The Girl with Chutzpah!

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                                                                        Unsplash
 

They called her the girl with chutzpah, who could take on the world and joust with windmills!

She appeared from nowhere with long pigtails and the face of an angel.

From the start, there was an aura about her, a coldness almost, which people noticed.

Yet, she had chutzpah, a word that her friends had no idea about. It was more of an instinct, the idea that no one could mess with her. One glance from those gimlet eyes could quell even the highest spirits.

Anyone who messed with the girl found themselves in hot water soon enough. Aman, who had taken her favourite pen surreptitiously, found his notebooks floating in water, the blue ink all smudged and unreadable.

Suchitra who had scoffed at her hairstyle suddenly discovered chewing gum stuck in her own hair. The hairdresser had to cut off a portion of it, leaving a bald spot that quite broke her heart.

What was terrifying was that Jessica was never around when all these things happened. So, no one could pin these things on her. However, she had her ways. Gradually, people began to stay away, terrified of being around her, which suited her fine.

Till she met Roy, a new boy who strode into her class one morning, owning it instantly. It was as if a whirlwind had entered, as all eyes fastened on him in wonder. Not traditionally good-looking, there was something about him that kept them entranced. He looked around with a saucy smile, waving a perfunctory hand around. That smile paved the way for him, and life was never the same again for everyone in class.

Jessica felt a tug in her heart. Here was a kindred soul. He had the same insouciance, the confidence that she had, and yet, he was popular, as she had never been. The girls hung on to his every word; the boys slapped him on his back as he cracked absurd jokes which kept them in splits.

“Hey, Jess, care for some coffee?” She loved being Jess. As they sipped their coffee, he chattered on, intrigued by her deep silences, the apparent indifference that piqued him. He needed to break through her defences.

The day he kissed her, her parched heart opened like a rosebud. He preened for he had done the impossible, breached her untouched heart. She turned towards him like a sunflower.

One day, he stopped coming to school. People stared in sympathy at the jilted girl, who was silent, yet unbroken. Obviously, it had been a one-sided love affair!

She sat, a monument of despair, her heart weeping at his betrayal, as her mind raced to act. She knew exactly what she needed to do.

When they found his body, mauled and lifeless after the hit-and-run, she sighed, her eyes cold and indifferent, revealing the darkness of her soul.

 His infidelity had turned into his ultimate curse.

After all, she was the girl with chutzpah!

494 words

Author’s Note: The meaning of ‘chutzpah is ‘supreme self-confidence or fearlessness. It comes from the Hebrew word huspah, meaning insolence, cheek or audacity. Pronounced as hoots-pa 

#ArtoonsInnWritersRoom #writersloop #Five0017 #ClubQaafilaa #Borrowed


 

 

 

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