29th June 2022
AOS Academy
"Koi baat nahi… it's your first day. But always remember the aim with which you have joined here."
I touched Maa's feet, clutching my physics book, and stepped out. I was already late, and the rain hadn't made it any easier. Still, I managed to catch a bus nearly twenty minutes after the class had begun.
I got down at Shilp Chowk and rushed through the flooded streets toward the academy.
But as it turned out, reaching the building didn't mean reaching the classroom.
Some seniors told me the 11th grade lectures were held at Kamdhenu commercials instead. With no time to think, I followed Google Maps through the rain — soaked, confused, and hoping I wasn't making a fool of myself on my very first day.
In the elevator, I ran into Professor Sunny Singh, my math faculty. Luckily, he too had been delayed by the weather. After asking my name, he tapped my shoulder, smiled, and pointed me toward the classroom.
At that point, I was only glad that I hadn't missed any part of the lecture, and somehow, despite being new to Logarithms and the classroom, I was one of the most active students in the room.
Placed in Batch 2, a mix of JEE and NEET students, at first I only had two friends — Paresh and Sushant.
Batch 1 was always considered the elite. That reputation remained. Our batch, on the other hand, was noisy, chaotic, and often a nightmare for the faculty. There were very few serious aspirants in those early days. And even if there were, they were hard to spot.
Conversations filled the room more easily than questions did. Focus came and went depending on the teacher, the topic, or sometimes just the mood of the class. Sitting there, I often felt caught between two thoughts — whether to flow with the atmosphere around me, or to quietly push myself harder than it demanded.
By August, our tests began—and so did my downfall. My scores never crossed the three-digit mark after the first test. I felt too ashamed to even share the results with my parents. But my father never stopped supporting me. He kept encouraging me, saying I'd do better next time.
In October, Paresh was promoted to Batch 1, and something about him shifted soon after. Slowly, Sushant and I drifted away from him. By the next month, rumours began circulating that Tejas and I might be next.
"Hard work pays off," Sameer Sir, our physics faculty and the owner of the academy often said.
But I wasn't sure I was ready for that change. Batch 1 didn't just seem academically stronger — it felt like a different world altogether.
And among the many things people whispered about that batch, one detail stayed with me — the four girls who were always seen together.
At that point, they were just a group I noticed from afar. Little did I know then how deeply they would shape the years that followed.
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