The Candydates

11. A WHOLE 180

I enter the dorm room only to be pushed back out by Ro. Jass hurries out too and locks the door behind herself. 

I do the Chandler Bing questioning pose. They both look at me and pause their hustling. 

Jass stares at me weirdly for about 5 seconds and then a light bulb goes off in her head. "Right" She says and turns to look into her bag but drops her keys in the process. Ro goes to pick it up but stamps Jasmine's foot by mistake and I just take a seat on the bench right outside the door and enjoy this free entertainment in the form of a mime act. 

One of the many things I absolutely love about our dorm room is this bench. Our room is in the form of a small cozy cottage. We had two options. The first was to have the hostel building with double and triple sharing rooms. It had 5 floors with 10 rooms on each floor and common bathrooms.  A big no for us. 

It's not because of the accommodation, just too much social interaction at all times would be another feature there and we are not really the right fit for that kind of an environment. 

Its not like I am antisocial. In fact, I love meeting new people and talking. Gosh I love talking. But at the end of the day I just need my favourite people, comfortable silence and a switch off button for the world. 

That's why we chose this cottage. Its small but perfectly cozy. It has a living room with wood furniture and a boho theme. A giant bedroom. No seriously, it's super big. It fits all three beds, desks and wardrobes. Its beautiful. To compliment the white walls I added cute sea green and blush decors and it looks like a dream. 

It also has a cute lil kitchen where all the magic and disasters take place. But the outside. Gosh the outside is still my favourite. Beyond our big brown door we have hung cute planted pots and beautiful green climbers surround the two poles which stand tall on both sides of the door. 

To accompany them, we have benches on either side too. Simple wooden planks that hold so many special memories.

Anyway, I bring my attention back to the raccoons who are arguing about something. 

I snap my fingers which makes them stop. "SHUSHH" Jass loudly shushes. 

"Jass umm you were the only one making noise. So like who are you shushin-"

"SHUSH" She cuts me off and the snake like sound makes Ro and my ears flinch. 

I raise my hands in defense. 

"Okay so." She rubs her hands excitedly.

"ALL OF US 3 CLEARED THE FIRST ROUND."

"OMGG WHAT." I stand up and grab her hands and we both start jumping. Gosh finallyy.

"And you have your second round in 10 minutes." Ro says showing me the email.

"Oh my god. Oh my god. Okay calm. calm. calm." I keep my hand on my heart which is racing like Usain Bolt in collaboration with light. 

I take the phone and go through the details.  

4 people will be eliminated. Okay 

Time is 1 hour. Okay

Venue: The football ground. Oka- Wait. Football ground?

"Guys this says its the-"

"Football court. We know." Ro cuts me off.

"I mean initially even I felt that its kind of weird. But you know sir no. He always has some solid reason."

"Ya you are right. So I will just go." I take a deep breath in and turn my composed mode on.

"Pray for me, raccoons." 

After a group hug I make my way to the ground. 

After about 5 minutes of brisk walking and and huffing and puffing like a dog I reach there in time. 

Thinking that I am the first one there, I am about to take out my phone and talk to my friends o not look like a loner when I feel a tap on my shoulder. 

"Hi Emma" A dirty blonde boy I have honestly never seen before greets me with a shy smile. 

"Hi. I'm sorry, do I know you?" I politely say with a smile. 

"I don't think so." He says while placing his hand on the back of his neck and looking down. 

"Oh. So um. I mean how do you know me?" I ask

His head whips up super fast. I am surprised that he didn't get a whiplash. "Are you kidding? You have hosted almost all of the fests and events in this university. How will anybody not know you." 

Okay so this is a different thing about me. I mean it's true that maybe everybody like knows me because of all this. I do this dumb thing where I automatically assume that the people I don't know, don't know me. That is really brave of me to assume considering the fact that I am the title holder of 'Forgetting faces and names'.

 Omg so that is why Josh said 'I know' when I introduced myself to him 2 days ago. I am such a tubelight. 

I look at the guy standing in front of me waiting for me to say something and I instantly feel embarrassed of my  micro level attention span. 

"Oh that's really sweet of you. So you are a candidate too huh?" I ask

"Yes. Hi I am Oliver." He extends his hand to me. 

"Hi" I take his outstretched arm and look up to meet his warm eyes. 

He seems like a cute mushy human who can never hurt a single soul. Awe

"What the hell are you doing here?" I hear none other than Adam behind me.He is standing tall with his hands in his packets and a gum in his mouth. Why does this guy look gorgeous while doing just literally everything? This is just not fair. At this very moment he looks like he is starring in a commercial of chewing gums.   

Okayy. That is not exactly the most polite of greetings and especially not fit for such a sweet and gentle guy. 

I pass Adam a glare who just winks at me and turns his attention back at Oliver. 

I turn around to make sure that Oliver is okay and I have to blink a couple of times to make sure what I am seeing.

The shy, coy not so confident man I just saw a minute ago was nowhere to be seen. Oliver was standing in the exact same spot but with a completely different personality. His head held high, arms crossed and a smirk directed at Adam.

Wait. What just happened?

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