody had noticed.

There was no need to hide it though. I was a Muslim girl holding a charm bracelet with a crescent and star. There was nothing amiss about that. It's was not like it was a big pink coloured valentine card with I Love You emblazoned on it.

Who was I kidding? Rahul had never actually ever said the words to me.

Well..but neither had I.

Our class was finally done with the job in another quarter of an hour.

I took one final look at the empty locker, before I closed it for the last time, locked it and handed the key to the waiting adminstrative staff. My school life was practically over.

"When is the cab coming?", Riya asked impatiently swishing the trail of her red saree behind her as she darted to the window of Keki's Beauty Parlour for the hundredth time and peeped out.

"Madam, sit down...you just had your hair set", the salon assistant cried.

Riya came sulking and plopped down into the pouffe next to me as I looked into the mirror and checked the pleats of my own silver georgette. For the hundredth time. (Guess what my accessory was).

Mishti who sat in a seat ahead of us, looking immaculate in a black chiffon and getting her hair done said, "Just wait for some time Riya".

"I've had my wait", Riya argued "I've waited twelve years for this. Twelve years in.."

"In Azkaban? What? Come on Riya", I laughed at her, "It's farewell! Chill down a bit".

After all the hair and the makeup and every other thing was completely over, the three of us were ready to leave.

We arrived at school, right before the celebration started and hurried into the hall with our batchmates to tumultuous applause and cheering from our juniors. Riya was in her element, waving and grinning at as many people as she could.

After the main function was over, our class flooded out of the hall. Most people hung around chatting and laughing. I could vaguely hear lessons going on for the other classes in the top floors and felt a glorious satisfaction. Ha! The little brats could study for once while we had fun.

The cultural program had been quite short so we had ample time to examine and critic every last detail of the organising.

"Not as good as what we did for our seniors of course, but this is totally not bad. The kids have outdone themselves", Riya said appreciatively looking around at all the decorations.

"Not bad? Oh, get off your high horse Riya. This is brilliant", I said examining the foil balloons in front of the school hall.

"Has anyone seen Abeer and Reyansh?" Mishti asked.

"They were sitting behind us during the program", I said.

"Yeah...but I lost sight of them after that", Mishti said "Hey what's going on up there?"

I looked up at corridors on the floors above which were visible through the grilled windows and saw students walking up and down, all jealously glancing down at us, decked in sarees and suits.

"It's their break time Mish", I said.

"Let them look at us", Riya gloated moving to the centre of the ground so that she would be more visible from the windows above.

"Hey girls!", we turned around to see Abeer and Reyansh walking upto us.

"Where were you?", Riya asked "Experimenting with each other in the bathroom?"

"There is a big commotion near the gate", Reyansh said ignoring Riya.

"What happened?", I asked, startled. Not something, on farewell day too, Allah please!

"It's Aaliyah and Maya. They've ran away", Abeer said grimly.

"Ran away? What do you mean ran away?", I asked, "Like literally ran away?"

"Yes. And they've taken a younger student with them".

"Who?"

"A sixth grader", Abeer said turning to look at Riya, "By the name of Krish Dixit".