The Indelible Memories

By Suvayu Pal

Life is all about the persons we chose to be our friends. Friends occupy a very large and a very important portion of our life. What is life without friends? Majority of the friends that we make in our lives are from the high school. In school we learn the real meaning of friendship, we take the very first taste of friendship. First friend, first crush, first enemy- school life gives us many things for the first time in our lives. We never realize all these until our days are over in the school. Once it is gone, we realize what we had and what we are going to miss. This story is a complete work of fiction. It is all about celebrating friendship and the golden days of our school life. The story is about four friends, Dean, Sam, James and Aryan, all from different countries. It is the story of their journey in high school, from strangers to becoming the best of friends. It is a story of friendship, of rivalry, of finding old friends, and falling in love. This is a walk to the memory lanes of school life. Some say that high school is all about getting an education and taking admission into good colleges to succeed in life; but in real it is all about making memories and some real good friends who last forever. No matter how old we are, whoever we are, whatever work we are indulged in, school memories will always be the most prized possession, and the most cherishing one

• Language: English
• Publisher: Suvayu Pal
• Release date: Apr 14, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310517471

Suvayu Pal

Suvayu is currently in his final year of college life. He is pursuing the Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering. Writing, composing, playing the guitar, watching movies and sports are among his favourite pastimes. But what he likes the most is to spend time with his family and his friends.He has been writing since a very tender age. He was also the junior content writer for his school magazine. Writing is his hobby and he never thought it as his career. He was more into short stories than novels. This is his first attempt to step into the industry. With dreams in his eyes and crossed fingers, he has taken his first step towards chasing his love.

Book preview

Acknowledgements

They say, writing is a lonely profession. They are wrong. And in this segment I am going to take some time out to thank the people without whom it could not have been possible for me to bring this book alive.

First and foremost, thank you Soumya Laha for being with me, for sharing the ideas and for making it possible for me to complete the work. This piece of work belongs to you as much it is to me.

Upasana, Adrija and Sneha, thank you for all the efforts you gave. Your efforts were much more than mine. Thank you for believing in me, having that faith in me and pushing me whenever I thought of quitting. Without your motivations Adrija, I might have left it in the middle. Upasana! Thank you very much for designing the cover. Thank you guys for giving your time to read, edit and give your valuable suggestions.

Soumen and Akash thank you for always being with me. In those phases of life, you were among the people to trust me and my vision. You people believed that I could do it when even I didn’t believe in myself.

Sangeeta, thank you for that wonderful picture you clicked for the cover.

Rita Sen, my teacher, thank you for everything. Yes I mean everything. Not only the book but for each and every lessons of life.

To all my friends, without you people I am nothing. I may not even have survived this world if you people weren’t by my side.

Amazon, yes you deserve it. Thank you very much.

To Mr Bill Gates, for creating Microsoft, that gave birth to its ‘Word’. Thank you very much sir.

Oh Shreya! nope I didn’t forget you. How can I? Thank you for always being with me, like always. Thank you for all the efforts and putting up with me every time. And of course for those heart breaking reviews.

And at the very last, to the people who are the backbone of my life. Baba, Maa and My sister, thank you for giving me an awesome life and making me who I am today.

Prologue

After pushing him a lot, Dean went onto the stage to speak his heart out. It was the last prom of high school after all. We had a lot stored in us that we wanted to vent out. With heavy hearts and teary eyes people were wishing a final goodbye to the school. Oh c’mon, go now, said Sam pushing Dean towards the stage. I gave a thumbs-up to the DJ to go for soft romantic instrumental, as we had already planned.

Hey Emma, Dean wants to say something… Sam announced on the stage.

Hi Emma… I want to say something. I don’t know if I’m right or wrong. My friends told me that if I can’t say it today, I won’t be able to say it ever. They insisted that I go on and say it, no matter what the consequences are…

Oh c’mon Dean, just say it… We all know what you gonna say, even Emma knows. So just say it, shouted John.

At that moment all I could think of was, Is this the same Dean who used to lose his nerve on the simplest of mishaps and bring down the apocalypse on us…? And is that the same John who always wanted to bring us down…? Guess that there is always more to what meets just the eye. Maybe the people who we always considered to be bad weren’t so bad after all. Maybe no matter how much we hate the high school days, the batch mates, the classrooms, the gym teacher, the principal, no matter how much have we hated everything, there still remains something about the school days that we are always going to miss. And no matter how much we wished or how hard we tried, we never were going to get back those days- The Golden days of our Lives.

Among life's precious jewels

Genuine and rare

The one that we call friendship

Has worth

Beyond compare.

-unknown

ChapterOne- The beginning

"Oh no… No… No… came a loud shout, What the hell man, how can this happen?"

I was standing at the corridor when I heard someone shout. It was loud enough to be heard from the corridor. I knew the voice very well and was well aware of the situation we were going to face. It was Dean, Dean Cruise, our friend and a member of the group Fantastic Four- that is what our mates called us. We never did ever come to know who tagged us by that name. And even now, nearly everyone from our batch of the Senior High calls us by that name. It is not that we liked to get tagged by a name but once you get tagged, you remain tagged forever. Moreover we were a bit accustomed to the name, so it didn’t quite bother us.

I ran towards the class. As I entered the class, I found Dean sitting on his regular seat, with his laptop open on the desk. He was staring at his laptop screen and was continuously murmuring something. I took out my cell and checked whether I was missing out on any important note. Nah, nothing in the reminder, the voice in my head told, Then, did he breakup with his girlfriend? Oh wait, Dean and girlfriend?

Yeah, that was very idiotic of me to think about Dean’s breakup. We were in the final year of our Senior High and none of us actually had someone to be called as a girlfriend. It wasn’t that girls did not like us. Many tried to draw our attention towards them. But unfortunately we were too busy with our studies; our lives revolved around projects, seminars, labs, football, and basketball tournaments. We were damn too busy chasing our careers and our dreams. We were preparing ourselves for the SATs. Our eyes were fixed on institutions like the Stanford, MIT, and Princeton. Yes by this time you must all have guessed that either we were fairly decent at studies or were day dreamers. Actually, we belonged to reputed families. Parents were quite affluent; owning penthouses, mansions and private beaches. And as you all can guess again, we had a lot of pressure on us. As if we had a legacy to carry on, and hence, no time to spend on girlfriends.

(Coming back to the story) I called up James, our friend James Terry. Where are you? I asked.

At the basketball practice and you are late… he replied, "Don’t you have any responsibilities towards your team?’’

Keep your ‘responsibilities’ aside, shouted I, loud enough, Run to the physics room, Dean’s gone mad.

Just hang on buddy! I am on my way, James replied.

James entered the room and found me near the entrance. He looked at Dean who was still busy with his laptop. Dean was entering the flash drives in his laptop port, one by one, was searching something, and was beating the desk in anger. Dean was always like this. He had the best brain among us four, but his brain used to malfunction in some special occasions such as this. Whenever he used to behave like this, none of us had the courage to face him alone. So I was waiting for James. James on the way called up Samuel Akeles, a.k.a., Sam- the fourth member of our group. He was at the gym with the football coach, training for the game. He would be reaching here anytime, said James.

Before going any further, let me give an introduction about my friends over here. Sam was a rugby player and a foodie. He was tall, had a well-built muscular body and was physically very strong. Dean on the other hand, though was equal in height as that of Sam, but possessed only a bit of the strength that Sam had. Dean was not at all interested in any kind of sports; he was in love with books. Dean used to lead us in the science quiz competitions. James, a.k.a., Jamie was an inch taller than me. He was (and still is) charming, was well spoken, had a good dressing sense and was a lady killer (he preferred to be called by that name). He used to play basketball with me and was also in the quiz team. And last (but I hope not the least) Aryan, that is me. I was born in a rich family as the rest of my friends. My father was ambitious and my mother was simple, down to earth. I was a hybrid combination of both the traits. My father pampered me by bringing the world at my feet and my mother always used to put my feet on the ground and taught me to live simple. I played basketball for the school team, used to play the guitar and sing for the school band, and was a part of the quiz team. I know my life may sound to be picture perfect but believe me, the pressure was immense. Nobody expected me to fail even once in a life. Did I seem to be a super human to all?

After a few minutes Sam reached the class. Hey guys, what’s the matter? asked Sam. We pointed towards Dean. Sam’s mouth was wide open on seeing Dean’s condition. He whispered, We are so doomed, be ready to face the apocalypse.

Yeah, apocalypse! When Dean showed such symptoms we knew it was an apocalypse for us. And we had faced it quite a few times before. Yes we had a bit of experience in this. Not only had we, even the teachers of the school tasted the apocalypse quite a few times. And they hated it no less than we did. One of the biggest apocalypse occurred just a week ago when he lost his project file.

ChapterTwo- The Apocalypse

We were coming to school in my BMW GT 500 that my dad had bought me on my sixteenth birthday (hey remember? I told you that our parents were quite rich) and I was proud to own one. I will not deny the fact that I also liked to show off a bit. Actually each one of us was given a car on our sixteenth birthday. Rich parents and they like to show it off. Dean’s got his favourite McLaren 500, James got a Porsche Cayman and Sam was given a Mustang. (Now, coming back to the apocalypse) I was driving and Sam was beside me. Dean and James were on the rear seat. Suddenly Dean started shouting Oh no… No… No… this can’t happen…

Astonished by his shout which nearly killed us all, I pulled the car over aside and asked him, What’s the matter, Mr Einstein?

I lost it, I lost it, he panicked, I don’t know how but I lost it.

What have you lost? asked Sam.

My chemistry project file, it’s lost, he replied.

It must be in your bag or might have fallen in the car, search properly and you would surely get it, I tried to calm him down.

We all moved out of the car. He was standing aside while we started searching the car and his bag. The more the time passed, the more the chances increased of not getting the file. Now it was our time to panic. We searched the car nearly for forty-five minutes. We searched every corner of the car, all possible as well as impossible places. And now it was time for the declaration. We were pushing each other to announce the time of death. And in such situations, Sam and James always used to tie up the knot and get the majority. Hence, I had to declare it.

Sorry brother, we could not find your file.

After saying this, we were expecting a shout from him. But to our surprise, he didn’t. He went and sat inside the car. He was always this unpredictable. Actually we all were. We were friends for the past six years, yet we did not know how the other would react in an intense situation. Otherwise in a normal situation, we knew each other’s reactions very well. Actually I was (and still am) not a very sharing kind of guy. I always try to hide my emotions from everyone. It might have been because I feared to expose myself and be vulnerable.

He sat inside, with a gloomy face. We entered and I started driving. We promised that we would help him re-write it. After a few minutes’ drive, we reached our school. He was very upset and was not talking to anyone. We went to the locker room to take our books. Suddenly Dean shouted, Got it, got it; it was in the locker. Oh man we were so damn angry after hearing him. Felt like tearing his file, but we restrained ourselves. The apocalypse again occurred (not much of an apocalypse though), just four days after that incident. He lost his flash drive in which he had the biology project. Again the drama, we searched everywhere. Finally we found it in his trouser. (Can you believe it? It was with him the whole time and yet he created a scene). He was always way too much devoted to studies; the topper after all. And again we faced another apocalypse, will tell you later about it. Actually I am planning to write a book on it, Dean- A saga of apocalypses.

We were standing by the door and preparing ourselves to face it.

The Judgement day is here, be prepared to face the Almighty; repent for your sins, whispered James in his usual humorous tone.

I went near Dean and asked, Anything wrong bro?

I am dead, replied Dean, I am so dead.

Have you lost your project, again? asked Sam.

Don’t worry man, you would get it, consoled James.

Just search properly. Have you searched your trousers? asked Sam.

Yes, yes, yes… replied Dean in anger, You think I am idiotic enough to not search my pants?

Yeah! As if we believed his words. We started searching everywhere, without actually knowing what we were searching for.

And then suddenly Sam asked, Hey Dean would you mind telling us what are we actually searching for?

It’s my project, you idiot, shouted Dean.

Can you describe your project? asked Sam, You know colour, shape, size, dimensions, barcode number anything?

Barcode! James and I shouted together.

Just in case, you know, defended Sam.

We always knew Sam was the most confused one among us. He was confused whether he should go for tennis or badminton. And he chose rugby. He was confused whether he should buy