STRINGS and STANDOFFS

3: Major Project. Major Disaster.

Rudy_rudra: I'll bring snacks

Rizzball: Can we just... NOT break up the group chat pls 🥹

radha98%:fine. I'll stay. but ONLY because I already picked my project outfit
and it slaps.

anirudh: great. your fashion sense is the only thing I respect here.

Shree.exe: This is why I'm writing a musical about you both.

radha98%:good. cast me as the villain.

Shree.exe: Too late. That's me, sunshine.

*

She could have ignored it. She could have pretended the project didn't exist. But no ,she had a reputation to maintain. And she wasn't about to let Anirudh Shah ruin it with his overconfident, annoyingly perfect lyrics and that smug golden-retriever energy.

She titled the document:
"Project: Doomed by Roll Numbers"

Then sighed and shared it with the enemy.

A few minutes later, the cursor blinked twice.
Then:
[Anirudh Shah has joined the document]

And within thirty seconds, he had Changed the title to: 🎸 "Project: Carried by Anirudh"

Added a heading: "My Genius Ideas 💡"

Wrote: "Let's keep this simple. Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Bridge-Chorus. You're welcome."

Radha stared at it. Blinked.

Then began typing furiously underneath.

Radha Deshpande: "Let's keep it brilliant, not basic. Also, this isn't your personal concert."

He replied instantly in the comments.

Anirudh Shah:"Your formatting gave me a headache. Should I add that to the melody?"

Radha Deshpande:"Only if you want the audience to cry out of secondhand embarrassment."

Anirudh Shah:"Can I borrow some metaphors from your drama major friends? You know, the ones that make trees fall in love with the wind?"

Radha:"Better than your lyrics that rhyme 'heart' with 'start' like a first grader's poem."

Anirudh:"I'm sorry, did you say your heart just started?"

She almost threw her laptop.

*

11:37 PM. The Google Doc is still open, chaos glowing on the screen like a battlefield lit by fire. After the 7th notification of Anirudh renaming the "Verse Ideas" section to "Poetry is for Drama Queens," she snaps.

She didn't even hesitate. Didn't think. She hit that green call button like it owed her money.

Anirudh picked up on the third ring, voice smug as ever.
Anirudh: "Missing me already?"

Radha: (deadpan) "If I wanted to hear nonsense, I'd play your draft chorus on loop."

Anirudh: "Ouch. You wound me. Was it the rhyming? The flow? My stunning verse"

Radha: (cutting him off) "Shut up, Shah. This Google Doc experiment is a disaster. You're impossible to work with, and if I have to see one more pun in the comments, I will throw my laptop into the sea."

Anirudh: (cheerfully) "You're the one who started the 'Petty Zone' section-"

Radha: "Library. Free lecture tomorrow. You, me, actual planning. No sarcasm, no ego. Just work. Got it?"