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Samarth had never done this. Tied a girl’s hair back. He didn’t even know how to knot the band. So he just did it like he would a rubber band. Maybe that’s how they did it. But in the end, he did manage to get something resembling a tight high ponytail on the top of her head.

He got in front of her, checked her face for any strays, pushed them behind her ear and replaced the helmet on her head.

“Now are you going to show them who’s the princess?” He grinned.

She blinked, long lashes and the helmet making her eyes so prominent in her face. Samarth bent his knees slightly to get eye-to-eye with her — “Ready, Ava?”

She swallowed.

“You need more water? A Gatorade?”

She shook her head. She didn’t look nervous… and yet, she looked like she was… new. Like she was becoming something new. The timer gong began to sound, signalling the last 60 seconds before the game was to be resumed.

“Samarth?!” Shree hollered from the stands. “Come back!”

The gong began to bash louder as seconds ticked. The noise began to rise again in the stadium.

“Ava?” He said over the din. “Are you ready? Do you need me to do anything else?”

She swallowed again, then shook her head.

“Because I’ll do it,” he confessed without a shred of hesitation. “I’ll do it not because you ask or you need it, but because I want to do it for you .”

Shock. Surprise. An enraptured little chuckle. Then nothing.

“Ava?”

“Go,” she chuckled, playfully punching his shoulder with her gloved hand. He smiled, reaching for the drinks basket and stepping back from her.

“Don’t sweat it, princess. Your pores don’t allow it,” he shouted over the din, making her burst into a laugh. Then Samarth turned, threw the basket over his shoulder and ran back to the stands.

————————————————————

5 to win from 1 ball.

Ava on the striker’s end.

Samarth still hadn’t moved from his spot.

“Jai Dwarkadhish…” he chanted under his breath. “Jai Dwarkadhish, Jai Dwarkadhish.”

The pacer’s final ball dropped on the pitch and swung. Ava did not swing her bat. The wicketkeeper behind her caught the ball. No runs scored. The stadium went dead silent.

Samarth smiled, seeing what she had done there.

The umpire held his arms out to signal a Wide. And the stadium erupted in a loud whoop.

One run and one more ball. She got one more final ball.

4 to win from 1 ball.

Ava’s mouth opened to say something. Samarth couldn’t catch the words, neither could he lip-read her under her helmet. But the bowler’s brows did furrow. She tugged her short hair off her forehead and stalked back over the line to deliver.

Samarth waited. The team behind him waited. Coach Dhillon waited. The stadium filled with Saraswati Crest and Vedanta High waited.

And then the pacer ran again, the ball leaving her hand and going full toss.

It was about to land close to Ava’s foot.

She opened the stumps and stepped out of her crease, leapt another long step out and swung her bat, knocking the full toss ball as it came perfectly on the surface of her bat.

And up it went. Up, up, up, farther than any fielder.

Samarth did not need to follow it to know where it landed to know that they had won. Neither did she. Because his eyes were on her and hers were on his. Suddenly the stadium erupted in euphoria and then the team behind him was running onto the field.

Samarth took a deep breath, eyeing Avantika get swallowed into the crowd of her teammates. He grabbed the trolley, pushed it behind the stands, parked it there, and strode out of the stadium.

“Who won?” A Saraswati student asked him, running no doubt to watch the match.

“We did,” Samarth grinned, opening his palm for her high-five as more followed her, running into the stadium.

News spread fast and he walked out into the field rolling over to the main school base to more students coming.

They were running through him to get to the stadium.

For sure Ms. Nidhi would have made the announcement on her PA system for this flock to be set free.

Samarth continued to walk, finally out of the crowd and into the clearing. The school was still afar. He planned to collect his bag before seeing if Harsh was still around. He had a remote exam to give…

“Samarth!” Ava’s voice startled him. It was Ava’s, right?

“Samarth?!” It was louder.

He turned. And there she was, running towards him, the crowd left behind her. How she had managed to cleave through it was baffling. She was shooting like a bullet towards him.

“Ava…” he caught her bodily as her hands rammed into his chest with the momentum of her chase.

“Breathe, breathe,” he laughed, eyeing her fully now.

No helmet, no knee pads, nothing except her brilliant light brown eyes under the sun and the ponytail he had tied coming undone.

Her face was sweaty and her chest was heaving.

He had never noticed such things in a girl.

He had not noticed such things in anyone.

But here he was, two days without Ava as his bench partner, noticing everything in her.

“Phew,” her cherry-coloured lips rounded. “Where were you going?”

“Back to school.”

She frowned, enraged — “Without listening to me?”

“What’s there to listen to?”

She flopped back from him, her hands no more on his chest.

“What was that on the ground then?”

Samarth blinked, unable to form the words. Should he say it out loud, what he had been thinking? Would it stop feeling so good if he put it into words? Would she also feel like it? If she didn’t, would she stop talking to him?

Although, he had a fair idea that she might feel it too, given how she had scowled at him with Shree and Niva…

“I like how you want to do things for me, ” she declared, proving him right. “Do them only for me,” she ordered, the princess in all her glory, her pointed chin tilted up, her stance prim, her eyes commanding. A fizz of joy shot up his system.

“Really?”

“Really.”

“So?” He asked.

“So what?”

“This… this is serious?”

“I mean, it’s not cuffing season but this is committed, Samarth. Stop being so dense.”

His mouth dropped open.

“You want to be in a relationship with me?”

“If Kunwarji is done pushing the trolley for Shreeya then why not?”

Samarth grinned — “And if Kunwarji is not?”

Ava’s hands rose and circled his neck, throttling him.

He laughed, letting her jostle him, leaving his body languid in her hold.

Her laugh reverberated with his and before he knew it, she had thrown her arms around him, jumping on her tiptoes to reach his shoulder.

Samarth found his body bending down to accommodate her, burying his face in her sweaty hair as his arms banded around her waist. He lifted her off her feet.

The tinkle of her laughter was loud, her voice hoarse after a long game as he swung her from side to side, her legs kicking and dangling.

“So, girlfriend and boyfriend?” She asked.

“And spending time together. Even when we are not in class or practise,” he added. “Let me take you out when we have our weekends off. Be together .”

She tightened her arms around him, snorting in his ear. He set her back down — “But not today.”

She frowned — “You have more trolleys to push? What the hell, Samarth? In two years you never even talked about girls and now all you want is ‘Come I’ll tie your shoelace, Niva,’” she mimicked in her worst Samarth-voice. “‘Come I’ll show you my muscles Shreeya,’ ‘Let me tie your hair, Ava…’”

“Hey,” he grabbed her wildly gesticulating hands. She stopped.

Samarth held her wrists in his hands and bent his knees to look directly into her eyes again — “I only tied your hair, and I will only tie your hair. Niva asked me to help her. And I took over from Shree to have a legitimate reason to be there on the stands.”

Her lips twisted. “Then why don’t you want to date me today?”

Samarth shook his head, unable to help the smile that refused to go from his face — “Do you ever use a filter? But then, you never had it.”

“Get to the point. I always knew you weren’t as bright as they called you.”

“The point is,” he said. “That this is serious. Very serious.”

“That’s what I said earlier!”

“No, you talked about cuffing season and all that crap that these Advay people do. Serious dating in winters, benching in the vacations, then breadcrumbing in summers. This is not that.”

“Then what is this?” Her face screwed up in confusion.

“This is… don’t get scared and run… or actually, if you get scared and run then that’s ok too.”

“Oh my gaawd, Samarth! Come to the poi…”

“My serious is for a long time.”

Her rant was cut short. Her jaw hinged back up and those cherry lips pursed into a thin line.

“See? Scared, Ava?”

“How long?”

“Pretty long.”

“You mean… marriage and all?” Her eyes widened.

Samarth chuckled — “You would say yes to marriage at 15?”

“If Siddharth Malhotra asked then yes.”

Had she always been this adorable? Samarth controlled his features with years of practise as Kunwar and got himself to utter the next few words very seriously.

“No, Ava,” he said. "I am not saying marriage and all. I am saying… it’s not for a term or a year. Or even until school ends. I am not… that type.”

“I know.”

“That is why — think. It will be all fun and games later, but this one thing, be serious with me, please. I don’t want something that doesn’t last.”

She looked out into the rolling fields behind him, the sun slowly softening in the sky. He could feel the rays go cooler on the side of his face. Time ticked, birds cawing as they crossed the sky above them in a wild flock.

“I am leaving for Rajsamand Open tomorrow,” Samarth informed her. “My tournament starts this weekend and ends next Wednesday.”

“Oh…”

“I am telling you so that you get the space to think.”

“ Space ?”

“If I am around, we will again start acting like we did before. And I love that and want to be like that. But now you have time. Until this weekend, and even after that. Whenever you want to let me know.”