Double The Trouble.

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I'm Arushi, a fifteen year old Indian Girl, who loves reading and writing. Please read this story and tell me, in the comment sections, what you liked (or didn't like) about the story!

Enjoy :) 

Double the Trouble

Raahi was running late for school. She had overslept, leaving herself very little time to get ready. Tying up her hair hurriedly in a super untidy ponytail, she left her breakfast uneaten and grabbed the lunch her mom had already packed for her. She ran to the bus stop to find that the bus had already arrived and was waiting for her.

The teacher in the bus looked annoyed, but Raahi tried to avoid his frowns and took a seat next to her friend, Palak. Palak cheerfully wished her a wonderful morning and look kind of excited. Raahi was still helplessly trying to stash her belongings and sit down, when Palak continued excitedly, “Today will be so much fun, and we will enjoy such a lot.” This made Raahi think how Palak could think it was fun to have double maths right in the morning and stare blankly at her. She then said, “I know you like maths, but….”

 “Maths? No silly. Today is the day when the foreign exchange programme’s kids finally arrive. Did you forget?”

“Oh my god! I did forget. Look at my hair, I can’t very well go to the airport to receive them like this.”

“You will have to. You volunteered to be the spokesperson, Raahi, no use crying.”

 Trying to look at the positive side of things, Raahi said “Yes, today will be fun, we will have like 20 new girls and boys in our class.”

“Yes…”

Palak’s comment was interrupted by their bus driver, telling them to hurry and get down. They had reached school. There, a coach was waiting to take the volunteers to the international terminal to greet the 23 Italian kids from their school’s counterpart in Rome. The 23 students would remain in India for the next 3 weeks and study and live in the school premises with the Indian students.

Upon reaching the airport, Raahi and her friends took out the giant ‘Welcome to India’ signs they made and waited for them to arrive. Some people representing the local media were also present there to capture this moment and then cover the whole programme in their newspapers. Raahi couldn’t help thinking it was a great disappointment that she would appear in the newspapers in such a lousy state, but then she quickly diverted her thoughts on how excited she was to meet the Italian students in person and simultaneously miss double maths.

While Raahi was taking a quick washroom break, the long-awaited visitors arrived. Her friends greeted them loudly and tried their best to make them feel home. Hearing the loud chatter outside, Raahi guessed rightly that her visitors had arrived and hurried out of the restroom, bumping into another student on her way out. Mumbling apologies, she ran away, while the student was trying to say something. She just didn’t have the time to make any small talk with a stranger then.

All the students were fluent English speakers and therefore communication wasn’t a big problem, and soon all the 23 students but one were collected along with their bulky luggage. Long flights seemed to have not had any effect on the kids and none of them looked sleep deprived or grumpy. Raahi silently joined her group, quite conscious of her untidy looks and unwashed hair, and started greeting with the new arrivals. On counting all the heads, she found that one of the expectant Italian students was missing. Quite panic-stricken, she started taking an unofficial attendance out of the list. All names, apart from one, Guilia Rossi, was crossed out. Surprisingly, Guilia’s boxes and bags were there and marked with her name. Nobody knew where she was. According to her friends, they had seen the last of her while de-boarding, and never noticed when she left them, or was forced to do so.

The large group of kids re-entered the airport, and searched the whole ‘arrival’ section of the airport inside-out for their friend. They had no luck. Guilia did not even have an Indian sim-card so they had no source to contact her, at all. After a frantic search, which went on for about 30 minutes, Raahi dis-heartedly called up her school authorities. On their directions, Raahi took charge till a grown up arrived and sent the tired Italian students with two Indian volunteers back to school. She also contacted the airport authorities and asked them to make an announcement asking Guilia to come to their front desk.

While the frantic chase was going on, inside the airport, teachers arrived. After finding that the kids had left the baggage unattended, they searched for them, when they saw Raahi come out of the ‘Exit Gate’ slowly, she was alone and wiping her hands of the towel. She was out of her school uniform and had tidied her hair up. Seeing Raahi look a bit bewildered, teachers called out to her. They got no response. They eventually went right up to the back of Raahi and tapped her shoulder. She abruptly turned around and screamed. “Who are you? How dare you… “. Though confused by this behaviour, before the teachers could react, Raahi ran out to the bags, pointed to one of them and asked loud. “Thank God. This is my bag. But where is everyone? I say, it’s downright mean to leave me and go.”  The bag read: Guilia Rossi. Teachers, now sure that Raahi had lost her mind, tried to calm her down, when they heard an announcement:

Will GUILIA Rossi please report to the front desk? I repeat will Guilia Rossi, report to the front desk, her friends are waiting for her.

Hearing this announcement, Raahi got out of the grasp of the teachers and said “They are calling me to the front desk. Let me go.” The teachers left Raahi in surprise and then having no other choice, they followed Guilia to the front desk. There, they got a massive shock.

Waiting near the desk were 6 students of their school and ANOTHER Raahi. Seeing the teachers, the students rushed to them, but the teachers kept staring at Raahi and the girl running to the desk.

Grabbing Raahi, they asked,

“You are Raahi Choudhary?”

“Yes Ma’am, you…”

“You were out of your uniform before?”

 “No ma’am, but..”

“Did you see us outside the gates?”

“No, but..”

“You know that girl?”

“Which Girl”

“The one who just ran in…. “

Before the teacher could finish her interrogation the airport staff came and said to Raahi, who had asked to make the announcement, “This girl is your Guilia Rossi. She has her passport on her. Call your teachers so that they can… ”

“We are the teachers, sir. Sorry to bother you. And thank you.”

“No Problem. Take Care.”

While this conversation was going on, there were continuous shrieks from the volunteers. Raahi and Guilia looked so identical that it would be hard to tell them apart if they dressed alike. It was spooky to see them. Raahi looked shocked and felt she was looking at the mirror, and not another person. They continuously stared at each other.

Raahi and Guilia looked exactly the same, like identical twins. They were each other’s doppelgangers. It is strange phenomena, but there are actually people who look just alike living in this universe, but only a few people get to meet their double. Finally one of the teachers realized this and she told the students.

After the initial shock, Guilia told them the reason of suddenly leaving the group. She had needed to go to the restroom real quick and went there directly after collecting her luggage and leaving it with everyone else’s. In the confusion and excitement of seeing the Indian students, she could not tell anyone she was going and excused herself. She felt it would be okay, but while entering the washroom she bumped into another girl and fell, losing her balance. She hurt her knee and needed to be taken to the first aid room to get it treated.

Raahi remembered bumping into someone and put the two and two together. She sheepishly told Guilia that it was she who had bumped into her, but didn’t notice she had fallen badly as she was rushing out to welcome her and her friends. Raahi thought of the irony of the whole episode.

By now the news of this reunion reached the journalists who came and happily snapped the pictures of Guilia and Raahi. After all, it wasn’t every day that people met their non-biological look alike.

Oh God, It looked like pictures of ‘messy-haired’ Raahi would ultimately be all over the place.   

-Arushi Bajoria

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