The Alpha

February in Shimla can only be described in one word: Pleasant. It’s cool enough without being chilly and it wasn’t warm enough to be disappointing. You can get away

with all kinds of fancy and stylish winter wear, which do little for the cold but hey they look good in pictures and can you put a price on a good selfie. It’s a great time for

trekking, hiking, camping

The 11th class from St. Jude’s High school, New Delhi was on one of such trips. A weeklong trip to build ‘character and fortitude’ but let’s be honest- the only reason most kids go on such trips is that they get to spend extended periods of time with the opposite sex with minimal adult supervision and also so that they have an excuse to use #Wanderlust on their Instagram posts. Again, priorities. They were currently camped out on the side of a mountain, overlooking the valley with a forest consisting largely of huge pine trees behind them. Thin mist draped over trees which extended as far as eyes could see. It looked serene, beautiful and scary depending on whom you asked. It was night and the whole batch was huddled around a bonfire, enjoying the remnants the last night of the trip. It had been, overall, a pretty uneventful trip but a lot of the sheltered, city born and bred kids would go on to describe these seven days as the highlight of their lives for many years to come. A kid who didn’t fall in that category was Avi. He sat amid all the merriment yet felt a sort of detachment to his peers. The price of maturity before it’s due. He ran his hand through his tousled hair which always looked messy but in a good way, not that different from how all the K-pop stars that girls went nuts about styled their hair, but luckily for him it came naturally with minimum effort on his part. He examined the revelry going on around him.

Oh yeah, they were definitely fucking.

Besides them sat Ankit, the school Prefect surrounded by his usual group of admirers and sycophants. He gave Avi a small nod, which Avi returned. Although they weren’t friends there was a healthy amount of mutual respect between them. But that was the case with almost everyone. Avi was everyone’s friend and no one’s. A permanent

outsider, a rebel, an outlaw, a maverick. He felt like he was surrounded by kids all the time but that was his burden to carry. The price of maturity before it’s due. A couple of places next to Ankit sat Anisha. Alok, the school cricket captain had his arm around her. He thought he was being discreet but everyone knew where his hand really was. Anisha caught Avi’s eyes. Avi smiled. She blushed and quickly looked away. Avi’s smile grew wider.

One of these days. Every campfire is incomplete without an acoustic guitar, so, needless to say, one materialized after a while, everyone coaxed and cheered Avi to play something. Yeah, he played the guitar too. He complied. He plucked a few strings and could hear the woos and aahs, smiling he started playing a generic Bollywood song after all none of these pubescent barbarians could appreciate real guitar music. He was well aware of everyone’s attention on him, including Anisha’s whose eyes were glued on him now that she felt that he wasn’t looking. He received a hearty applause after he was done. Avi smiled back and gave a bow, he was nothing if not gracious. A little later their Chaperones announced that it was time to retire for the night, they had a long day tomorrow. Avi had just dozed off inside his tent when somebody shook him awake. He groggily woke up to see the small, mousy kid from his class, Anil before him.

‘What?’ he demanded.

‘Archita asked me to tell you that a select few people have sneaked out and are having a small party.’ squeaked Anil.

Avi sighed. The price of fame.

‘Will you be going?’ inquired Anil.

‘Fine, lead me to it.’

‘Er…I haven’t been invited.’

‘Nonsense, you are coming with me.’

Anil’s face lit up.

‘Really?’

‘Yeah, of course. If anyone gives you grief, come and tell me alright?’.

They approached a small clearing. Avi felt something was off even before arriving. To begin with, there was no sound of laughter. There was no sound Period. He saw them standing around the fire, worry written plain across their face.

‘What’s wrong?’ he asked as he reached them. They all turned to look at him but no one met his eyes or said a word. They kept shuffling their feet and mumbling incoherently. Avi started getting annoyed.

‘I said what’s wrong!’ he didn’t really raise his voice; it was the gravity of his tone that whipped them all into attention.

‘Alok and Anisha sneaked away into the woods and only Alok came back’ someone said.

‘What!’

He looked around till he saw Alok. He went up to him and said quietly, almost like a whisper. ‘What happened?’

Alok was white as a sheet. He wouldn’t meet Avi’s eyes.

‘Nothing man, we were just fooling around and there was sloping down the hill that we didn’t notice. She lost her footing and slipped. I was unable to catch her and it was too dark for me to be able to see anything I called out her name she didn’t answer back.’

‘And you just left her there?’

Alok remained quiet.

Avi was done. Alok didn’t even see the punch coming. It hit him straight in the gut and knocked the air out of him. He doubled over, gasping.

‘AND YOU JUST LEFT HER THERE!!’ screamed Avi.

The whole place had gone quiet. Quieter than it already was. You could hear the cackling of the fire and Alok’s groans as he lay on the ground clutching his stomach.

Just then they hear the howls of multiple wolves. There was no time to waste.

‘Go and inform Arvind Sir’ two people immediately left to comply with his order.

‘Now lead me to the place’

But Avi shouldn’t we wait for sir to arrive’ Archita asked.

‘There is no time!!’

No one had any more complaints.

Avi saw the slope before it was pointed out to him. It was pretty easy to miss, especially given how dark it was. The whole place was surrounded by trees. It was pitch dark. One moment you are on even footing, next moment there is this steep downward slope, you would definitely miss it if you didn’t know where to look. The whole time they could still hear the wolves howling.

They stopped at the edge of the slope. It was pitch black ahead. They all flashed their respective flashlights didn’t do anything to negate the darkness.

‘What are we going to do?’ someone asked.

Avi called out Anisha’s name. The only answer was his echo and a louder howling.

Someone checked their phone it had no network.

No shit dumbass, we are in the middle of nowhere.

He called out her name again, again there was no reply. The wolves were getting closer, their howls louder.

‘Let’s just wait for the grownups to show up.’

It would be too late.

They had no idea what condition she was in and from the sound of their howls, the wolves weren’t very far off either.

There is time for careful deliberations and there is time for action. It definitely wasn’t the time for the former.

Avid made up his mind.

‘I’m going in’

Everyone looked at him with a stunned expression. Before anyone could protest, he crouched and stepped forward. He hadn’t expected the ground to be so slushy. Of

course, it was. It was fucking Shimla after all. It slipped under him, taking him down like a slide. He gave a short, manly yelp. He stumbled on a stray rock, rolled and fell forward on his face. For a moment he just laid there. Thinking about how stupid he was. After picking himself up, he turned around to see that he had fallen quite a distance, he couldn’t even see the place where they all had been, he called out but there was no reply. He sighed and looked for bruises around his body. Nothing serious just some minor scratches. He had torn his designer Levi’s at the knees. Jeans are probably the only commodity that goes up in price the more damaged it is, funny thing to think about when you are in the middle of nowhere. He looked around and squinted his eyes. Pitch black. His iPhone X had taken a beating during the fall and refused to start up. His eyes gradually adjusted to the dark. He looked around calling out Anisha’s name careful of his footing on the precarious ground. After, who knows how long, he found her lying between a couple of trees. He ran up to her, almost slipping a couple of times before reaching her. She was unconscious, he checked her for injuries. She had scraped her knees and was slightly injured in other places. Avi held her and pushed her hair out of her face. She had the face of an angel, serene and divine. He checked her head for cuts or bumps, miraculously, there were none. He gently slapped and shook her trying to get her to wake up.

After a while she finally came back to her senses. Recognition dawned on her face when she saw him. She threw her arms around him, sobbing hysterically.

‘I-I slipped and then it all went dark—G-God I was so scared.’, She managed between sobs.

‘Shh.’, Avi said gently. ’It’s alright. I’m here now.’

They stayed like that holding each other for what felt like hours and minutes at the same time. Her warm body pressed tightly against his. When they broke apart she

refused to meet Avi’s eyes, her face so deeply flushed that it was the colour of a tomato. There was no time to waste on sentimentalism. He lifted her chin, he wanted

to kiss her right there but it could wait. There was work to be done; he placed his finger in front of her face.

‘Focus on this. We have to make sure that you don’t have a concussion.’

After making sure that wasn’t the case. Avi asked her to stand up. He needed to find another way back since the way they came tumbling down wasn’t an option.

Before she could stand they heard a growl behind them. His blood turned to ice as he slowly turned around. There were at least 12 wolves all standing around them baring their sharp fangs and growling at them, their predatory eyes gleaming in the night.

Anisha had turned deathly pale, Avi placed his hand on her shoulder and gave her a smile. ’It’s okay, I’m here.’ Then he turned to face the beasts. He took a couple of steps

forward. They still stood there growling. A few of them parted and a single wolf emerged.

The alpha of the pack.

He was bigger than the rest and far fiercer, the scars all over his body were a testament to it. He stared at Avi. Avi didn’t look away for he knew that they were doomed if he showed any sign of weakness. Wolves respected strength, any show of weakness was inviting them to treat you like dinner. The whole place had gone quiet. After what felt like days the alpha wolf gave him one last look before turning around. Avi knew what that look meant: Respect.

It turned around and looked at Avi. Avi understood what he meant. Follow me, brother.

Anisha had sprained her ankle. So, he had to carry her. He didn’t mind, she wasn’t exactly what one would call heavy. He followed the pack through a whole length of the

forest. It was an entirely silent expedition. Not a single sound left the throats of any of the participants. When they finally stopped, Avi noticed that they were at the edge of their camp. The pack parted to let him pass. He emerged from the woods leaving the pack behind in the cover of the trees. Someone from their camp saw Avi and gave a shout, before long they were surrounded by people, fussing over them. Avi turned around and saw several glowing pairs of eyes watching them from behind the trees. He gave a slight nod as a show of gratitude. The wolves slowly moved away, back into the darkness. He stood there for a while. It was surreal to say the least.

He surprisingly didn’t get into trouble for his recklessness. Just goes to show that the only thing people care about is results. The next day when they were packing up,

Anisha came to him and asked if they could talk.

‘Sure’

She was blushing slightly and wouldn’t meet his eyes. Again.

‘I wanted to thank you for saving me.’

‘Oh, it was nothing.’

She finally looked him in the eyes, all serious now.

‘Yes, it was, if you hadn’t come for me. I would have died’

Avi remained silent.

She took his hand and wrote down 10-digits on it.

‘Call me. I want to thank you properly later.’

‘What about Alok, wouldn’t he mind if you started ‘thanking’ me?’

‘We broke up.’

Avi grinned. ‘Oh, you did. I’m so sorry.’ His grin getting wider with every word.

Anisha looked annoyed for a moment but then she grinned back. ‘I’m sure you are.’

She started to walk away, and then stopped. She ran back and gave him a kiss, then made a call me sign and left.

Avi couldn’t help but grin like a fool.

The ringing of the bell jolted Avi back into reality. He was in his class. The period just ended. He looked down at his notebook. He had missed more than half of the class

judging by his notes. He looked over at his reflection on a windowpane. A thin, sickly looking kid with braces, specs and hair combed in a way which only a mother, specifically his own mother could find attractive precisely because she was the one who combed it that way. He sighed and looked around. He saw Ankit, the prefect, the image of perfection, Ankit’s eyes passed over Avi and didn’t even register him, he might as well have been a pillar.

Next he turned around to look at Anisha, she was happily chatting with Archita. Girls seem to have this weird intuition where they seem to know when someone is looking at

them. She turned, they made eye contact. He gave what he thought was a winning smile but in reality he was leering rather creepily at her. She looked away, disgusted.

Avi sighed.

Fucking bitch. Next time he went on an imaginary escapade, he would just let the fucking wolves eat her.