She had introduced herself, standing at the front of the bus while Ganesh navigated the first curves of the mountain road. "I'm Priya Nair. I'm your new Hindi and English teacher. I'll be teaching Class 6-B and English for Classes 7 and 8." She had said it in the clear, carrying voice she had developed over three years of substitute teaching — the voice that reached the back row without seeming to shout. "First day for me too. We'll figure it out together."
The Class 9 boy in the second row — a tall, serious-faced fourteen-year-old with a textbook already open on his lap — had looked up from his reading and made brief eye contact with her. His name tag said Vikram. He had nodded at her introduction with the contained acknowledgment of a student who was too old for performed enthusiasm but was not unfriendly. She had noted him as someone worth paying attention to, the way you noted certain students in a new class — not troublemakers, not overachievers, but the ones whose response to you in the first ten minutes told you something true.
The bus had been on the mountain road for twenty-two minutes when the sky changed.
