A Heart Full of Maybes

Meera tapped her pen nervously against the wooden desk, her eyes racing across the page. Why did I leave this for the last minute again? The classroom buzzed with quiet chatter as students finished their work, but Meera was only focused on one thing—copying the last few answers before the teacher collected the notebooks. The problem was, it wasn't her notebook. "Hirsh's handwriting is so annoyingly neat," she muttered under her breath while scribbling quickly. She was just finishing the final answer when a shadow suddenly fell across her desk. "Why do you have my book?" Meera froze. Slowly, she looked up. Hirsh stood in front of her desk, tall and clearly irritated, his arms crossed as he stared down at her notebook—his notebook. "Oh," Meera said, forcing a small smile. "You're here." "That's usually what happens when someone steals my book," he replied coldly. "I didn't steal it," she said quickly. "I just borrowed it. Give me two minutes. I have to submit it." Hirsh didn't move. His expression only hardened. "You should have finished your work earlier." Before she could respond, he reached forward and snatched the notebook from her hands. "Hey!" Meera grabbed the edge of it instinctively. For a moment, the two of them stood there, both holding the same notebook. "Just two minutes!" she pleaded. "I'm literally on the last answer." Hirsh sighed impatiently and lifted the notebook higher—far above her reach. Meera stared at it in disbelief. "Are you serious right now?" she snapped. She folded her arms, glaring up at him. Hirsh was annoyingly tall, and the way he held the otebook made it painfully clear that she had absolutely no chance of grabbing it back. "You should try studying instead of copying," he said calmly. Meera clenched her fists. She wanted to argue. She really did. But she also knew one thing very clearly—fighting Hirsh in the middle of class would not end well for her. So she just stood there, frustrated, arms folded, glaring at him as if that alone might set the notebook on fire. Hirsh looked completely unimpressed. And at that moment, Meera decided something very important. She officially hated Hirsh.