The very next day Aman had brought to notice the date of the day. It was already 3rd and as per the schedule for the events on 10th they were supposed to have a pre event. Things had then skyrocketed. There were a series of things that were going to take place from then on.

There was a pre event, there was a social event, and then there were plans for adventure, and nothing was planned. No provisions were made for anything. Divya quickly walked through the corridors and rushed into the health room along with Aman and Rishi and called out to Madhav who was busy talking with the volunteers.

"Madhav, give me a moment please, I need to get this done as soon as possible." Divya said as the three took their seats. She then opened her diary and began explaining.

"see I have this idea, we can approach government schools, and there we can teach the students of standard 4 to 8 yoga and basic self defence. Simran is a trained yoga performer, and if you have read the volunteer forms we as well have national level kickboxing and karate players. If they work together along with a few other volunteers we can prepare a small routine in about a week's time and by 8 or 9 th start with our social event."

"ohh yesss, that's actually a brilliant idea Divya. In Fact I was about to ask you this as well that can we have students being educated on good touch and bad touch along with basic safety. Same classes would work, we can get psychologists, I am sure if we ask everyone in the committee someone would know some or the other psychologists." The two smiled at each other broadly and then divya looked at Aman and Rishi and asked,

"what do you guys think?' Aman gave them a thoughtful look and then said, "that's okay but do you think the government schools will agree that easily. Right now it's time for exams especially the board exams hence students have half days, along with that good touch and bad touch is a very sensitive topic, the psychologists need to be very careful..even the yoga thing, there are chances that the girl wont be comfortable with doing the asanas because of outfits and not all are privileged for wearing slacks and yoga pants."

Divya thought about all the loopholes that he had pointed out and then said. "see about the girls thing, if we get a hall, then I can make sure that the girls are trained in a different group than the boys. Secondly for permissions we will target those schools with whom any of the committee members are acquainted with, like that we get easy access to permissions and obviously we will look into the profiles of the psychologists, and Aman they are psychologists they are trained and its their profession to talk on these topics."

The three agreed with what Divya said and then stood up to go and get a formal and final approval from Miss Jain. Getting an approval and having a conversation with the convener was way more difficult than actually planning and executing the plan. The group had been waiting for an hour and yet hadn't got even a few minutes with the professor, however Divya began making calls scrolling through her contact lists for possible contacts that could be of any help. It was late in the evening when they finally laid the plan to her the professor agreed and soon meetings were called in for the next day with a huge number of agendas in mind.

The next morning Divya had once again walked into the health room and was seated with Aman as she handed him the lists of schools that were to be approached, and explained all that was to be done.

"Aman, Madhav, I am not there in college tomorrow nor will I be available till evening. I have an important meeting tomorrow at my internship." Divya explained as she went through the points that she wanted to discuss in the meeting.

"you are doing an internship?" the two asked, as divya looked at them as it daunted on her that she hadn't really mentioned about this to anyone.

"ohh yes the website where I write stories, they had openings for campus Ambassadors, I had applied long back it was last week that I heard back from them, and since I had a bit of time I thought why not give it a try."

"that's great, so whats your profile?" Aman enquired.

"that's what the whole meeting for tomorrow is. Once I know what it is that they want me to do, I will further work on it. But please for tomorrow Aman you get feedback from Ria on the school along with utkarsh I don't believe in any of them. Madhav you said one of your members has a contact with a psychologist please get more information on that, if not we will see what is to be done." The two nodded their heads and assured her to not worry about things there and to continue with what she had to do for her meetings. Around exactly 12pm they moved towards the classroom where the meeting was supposed to be conducted. The whole room was filled with people, however there was a problem: fatema was late due to her assignment submission and somehow someone had to fill in till she came in.

Divya walked upto Madhav and said "I think I will talk to them about the events, then you can add in if you have anything in your mind." The latter nodded his head as Divya went up on the podium and began speaking.

"Guys Sorry for the delay, but Fatema is stuck in a submission, she will join us soon.. Till then I have a few things to bring into your notice. First being, our social event. It's in the guidelines and an ethic to have a social event before we start with any program or an event, hence this year we have planned to go out to different government schools and teach the students there from classes 4 to 8 yoga and basic self defence for both boys and the girls. Along with that the students of class 4th to 6 th will be educated and counselled by psychologists on the concept of Good touch and bad touch. What we all want you guys to do is come up with contacts in schools in and around south Bombay, most we can go upto is Matunga. Other than that we are as well looking for Psychologists, however you all must know that we can't really offer them any monetary benefits."

For the next 15 minutes or so Divya explained to them the whole plan of the event. How things were to work and what roles they will be playing in it. Then Madhav added in a few points on how things would help them. Once they were done the two turned back to the coordinators and asked them if anyone of them knew where Fatema was. It seemed she was still stuck in the class. Madhav then looked at Divya who shrugged her shoulders clueless what was to be done.

The two of them were still looking at each other with a complete blank look when Divya took a deep breath and turned back to the audience and said "Guys this is what we had plan, if any of you have any ideas as to how we could improve it or –"

"or anything else that would be better than this, please tell us." Madhav completed for Divya and then looked at her as if to ask if what he was saying was right or not. Divya nodded her head slightly asking him to continue. " this is the right time to speak up guys, we all know that it's your first time but if you all speak now then in near future you guys would be able to create an event of your own."

"three years back even I used to sit there as a volunteer when our seniors used to walk in as if they own the whole place they always pushed us to speak and walk ahead but things used to be different we all there always to listen to what you have to say, but then again for that you all have to speak. We all have a lot of expectations from you all, and I am afraid if this is how you all are going to keep mum, we don't know how even one single event is going to succeed."

As the two kept on talking, giving a lecture....motivating whatever was it to be called, Divya could hear the small sneakers that the rest of the coordinators were trying to control. She herself wasn't a person to give out speeches like these, but she couldn't really understand what had gotten into both of them as they kept on supporting each other's statements, giving out their stories of experience and finally the volunteers began speaking when fatema made a grand entry.

A relieved Madhava and Divya took their seats at the edge of the Podium with Madhav's head resting back on the table as Divya rested her head on Aman's shoulder both of them tired to death.

"Madhav, Divya." The two looked at their right from where the voice came, and raised their eyebrows at Nisha the PR coordinator who had a straight face as she said "don't you guys ever, ever go out there to do fillers in any meeting or event please."

Madhav and Divya looked at each other, both had a bored look on their face as Nisha began laughing, Divya however cleared her throat and said, "sure next time when Fatema would be late we will ask the PR to conduct a PR activity, so please be ready with it, because I can see the very next meeting that is planned for day after tomorrow needing it so badly."

The ones who were busy listening to this conversation completely ignoring fatema's high pitched voice bagan laughing at the way Nisha's face changed completely while she went back to sit in her place. Divya and Madhav looked at each other and shared a huge laugh which made Fatema look at them asking if everything was alright. Once receiving a confirmation the meeting continued, and much to everyone's surprise the talk did do wonders as many volunteers began taking initiative in the next half of the meeting.

Divya was busy making notes of things that were to be taken care of when she felt a hot breath on her ears that made her shiver, her head snapped at the side as she came face to face with Madhav. She was surely scared at his sudden appearance and such close proximity, shifting a bit she raised her eyebrows as if asking him what it was that he needed. He pulled her closer and whispered in her ears,

"all that bullshit that we spoke actually worked out...anyways I am getting bored, I will be in the staffroom Dev and Rishi are there along with Atharva discussing IV, wanna come?"

Divya looked around and realized it wouldn't be right to just walk out of the meeting like that. She looked back at Fatema who was busy explaining things that she already knew. She let out a sigh and said "Do one thing you go ahead,I will join you guys in a few." With a small nod Madhav stood up, went and whispered something in Fatema's ears to which she nodded her head and gave him a thumbs up indicating a green signal. As Madhav made his way out he turned around and looked at Aman and Divya and indicated the two of them to come as well.

It was minutes later when Aman stood up and repeated the same thing, fatema gave a look to him and then looked at Divya and said "Divya even you go." For a short while, it was very short lived the way Fatema smiled at her as if she knew all that was going around.

But Divya cared less. Her work there was done and there were many other important things that she had to take care of rather than listening to the same things that she herself had informed the others.

*********

That week had surely been a busy one for Divya and the rest. Early morning Divya would walk into the college, get Simran and the team to work on the routine, redesign the whole schedule for the social event as schools would give them the favourable dates and times. There were as well days when she would have to run off with the volunteers to school, talk to the principals get back to college work on the progress of prevent and then go back home and prepare the proposal for getting the community with whom she was working in college and help tem conduct MIAs at their college.

There was yet another wonderful author lined up for an MIA however when she had approached the authorities of her college and they had said to give them some time as they would then look up at the proposal and get back to her.

Three days later when she had gone back she was asked yet again to give some more time. However as time went by she got busy into the preparations and things went on a stagnant position there. But that wasn't the only thing happening, it was much worse than that.

It was the second day of the social event and the first day for the seminar on good touch and bad touch. The internship luckily had provided her with a few good contacts two of them were psychologists and were ready to help them free of cost in this case. Divya had quickly asked about this to the Ms. Jain and when had received the approval she was ecstatic to have them on board. However things never went as smoothly as they ever did.

Right at 11:55 am she had received a message from Fatema saying that the Psychologist had backed out , and had said sorry. For a good few minutes her brain had gone blank. She couldn't understand what was to be done. She was still contemplating on what was to be done and going through her contacts when she saw yet another colleague from internship who was a psychology student. She had done many such projects and had quite a good experience in the field. She quickly texted her, made a call to her and explained her the situation and asked if she would do it.

The girl was quite ecstatic to do something like that, who was to refuse when one was even receiving a letter and a certificate. She agreed to do it, as Divya sent her the details of the place and began dancing around. Quite relieved that for now the things were done. But there was still a problem...what about the rest of the seminars.

As she laid back in her bed, a thought made its way in her mind...what if the same psychiatrist were to do all the seminars it would surely save them all the efforts to look for more of them. She decided she would talk about this with her the next day and then worry about all the negative replies that she might possibly receive.

Divya was about to go off to sleep when she received yet another call. It was about 1am in the morning, it was fatema. She quickly made her way into the balcony and answered the call.

"Hey Divya, sorry to call you so late...but I was worried, is the psychologist sorted?" Fatema freted. The slight panic in her voice was completely evident.

"ohh yes that's done actually I had an idea that something like this might happen, I had asked a few more people but none were available luckily this friend of mine was free, I asked her...she will be there tomorrow, maybe we can get her on board for the rest of the days as well."

"ohh so you mean to say we had different people for each day?"

"Umm fatema we have continuous sessions, none of the psychologists would do that leaving their regular routines. Anyways its sorted now...all we can hope is everything would go smoothly." The two said each other a quick bye and then went off to sleep.

The event however was a great success, as Divya and Aman made their way back to the college Divya couldn't help but laugh at the way Aman looked at all the cigarette shops and let out a huge sigh. It reminded her how it had been so many days that she had last reprimanded him on cigarettes.

"you can't have one until we reach college...at least not with me by your side." Divya said as she walked ahead with Aman right behind her.

"yeah I know that... but you know what you should already get over this dislike for smoking, as it is you are about to see the worst on IV."

Halting by the footpaths, the two waited patiently as if they had all the time in the world to hang around and chill; while Divya took in her surrounding for being walking through these roads for the first time, Aman pushed his hands back in the pocket, his cautious eyes wandering off towards the rest of the group who were walking at their best speed.

"I know that the scene at IV is going to be completely different. Rishi has been reminding me of it day in and out." Divya replied.

"and I am really waiting eagerly to see whom all you are going to reprimand... I can't wait to see that exasperated look on your face, your futile attempts to leave the room and the bus, but you can't really go..." Aaman smiled at the frowning face of divyas in a quite cheeky manner, the ones where his all front teeth were quite so visible, however his eyes taunting.

"why don't you all fuck off somewehere?" Noticing the green light turning to red, Divya gave Aman a sharp look and began crossing the road as the others had as well joined them. She saw the way Aman chastised them warning them to stick by the two, and to not wander off anywhere. Divya however knew that this conversation was nowhere near to be done. She will surely have to hear a lot...especially now that Aman and she were talking after such a long time.

However, while Aman reprimanded the juniors, Divya, quite unknown to the traffic, was walking at her own speed when she felt a harsh pull from behind, as a bike whizzed past her. The scare and the loud scream that resonated through the already busy road got quite an attention. Divya turned around in the most dramatic manner as Aman then pulled her along with him and crossed the road. Once the whole lot was on safe ground, Aman folded his hands on his chest and stared at Divya who was busy calming down her racing heart.

"What's wrong with you? the day before yesterday you almost lost your phone at a municipal school, then that day you forgot your bottle at the health centre and now this... are all the screws well fitted up here, or do you want some fixing to be done?" Divya felt as that of like a small mouse as she hung her head down while Aman reprimanded her. She knew she was wrong here, she should have been more careful, and it seemed at that moment it was better to be quite rather than speaking anything out.

"Divya speak up I am asking something?" Aman snapped his fingers in front of her face. Very slowly Divya looked up, her hands fiddling with the strap of her bag. Nothing was wrong with her, she just felt stupid to be scoleded by Aman infront of anyone...and moreover never had anyone other than her parents and her siblings yelled at her this way.

The manner in which one showed concern, love and care for her.

"I am fine Aman chill. But right now I am hungry and we are making quite a scene, let's go to college and then we can work on the rest of the things...what say?" Aman scrutinized her for a few minutes and then nodded his head; he then motioned the volunteers to proceed ahead, saying something down the line that he didn't want any more accidents happening, while he himself walked beside Divya keeping her on the inner side of the sidewalk.

The lot were about to reach the College when Aman said, "you know Divya, college had been hectic, at times when I look back at how and what we were earlier, I am always shocked at how far we all have come."

"I couldn't agree less on that. I remember the first time the two of us had talked I had thought that you were some kind of Thug, I had even warned Garima to stay away from you." the two laughed, however at the mention of Garima, a series of Memories began to flash in.

"I still miss her at times, it's quite unbelievable that she is no more..." Aman said, he stopped walking and looked up at divya as she gave him a comforting smile. There are always certain things that shape us the way we are. Some are good, some bad, and then there are incidences that are quite unbelievable. We can't really decide what good could come from this? Losing Garima was one of those things.

"at times it still haunts me." Divya mutterd. Her voice was so soft that if Aman and she wouldn't have been standing side by side the later would have missed it. "I still have her contact on my phone, my mom has asked me many times to delete it, but I can't get enough courage. Sometimes I get goosebumps when I am reminded of the day right before the accident."

"what day?"

"two days before the accident Garima had told me her plans for her 18th birthday... There were just 26 days left, she was so happy. That silly girl had everything ready, her dress her guest lists, what she would do in college, what flavored cake she will have for the evening party, everything."

Aman smiled quite a rueful smile, that actually made Divya wonder how disgustingly pretty had it become that they had got comfortable and used to, to the memories of their friend. "you know at times I still wonder who was at fault that night, Garima and Rajat or those boys who were riding those bikes."

The silence that fell around after that one statement was unexplainable. There were a huge number of vehicles going around yet none appeared in those nano seconds of moments when the comfort of some ...any kind of voice required.

"let's talk about something else, this won't get us anywhere." Divya said to which Aman let out a chuckle and said,

"yess, let's talk about you."

"what is there to talk about me?" Divya enquired, her eyes narrowing as she stepped a bit closer ready to slap him for any kind of nasty remark.

"You were the vice president, our scandals and gossip are quite known but you... what we have heard about you is different." The later parts of what Aman said dropped all the smiles that Divya's face had.

"I don't want to know." Aman stopped her quickly as he looked at the way she was getting anxious. He smiled at her. The way he did somehow made Divya a bit relaxed. She knew she shouldn't wonder and worry about what others thought about her, but there were things that those talks made an image of hers amongst people. From all the people around her, she knew people talked bad about each and everyone, quite a few are of whom all she has heard is good... Nandini was one of the few, but then there were even Madhav, Rishi and Aman who even though were good but had such negative things stuck with their name...even Dev, who had never got into anyones matters publicly had rumors going on of his name. and hence for someone who she was, she had always wondered what people had to say about her.

"Divya..." Aman pronounced her name in the most soft syllable as if he was talking to a kid and said "you know in these three years I had met numerous people,, so did you, some were damn nasty, some were good, some wore facades around them at each step while others never had any façade and hence were said to be worst... but all of these who I have met, as well knew that there was someone known as Divya Chavan and trust me never had I once heard even a slightest of negative thing coming from there mouth. All had praises for you...and you know whenever they had praised you, I had felt so proud. You have done a very great job Divya...really."

Divya smiled at him as she controlled her tears. For someone who would be seeing this and hearing from far away it would have been weird. But those who knew them from the first year, they would understand what and why was it so special. Each of them have had their battles, mental, societal, political, institutional all of it, and then to survive it with a clean slate was quite a thing.

"Thank you Aman. It really means a lot... but you know, all these years I have so many regrets. I didn't liked the college fests for the people who organized it the previous year, but then I forgot it wasn't them...it was us who were going to make it work this year..I regret not being a part of it if I would have, then I might have been working with one of the most strong people that I have known ...the friends that I had at my door step since beginning, I had been avoiding them for so long only to realize now."

Amann smiled at her and patted her shoulder. "lets go?" Divya nodded her head as they began making their way once again towards college. "Aman do you know you were my second friend in college after Garima. Everytime when you used to come and tell me that you are nervous and wouldn't make it, I used to laugh at your stupidity from within. You had been a natural leader...always. I realized that on the day when we became CRs. And when you said that you were going to apply for vice president.I knew the fest was getting the best. I know what all you went through Aman...and I am so proud of you. you have always made me. So know that no matter what, I am there by your side, all you have to do is just a text or a call or maybe just call out to me."

Aman smiled at her, as the two entered the college. The heavy conversation falling back into the crowd at the gate as new challenges awaited them in the meeting room.

-----------

Two days later when Divya walked up the corridor stares quite irritated and tired, the empty notice boards made her blood boil. Just 2 more days were left for the pre-event.. It was already Friday, tomorrow being a Saturday and then Sunday...with Monday being the pre - event.

Storming off towards the room no 14 where the team was seated she began yelling the moment she came face to face with Meher.

"where the freaking hell are the creatives team, the designing and the volunteers head? Two days down the lane we have our prevent and I cant fucking see a single poster down there in the college. Who is going to take the responsibility when on the event there is going to be a no show? Are we all stupid and morons here? Is it that we don't have any other work that we are working on different kinds of events? That marketing is trying to get money, the curation is working their ass off to get speakers?" Divya banged the desk in frustration and kept her bag down.

She couldn't believe that it was she herself who was losing the cool now. But then she was scared. The event was just 2 days away, the license that they were supposed to get wasn't here yet after the said changes that were to be done for which it was returned back to the headquarters. She was as well tired and so needed a break from all of this. She was just done for the day, and it was just 10 in the morning.

"Divya relax, the creatives haven't received any money from maam yet..." Meher began to explain to which Divya snapped back at her, much to everyone's surprise.

"Meher please tell me the number of times you have gone to maam to get a single signature from her? Or the number of times that you- Jyoti and Madhav you have gone to tell her about approaching someone for marketing or to conduct a seminar or for some funds for the event? Meher don't give me that lousy excuse that ma'am hasn't given them the money...it's their responsibility to get that money. We all sit with her from 3 to 6 sometimes even 7 and none of the times have I ever seen the creative team walking up to her...never."

"Divya relax." Madhav said. the moment she looked at him she shook her head in negative and said, "No Madhav, this is getting on my nerves now. We all are working so hard here each day. What is the need for me to be here? I already have two certificates from the institute, it's them who need them more than us, and this how they work. I can't tolerate this." Divya took out her bottle along with the phone and sat up on the desk and then began making a list.

"this is it, earlier I thought that I would convince maam and tell her that we shouldn't really take any actions against the coordinators but now it's high time...I can't even see the PR working. What are they doing?"

"oh no, they did work. They had gone to do class to class pr this morning." Jyoti explained.

"How many classes did they cover? And they are starting now? Like two days before the event?" Divya shook her head and began making the list. She was royally pissed and at that moment if anyone who walked up to her would have been on the receiving end. She knew she would regret this later on and surely apologize, but at that moment people needed some push and if she got pissed off on anyone was working then so be it.

"Meher calls the creatives coordinator no matter where they are, and Jyoti... you didn't tell me the number of classes."

"I guess 4 to 5." The number as she pronounced it self came in a small whisper. Divya shook her head and said, "call even the PR coordinators."

"they will be in their lectures..."

"Madhav, Jyoti, you and I are missing out on our lectures, are we any special? Or they are special?"

"I will call them." Meher and Jyoti both began making calls as Divya prepared the list of coordinators who were not working. She was still busy in her work as Madhav asked her, "Divya I and Nandini are going to have breakfast, are you coming?"

"No I am in no mood to have anything, but you go ahead,I will just join you guys in a moment. I am so done here." Divya noticed the way Madhav's lips spread into a slight smile as he patted on her knees and said "just relax, but keep this up, it was fun." He then pointed his eyes towards Jyoti and Meher who were busy making calls and talking in a serious tone., their faces were equally grim and serious, and for a moment Divya herself felt letting out a chuckle along with Madhav which the two of them hid behind their coughs.

By the evening, things had taken a wonderful turn. The photographer had submitted the pictures, the Curation had given an update on things to her and Fatema the Creatives were working on a series of charts, while the marketing had as well cracked a deal. And where Divya was concerned she was still tired, but quite in a better mood.

That one list had as well resulted in their co- organizer coming for college, much to everyone's surprise. As divya finished her lecture for International trade and transport, making it the end of her lectures – though it was her first lecture in the week, she made her way towards F2 where the whole team was seated. She went and sat down, her limbs feeling the exhaustion at its best. Taking out her bottle she had just taken a sip when she heard her name being called. It was the coordinator for Creative, with a loud huff she made her way outside, as Jyoti passed her a quite an amused smile.

"yes?" she asked the moment she came face to face with her.

"I have had a word with maam, the logistics have gone to get the materials, in a few minutes the other coordinator will be here to take over but right now I have to leave, the posters as well will be put up by late evening if not that tomorrow morning." The girl explained.

"see I don't know any other details, do whatever you want to...but I want the whole of the college to be filled with our posters and people should know that the event is coming. Will that happen?'

"yes...don't you worry about that,it will surely happen." Divya nodded her head and asked her to leave as she made her way back inside. Once seated the corridor again began to buzz with a loud voice as Madhav and Sumer, one of the members made their way inside the classroom.

"I am telling you, these volunteers are good for nothing, never send them alone for any kind of meetings." Madhav said as he slapped Sumer's head.

"what happened?" Jyoti asked. her voice held a certain panic and concern that made everyone let out a chuckle. It surely was funny the way she leaned ahead at the speed of the jet, her eyes going wide as that of big bowls of rice.

"this idiot he opened his mouth.I had told him not to speak but then the moment I had almost had the party in, they asked us the last question asking us about the theme, guess what he had to say?" Madhav let the audience die off curiousness to which sumer added a little bit more of spices as he said, "But I was just a bit confused."

"confused... come here I will give you yet another tight slap then you will understand how it is that one gets confused." Madhav snapped at him all the while laughing his ass off. But Jyoti and Divya knew how serious he was about it. That deal if ever there would have been a bigger mistake would have been out of their hands.

"madhav will you tell us what exactly happened?" Jyoti asked.

Mahav glared at Sumer and was still looking at him when he opened his mouth to explain when fatem walked into the room all the while dancing.

"hey guys whats uppp." The whole clan gave her a deadly glare, as vivek said, "fatema please sit down and for once be quite." A quite confused soul of fatema pulled up a chair and sat down as Madhav began speaking.

" so we went to that client and the meeting was going really well, "

"oh yes Madhav you guys had a meeting today...so summy boy how did you do it?' Surprisingly or not so surprisingly for many, Sumer was a distant cousin of Fatema.

"Now I understand why anything that happened in today's meeting ever happened, even if I don't know what was it that happened..." Vivek said through his teeth as he glared at Fatema who was busy pouting. "will you shut up for a moment and listen?" Fatema nodded her head, as Madhav began narrating again.

"so the meeting was going on very well and then the sponsor asked us to tell us about our theme for this year...to which our dear Sumer had an amazing answer."

"what did he say?" Fatema's expression spoke a lot of emotions at that moment, some clearly reflected humor, embarrassment, worry all at the same time, and surely that would have been even Madhav's case back then, with just a small addition – Anger.

"This dumb fucking ass said and I quote ' Sorry sir but we cant reveal the theme just as of now.'"

A moment of silence fell around the room. It was so deep and thickening that one would have laughed till their belly ached at how magnificently dramatic all were behaving at the same time and to such a synchronization.

"Sumer can I disown you?" Fatema huffed and soon began laughing as did the others. But in about a minute Vivek called out to everyone and joked, "Sumer you were saved that it was just Madhav, if it would have been Divya you would have lost your position, and peed your pants... this morning taught me one thing."

Vivek looked at Divya who was glaring at him, with her water bottle in her hand as she sipped small sips of water through it and continued, "No offense, you were really cool, but damn the way she scolded those poor souls."

"yess that actually worked all those things that were not happening have started to work... like come on guys even the co organizer graced us with her presence." A series of laughter fell around as divya shook her head. She couldn't understand what she was doing. It made her embarrassed, and she knew very well this was going to be the joke for quite a very long while.

"But you know, even I was a bit surprised that Divya as well had this kind of temper within her..." Madhav commented with that mischievous smile on his face. The two looked at each other, Divya with her eyebrows furrowed wondering what he was upto, and Madhav with that silly smile as he fiddled with the strap of his bag. "You know divya you should have been this aggressive in CC, maybe you could have got more than 500 Rs. And who knows even the student of the year?"

Divya took a deep breath and decided to ignore his statement. She knew this would go nowhere and she was still in the sour mood, and she didn't want to create yet another scene here. she was sure if she were to say something one word would lead to another and they would end up in a nasty argument.

The rest of the people who sat around as well looked at the two decided it was better not to interfere. Fatema had that awkward smile on her face, Jyoti looked through her eyelids at both Madhava and Divya and decided to continue with her work, Vivek was busy drumming his fingers completely enjoying the drama unfolding right in front of this.

"you know in Thane when scenes like these happen, huge fights break in, people get those hockey sticks and what not." He commented as Divya and the rest gave him a look while Madhav said,

"oh but then will they come here? it seems nowadays Divya would require it, she might have to get some kind of revenge from the management ... you never know she might go and reprimand even the principal."

"Don't you have any better job to do other than gossip and tease me about those lousy 500 bucks? Madhav get yourself a life man, there are so many important things in life other than me getting that stupid award and just 500 Rs."

"Well all the ones who lose they do sound something like this...am I right Vivek?" Madhav's word didn't got the expected response, where if it would have been a fun banter, which the two knew it was, people had gone utterly silent, as if taking in each and every word that the dimwit had said in a slow and tenacious manner, letting it seep in and around them.

"ohh, really? Because from what I have seen and heard losing out to someone as big mouth, useless, not so smart just an asslicking assholes gets you traits far worse than being a gossip queen of the college... is it really true that you might have as well got into manipulating your coordinator with the strikes going around and to get you the star performer's award?" Divya taunted and sat straight in her chair as the other began shifting in their places.

As much as Divya wanted to keep it cool, she couldn't help it. He was instigating her, making her irritated with all that he was speaking and then there was that wicked and teasing smile of his and that cute little expressions that he had every time he would debate back with her and then that rapidly thudding heart of hers. They were all making havoc. She couldn't control all these things all at once. She wanted to get out of here, but she for sure knew she couldn't because that would mean she would get defeated.

"Come on Divya, it was decided back in the beginning of the year itself that I will be getting the star performer award, I had even refused it, but you see people have an eye for good stuff but then ..." For a moment Divya wanted to agree with what he said, he surely was a good one, but then he had to further add in . " But then you see people have to do a bit of bandaging and offer the lesser ones something to be proud of."

You know what?" Divya picked up the wooden plank of her desk completely pissed off and irritated with all those nonsense talks of his and was about to hurl it on him and said "I swear madhav I will throw this on you if you don't shut that trap of yours."

"ohh and you think I would just sit back? I would just catch it in time and hurl it back on your head." Madhav yelled back. Meher, Jyoti, Madhav as well as the rest sat up straight quite shocked at the way things had taken a turn, Vivek being the closest to Divya stopped her and said,

"Ohh hello, I don't have immediate contact with the thugs from Thane, please don't use this, keep it verbal" she placed the wooden plank back in its place with a loud thud. At that very moment fatema decided to be the peacemaker and said, "guys that's it I guess it's going overboard."

Divya and Madhav stared at each other for a very long while the air around them was so thick that none wanted to comment on anything. Divya nodded her head and smiled sarcastically at Madhav and said,

"Obviously Madhav, you are completely right, lesser people surely require a bit of compensation and now that you have done so much work on the BBI fest, and then as well lost the student of the year, your coordinator had to give you some compensation for making his best student – your president win the Student of the year and not being in a position to help you out..mind you he had two options, you or Aisha and not so surprisingly Aisha was the better one." With a small shrug, Divya sat back as Madhav kept on smiling at her. He didn't countered, he just sat there staring at her, as she took out her water bottle and began playing with its lid.

Those agonisingly slow moments were a sharp pain in the ass for Divya. She didn't like whatever she said to Madhav, both of them knew that wasn't the truth . He deserved whatever he was getting. Rather he was surely a better candidate for the Student of the Year more like the two were on the same page...equals with just different genders. If there would have been any competition, amongst the two surely it would be a difficult one. And then this guy was here having that playful banter taking it on a complete different notch just for fun and now, staring at her as if she was a piece of art.

Many had done this with her and it had always made her feel conscious. It was as if they were reading her soul, trying to find out all those little things that she had never shown to anyone. There were times when such things happened, it made her wonder what was it that they were thinking of? What huge and major conclusions did they drew from this never blinking staring moment of theirs. And as much as she had romanticised the thought of her lover staring at her for hours without blinking, taking in the rarest form of beauty infront of them...it had made her wonder if they liked her. Though the moment these thoughts had came into her mind she had shooed them away at the absurdity of theirs. But they would always be there. When someone would whom she knew well, would stare at her, just the way Madhav was looking at her, as if he was bewitched and fallen in love with her.

The thought made her feel ticklish and giddy as goosebumps appear all around her body from the root of her hair to the tip of her toes, giving her a delightful feeling. With a deep breath she had finally opened the cap when she heard Madhav calling her. She looked up from the bottle that seemed quite interesting to her for all those moments and raised her eyebrows, asking him what it was that he wanted.

The latter however had a very different expression on his face. Quite relaxed, and content. None would have even said that the two had just a few moments ago fought to almost kill each other.

"Give me some water." Madhav said.

And much to everyone's shock, Divya passed it to him and sat back waiting for him to enjoy the drink as he passed it back to her and then stood up to answer the call as she called out after him, telling him to give her a call when he will be going to meet Ms. Jain. While Viveek had this funny expressions as he said,

"so we won't be needing those thugs??"

And much to Fatema's delight they didn't. it was difficult to understand what the hell was it that the two were playing at...what was it that Madhav was doing...to her, to her state of mind as she found herself to be turning into a completely different person.

A/N 

Please do vote comment and share the story .