Aru Shah One-Shots

Monsoon To Summer

Rudy is the son of the minister in the World of Monsoon. Sometimes, Rudy liked the Monsoon season, other times he didn't. Watching homes be flooded, being knee deep in water, the humidity, and many more things. Therefore, he decided to pay the World of Summer a visit. Rudy absolutely adored the World of Summer. The beaches, clear skies, the sun shining on your face, and his crush, Yamini Kapoor-Mercado-Lopez. She was as beautiful as a calm Monsoon day, as elegant as a swan, and her personality...Even though she was a germaphobe, Rudy enjoyed it when she would take his hands and squirt hand sanitizer on them. His heart pounded at the thought.

When he made it to the border between Monsoon and Summer, he took a deep breath and stepped over the fuzzy red line. When he stepped into the World of Summer, he immediately spotted Mini by the water. Nobody else was at the beach except her because she was testing the water. She did that every morning—usually Rudy would observe from his home—but today, he decided to come visit in person.

Rudy changed his knee high boots to sandals and walked over to where Mini was. A warm breeze blew in the air, and a smile spread across Rudy's face when he went next to Mini.

"Morning, Mini." he began.

Mini flinched slightly and looked up at him. Her lenses were dark because of the sun, but Rudy remembered what her eyes looked like—a dazzling brown that could light up anyone's day. Or night. "Oh! Good morning, Rudy! How was your night?"

Hearing her ask him in person made his heart flutter. "My night was okay—you know how it is in Monsoon. How was your night?"

"My night was a bit of a disaster."

"How so?"

"You see, my brother lost control of his Summer magic, which caused the temperature to increase, and almost caused a heatwave. Therefore I had to use some of the rain you gave me to keep him under control again."

"Oh. Well thank goodness you had that, right?"

Mini nodded. "But what brings you here this fine morning?"

"I just wanted to see you. I feel like I haven't seen you in forever, you know?"

"We literally saw each other at the political meeting on Wednesday." (Today was Friday.)

"That was a long time ago!"

Mini laughed. "Well, do you want to come with me to the lab? I'm testing the water to see if the quality is good."

"Sure!"

Mini grinned and turned around. Rudy followed her until they reached a little building that was close to Mini's home. It was the color of bricks, yet it wasn't made of bricks. The roof was circular like the roof of Mini's home, but there was one detail that stood out to Rudy.

There was no door.

"Where's the door?"

"It's right in front of us!"

Mini turned an invisible knob and the door opened, which revealed the lab. "Make sure to sanitize before you enter."

A hand sanitizer pump appeared and Mini put some hand sanitizer on her hand, Rudy doing the same. When Rudy entered the lab, lab workers were everywhere testing out the water with all these gadgets he didn't recognize. "It's important to test water here because people go to beaches and pools a lot." Mini explained as she and Rudy both made their way to the far end of the lab. "Usually, I would collect water samples from all the places where there was water and test them out myself, but when my dad saw what I did"— she did some weird water testing stuff which Rudy didn't understand—"he decided to hire some workers to help me out."