Then Rati asks Grandmother,
"I can't go to school right now because I don't have enough money."
"So what? Your father is there, isn't he? His money is yours too. And if you don't spend it, he'll just give all the money to Rama."
"But I want to earn my own money."
"Then earn it later. First, focus on your studies."
Then Father says to Rati,
"Yes, Grandmother is right. First study properly, then you can open your own big shop."
Rati thinks for a moment. Grandmother and Father watch her carefully, a little worried that she might come up with another mischievous idea. But after thinking for a while, Rati says,
"Okay. But now you understand, right? I can earn my own money. I won't beg."
Grandmother smiles and says,
"Yes, yes, I understand. My Rati is very smart."
Hearing praise from Grandmother makes Rati feel very happy. She feels butterflies in her stomach and, with a big smile, happily eats food from the tiffin with her father.
The next morning, when Rati goes to sit with Rama in the bus, she sees that another girl is already sitting there.
Rati asks Rama to make the girl get up and let her sit, but Rama refuses.
"Rama, make her get up."
"How can I do that? She came and sat here first. You came later."
Hearing this, Rati feels very hurt.
Just then, the conductor comes and says,
"What happened, child? Why are you standing? Go sit on the back seat."
When Rati doesn't move, the conductor gently holds her hand and makes her sit on an empty seat at the back.
From there, Rati watches Rama laughing and talking with the new girl. This makes her feel even worse.
When the bus reaches the school stop, Rama even helps that girl get down by holding her bag and doesn't pay any attention to Rati.
With a very bad mood, Rati goes into the classroom. There, she sees a new boy has joined the class. He is sitting next to her seat and is busy drawing with a pencil.
When Rati looks at his drawing, she really likes it.
She tries to talk to him, but he ignores her. This makes Rati feel even worse.
"First Rama, and now him…"
After a while, when Shruti enters the class, Rati calls out,
"Shruti, come sit with me."
But the class monitor says,
"No, ma'am changed everyone's seats yesterday. From today, I will sit here."
Shruti also says the same thing,
"Rati, my seat is here now. I can't sit with you."
After that, Rati quietly sits on her seat and watches Shruti talking to the same girl who was sitting with Rama in the bus. Her name is Khushi.
After some time, the prayer bell rings, and everyone starts forming lines to go outside for prayer. The new boy sitting next to Rati—his name is Satyam—asks her to move.
But Rati is lost in her thoughts, thinking about how Rama and Shruti ignored her for Khushi, so she doesn't pay any attention to what Satyam is saying.
When Satyam sees that Rati is ignoring him, he climbs over the bench and leaves from there.
After the prayer, when the first period is about to begin, Satyam is still busy making his drawing. When the teacher sees this, she says,
"What are you doing? Show it here."
The teacher slaps him twice and says,
"I am teaching you tables here, and you are busy drawing!"
Saying this, she tears his drawing page. Seeing this, Satyam gets very angry and grabs the teacher's hair, pulling it.
After that, the teacher slaps him several more times and makes him stand outside the class until lunch.
But seeing Satyam's bold nature, Rati feels very impressed. Now, in her mind, she starts thinking about making him her friend.
After lunch, when Satyam is lying in class with his head down, Rati says to him,
"Listen, do you know I can fix your drawing page?"
Hearing this, Satyam looks at her and asks,
"How?"
Rati tears a page from her drawing book, applies some mashed potato from her tiffin around the edges, and sticks the torn page onto it.
Now it looks much better.
Satyam is just about to feel happy seeing his drawing fixed when Rati asks,
"Will you be my friend?"
Without wasting even a moment, Satyam replies,
"No."
"Why?"
"Because my mother told me not to be friends with girls."
Rati finds this strange and asks,
"Why?"
"My mother says girls are not good. They are very selfish, so we shouldn't be friends with them."
Rati responds,
"Then is your mother not good?"
"My mother is very good."
"Then isn't she a girl?"
Hearing this, Satyam pauses and thinks for a moment, then says,
"Just don't talk to me."
But Rati keeps asking him again and again to be her friend, and he keeps refusing.
Eventually, their argument escalates so much that they start fighting with each other physically.