Darsh keeps a hand and stills my bouncing knees as he looks at me and says, "Calm down Vicky! Or I'm gonna have to summon the powers o—"

"Not in the mood Darsh." I cut him off of his fantasy tale, moving on from bouncing my knees to tapping my fingers lightly against my desk.

This time Harsh puts one of his hands on mine and grabs my chin with the other, turning me to face him.

"You better listen to me and listen to me good, Rithvika Sharma. The papers will be given, you know you did well and you are going to get good scores, okay. So stop fiddling."

"Was that supposed to distract me?" I ask sceptically and scowl.

"Well, it worked, didn't it babe?" He smirks cockily.

And work it did.

Realizing this, his smirk widens even more and my scowl deepens.

Before I could retort, the class teacher comes in, with bunches of papers—most probably our answer sheets—in his hands and heaves a sigh of relief as he drops them all on his table.

Clearing his throat, he announces, "Okay everyone, I'll be giving the answer sheets of all the subjects and you will check math—which is mine—for now and come forward if you have any doubts or grading mistakes in your answer sheets.

"As for other subjects, you will check and report your issues during the respective subject teachers' period. Now as I call your name, come and get your papers from me."

Sitting behind his table, he puts on his glasses and starts calling our names from the roll-call list.

My turn comes and I get all the papers but do not look at them till I reach back to my bench.

Finally looking down at the papers I search for my math answer sheet and look at the marks.

16/20.

I got a 16 out of 20? What the actual fuck?

I couldn't have scored this low!!

I recount the total marks and turns out they add up to 16.

I check every single answer to look at my mistakes. Not a single misjudged answer.

Burying my face in my hands, I take a deep breath and tell myself it's just math paper and that I've got the other papers in which I might've scored better.

But this is nowhere near the score I'd need to get scholarships!

I inhale through my nose and exhale through my mouth continuously.

Finally looking up, I see three pairs of expectant eyes looking at me.

Sighing, I show them the paper and try to gauge their reaction as they huddle together and squint at it.

Mia has an expressionless face, Harsh's eyebrows furrow and Darsh's eyes widen as he snatches the paper roughly and flips through it.

"Why? You nailed every single practice question!" Darsh whisper-yells, looking at me in bewilderment.

"I don't know. I just— I...fuck!" I run my hands through my hair, angry at myself for not concentrating properly.

"Hey hey, don't drive yourself up the wall. We've still got other subjects. You'll score better in those and—no! Don't you dare look at the other subject answer sheets now." Harsh says, snatching my pile of answer sheets when I flip to look at other subject marks.

"Hey! Give i—"

"As much as I hate to say this, Harsh's right. Don't beat yourself up 'kay?" Mia interrupts my protest.

Pouting, I cross my arms and turn my face away from the three of them, leading my gaze to land on Ved as he walks into the classroom along with two boys and a girl, each holding small stacks of books.

They lean down and say something to our class teacher inaudibly and the teacher stands and walks towards his cupboard after taking the books from them.

Ved looks at the teacher's table and squints at the students' mark-list.

I quickly duck down under my bench—after giving Mia a wide-eyed look—so that he might not notice me if he looked around the classroom.

"Hey Rithvika what are y—"

I lightly look up to see that Mia had slapped her hand on Harsh's mouth after he had yelled and also that Ved's attention has snapped to our area.

I come up from under the bench completely and glare at Harsh before offering Ved a sheepish smile.

He looks down at the papers on the table, back to me and mouths "Your score in math?"

I bite my lip, debating if I must tell him or not, but settle on the former before gravely mouthing back and signing, "Sixteen."

Probably noticing my shitty expression, he gave a cheerful smile and a thumbs-up.

We both then look away as the teacher comes back to the table and tells something to Ved and the others who came with him which made them nod and start going out of the classroom behind the class teacher.

Just before he goes out, Ved walks backward slowly back into the class and some of those in the classroom look at him curiously—including me, Mia and the twins.

Looking at me, Ved winks with a wide grin and walks out of the classroom, making my jaw hang open and leaving other students in the classroom to stare at me.

Eh. The wink wasn't as cool as Nikhil's.

Hey! Not helping at all!

Mia suddenly stands up and faces the class as she shouts with a glare, "What're y'all looking at?"

Everyone slowly turn back except for one pair of disdained eyes, which of course belong to DQ.

She looks at me with that stupid I-know-something-that-you-don't look along with that I've-got-an-evil-plan-for-you glint in her eyes.

Shaking it off I look back at Mia who's beaming at me as she wiggles her brows.

Rolling my eyes, I brace myself for the upcoming subject periods.

Hold on, it's gonna be a bumpy ride!

***

"Ma?" I knock on my mom's bedroom door.

It opens revealing my mom standing in casual attire with puffy eyes.

I come to tell her my score and this is the time my dad decides to call?!

I debate whether or not I should tell my marks but then decide to rip off the band aid as I plummet into telling all my marks.

After a deafening silence, my mom asks, "How much did you say you got in physics now?"

"12 out of 20." I say timidly.

"And Geography?"

"13.5 out of 20."

She breathes in and out shakily and looks at me.

"Do you think that's any good for your future Rithvika Sharma?" Great. She used my full name.

"No Ma, I know it's a bad score if I'll be depending on scholarships and also that I must concentrate more. I— I'm sorry. I'll do better in the next test." I say, finally meeting her eyes that were once sorrowful unlike how expressionless they are now. She's clearly trying to hold back tears.

"Just...do better next time okay? And do it rather than just saying the words."

And with that she slams the door on my face.

My feet stay rooted in front of her room as I hear silent whimpers from the other side.

Wow, I'm the worst fucking daughter ever.

I sigh and go back to my room, throwing myself on the bed.

Just when I close my eyes, my phone starts ringing.

Looking at the caller ID, I see Harsh's name.

Propping myself on my elbows, I answer the call, "Hello?"

"Hi Vicky, have you told your...marks?" Harsh speaks softly—shocker, yeah—in the phone.

"Yeah...I— she told me to do better next time."

"See? Nothing's wrong. It's fine. You can improve in the next test." He says.

I hum in response and lay back on the bed, the call still connected.

"So...you okay?"

"I...I'm really not, Harsh. Sh— she started crying after I told my marks."

I pause and take a deep breath as my voice breaks in the last part.

"Hey, hey, it's okay now. She might've cried for some other reason. Don't blame yoursel—"

"How am I not supposed to blame myself when she looked like she had just calmed down after a breakdown and when I go and say my marks she slams the door on my face and starts crying?" I lash out.

"Look maybe your marks just ticked her off even more. Stop blaming yourself." He says, sterner this time.

Knowing he's not going to drop this topic I just reply with a 'fine' and change the topic to our Biology presentation and when we'll be resuming it.

After about fifteen minutes we end the call and I go to the kitchen to drink some water.

Just when I exit the kitchen with a water bottle, I see my mom coming towards the kitchen.

As she looks at me, she stops, looks down and takes deep breaths.

"Ma are you alri—"

"I'm sorry Vicky. I know I shouldn't have done that but, these— these...financial problems, your dad's late arrival and to top it all, your declining academic score, everything made me go crazy." My mom speaks softly.

Waking up to me, she pulls me into a tight hug, resting her head on my shoulder.

I silently hug her back and within few seconds her shoulders start shaking as I start feeling wetness on my neck.

"I feel so bad, it hurts very much Rithvika." My mom sobs. All of this must be taking a toll on her.

"It's okay Ma, it's okay." I murmur repeatedly into her hair, rubbing her back soothingly as she grips me even more tighter.

Times like these are where I am the one who's got to take care of her.

I slowly pull away, but keep my arms around her shoulder and walk her to her room as her sobs die down to small sniffles.

Laying her on her bed, I smooth out her hair away from her forehead before moving away.

The bedside table catches my attention as I see a picture of me and dad along with a sleeping mom on the bed, which was taken by dad when we snuck into the room while mom was taking a nap when she was ill.

"Why's Ma so tired?" I had asked my dad when I looked at my mom sleeping like the dead.

"Superheroes need their strength right? Ma's just fueling up." My dad had replied as he stroked my four years old self's hair without taking his eyes away from my mom's sleeping form.

"Ma's a superhero?" I had awed, looking at my dad with curiosity.

"Yeah. The best I've ever known." He had said, his eyes full of admiration and love.

Smiling at the memory, I place the picture back on the table, my eyes going back to my mother.

Picking up the cover on the bed, I slide in beside my mom and she sleepily moves towards me, snuggling to my side.

And just like that, I decided to be my mom's Superhero, even if it was just for a moment.

A/N: Thoughts? Vote and comment, please and thank you!