A PRETENCE-FUL DAY

 - Moomal Majee
“I see a sky, I see a sky full of stars….”
So I was humming, although it was not exactly a starry night, but a very sunny morning. It was my birthday, and I was waiting at the square for my school-bus. I was very excited and quite impatient to see my dearest friend Romi…. voilà! There’s the bus! I boarded the bus and scanned the seats, but there was no Romi. She surely wouldn’t miss school today, would she? 
We reached school, sang our prayers, entered our classroom, and then I was bombarded from all sides with “Happy Birthday!” wishes, chocolates, cards and gifts. I still couldn’t spot Romi. Of course I was overwhelmed by the love that I received from the others, but.…. Romi was special for me.
Six minutes into the first class, there she was at the door, saying “May I come in?” I shot her a radiant smile, indicating that she sit by me. But strangely enough, Romi joined Leia and Neetu at the back. That puzzled me, because they are also very close friends of mine, but neither had wished me today. But I couldn’t ask them just then, for class was going on.     
At the end of the first class, I beamed at them once again, but none of them even glanced at me. Had I offended them somehow? Before I could ponder over this thought, the teacher came in. Throughout the pre- lunch break classes, they appeared not to notice me. This thoroughly befuddled me at first, but then it annoyed me. I knew I hadn’t done anything consciously to offend them, and anyway they could at least tell me if I had, so it wasn’t my fault. So I too turned my back on them, my mood already blackened.
When the bell rang for the lunch break, Leia came and tapped my shoulder, “Sajiman, come here. “ 
I was feeling very much irritated by now, and I decided to ignore her. But she tugged at my hands insistently. So I fixed her with a steely glance (you see I was trying my best to appear cold).
Seeing this, Leia’s voice assumed an urgent note, “Romi is yelling off her head at the Games Room – something about you betraying her – oh please come quickly!”
What?! When didI betrayher? She hadn’t even looked at me since morning, and I was the culprit? I followed Leia toward the room, and opened the door with a furious expression on my face and some pretty bad insults at the tip of my tongue, and I was crushed by a thunderbolt. No, it was actually Romi, Leia and Neetu enveloping me in a bear hug, and drowning me in shouts of “Happy Birthday!” and choking me with a big piece of cake. 
And I wasglad that I hadn’t blurted out, because all the while they were pretending to ignore me, they were actually planning me a surprise! It was definitely my best birthday!