sas chp 1

CHAPTER 1 - introduction

It was a bright sunny day. Sana was pretty excited after her best GNO with her BFF Aksha. They often spent their night outs watching horror movies, with popcorn, blanket and hot chocolate. They were eagerly waiting to go to college and tell their friends about the horror movies they saw. This was a weekly routine for them.
“Come for breakfast girls, pack your bags, be quick”, Sana’s mother called. They quickly packed their stuff, stuffed some food in their mouth and ran towards the door. They were fun loving girls, playful and jumpy. Their college was hardly ten minutes from Sana’s house. They preferred cycling their way to college, making it a friendly race. “Yes! I win again!” Sana squealed as they reached the pavement. But Aksha’s attention was elsewhere. Sana turned to see what she was gawking at. It was a notice about a week’s camp, a field trip. They both read the notice, looked at each other, and the happy dance started. Within a few seconds, their entire friends’ gang was there, jumping and sharing their excitement.
Taking the permission slips from the teacher made them feel like they were accepting some glorious prize. “Okay students get the slips filled at home” Kumar sir announced. He was their science professor. The industrial visit was his idea. “Now, pay attention in the class, no more chit chats about the trip”. Sana whispered softly to Aksha, “This means, it is paper-chatting time!” Their exhilaration could definitely not be subdued today. Sana, Aksha, Adhiraj, Khushi, Hemant and John called themselves JHAKAS, formed by their initials.
Sana went home and got her letter signed. So did the others. And their phone calls had begun. “Put the phone down now, go to sleep” everyone’s parents said one by one. So they kept their calls, and started messaging. Giggling and laughing, eventually everyone slept, eagerly waiting for Sunday, their departure day.
As Sunday approached, so did their enthusiasm. Finally the day arrived. “We can have horror night outs every night for a week!” Aksha said to Sana as she sped towards the college bus. Their other friends were already inside; reserving the seats. Adhiraj was late as usual. Aksha had a huge crush on him, but she was nervous to reveal it. Sana helped her keep it a secret. Similarly, John secretly loved Sana, but she had already guessed. John was a happy go lucky guy. Sana also found him attractive. But she didn’t want to get too involved.
As their journey began, they started singing songs and playing games. Kumar sir and some other professors accompanied them. John often stared at Sana’s brown curls. He found them amusing. But just as Sana looked back, he pretended to look somewhere else. Sana found herself enjoying his attention. As they reached Phargadh, their destination, Sana got up to take her bags when someone called her name and tapped her shoulder. She turned to her other side but didn’t find anyone. It scared her for a minute. But she assumed it was probably the scary movies wearing off.
She was about to get off her seat when she saw something translucent outside. She went towards the window and stared at nothing. She was so sure she had seen something fly. Suddenly something tickled her scruff and she let out a small scream. “Haha! Why are you so scared?” “Oh it’s you Aksha! You scared the hell out of me!” she gave Aksha a small pat on her back and they moved forward. Sana was assured herself that she was hallucinating.

The JHAKAS gang and other students reached the hotel reception where they were supposed to stay. It was almost evening. Mr. Kumar assigned the students their rooms, in groups of three. Thankfully the students’ preference for room partners was considered. Sana was sure she and Aksha would be grouped together. Their eagerness grew as Kumar sir gave them their keys. Just before he did that, he told them who their third partner was. They gasped when they heard the name, it was Martika. Martika was a bitchy, annoying and most attention seeking girl. The hatred between her and Sana-Aksha was mutual. Aksha started to oppose Kumar sir when he said “Don’t argue with me girls. I know none of you are happy with the situation. But we’re here to enjoy and learn. Keep aside your differences and behave like decent roommates. I do not want any complaints from you. Get that?”
“Yeah…”
“As if we can say no”, Sana murmured once sir left.
“Why aren’t we paired with Khushi? She was our preference.” Aksha couldn’t stop herself from taunting; “We prefer living with humans, not make up boxes” she threw at Martika. “And I prefer to live with beautiful good looking girls, rather than ugly humans who nobody even knows” Martika threw back. This was going to be tough. While they were in the midst of these childish arguments, Sana spotted the three guys of her gang happy together. They were paired as they wished for. They didn’t even realize the small war going on. She felt a little jealousy running through her veins. Albeit she had accepted what was given to her, and they left for the room.
Sana spoke loud enough for Martika to hear, “I wish there are two beds for humans and none for artificial make up factories”. Martika would obviously not take it easy, she replied in the most annoying tone, “Dear roommate, if I were to bring my entire wardrobe with me, you two would take a lifetime just looking through it.” Both of them know this was true, though not literally. They quietly moved to their room to find the biggest disappointment of their trip. There weren’t three separate beds, it was one huge double bed. The three of them were supposed to snuggle in together! This was highly impossible. After several tantrums, they decided to leave it for the night and they decided to have some snacks downstairs.
All students were roaming about except for these three. But once they reunited with their respective friends, they started feeling amused again. “Let’s go to the forest tonight” Sana heard someone say. “No guys, the forest isn’t safe at night. Besides it’s about half an hour from here.” Everyone stared at her like she was insane. “What are you talking about?” John asked her, curiously. He was pretty much confused, just like everyone else. Sana explained, “I just denied what you, uhm I don’t know who said it, but going to the forest is a bad idea.” “No one said anything about a forest Sana, what are you mumbling about?” Aksha’s firm response made Sana wonder, she definitely heard that voice. She chucked it off when Kumar sir entered in with the other faculty.
“Girls and boys will separate after 9 pm. No wandering about on your own. Regular checks will be made in each room, every night.”  A series of instructions were given to them after which the students were told of the next day’s schedule. “Tomorrow we will be visiting a factory in a nearby village. Breakfast will be served at 8.00 am. By 9.00 we will leave for the factory.”
After some time, everyone had dinner. The students dispersed thereafter. “Sana, what were you saying about the forest?” John asked her. Sana felt rather embarrassed that she had spoken about something that didn’t happen at all. “We all could sneak out and go check it out if you want” He offered. She wanted to avoid the topic so she started talking to Hemant about something else altogether. John’s attention obviously shifted to the fact that she was talking with some other guy, but he let the topic go.