" Tanisha, get out of the bathroom, I also need to go." Rabeena banged on the bathroom door for the 7th time in 1minute. Yeah, that's the level of tention inside our PG room, on the morning of our written test, or Common Entrance Exam.

  Yeah, after a not so long wait, the day is finally here.

  You can also thus understand, what was taking me so long there.

  When I came out of the bathroom, Rabeena almost pushed me to get in. And I saw why. Our other roommate Zunal was stirring, about to get up. And our fourth roommie Shabita was wide awake. Now the struggle for bathroom would start

  The tension of our tests had made it's way even to the head of our PG owner, Sumita auntie. I could hear Sumita auntie cooking for us, quite noisily, I must say. But given how great a person she is, I can not complain.

  I had a normal morning chitchat with my roomies, before Rabeena came out. She asked for my current affairs book to have a last minute look, since her own is printed in her head.

  Rabeena Dube is a mysterious girl. There is something off about her.

  For instance, she never calls her parents. Only once have I seen her to talk to her "Bhaiya". And she will always stare longingly whenever mine or our other roommate's parents called. I don't even know where her house is.

  Then this month when I had my periods, the cramps were really bad. I was talking to Zunal about cramps being the worse thing in the universe when Shabita joined in. But Rabeena just looked grossed out at the idea of the topic spoken out loud. Up until then I knew that whenever there's a conversation about periods and cramps, every girl has to join in. Rabeena was the only exception.

  Then there is the fact that she was completely chill about the CEE. The only time I had seen minimal panic in her eyes is since morning.

  While she studied the current affairs, I revised some abbreviation, terminology and a bit of history.

  Rabeena finished revision of what she thought was important and then took out her long note on computer science she had collected from several books from the library.

  After one and half hour, we were called for breakfast. By that time Rabeena's panic has subsided. Me? Not so much.

  As I entered the dining hall, I felt shocked. " Auntie, what have you done?"

  There were steaming hot parathas, paneer, egg curry, and raita. Though Sumita auntie is not the kind of PG owner back in Howrah who would feed you three days old roti and cold daal, this amount of lovely food was unexpected.

  -" To write your exams properly, you need good food." Sumita auntie said happily.

  -" But how do we eat so much?" Rabeena said.

  -" Simple, grab a paratha, dip it in the paneer, and pop it into your mouth. " Zunal said as she came into the dining hall and tried to grab a paratha.

  But before she could, Sumita auntie snatched it out of her reach. " Paratha is for Tanisha and Rabeena, you get simple roti."

  Foodie Zunal looked horrified, " I don't get paneer?"

  -"In the lunch." was Sumita auntie's nonchalant reply. As Zunal sulked away into the room, we sat down to eat. Rabeena, being not a very big fan of non-veg, only ate with the paneer, while I only took the egg curry. After we were done, some parathas and most of the curries were untouched, much to Sumita auntie's disappointment, and Zunal's excitement.

  As Zunal came running in to gobble up rest of the parathas, we slinged our bags on our shoulders and bid our goodbye to sumita auntie( not forgetting to touch her feet and take her blessings, of course). We then left for the CEE. On our way, I thought to call mom, and took out the phone, but before I could, she herself called me.

  -" Beriyechis?"( Have you left?)

  -" ha maa, ekhuni berolam, tomake phone korbo bolei bhabchilam.( yes mom, we just left now. I was thinking to call you just now.)

  -" Have you ate?"

  -" Yup."

  -" How is your preparation? Feel confident?"

  -" can't say about confidence, but my preparation is as great as possible for me, rest, time will tell."

  -" You say that before every single exam, but still manage to score above 80% every time."

  -" Thanks mom. Just wish that I could give my best."

  -" Ofcourse, here, talk to your dad."

  -" Kemon achis? Panic korish na, bhalo kore porikhha ta de." Dad said as mom handed him the phone.( how are you? Don't panic, just give your best in the exam."

  -" Ashirbad koro." (Bless me.)

  -" my blessing is always with you, but beta, we really miss you."

  -" I miss you too." I said, and after a few more word or two, I hung up.

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  These are my parents. All year they will say that I don't study enough, but in the morning of any exam they are really supportive and encouraging.

  After putting down the phone, I turned to Rabeena, who had her head hung low, as she always does whenever any of our parents or friends call.

  -" Hey, not going to talk to parents? You can take my phone." For your information, Rabeena's phone ran out of talk time balance, and she did not seem to mind recharging it again. Sounds weird? Told you something is off.

  -" No." Came her usual reply.

  -" Why?"

  -" Mood kharap nahi karna apna."( don't want to ruin my mood.)

  -" What do you mean by that?" I asked, completely confused.

  Rabeena ignored my question and quickened her pace, leaving me behind.

  Knowing that there's no good in pushing her, I sighed and tried to focus on the upcoming CEE.

  within a few moments, I reached the exam center. Rabeena has reached a minute or so earlier, and surprisingly waiting for me. I really thought she was going to avoid me after that confusing slip.

  We went to the official sitting near the gate and showed our admit cards( Not without getting a head to toe stare from him.) He told us where to go.

  Getting there we were greeted with sneers from some of the candidates already present. But among that, I couldn't miss the bright smile coming from none other than Deepak Chadda.

  I waved at him, he waved back. Rabeena looked at me questioningly.

  -" He's Deepak, I met him in the rally." I said and told her how he had stood up for me.

  -" Nice." She said. But being the no nonsense short of person she is, she went to her given seat.

  Me, before I went to mine, I decided to talk to Deepak. He was already moving towards me.

  -" Hi" he said

  -" Hi"

  -" I thought you are not going to turn up."

  -" Well, the official at the gate is quite slow. And there's still 35 min left of the exam."

  -" Well there is. But it is good to see a familiar face."

  -" You are telling me you haven't made friends with any of the boys on the day of rally?"

  -" Well, most of them are teasing me for my height."

  -" Oh." Now he is kind of short compared to others. I didn't know what to say to that, so I went to my seat.

  Let's focus on the CEE now.

  - " Yohooo" Rabeena did a little happy twirl as we came out of the gate. And here I thought this girl is completely no nonsense.

  I couldn't help but join her happy dance. Because my test also went nicely. As mom would say, I will manage to score 80% and given my high score in the physical test, my job is unofficially confirmed.

  Rabeena and I reached PG in next 20 mins. And guess what? we were greeted by Sumita auntie's a bazillion questions.

  After satisfying her curiosity we went to our room. It was empty, given Zunal and Shabita were in their college.

  -" So, let's get to work, shall we?" I asked Rabeena after freshening up.

  -" Ofcourse. "

  We took out our question papers and started checking our answers.

  After calculating correct answers, unattended questions and few negative markings, my marks should be around 78 to 80, and Rabeena, with her 3 unattempted questions and two wrong answers, should get marks around 90.

  Then after another happy dance, a long hug, a excited high-five, and a good laugh, I called Dad.

  He was really happy for me, and told me that he is going to come in a week and take me home. Because I have college semesters.

  Mom was in the court, so couldn't talk to her.

  After I was done, I tossed the phone to Rabeena, " Ab bol, ghar me kiu call nehi karna?"( now tell me why you don't want to contact your parents?)

  -" Dekho, acha khasa mood mat bigaro mera. Mujhe baat nehi karni ghar pe."( look, don't ruin my nice mood. I don't want to talk to them.)

  I sighed, it's hard to get anything out of this girl.

  I sat beside her and put a hand on her shoulder, and said softly( well, as soft as I could make my voice)" Rabeena, is anything wrong? You can tell me you know. I have heard, it feels better if you share."

  Rabeena looked at my face for sometime, then smiled a hollow, sad smile. Then spoke slowly, " Everything is wrong Tanisha, everything is wrong."

  She sighed and looked out of the window. I waited for her to say more. But she didn't, all she said was, " I really don't want to talk about it, not today. Maybe I will tell you some other day, when I am ready to face the reality I ran away from."