Meant To Be | ON HOLD |

Part 1 - The Scholarship Girl

It was the first day of the school year, everyone rushed to the first official meeting with the dean of Elite academy, Mr Riaz. There was an inspirational speech which as always, students didn't really care about. They were busy introducing each other to the ones sitting beside them, or some were even hitting on them to start a fresh relationship.

Dean called up sidharth and asim to introduce them as captains of their houses, bluejays and ravens. The stage had some serious tension, having those two up on it. They were given a chance to say some words to introduce them as captains.

He also introduced shehnaaz as the scholarship student of the year. It was kinda embarrassing for her since it showed she wasn't a rich kid like all the others, but she didn't care. She continued to the stage and thanked the school for giving her an opportunity, and that she was gonna use it to the best.

The assembly finished and everyone was instructed to go to their houses. Both bluejays and ravens had a joint condo within the academy, and members of each house stayed together. Everyone was getting comfortable and unpacked their essentials.

Sana was an introvert, she wasn't the one to go up-to people and start a conversation. As she was putting her stuff away she overheard some girls talking about her.
"Such low class, pta ni kya soch ke scholarship di isko"
She felt a little discouraged but chose to ignore and continued with her things.
Sidharth overheard this too but he chose to stay quiet at that time and analyzed what was going on around him.

Everyone settled in their rooms and headed to the cafeteria to mingle with the other house, or  more of threatening the other, and trying to overpower them. There was a lot of healthy arguments on which house was better and which had better members.
Sana was away from all that sitting alone at a table in the cafeteria and asim walked over to her.

Asim - "hey, scholarship girl"

She looks up at him and rolls her eyes looking away

Asim - "itna attitude, tum bhool to ni gayi ye scholarship bheek me mere dad ne di hai"

She got to know that he was the son of the dean, but it didn't matter to her and she was about to answer to his stupid comments but he walked away.

No one really talked to her and she felt excluded from the conversations going on. Sidharth kept an eye on what was going on around but kept to himself without intervening. He didn't want to go against his house members until someone crossed the line.

Mr Riaz called everyone to the activity area and introduced the first competition, the trivia. Questions were asked to each member of the house and the end score would decide the winner. Sidharth sat beside sana and tried to talk to her while Mr Riaz explained the rules. He tried to make her feel comfortable being the captain.
Sid - "Hi shehnaaz, glad to have you in our team"
Sana felt good, it was the first person who talked to her nicely.
"Thank you" as she had a slight smile on her face.

The questions started and a few of the members were just looking at others and miserably failing at the test.

It was finally Sana's turn.

Dean - "what is the number of muscles in a human body"

Sana - "639", she blurted without taking a second to think.

Dean - "correct"

Everyone was surprised because as it was one of the harder Questions and they didn't expect her to give the right answer. Some started clapping including Sidharth. He was impressed and smiled at her, with her smiling back.

All members of Both teams answered and the final score was 12 for bluejays and 10 for ravens, which made bluejays the winners. It did hurt asim's ego, he glared at sidharth before leaving and sidharth just laughed at his childish antics.

It was the first day so they were dismissed early and everyone headed to their rooms. Sana was lost in her own world, thinking about how the rest of the year would go, when the first day people started picking at her. She was sitting on the couch when sidharth walked upto her.

Sid - " hey u alright"

Sana - "yeah I'm good"

He didn't know what to say and there was an awkward silence for a few seconds before sana spoke again.

Sana - "thanks for asking"

Sid - "no worries, please in sab ko serious mat lo, you came here from your hard work, and scholarship lena isn't easy"

A smile crept on her face and she just nods. He still felt she was in a sad mood so he tried to cheer her up.

Sid - "ek chiz dekho gi, come with me I'll show you"

She didn't want to but after him being nice, she owed it to him. He took her to the music room and handed over a guitar to her.

Sid - "tume guitar play karna ata hai"

Sana - "nai"

He hands over the guitar to her and helps her position it properly in her hands, while standing behind her. She gulps at his closeness, but continues to listen trying to focus. He teaches her a few times and let's her play it. She tries her best but fails and just plays random tunes as loud as she can. He smiles watching her enjoy and taking out all her pent up feelings. They stay there for a while chatting about the kind of person they are and about their likes and dislikes.

They gelled pretty well and didn't notice the time, it gets late and so they head back to the room and join the others for dinner. The day didn't go as sana had wished but it sure ended on a good note for her. She felt good being with sidharth and talking to him. They head to bed early since the next day was gonna be a long and hectic one.