‘The Last Benchers’

It was the first day of 9th grade at Sunrise Public School, and everything felt familiar yet slightly new. The corridors still echoed with the morning bell, the smell of chalk and books still lingered, but there was one thing that caught Aarav’s attention—the classroom arrangement had changed.

He walked into class and headed straight for his favorite spot—the last bench. It had always been his place. It was where he sat with his best friend Kriti, where they’d exchanged doodles, cracked jokes during boring lessons, and shared countless secrets.

But this year, Kriti wasn’t there.

She had shifted to another city with her family. Aarav never said it aloud, but her absence hit him harder than he expected. The last bench suddenly felt... empty.

As the weeks passed, Aarav kept to himself, quietly doing his work, still sitting at the back. Then one day, a new student entered the class—*Zoya*. Shy, soft-spoken, and visibly nervous, she looked around for a place to sit. The front benches were all taken.

"Come here," Aarav offered, patting the seat next to him.

Zoya hesitated. “Last bench? Are you sure?”

He smiled. “Best view of the class, trust me.”

And so began a new chapter.

Slowly, Zoya and Aarav bonded. She loved painting; he was into photography. They started working on school projects together, hanging out during breaks, and cheering each other up on gloomy days.

One afternoon, during the annual art exhibition, Aarav found something that left him speechless—a painting Zoya had made. It was of two friends sitting on the last bench, laughing under a soft golden light. The caption below read: "The place where I found my first friend in a new world."

Aarav looked at her across the room. She smiled and gave him a small wave.

Something shifted inside him.

That day, he understood that life never takes anything away without giving something back. Kriti had given him years of beautiful memories, and now Zoya was giving him a new story, a new friendship to cherish.

Years later, Aarav would look back at that last bench and smile. Not because it was a place of fun and mischief, but because it taught him that people may come and go, but memories—and sometimes new beginnings—live forever.

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