A very cliched story I started writing out of nowhere. It's bad, but I was made to publish it so that my friends could be the judge of how it is.

But, IT'S BAD.

(This is the first part of a TS that may have two or three chapters in total)

**

Annika had been getting these notes for a total of 7 days now. One week, each day of which presented to her a little piece of paper put up tactically at the very back of her locker. The first time she had gotten it, it had come as quite a surprise. In fact, even now, she couldn't believe that she was getting what one would call 'love letters'. It wasn't that she never received male attention, but something like this was a little too extra at this time and age. Nonetheless, she would be lying if she said she didn't like it. The notes, with their cute little scribblings of song lyrics or cliched one-liners, managed to make her day every morning, and she had started looking forward to receiving them. If only the sender would reveal themselves...

"Ooh, another one," Her best friend, Mallika, whistled as she took her out books from the locker next to Annika's. She had told only her closest friends about this 'secret admirer' of hers, and they were all hell-bent on trying to figure out who it might be. Although they had a few guesses, nothing had been confirmed as of yet.

"What does this one say?" Mallika asked curiously, peeking over Annika's shoulder to look at the small, blue-colored paper. It had just two lines, written in a scrawly handwriting with blank ink.

Circle me and the needle moves gracefully back and forth,
If my heart was a compass you'd be north.

"Oh gosh," Mallika gushed, "This guy is so cute! If only we could find who he is..."

Putting the note in her bag- to be kept in a secret box of hers at home- Annika shut her locker door with a slam, and started walking to class.

"If he wanted to be revealed, he would have signed his name. I don't get it, though- what's the point of being so romantic if he doesn't want me to know who he is?"

Mallika rolled her eyes at that, walking beside Annika.

"God, Anni, why are you so unromantic? I would die to have a secret admirer, but you're complaining about how the guy is being discreet about his love for you! Do you know how lucky you are?"

"What's the point if I never find out who he is, though?" Annika muttered, before they entered the classroom. Soon, the teacher entered, and Annika and her friends had to stop their detective work on who this 'Mystery Man' might be.

During lunch time, she and her friends sat eating a large Margherita pizza, the note from the morning on the table in front of them. They had decided that the best way to figure out who the sender was would be to match his handwriting with those of the other guys in their class. And so, being the prefect of Grade-11, Annika had managed to get the marksheets of all the students in her section, giving the excuse to the teacher that she will note down the marks for him. Because she was quite the teacher's pet and they all loved her, he had agreed.

"Nope, none of them," Tia sighed with indignation. "It's possibly someone from the other sections."

"And how are we gonna get their marksheets?" Annika asked, pouting. "I can't just randomly ask for them."

"Worry not, babe," Tia said, winking, "You know Dushyant from Section-B? He's a prefect too and happens to flirt with me quite a bit."

"And I have a friend, Trisha, in the other section, so she can get them for us! Problem solved!"

Rejoicing at having found out a way, the girls munched on their pizza slices happily, unaware that the man they were looking for had his eyes on them, or specifically on her, at this very moment.

**

"This is so frustrating! None of them even come close to his handwriting!"

Sitting in an empty classroom the next day after school, Annika and her friends whined in disappointment. They had checked each and every paper thoroughly- even the girls' ones for good measure- but none of them belonged to the Mystery Man. Mallika suggested that he had probably changed his handwriting on purpose while writing the notes, and that had everyone feeling gloomy.

"I am never going to find him," Annika said sadly, putting her chin in her hands. "He's always just going to remain a mystery man and soon enough, he'll stop sending me these notes also. I just know it."

Rubbing her back, Tia tried consoling her.

"It's okay, Anni; I'm sure that soon enough, he's going reveal himself to you. Till then, you have these adorable little notes to look forward to!"

Well, that was true, Annika thought with a smile. Getting up, she followed her friends outside, the note from today morning clasped in her hand.

Risk it all 'cuz I'll catch you if you fall, wherever you go
If my heart was a house you'd be home.

**

It had been two weeks since she had started receiving the notes, and Annika was getting frustrated at this point. As much as she loved receiving these love letters, what she wanted more was to know about the sender. What did he look like? Was he smart? Did he genuinely like her or was just messing around by sending these notes? Arrgh, too many confusions! After the handwriting tactic had failed, Annika and her girlfriends had brainstormed, and decided that the only other way they could find out who was giving her these notes was to keep an eye on her locker at all times. It would be difficult, yes, seeing as they all had classes together, but because they so desperately wanted to know, the girls had all volunteered to bunk one class each. They were five of them including Annika, and would take turns in keeping guard of her locker. When they met in the morning, they were thrilled to be finally executing the plan. Being a prefect, it was difficult for Annika to skip any class, and she would be missing PE which was the last period.

During lunch, the girls sat down to discuss progress, but so far, neither Tia nor Tanya had gotten anything.

"Let's hope we get lucky," Mallika said cheerfully, referring to herself and Chanda, but alas, at the end of the day, they still had nothing. Annika could have cried.

"Babe, don't worry!" Her friends tried reassuring. "We still have the last period left. In fact, the chances that he'll come in the last period are greater, right? Maybe when the corridor gets all crowded and it's easier to sneak it in your locker..."

With high hopes, they sent Annika away, moving to the basketball court themselves. Sighing, Annika slumped down in front of her locker, her back against the cold metal of another locker. Time passed on as her watch kept ticking, but still, there was no sign of her mystery man. As some students and teachers passed by, they looked at her quizzically, but she only gave them awkward smiles. One of the cleaning ladies passing by stood to talk to her.

"What happened, beta? Are you not feeling well?"

Annika gave her a genuine smile.

"Nothing like that, didi. Just...waiting for someone," she said. The lady smiled.

"A friend?" She asked, and Annika shook her head.

"I really don't know," She sighed. "Anyway, I should get going." She stood up and smoothed down her skirt. "Are you going to be leaving now, too?"

"Oh no," The lady smiled. "We have to stay till the boys leave."

"Boys?" Annika asked, confused.

"The ones who are in the football team? They stay on campus till 4 for practice." Saying so, she gave Annika one last smile before walking away.

For some reason, Annika's heart started thumping faster, and she just somehow knew that she would find her guy today.

**

A, any luck?!

As her phone buzzed, Annika opened the message on her group chat with her friends. Telling her parents that she had a group project to work on, she had stayed back in school to find the Mystery Man. It was 3 pm already- one hour after recess- and she would wait all the way till 4 because she was adamant about meeting him today. The boys were practicing out in the lawns, but there were many of them and she didn't want to waste energy trying to guess who it might be. So, she was sitting in a corridor opposite her locker. This way, when her secret admirer did come, he wouldn't notice her and would carry on with his work. Instead of wasting time while waiting, Annika took out her Chemistry book and started to study. She was A* student and some random guy sending her love notes wasn't going to jeopardize her studies.

It was when Annika heard footsteps approaching that she realized it was almost 4, and holding her breath, she sneakily stared out at the corridor. When she saw a guy approaching, she quickly hid again. Her heart was beating extremely fast, and she had to keep a hand over her chest to stop it from bursting out. Slowly, she peeked from behind the wall again. There was a boy there, standing right in front of her locker. Unfortunately, his back was to her, and she could only make out his form. Dressed in a plain white t-shirt, he was quite tall, with a lean figure and short hair with the strands at the back slightly longer. She could make out the hard muscles of his back against the fitting shirt, and honestly, Annika couldn't believe that a hot guy like him would have a thing for her. She hadn't seen his face but he already seemed to be like one of those high school jocks- undeniably handsome, plays football, and probably also plays with girls' feelings. And so it left Annika beyond confused why he must be sending her these notes. Wasn't this what the shy, nerdy guys did?

As he was done scribbling on the note, he tore the piece of paper out of his notebook and placed it, quite delicately, at the back of her locker. Annika started panicking- she still hadn't seen his face and had no clue who he was, and she did not have the guts to call him out on his actions. Gulping, she frantically tried to think of something that would tell her who he was, before her prayers were answered. As he closed her locker door and started walking away, a page fell out of the notebook he had been carrying. When he was out of eyesight, Annika quickly scrambled to pick up the paper. To her immense luck, it was a marksheet where his name was clearly written at the top.

Daksh Khurana

Smiling widely because she had finally found out who her Mystery Man was, Annika clutched the paper close to her heart, and walked away to get her bag. She couldn't wait to tell everything to her friends, and maybe also confront this admirer of hers, tomorrow.

**

Almost done with the next part, and will update according to the response!