The Definition of Beautiful

Chapter Two

Nidhi's POV

I was standing there in shock. What was Randhir's problem? Why was he being so egoistic? Meera shook me out of my reverie.

"Are you ok? Did he hurt you?" she asked.

"No, I am fine." I said. Meera and I walked back to the dorm and watched some TV before going to bed. My alarm woke me up at 6:00 am to get ready for the Aspire team meeting.  After pouring a bucket of ice cold water, Meera also joined me in getting ready.

We reached Professor Derek's office five minutes before 7:00 and met the other team members. The guy who was always next to Randhir introduced himself to me.

"I am Neel. And listen, I am sorry for Randhir's behavior from yesterday. He has had a tough past." Neel apologized. Why was he apologizing?

"Neel, why are you apologizing? If that Khadoos wants to apologize then he will do it. Anyway nice to meet you. I am Nidhi and this is my BFF Meera." I said, introducing Meera and I to him.

Meanwhile, Meera and Neel were looking at each other, lost in each other's eyes. I decided to let them have their moment and moved back, only to bump into a hard chest.

"I am so sorry!" I said looking at the person behind me. He had the deepest blue eyes.

"No Problem Miss." He said. "I am Carter."

"Nidhi. Nice to meet you." I said, smiling at him. Carter's stare was creepily intimidating.

"If your introductions are all done, can we get into my office please?" said a booming voice. Mr. Derek. I broke my gaze from Carter's gaze and followed the team members into Derek Sir's office. 

He counted the team members. "Only Nine? Where is Mr. Shekhawat?" He asked.

Where was Randhir? Was he still upset from yesterday?

"Let me make this clear team. You will always report on time to all of the meetings. Randhir will be penalized for this." Prof. Derek said firmly. Randhir was going to get in a lot of trouble!

"Now team, your first mission is going to be a regional Dream Fest. You will compete with different teams from different colleges and prove your knowledge. Tomorrow, there will be a mock trial to see how you do." He said.

"Please let Randhir know about this and ask him to meet me in my office as soon as possible. I will see you all tomorrow at 2:00pm." He said and dismissed us.

Meera and I walked down the hall, excited.

"Wow, a Dream Fest...it's very hard to win you know!" she said.

"You have heard of it?" I asked.

"Yes! A girl, Janine was in the team and was my lab partner in physics. Apparently our college has never qualified past state."

"Whoa, I hope we qualify this year. By the way, did you notice Randhir's disappearance?" I asked.

"Whatever it is, I am glad  he isn't here. He has already troubled you twice and it's not even been 24 hours." Meera said. Then my phone buzzed.

"Clinical Rotations at the infirmary now!" read the text. It was from my senior Dinah. I did rotations once a week to tend to sick students. The infirmary was led by a single doctor and nurse but we covered for them at times and they supervised us at the job.

"Gotta go Meera. Have to go to my shift at the infirmary." I said. I walked upstairs and grabbed my blue scrubs and wore them over my clothes. I pulled my hair in a pony tail and reported to Dinah.