Chapter 12

Batool Imran

@nav_bat

Next day at school, they both entered the class, purposely trying to avoid each other, which did not go unnoticed by their friends Karan and Vivek simultaneously, who however did not really do much, thinking it would be better if they sort out their differences on their own accord.

Before the first period even started, Khushi walked over to Mayank, followed by Arnav who wanted to get there first, but deliberately wanted to keep the distance between the two of them, let her take the leaders post.

"Did you two get the supplies?" she smiled at a jolly Mayank who bobbed his head up and down, and getting up from his seat, took her by her hand, and dragged her all the way to the locker room, where in a disorderly manner all the supplies were piled up.

"Check them out. If you need anything else, I'll have dad bring it up later",Mayank proposed happy at his effort, as soon after quietly Arnav had followed them, which Khushi was apparently aware off.

"Raizada, will you please help me check the things out?",she asked him out politely, not bringing her gaze to face him, as he almost shaken by her request, moodily walked over to her, and looking into the paper where the list of supplies had been listed by her.

She realizing he was unable to see, quietly, passed it to him, and he gratefully took it, making up in his mind, that until the project was over he would have let this hand of collaboration extended by her prevail. Together they both checked everything on the list, at time their hands colliding with each others, holding eye locks but then quickly looking away, double checking still everything on their list. Mayank on the other hand leaned against his locker, seeing the show beside him, it had already struck him that something was fishy between them, apart from them being at logger heads, something else sparked between them too, which the two of them were busy denying. He smirked, and quickly washed it away as the two of them after having checked all the supplies nodded, and gave him the sign of approval.

"It's all there, Thankyou Mayank. If we need anything I'll let you know later",she brightly smiled at him, evidently happy with the developments, while Arnav just stood rigid, next to her, trying to put in a bit or two.

"Ahan Khushi",Mayank remarked, and the three of them walked back to the class, Arnav and Khushi, stealing glances at each other, but refusing to look at each other straight in the eye both wondering about what would happen later in the day, when they would be alone on their own making the entire project. They exhaled a breathe of relief, as they entered the class, evidently at rest that the teacher still hadn't arrived.

The entire day passed on like that, with little or no conversation between Arnav and Khushi taking place, both trying to keep them selves consumed with their other friends. It was only 5 minutes to the last period, which was luckily Biology, and they were sitting in groups, when Arnav's earlier thought came rushing back to him. Later in the evening he didn't know what would happen, but it was sure as hell that a lot of uneasy things were going to happen.

"Gupta, where do you live?" he asked directly, refusing to be polite or a bit of considerate in how he was addressing her.

"Maple Street, House No 46" she replied bluntly, still avoiding direct eye contact. She lives in the next street from my house? Army dad?. The sudden piece of information was a bit shocking for him. No wonder. He thought to himself, she had come so causally to his home, that too alone, and walked off in a rush too, not the least bit considerate of the time she was leaving.

"4:00 then?", he asked back, which was little of a question and more of informing her of when he would come. She looked at him with shocked eyes, displeased, and barely nodded, after looking away annoyed. What was he asking her anyway, when he had already decided everything?

She saw the tube light on the wall flick about, the colors it gave creating a brilliant effect and just then an idea snapped into her head. "Mayank, Mayank listen!", she said excitedly pulling at his hand and he looked her way giving her a surprised look and urged her to proceed. "Can your dad bring us those colored flexible glass tubes" she asked, completely pleased with the idea, and how it was going to work. If she could pull it all together, there was no doubts that there project would stand out.

"Oh erm, I'll call him up and tell him to bring it.", he answered back mystified, obviously stunned at her unexpected request. Excusing himself, he walked out of the classroom, making an excuse of going to the washroom and called his dad up to inform him of the things he needed. His dad spoke in the affirmative and told him that he'll bring it by when he comes to pick him up later.

Mayank went inside, and told an anxious Khushi of what his dad has just told him, her excitement now reaching no limits. Gosh, the girl actually has brains. Arnav thought to himself, after she had hurriedly briefed him on her idea. He knew she was right, not only was it creative, but perfect for a working model of a heart they had to make, the real touch, as well as ease and perfection would all come together.

Later in the day Khushi walked inside her house, greeted by her smiling mother, but her worries were taking the better of her to return the smile. The military driver of theirs walked in with the supplies, and kept it in her room with Khushi's direction, exiting after greeting a confused Aparna Gupta. Grumpily after his departure, Khushi sat on the olive green couch of their living room checking the wall clock, which said 3:30. Half an hour for him to come, she sighed. Aparna Gupta waited for her daughter to say something, to explain the awkward reaction she was giving, but Khushi seemed way too consumed up in her own thoughts to think of her mother staring at her blankly.

"Khushi, is there someone going to come today?" her mother asked, noting down the fact that how her gaze kept moving now and then to the wall clock above.

"Erm, yeah, actually Ma, a friend of mine is coming", Khushi said hesitantly, glad that her mother had asked her on her own, instead of her bringing up the news ahead.

"Project?", she asked smiling, obviously aware that she went down in low spirits only when she hadn't gotten the desired group, or the project at hand was very difficult to complete.

"Erm yeah, how do you know?", she asked wide eyed, impressed with her mothers skill's of knowing before hand on what was going about in her life. "Judging from the supplies dear *pause*, you don't like this friend whose coming over do you?" Aparna Gupta asked now seriously, wanting to know more of her glum reaction.

"No Ma I don't, he's the last person I would want to work with.", Khushi replied back moodily, displeased in all affairs, to having to work with him, though she secretly did consider a part of her being relived that it was at least someone she knew she was working with and not a complete stranger.

"Erm, what was his name now (thinking) Arnav..Singh..Raizada?" her mother said, almost sure that it was the same boy Khushi had told her earlier about, who apparently she was on hate terms with.

"Yeah Ma! Who else! I told you about him didn't I? It's such a pity that in the entire class the stupid Bio teacher had to land me up with working with him", she remarked, annoyed.

"Khushi dear, you have to learn to cooperate with everybody, and it's just really till the project ends. Besides, you don't know him all that well do you? Maybe he's just nice but in a habit of being hard or conservative.", Aparna Gupta said comfortingly, sitting next to Khushi and keeping a hand on her shoulder, to which Khushi looked up at her straight in her eye, slightly flinching with her words, "You wont stick with that opinion by the end of today, bet me.", Khushi told back her mother confidently, and got up from the couch, letting her know that she had to get ready, he'd be here by 4:oo. Her mother in turn nodded, and went of to the kitchen to prepare something for the guest who was to come.

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Arnav, Anjali and Aakash entered their isolated house, like everyday, greeted by nothing but emptiness. Tired and puffed out with their respective hectic day at school, the threesome were lost in their memories of the time they had spend with meaningful people. While Aakash and Anjali lingered around the living room, a later while longer, Arnav directly went to his room, and shut his door tight, not before seeing the clock strike 3:30.

By the time it was 3:45, he was out fully dressed in his casuals, and looked in disgust at his elder siblings still stretching their bodies piled on the couches, as if they had been through a severe work out the whole day.

Seeing him taking fast paced steps towards the main door, Anjali opened her tired eyes in surprise, and almost immediately was on her feet, grabbing Arnav by the arm who was just about to disappear into thin air.

"Where are you going Chotte?", she asked him featuring mild annoyment, on the non responsive way he was looking at her.

"To make a project at Khushi's house", he replied directly, avoiding any kind of confusing rapid fire sessions by Anjali. Hearing the conversation behind him, Aakash gathering up all his will, sleepy eyed walked over to the two and stood next to Anjali his eyes flying open, at Arnav's well dressed form in front of him.

"At least have something to eat first", she said, surprised at the sudden rush he was in to get to her house as quick as possible.

"Where to?", Aakash broke in, poking Anjali who irritated looked at him and mumbled something like 'Khushi's house'.

"Omg Chotte, I can't believe it! You have been so fast? I though you two were at hate terms, dating so early?" Aakash remarked mischievously, a big grin playing on his face, as Arnav threw a flabbergasted look his way, and continued to stare dead in his eyes.

"I am going for a project there.", Arnav said coldly, to which Aakash grinned all the more harder and prompted something that sounded like, 'Project dating Khushi'.

"Bhai, it's a heart model, and now if you two are done with your nonsense can I go? I am getting late.", he said in an icy tone and turned around not waiting for them to reply, who were still busy recovering from his intense mood swings. "You are not going to eat then right?", Anjali called out to him curtly, receiving an annoyed 'No' from him, before the door slammed shut, producing a reverberating sound.

"This boy is driving me nuts.", she mumbled to herself, much to Aakash's amusement who was standing close enough to her to listen to what she was grumbling about to herself.

"He doesn't need to, you already are nuts.", he called out to her cheekily, as the sound of her angry 'Shut up Aakash!' boomed all over the living room, sending Aakash into another fit of maddening laughter.

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Taking steady yet fast paced steps, Arnav walked the entire length of street, occasionally checking the number plates on the doors for No 46. Finally having found it on a silver metal plate carved inside it with bold black, hanging firmly on the shaded oak door. Unlike their own dome shaped roof, her's was a straight rectangular, an even more symmetrical chimney coming out of the eastern side of the red bricked slanting roof. He moved in examining the small garden which seemed to be a backyard, blossoming with beautiful species of flora, giving a very enchanting look to the house. For a while he stood at the door, and rung the bell, almost thrice, when he could feel steps inside the house being taken towards the door, as a familiar eye appeared at the eye hole looking at him, after which a lock clicked and the door opened bringing her in sight of him.

He didn't know if this was just co incidence or something else, but the perfect blend of coloring clothes they wore was a sight to look into. She was wearing a light blue sleeve-less body fitting t-shirt, with black flannel pants. Her hair seemed to be a sight, dripping wet, all her bangs now coming on her face. She looked at him dressed in a black and blue shirt, with streaks of white here and there along with blue denim jeans that complimented the shirt really well. Giving him a small smile, she beckoned him to come in, closing the door behind her, as he took the lead. The first thing she did was look at the clock, which was striking exactly 4:00 now, horrifying her of his punctuality.

Facing her, he turned to see her more carefully now noticing why her t-shirt appeared to drive his attention towards her. In spite of the colors being his favorites, the catchy one liner on it could send anyone in a fit of laughter. 'Only Vampires Can Love You Forever', it said grossly painted in black and white acrylics, being in perfect combination of the light blue surface area. A slight smile etched up his lips, as he quickly turned away not wanting her to see it, inwardly laughing at her odd choices. Anti-Vampires, Anti-Love, interesting.

"Khushi who is it?", Aparna Gupta called out from the kitchen, her hands dirty, busy bustling about the kitchen to prepare a tray of food for their guest.

"Raii..I mean Arnav", she said stammering, as he shot an annoyed look at her, having her addressing him by his last name even in front of her mother. Khushi quickly looked away from him, and now standing in front of him led him to her room, letting him inside first before she herself went in. He walked inside to a familiar combination of colors as in his room, painted entirely with a light shade of blue, the walled cupboards, marred with abstract lines of black which were at the eastern side of the room. The single bed, unlike his own had a flowery pattern of metal ivory too being painted black, the middle of each flower colored blue as its head rest. As he roamed his eyes around the room, taking in the familiarity it held, there was a bathroom, with glazed blue paper, and just by its side inches away a long extending book rack. His eyes seemed to have been caught up at the different genres and ultimate amount of books piled up in chronological order in it, admittedly larger than his own book collection.

"Got every thing in their, except for sparkling vampires and lovey dovey tales", she informed him, noticing the keen interest with which he was looking at her book shelf. She had to smile at it, proud for her own collection, because he apparently was not the only one who was instantly attracted to her book collection, almost every new comer was.

Hearing her voice, he snapped out of his reverie, and looked at her smiling at him, gave a quick nod, and proceeded inside the room noticing now the supplies piled up on the far corner next to what appeared to be a study table. Even if she wouldn't have told him he had already deciphered the absence of those genres from her shelf, of course the slogan on her T-shirt said it all.

She motioned him to sit on the bed which he did, and almost a second later he stood up with a start having felt the vibrating sensation of something moving beneath him. Arnav passed a bewildered look at a baffled Khushi, who quickly recovered, hitting her palm on the forehead, and went over to the place where he was sitting producing her cell phone out of the lined up sheets.

For all he knew, he gave her his 'What the' reaction, as she apologetically gave him a embarrassed smile, excused herself, and attended the call, while he patting the sheets for anymore gadgets, convinced sat back on the bed.

"Khushi?", the voice on the other side of the phone said, to which Khushi replied in the affirmative, confused at the unknown number that the screen had projected when she had received the call.

"This is Anjali speaking. Arnav's sister.", Anjali said in a calm voice, giving Khushi her time to process the information, as she could just imagine her surprise for getting a phone call from her.

"Yes?", Khushi replied back, after about 5-6 seconds, wondering busily why his sister would want to call her.

"Sorry to disturb, but actually Chotte was in a hurry to get to your place, so he went without having food, so erm if you could..", Anjali was struggling for words to convey her message, which however odd was vital to be conveyed. Without food she knew he would go intensely grumpy, causing problems for the poor girl he was with.

"Erm'sure..dont worry,", Khushi said in a confused manner, processing this new piece of information in her head.

"Thank you so much Khushi, I hope Chotte doesn't be a jackass with you.", Anjali said light heartedly, to which Khushi gave a small smile to herself, and bidding goodbye to Anjali disconnected the call.

Inside Arnav sat their roaming his eyes still around the room, more appropriately, having them stuck to the bookshelf, making a mental checklist of all the books he had, and all those that he had to read now. Khushi could feel her own stomach grumbling as she entered the room, seeing him still interested in the bookshelf.

"We can start the project by 4:30, I haven't had food.", she told him, to which he non chalant looked at her, and shook his head, prompting on something like 'untimely delay'.

"Come along. I know you haven't had food either." She said looking him straight in the eye, as his pupils dilated, and then immediately constricted, his expression turning hard and distant.

"I am not hungry.", he told her stubbornly, to which she being herself, firmly walked towards him and grabbed his hand, and dragged him out of the room with herself, placing him on the dining table chair

"Sit here, I'll bring the food." she stated, and immediately walked away giving him no time to react, as she went inside the kitchen where Aparna Gupta, was putting the finals things on the tray.