... "You?" Riddhima breathed a sigh of relief and tried to force a smile.
"Of course it's me...who else were you expecting...huh?"
Riddhima shook her head and took a few steps away from him; "No one...I just thought..." she dropped the rest of her sentence as he looked at her; "...nothing...don't worry..."
"So...how's the beautiful lady this morning?" he looked closely at her; "...You're looking gorgeous..."
"Thanks Vivik..." she said as she continued to force a smile.
Vivik put his arm around her shoulder and walked her across the courtyard to the benches near the pond; she avoided him by looking around at other students; some standing around catching up with their friends on how they had spent their holidays and the new students were rushing around in a hurry to get to their classes as it was their first day at school.
Vivik swiveled across the bench and pulled Riddhima closer to him putting his arm around her again; "I don't believe we're not going to be in any classes together...I just want to be with you all the time..." he complained.
Riddhima forced a smile at him; "We'll see each other around school...it's not that big of a deal..." and then she thought silently to herself; "...thank God for that..."
Vivik groaned; "I know...but it's not the same...I wish you were taking a BTECH course and be in all my classes..."
"I can't because I got accepted in A' levels...all the courses I wanted..." she smiled happily.
Vivik held her hand; "Yeah but I still wish we could be together..."
His sentence was cut off by the sound of the bell and Riddhima turned sharply and stood up; "Okay I got to go...I'll see you later..."
Vivik stood up; "Just wait a few more minutes..." he held onto her hand.
"Later Vivik...I'm going to be late...bye..." she turned to go but he didn't let go of her hand.
"Okay...we'll have lunch together..." he told her.
Riddhima quickly nodded and pulled her hand out of his; she walked away quickly thanking God that she was saved. She didn't like being alone with Vivik; she always felt weird around him and now she was really happy that they weren't going to be in the same classes and she won't have to see him as much as she use to.
She had finally reached her tutor room and walked in to a loud cheer making her stop and look towards the noise; "Hi RIDZ!"
Riddhima smiled; "Hey guys...you're all early..."
Abhi called out to her with a teasing grin; "No...you're late...we don't see that often..."
Riddhima rolled her eyes at him with a smile as she walked over to her friends; she hugged Muskaan and Nikita and said hi to Rahul and Abhi.
"I still can't believe we are all in the same class...after five long years...this is going to be so much fun..." Muskaan squealed excitedly.
"Yep...and we're going to make these two years the best years of our lives..." Rahul placed his arm around Muskaan's shoulder and pulled her close.
Muskaan looked at him with a huge smile, slightly blushing.
Abhi dropped his face into his hands and groaned loudly then looked up; "And they're off again..." he rolled his eyes in their direction "...don't you guys ever take a break?"
Nikita smiled at them; "It's cute...you're just jealous..." she said to Abhi.
"Me? ...Jealous? ...Yeah right...of what?" Abhi defended himself.
Riddhima turned to Abhi and Nikita; "Don't you two ever stop?"
"You just wait...when you find someone as annoying as her you won't be able to stop..." Abhi told her.
Riddhima grinned; "Yeah right...who has the guts to annoy me?"
Abhi looked at her in surprise; "Oh really...let's see..."
"Chor yaar (leave it) Ridz...he's not worth it...you're wasting your time..." Nikita spoke up just as Riddhima was going to say something.
At the same time Rahul received a text and everyone looked over at him; he looked down at the phone, read the message then laughed out loud.
Muskaan looked at him; "What is it?"
"It's a message...sun..." (Listen) Rahul said and then read out loud;
"Chote to Bade: Are yaar mujhe dentist ke paas jaana hai...
Bade: Kyon...daat ke saath problem hain?
Chote: Nahi yaar...mere phone karab ho gaya hai...
Bade: Phone karab hai to dentist ke paas kyon jaana hai...mobile repair shop chale jao...dentist ke paas nahi...
Chote: Dentist ke paas jaana hai...
Bade: Kyon?
Chote: Kyon ke mere mobile ke Bluetooth karab ho gaya yaar...
Bade: Bakwaas band kar!"
Everyone laughed out loud; "Rahul yaar where do you get all these rubbish jokes from?" Nikita asked him.
Abhi rolled his eyes at her; "They're not rubbish...they're really funny...just because you don't have a sense of humor you don't have to ruin it for all of us..."
Just as they were about to start up again the teacher entered the room and the class became quiet; "Good morning everyone...welcome back...I hope you all are ready for a new busy year..." their tutor greeted them looking around the class and smiling at everyone.
They all chorused; "Yes sir!"
Their tutor took the register then started off with notices; "Right...I would just like to say welcome back to all of our old students and a warm welcome to our new students...well as it's the first week it will be laid back...you will be attending assemblies, induction classes and the fresher's fair...and your classes will start from next week...please come to the front and pick up your new timetables and we will meet later on in assembly hall...have a nice day..."
Everyone moved towards the front of the class and collected their timetables. The gang huddled around the table after collecting their timetable sheets and discussed their lessons; Riddhima and Muskaan sat on the table next to each other while the others stood around looking through their timetables.
Muskaan excitedly yelped; "Yes...we're all in the same class for I.T...this year is going to be awesome..."
Riddhima smiled happily; "I know...but we have Textiles Induction first...we should go now..."
Nikita smiled at her knowingly; "Yeah let's go...we can't miss this one...right Ridz..."
Riddhima rolled her eyes at her then turned to the guys; "Bye guys..."
Riddhima and Nikita walked out while Muskaan said bye to Rahul then caught up with the girls.
The boys however stayed seated as they had a free lesson; while they were both busy looking down at their sheets of paper someone had walked into the classroom and was making their way towards the boys.
"Hi..."
Rahul and Abhi looked up from their sheets to the guy standing in front of them; he was tall and thin but muscular. His eyes were hazel coloured and his hair neatly combed to perfection. He was wearing a pair of white trainers, blue jeans, and a double white and blue shirt. His thin face was tanned and as he smiled his famous dimple dented his cheek.
He held his bag in his left hand and held his right hand out towards Rahul; "Hey...I'm Armaan...Armaan Malik..." he introduced himself.
"Rahul Garewal..." Rahul shook Armaan's hand.
Abhi then shook his hand; "Abhi...nice to meet you..."
Armaan smiled; "Same here..."
"So you're new to the school..." Rahul stated.
Armaan nodded; "Yeah...I was just wondering if you could help me out with these room numbers...I don't know my way around the school..." he handed over his time table sheet to Abhi.
"Sure...no problem..." Abhi took the sheet and studied through it; "...wait a minute...your lessons are very similar to ours..."
"Let's see..." Rahul took the sheet from Abhi, "...yeah...we're taking IT and Electronics as well...and umm...Ridz is doing Math's and English..." he handed the sheet back to Armaan.
"Ridz?" Armaan raised his eyebrow with a questioning look.
Abhi nodded; "She's a friend of ours...yeah sure...we'll help you around...friends?" he held his hand out to Armaan.
Rahul also held his hand out; Armaan dropped his bag and crossed his arms over each other shaking both Rahul and Abhi's hand at the same time.
Armaan smiled; "Friends..."
After a while of exchanging details the three boys headed off to their next lesson; Rahul and Abhi had shown Armaan to the Math's room and left to go to their business lesson...
...In the Math's room the teacher had begun the lesson; "We'll start with a warm up and then I'll give you an introduction about the course...so let's begin..."
Students were entering the class late with excuses of being lost and busy with other induction sessions; among the late students was Armaan.
Armaan knocked on the door; "May I come in sir?"
The teacher nodded; "Yes...please...new student?"
"Yes sir...Armaan..." he replied.
Hearing this name, Riddhima who was sitting by the window, quickly looked up. She was impressed at what she saw but quickly looked back down at her paper because Armaan had taken a swift look around the room and had noticed Riddhima. He was also impressed with this sight but before his thoughts could overtake his mind he was pulled back to earth.
"Okay then...take a warm up sheet and find a seat..." the teacher informed him.
Armaan's feet had automatically taken him towards Riddhima; he didn't know why or how he had got there but he was happy.
"Is this seat taken?" Armaan asked looking at Riddhima.
Riddhima looked up but before she could answer Armaan sat down next to her and began to do his work completely ignoring her; Riddhima's mouth was left hanging open.
Riddhima looked at him in disbelief, "Excuse me?"
"Is there a problem Riddhima?" the teacher called out to her.
"Uhh...no sir..." she shook her head and carried on with her work in anger.
The class continued with their warm up sheets for a while and once they had completed them the teacher collected them in and began with the lesson. Riddhima ignored Armaan beside her as she listened attentively to what the teacher was saying but she was becoming slightly annoyed with Armaan who was irritating her by tapping his pencil on the table.
Nearing the end of the lesson the teacher left them with a few difficult questions while he marked their warm up sheets. Armaan and Riddhima finished the questions quickly and sat back in their seats to wait for their results.
Armaan turned to face her after some time; "Hey...I'm Armaan...Armaan Malik...and you are?"
"Not interested!" she huffed.
Armaan smiled sweetly; "Oh...nice name..."
"HUH?" Riddhima gave him a weird look.
Armaan leaned over her to look through the window onto the courtyard making her look at him weirdly and moving away.
Riddhima backed away quickly; "Excuse Me...what do you think you're doing?"
Armaan quickly put on an act; "I'm sorry actually... I didn't know you were blind....I am really very sorry...I was just trying to look out of the window...I'm really sorry...please forgive me..." he said melodramatically, putting his hands together as in asking for forgiveness.
Riddhima pointed her finger at him with a very angry expression; "YOU!"
Armaan smiled wider; "The name is Armaan...not You!"
Riddhima pointed at him again; "You..."
"Well Riddhima..." the teacher called out looking over at the two of them.
Riddhima dropped her finger instantly; "Yes sir?"
She looked over at her teacher with a guilty expression; she had never been in trouble in the past eleven years of her school life, she was always too good to get in trouble, she bowed her head as the teacher walked over to them and stood in front of their table, she looked up slowly.
"Looks like you finally have some competition..." he handed their work sheets back to them "...very good work Armaan...welcome aboard..."
"WHAT?" Riddhima was shocked; "But...but I always get the highest marks!!" she turned away with a sad expression.
Armaan moved closer to her and said softly; "Not any more...Ms. Not Interested...I think you should get use to the fact that I'll always be one step ahead of you..."
He picked up his bag and walked to the door; he turned and winked at her before walking out of the room.
Riddhima was furious; "Arghhh!!" ...
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