Wishing Wishes Never Came True

The forty five chorus members swayed from side to side singing their song with great energy.
“And off,” Mrs. Holly cried, “Let’s try that part again.”
“Look away! Look away… Over Yandro! Shenandoah, Shenandoah…” Bonnie Hails Middle School chorus sang, trying again to get a perfect pitch. After all, BH chorus was the second best in school chorus group in Pennsylvania and they needed to live up to their reputation.
“Good job, everyone! Don’t forget, the last rehearsal is tomorrow and I expect everyone to be punctual. And no, Ms. Mathews– you will not be excused,” Mrs. Holly said glaring at the poor girl who had tried to sneak in during the middle of rehearsal.
“Sorry, ma’am,” Priya Mathews whimpered, her cheeks turning a shade of pink.
“Hmm…Concert on Wednesday. 6:30 sharp, not early and definitely not late. And wear your uniforms. Ladies, make sure to iron your dress and boys, do not forget the black socks,” reminded the music teacher swiftly dismissing everyone. The students chattered and broke off into little groups, ready to go home.
“I can’t believe our concert is here already,” Priya said.
“I know! But our new uniforms are so awesome, man. It’ll rock,” replied Anju.
“Haha,” laughed Alexa, “Of course it will! I am in it!”
Slowly, the trio stepped out of the music room. Beverly Hills Middle School was very quiet; after all, most of the kids had gone home.
“Chorus should have special buses to take us home. I’m so tired of walking!” Priya cried.
“Seriously,” Anju replied.
Alexa, Priya, and Anju stepped out into West Chester Pike. There were many other groups of kids walking home from BHMS. Soon the trio was joined by their classmate, Julie.
“Hey, my chiccas,” Julie cried hugging each of them.
“Hey, girl. What’s up?”
“Ah! Mr. Colrrint is so mean, man. He made me stay after because I missed a single stupid homework!” Julie explained.
“Really? I see Mike over there. You sure Mr. C made you stay after, or is Mike our culprit?” Priya teased laughing. Alexa hooted.
“Oh! Come one, guys! I’m like so never talking to you again!” Julie cried but she was laughing too. Cars passed the group many times. West Chester Pike was a busy road and the group had much to chatter about anyway. The day was cheery, not too hot yet not too cold and just the right amount of clouds.
“So, Priya, I was watching WYBE on Saturday and I saw this PUN-jabi dance? Is that how you pronounce it? Anyways it was so extremely cool! Show me how to do it,” asked Julie.
“Well, I’m not exactly Punjabi but I gu-” Priya began but was interrupted by Anju who had put her hands in the air and was doing a very bad imitation of a Bhangra dance.
“No, Anju! That’s so not how you do it,” cried Priya and broke off into her version of a Bhangra.
“Priya! Anju! You’re ruining it,” a voice exclaimed from behind them. It was Gary “Gurjinder” Singh and his friend, Gagan Kaur. Gary was the Orlando Bloom of Beverly Hills and never went anywhere without Gagan.
“Oh! I forgot! You are like the best dancer in the world!” Priya said sarcastically. Anju rolled her eyes.
“Of course we are! Meine jise abhi abhi…” Gagan started singing in Hindi as Gary danced. Priya and Anju couldn’t believe it! They were dancing and singing on the road! Julie watched and unsuccessfully tried to copy Gary’s movements.
“I don’t know you guys!” Alexa screamed ducking Gagan’s fist. Gary was still dancing and earning curious stares from passing drivers.
“Priya!” someone yelled, “Priya! Over here!” Priya turned to see who it was. Markose Larriparambil, also known as Mark or MK, was calling her from across the road. Mark was one of the few Malayalee students in Upper Darby like Priya.
“What?” Priya yelled back, trying to be heard through the traffic. It was a while since she had seen Mark because he was in the high school.
“Tell them to stop dancing, yo! They’re embarrassing me,” replied Mark.
“Ah!” Priya thought, “He’s not ashamed to wear pants that are about to fall off or oversized shirts that are more like dresses. He’s not embarrassed to hang out with his failing ‘gangster’ friends!”
“If you are so ashamed of us, look away!” cried Priya fuming.
“Look away! Look away… Over Yandro!” Alexa and Anju sang from Shenandoah. The group burst into laughter, even Priya who was still a little mad at Mark. This was not the first time Mark had insulted Priya and her friends, and she felt like she has enough.
“Hate you, man! You used to be so nice. BH is a bad influence on you!” Mark yelled before ducking into the train station. Priya suddenly felt suffocated and grabbed Anju’s hand to balance.
“Look whose talking!” Anju yell at Joel before turning to Priya, “You okay?”
“Yea, I’m fine.” Priya said softly sighing; her attacks were getting more frequent every day. Maybe she should tell her parents about it.
“He’s such a - ahh…- jerk!” Priya turned to her friends trying to ignore what happened, “Such an ABCD!”
“ABCD?” Alexa asked. BH had a large South Asian population and Alexa, being new to the school, was always confused on their slang terms.
“American Born Confused Desi. Stupid Indians and Pakis who try to get away from their culture,” Gary answered.
“Oh.”
“Bye,” everyone told Julie as they arrived on her street. Soon the group split and so Priya and Gary were the only ones together. Amid the talk of Hindi movies and songs, they remembered the dance competition that was taking place the next week.
“We haven’t even picked our song yet. How about you guys?” Priya said.
“We’re no farther. It’s so stupid, yaar. No one ever agrees on anything,” Gary said looking thoughtful, “Hey! You know what? We should combine our groups!”
“What?” Priya asked in surprise.
“I’m serious! We should, man. That’ll be totally awesome. There’s Gagan, Neil, Saikat, Mainak as guys and you have…”Gary trailed off.
“Anju, Ashveen, Gurjit and Laya. So it’s even,” Priya finished, “But the thing is, yaar, you’re like all the North Indian people and we’re just the PO-or ‘southies’. We’ll never agree on a song.”
“Leave that to me,” Gary said as they neared Priya’s house.
“Fine… fine… whatever.”
A night and a morning passed in a blink and before she knew it, Priya knew it, she was back in school. Classes flew by quickly though everyone was jumpy in the hot June weather. Priya was anxious to meet with her friends and tell them about Gary’s plan. As soon as the fourth period bell rang, Priya hurriedly went to the cafeteria. The loud cafeteria was like a jungle when Priya went in. She sighed and put her hands in the air. This was why she loved BH. You can never find this much of a mess anywhere else!
“Hey Ms. Philosophy, still in dreamland?’ Neil asked coming towards her.
“Where’s everyone?” Priya asked ignoring his comment.
“Waiting for a Priya Mathews to show up!” Neil snickered pointing to a crowded table. Priya went to the table where her friends were waiting.
“Yo! What’s up, girl?” Ashveen asked giving Priya a quick hug.
“Just telling them about your plan,” Gary told her as she sat down.
“Since when did it become MY plan?” Priya thought but kept quiet anyway. Soon a couple more people came and quick introductions were made.
“I think we should do something semi- classical and wear the Bharatanatyam dress,” Laya piped up as they discussed the dance.
“No way! I’ll not get in a Bharat- whatever you call it- costume,” Saikat said looking just as horrified as Neil.
“Girls do Bharatanatyam. We do Bhangra,” Gagan said in his matter-of-fact voice.
“Not true,” Gurjit snapped, “What about Vineeth or other guys who dance? Anyway what’s the point of doing Bhangra? Everyone knows the international peace sign, right? Now you keep both hands like that, hold them above your head and give it a little shake! That’s all a Bhangra is!”
“Excuse you! Stupid southie boys do Bharatanatyam and go tha…tham…thai,” Gagan provided the music while Mainak mimicked Bharatanatyam. The guys laughed as Mainak displayed his talent for mimicry.
“Enough!” Priya cried furiously, “Why do you have to make fun of it? Couldn’t you just say you don’t like it?” Priya got up and walked through the door as she felt suffocated.
“Yo! Chill, yaar. I’m just kidding,” Mainak called behind her.
“Why is she so emotional, for Pete’s sake?” Gary asked.
“You don’t know about her sister?” asked Anju.
“No… I mean, what do you mean –her sister?”
“Well,” Anju sighed as everyone listened, “Priya had a sister named Bhavana. She was a lot older than Priya. She was a very good classical dancer. She loved doing Bharatanatyam and lived for dance… That in a way led to her death.”
“Death?” someone whispered as Anju paused.
“Yea, she left home when Priya was just six to go to Bombay. They were still in India then. Bhavana wanted to be a professional dancer but her parents wouldn’t let her. I mean, which parents would let a daughter do that without even getting a good education? Poor Priya, she loved her sister very much and she thought Bhavana was on a school trip-a ‘big kid’s trip, that was what her parents told her- but she wasn’t. A month later, Priya found Bhavana’s dead body on their front steps. She’d been murdered but the police never found out anything more. Bhavana was in a bad condition and it was just cruel fate that Priya found her. She was in denial for one year and had to go to a shrink. Then her parents brought her to America hoping she’d forget. But here, she started getting these weird attacks when she exerted herself too much. She can’t breathe and does odd things that she forgets about later, that sort of stuff. A couple of times, it became so serious, she was expected to die. I don’t know much about it, and all I know is what her parents told my parents. Priya doesn’t know it yet but she’s leaving for this treatment center right after school closes,” Anju paused, “So anyways she just couldn’t accept that her sister was dead. She keeps thinking she’ll come back though part of her knows she wouldn’t. But she gets really mad if someone criticizes classical dance or her sister. Sometimes she just blends both in, if you know what I mean, it’s just hard to explain.”

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Priya Mathews ran down the halls and rushed into the bathroom as tears flooded her eyes and memories came rushing at her, each armed with poison. Something seemed to block her lungs as an old movie of her sixth birthday party played in her head. Her sister smiled and threw Priya into the air, catching her gently as she fell. As the little Priya in her memory laughed, the real Priya struggled for breath. She twitched and turned as though she was in a gas chamber.
“Where is everyone? Help, someone!” Priya tried to yell but all that came out was her hoarse whisper calling Bhavana. She tried to fight and push her memories back. She tried to calm down and take deep breaths but the effort only caused more pain.

_______________________________________________________

“Where is she?” Gary cried looking into empty classrooms and hallways with the others.
“Priya!” Anju yelled. The group was moving fast and trying to keep out of teachers’ sight since neither of them had a hall pass.
“Maybe she went to Mr. Colrrint’s,” predicted Gurjit.
“I think she might be in the bathroom,” Laya replied. The group split up soon. Neil, Saikat, Mainak, Gagan and Gary went to Mr. Colrrint’s room while the girls went to check in the bathrooms. Mr. Colrrint was one of their favorite teachers and often helped them with anything.
“Hey, Mr.C. Have you seen Priya?” Neil asked as they entered the teacher’s room.
“No, but the bell will ring in like two minutes. Why don’t you go to her next class?” he said looking slightly surprised.
“We-”
Suddenly a scream pierced through the air silencing everyone it hit.

________________________________________________________

The curtain opened, a face blurred, tears swelled, and screams emerged. Priya felt that someone was trying to pull her and take her away but she knew that it was only a memory. Her lungs swelled up. She felt like she was getting squished under a giant. She struggled for every breath.
“Nurse… I need to get to the nurse,” Priya subconsciously walked to the door and tried to open it. She grabbed the handle but was thrust to the floor. She shook her head and struggled to get up again.
“What was wrong? This never happened before. I did everything I was supposed to. I took all my medicines. Why does it have to be now?” Priya thought frantically thinking of her friends in the cafeteria.
“No! I wish... I wish wishes never came true. I wish... I had never wished to go to Bhavana. I wish,” tears flooded her eyes as she struggled to breathe. Twitching and turning, she wished she’d listened to her mom and agreed to go to the medical center.
“Wishes, what good are they anyway?” Priya thought in her jumbled mind.
“Priya!” yelled Ashveen walking through the door. Laya screamed, tears swelling in her eyes.
“Oh my God… What the heck? Priya!” Anju exclaimed holding her breath.
“Call the nurse!” Laya cries just as Gurjit ran out the door.
“Priya, Priya. Get up! Come on,” Anju shook her, crying.
“D..do.. don't.. wish,” whispered Priya using the last bit of her energy.
Somewhere a girl screamed, a nurse ran and a school mourned. Yet just a day ago a girl was teased, a boy yelled at, and the world was a truly good place. If only a wish had a mind of its own so that ‘good’ wishes come true and ‘bad’ ones don’t.