"We have a problem," I heard one of my sisters say, in my sleepy state my brain can't formulate as to who it is, as I twist in the warmth of my comforter. I cuddle further into my bed before the very same person pokes a finger on my shoulder.
"I seem to be having a lot of those lately," I respond sarcastically, pressing my face into my pillow to hopefully not hear my sister's protests.
I focus my brain back on my dream: where I was being given a Nobel Peace Prize for saving Kace and saving the world from unnecessary arguments and accusations. In the background, I heard my sister shuffle on my bed, and as I drifted back into sleep, I felt a soft paw hit my face.
I groaned into my pillow, that was not a hand of a human. It was almost like a pillow clapping my face. Maybe it was the felt pillow I had, they probably meant to hit it but I dodged it right in time. Wait a second, I didn't even move to dodge the pillow though. My brain finally alert, focused the attention on the softness on my cheek.
"What is that?" I drawled lazily, my voice still hazy with sleep as I blinked my eyes, adjusting to the brightness in my room.
Before me were two pair of adorable brown eyes. However, they were not of a human.
"Oh my- no way. Where did you get it?" I shot up from my sleeping position, fully aware of my surroundings as I examined the dog in Sana's hands.
She winked at me as I held out my hands for the dog to make its way to me. I let my hand pat its silky white fur, nuzzling my face into his fur.
"That's a very long story. I have been trying to grab hold of this since two years and now it is time for the perfect present and thank goodness your mom is not home right now," Sana gushed in delight, clapping her hands as I made my way to Sana.
"Are you going to give it to her now?" I asked her, stifling a loud yawn.
"Yes. Now, hurry up before she leaves the house," Sana hastily said, grabbing my hand and dragging me downstairs with the poor dog bouncing in my hand.
"Did you tell the others?" I asked her breathlessly, still very much sleepy.
"They are already distracting her, you're the last one to wake up," she stated matter of factly.
"Good choice," I admitted. I would have probably turned the house upside down if they bothered to wake me up before the others. I am not a morning person at all. It takes me until one in the afternoon to actually wake up.
"Sia, we have a surprise for you," Sana practically sang as she skipped her way down the stairs.
"This better not be another proposal from Sid's friend. They are all equal idiots like him," Sia loudly declared, horrified at her idea as she glared at Sid pointedly who merely shrugged at her accusation.
Saman and Nisha were finishing their breakfast on the other side of the table while Sid was leaning against the kitchen counter, sipping his coffee. I am assuming Sanay is still at Lain's and Kace was probably still asleep in his room.
"I am sure you'll like this one though," we heard Nisha say and she covered Sia's eyes so we could place the dog in her hands.
"That's what he says every time," Sia mumbled, her hands poking the poor dog before she gasped in realization.
"Tada!" Sana yelled in exuberance while the dog happily barked and wailed its tail at Sia
"No freaking way. How did you get him?" Sia mumbled back with equal excitement, hugging the dog to her chest, "He's perfect. Thank you Sana."
"I deserve more than just a thanks, Sia, I had to pull so many strings, convince so many people for this boy," Sana teased with a chuckle, throwing Sia a side hug.
"What do you mean?" I ask curiously.
"Long story. I need popcorn before that," she shrugs back as she saunters towards the cabinets, scanning them one at a time. That girl really has a problem. She eats more popcorn in a day than I have in a year. I wouldn't be surprised if one day the doctor informs us that she has popcorn accumulating in her body.
"Dad, where are you running?" Sid breaks my chain of thoughts as we watch my dad, dressed neatly in a crisp black suit, rush hurriedly towards the living room
"Your mother is stepping out the car, she got here through the private jet. Hurry up, clean up any messes you made," he yelled over his shoulder causing all of ours jaws to drop. She was supposed to come back next week.
She is here now. My mother is here. She is stepping out the car. She is going to see Kace. Oh shit.
It was as if a bucket of cold water was dropped on me because my brain froze at the realization. What am I supposed to do? She was going to burn me alive. I concluded firmly, groaning in defeat.
"How am I supposed to clean up a person?" I ask aloud for my siblings. They looked at my in confusion for a second before laughing out loud. Traitors.
"Go distract her while I ask Kace to shift to guest room by my room. I'll make sure she doesn't enter there," Nisha hurriedly steps up to help me. God bless her soul.
"On it," I mumbled hurriedly and in the process, I let my hair out from the its bun. Wiggling my head so that my thick brown hair cascades its way to my shoulders so that I look more presentable.
I hastily open the door, quickly tossing aside my bunny flip flops only to see flashes of lights hit my face. I closed my eyes as a reflex before slowly opening them back to see a crowd of cameras snapping away my pictures. Oh my god. What was happening?
"What? Reporters? Where is mom-oh," I think out loud before the realization hit me like a brick wall. I walked out of the wrong door. My mother was coming from the back door, the only entrance we ever used. This entrance that I just walked in was for reporters, guests and clients only. The main entrance contained a huge garden at the side and a fountain in the centre. Behind the fountain was our house. The reporters and I were separated by a couple of steps and I prayed desperately that they don't cover the distance.
Color leeched my face as I stared at the reports gawking at me in shock. Well, it was not everyday that an Youtube sensation walks out of the house lazily dressed in her black tank top and blue night shorts.
"Is Kace Harwin in the house?" a reporter questioned, quickly breaking from the spell.
"Why are you supporting him? Are you involved in his plan?" another asked from behind.
Yes, obviously I want to go around hacking into company's accounts to steal money because I already don't have enough, I sarcastically mumbled to myself.
"Is it true that both of you are best friends?" the female reporter in the front asked.
Yes, I only met him fourty-eight hours ago. Quite a bond we have.
"Are you in a relationship with Kace? What about Arhaan Ross?"
Can you stop making me seem like a player? I didn't even have one relationship in my life, I wanted to so desperately scream.
"When are you going to upload your next YouTube video?"
I mentally scoffed at the question. With everything going on in my life, you want me to upload a YouTube video pranking other people? Did she actually come all the way to my house to ask me that question?
I sucked in a sharp breath, I had to address this issue some day. Clearly, some day was today. So I blurted out most of the information I know, "Kace is a friend of Zyka Ivanov, the daughter of Mark Ivanov. Mark Ivanov is our business partner and very dear friend, he contacted us saying that he still supports Kace Harwin and his company. So, we decided to extend a hand in support of the poor boy who has undergone a serious operation yesterday. I do hope everyone sends in their wishes to him. Besides, he is innocent unless proven guilty in court."
Most of them looked unsatisfied with my response and opened their mouths to ask me more information.
"Anyways, you all are here at a great time," I announced rapidly, clapping my hands to quiet the crowd down. From the corner of my eye, I could see Sana and Sia walk out the door with equally horrified looks.
At least they were dressed properly. Sana was wearing a red dress which had white flowers all over, all dressed to hit the ramp any minute. On the other hand, Sia was wearing a black and white striped shirt with a denim jacket and a pair of back shorts.
"Our company is launching a new fashion line of, uh, shorts," I diverted the topic, plastering on a fake smile while the reporters looked at me with their eyes wide.
I twirled around, randomly saying everything that came into my mind, "I was just experimenting with some, do you think people will be willing to buy them?"
To say the reports looked alarmed was an understatement. They were shocked to the core. They clearly weren't expecting this and they had no idea how to respond to my question. But in all honestly, the question I asked was quite simple.
"To answer your question, I was just about to upload a Youtube video about this. Do you think we should start selling some personalized shorts? Something that nobody has ever seen before, you know like vintage clothes," I walked to the side to where the lady stood who asked the question earlier, and directly looked into the cameras and pointed at my sisters who shot murderous glares at me.
They were attempting to cover up their extreme anger at my unexpected announcement of vintage shorts.
"We are not going to sell vintage shorts," Sana hissed furiously as I made my way back to her.
"My sister finds the idea fantastic. We don't have a vintage collection, so why don't we create a new fashion line based on that. It will be called Vintage Clothes," I smiled back at the crowd while the reporters merely nodded.
"What are you doing?" Sia hissed alarmed, grabbing my hand , an indication to stop whatever I was doing.
"You are witnesses to our upcoming fashion line, so wait for our new collection! On that note, because you were all so kind to help us with our new collection, I'd like to take a picture with all of you. So, who's ready for some pictures?"
With that, I stand in between both my sisters and pose for some pictures as the cameras flash away.
• • •
"Vintage Clothes? What stupid name is that?" Nisha burst out. After an hour, the reporters were convinced that I was not going to talk about Kace Harwin's story so they left after taking at least a million pictures. Sia, Sana, Nisha and I were seated in the kitchen as they stated that they need to make sure I don't have any more stupid ideas under my sleeve. To my defense, what else am I supposed to say to a
"Look, I needed a distraction and this is perfect! Just create a new fashion line and host a fashion show to present the new collection. That will give me enough time to figure out Kace's story and settle things down," I calmly respond, patting myself for my amazing idea.
"We need inspiration. We can't come with vintage clothes randomly. More importantly, we need a better name for the collection," Sia paced nervously from one end to the other.
"Experiment with camouflage or secrets. Use Kace's story as an inspiration, he seems honest yet his secrets are cleverly camouflaged while the entire world just believes the lie," I suggested meekly.
Sia made a face at my suggestion before commenting, "I am not writing a story. I am designing clothes. For normal people to wear."
I gave her a flat look before frowning, "Where's mom?"
"Apparently there was more turbulence than normal, so she is catching up on sleep in her room," Sana's face lit up like a Christmas tree.
"Good, that will give me enough time to come up with a convincing story to tell her."
"How about the truth?"
"Well, all of you don't seem to simply believe that I only wanted to save him," I deadpanned, vexed.
"Find a convincing story," she retorted back while I scowled back with indignation.
Now, that all of my sisters stopped pestering me about my skillful announcement, I decided that it was the best opportunity to learn what the world was thinking about my little stunt in the hospital. I was careful enough to avoid every single electronic device, including my beloved phone, since the moment I came home. From the past two days, I spent more time on Netflix watching every single show I can than planning my YouTube video or my instagram polls. Luckily, we still had a week to go for university to begin again, so I had all the time in the world to isolate myself from the chaos I have created.
However, even with my extreme distaste towards media and their exaggerated reports, there was no doubt that I was beginning to become extreme curious as to what people thought about me and about Kace Harwin.
I switched on my TV and tuned on to the first news channel I could find and just like I thought, there was a picture plastered across my seventy inch wall mounted TV of me standing with my sisters in my night shorts.
Mother Earth, swallow me up.
'Saanvi Sen successfully rescued the ill Kace Harwin and is launching a new Vintage Fashion Line.'
That should gain him some sympathy for now. At least now that the focus was on me, they wouldn't be trying to find evidence to accuse Kace of anything.
In the next news channel, they were asking people from the downtown of London whether they would be willing to buy Saanvi Sen's vintage shorts. There was even a poll at the corner of the screen with people constantly sending in their feedback.
Well, that clearly is a huge success. All Nisha and Sia need to do now was design some cute shorts and they basically have most of the country willing to buy them. They better thank me for the publicity.
Feeling confident, I switch on my phone to notice that there are thousands of calls, some from my family, others from friends and others from unknown numbers. I can already see the Instagram dm's invade my notification screen and don't even get me started on Twitter. There has already been a hashtag created on multiple social media sites known as #SaanviKace which was currently trending all over the world.
These people make news out of everything and anything. I scowled at all the memes, videos and posters that have already gone viral.
I'll just read through all this at night, when hopefully the world is asleep and wouldn't see me online. I am just hoping that nothing goes wrong by tomorrow morning. Is that how my family feels everyday? Hoping that I don't prank them or end them up in trouble the next morning?
Scrolling through them, I landed myself in front of our elevator. It was a transparent elevator that took us from ground floor to first floor. Apparently, when Sia and Sana were younger, they wanted their house to look exactly like Barbie's so our parents got an identical elevator installed in the house. For lazy people like me, it was our ticket to relaxation.
Deciding to check up on Kace, I quietly rushed to his room, which was not beside Nisha's, and gently exerted some force on the door. The dark in the room threw me off, causing me to almost fall over when I lost my footing.
I regained my posture as I spread my hands out on the wall, trying to find the lights. Once I found them, I flickered on the lights, seeing it penetrate through the room, I skimmed the room to find Kace. He was seated at the very end of the room, by the gigantic window that overlooked our soccer field.
He didn't even glance in my direction as I walked towards him, I would normally call that arrogance but by the looks of his startled expression when he saw me and a tint of embarrassment clouding his look, I could certify that he was really just lost in his thoughts.
Now that he was well fed and slept well, his handsome features practically illuminated off him. He gave me an unrestricted grin as I propped myself on the window still asking, "How are you feeling?"
"Have been better,"he shrugged and the smile never fading away, "Thank you."
I brushed a hand in his direction and within that minute, he didn't seem like a man who was burdened with accusations from the world but a normal carefree teenage boy sitting in solace. It amazed me to see the shift in personality in one day. He was quite hostile, nervous and reluctant in the forest and now he was all smiling warmly and acting as if we knew each other since ages.
"Do you need something else?" I asked back perked.
"I am good, for now."
"Did you hear back from Zyka?"
A tint of sadness laced his voice but that couldn't be traced on his face as he said, "Not yet. Why?"
I hesitantly asked, sounding gentle, "You said she was going to contact you in three days, I know there is one day left but I made an announcement regarding your situation so I was expecting her to come for you today."
He nodded at me in understanding before replying patiently, "She is not in contact but don't worry, she'll send in something by tomorrow. They might be busy with the lawyers and the court procedures."
"They are filing a case?" I asked in shock. I clearly didn't expect that.
"No, but in case the opponent does, they just want to be prepared," he hurriedly added while I relaxed visibly.
"Okay, well, rest up for today and we can figure what to do after she contacts you," I suggested, standing up from my seat.
"Sounds good. I am extremely sorry for the inconvenience," he voiced out again, sounding genuinely apologetic.
I rolled my eyes at his statement before teasing retorting, "If you say that once again, I'll make sure you become uncomfortable."
Right then, the door opened and I could hear a feminine voice from the other side.
Please don't be mom.
Let it be Sana.
Let it be Sia.
Let it be Nisha.
Let it be one of Arhaan's prank.
Not mom.
I prayed desperately, my eyes squeezing shut as the door fully clicked open.
• • •
Do you think it is going to be Saanvi's mom? If so, how do you think she is going to react knowing her daughter is hiding a hacker? Lots of fun ahead so keep reading!
My new semester in University is going to start from next week so wish me luck and I am really not sure if I'll have time to update frequently. :(
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