She lay alone, thinking, a lump rose to her throat and her eyes started burning, and tears flooded her eyes. They felt warm against her skin as they rolled down her cheeks. She wiped them and turned in her bed. Dawn was about to break, she looked out of the window, and stared at it blankly. She lay there silently looking out of the window at the blank dark space. It gave her the feeling of being blind. Emotions had left her, she felt empty, but her gaze was still strong.

She didn't realize as the sky slowly turned purple, red and then bright orange. It seemed as if her reflexes had seized to respond, her eyes set at the window, she stared, without blinking, her face expressionless.

Her eyes betrayed her again, and they burned as fresh tears trickled down her cheeks. She wiped them and got up, resting her head against the wire mesh, the cool morning breeze caressed her face, she closed her eyes. The cool breeze against her burning eyes relaxed her.

She opened her eyes after what seemed to be a really long time to her, and was ecstatic to see that a peacock sat perched atop the Dining Hall building. She had seen peacocks in the premises, but they were never so close to the hostel buildings. She smiled, and the sun rose, filling the whole room with bright light, she embraced herself as she looked at the red ball surfacing slowly at the horizon.

Soon, there were movements around her, the girls had started getting up, her friend got up and punched her at the back and said "Don't tell me you slept sitting in that position the whole night!" She turned and winked at her friend and said "Get up you sleepy head, School nahi jaana hai kya?" (Don't you wanna go to school) Saying this she pounced on her friend, tickling her and playfully punching her, till they both collapsed rolling with laughter, while the other girls cursed them for making such a commotion. They both got up, and raced downstairs, pulling each other and stumbling over the stairs. She suddenly stopped at the stairs and peeped outside the window, the peacock was still there, she smiled and ran to catch up with her friend.