Meanwhile in the field, Siri suddenly said, "Hey...look...aren't they Srinija and Ahona?"
"Why, yes!" said Neha, feeling and sounding disturbed. "Why have they come again? D'you think they'll bother Kuldeep?"
Siri grabbed Neha's arm and they walked over fast. The seniors weren't around, and obviously they could not leave Kuldeep alone.
The sisters had made a beeline for where Kuldeep was bowling to Hardik.
Siri and Neha reached them at a run and heard Srinija saying, "Where's Bhuvi bhaiya? Do you know where he is, Kuldeep?"
She didn't sound a bit rude, which surprised them a little.
"He's at the hotel, room 208," said Kuldeep.
Srinija bolted for the hotel without another word.
"WAIT, YOU CAN GO LATER, I NEED YOUR HELP HERE!" Ahona yelled after her but she did not stop to listen.
"Why did you give her the room number, Kuliya?" demanded Neha.
"She could be having murder plans for all we know," said Hardik solemnly. "We need to save Bhuvi right now, Neha..."
Ahona glared at them all viciously.
"You...coward," she spat at Kuldeep. "You absolute coward!"
"Who are you calling a coward?" said Siri dangerously, stepping forward as if she wanted to shield Kuldeep physically.
"Your dear friend, of course," said Ahona. "He had absolutely no problem with our relationship till few months ago, and as soon as you three came, he..."
"You don't get to blame any of them," said Kuldeep, swiftly getting protective of them.
"I'm not blaming them, I'm merely stating a fact. That you're a spineless coward without an ounce of originality in you, and I can't even..."
"If you can't see his originality, that's your fault, not his," said Siri furiously.
"I can see why he chose to broke up with me. Must be nice to get a bodyguard like this in return for free, right? Is she..." began Ahona in a very nasty tone.
Simultanously Hardik caught Neha's eyes.
"Neha, catch!" he said, and threw a ball randomly.
Neha lunged at it with great gusto and collided with Ahona and knocked her to the ground heavily. Hardik, apparently on inertia, retrieved the ball and dropped it on her foot. Ahona shrieked at the top of her voice in a very undignified manner, and Siri tried her best to stop herself from laughing and failed.
Ahona looked stunned to find herself lying on the ground one moment after she was about to call out Siri.
Hardik and Neha were positively glowing with triumph at the success of their impromptu plan. Kuldeep felt like he should help Ahona to her feet, but remembering her dirty accusations thrown at Siri, he refrained himself from doing so.
Ahona struggled to her feet by herself, looking weary but also mad.
"I'm sorry I came here at all," she said rudely. "I should've known you would hide behind your hooligan friends as usual."
"Then get lost, please, and don't come back," said Siri. "Cause his hooligan friends would always be with him."
.......................................................................
After this encounter, and having woken up at 6:30 that morning, Siri slipped to her room as Neha and Hardik were still gloating to Kuldeep about how accurately they had knocked her over.
Siri was glad, because Neha didn't seem to notice her, otherwise she would have kept her back for sure to complete their work.
So she was sleeping peacefully, but not for long. Her mom called.
"I'm sleeping, mom," she grumbled. "Call you later."
"It's practically 7 in the evening! Why are you sleeping at this hour? This is a very bad habit you're growing, Siri, I tell you..."
"Mom, please. Bye," she said distinctly and disconnected the call.
After a while her phone rang again. She picked it up to disconnect it again, assuming it was her mother again, but she saw it was her dad. She couldn't just cut the call without knowing the reason, so she received it.
"Your mom tells me your sleep schedule is going out of hand, Siri, and are you working at all..." began her dad.
"DAD," said Siri, completely exasperated by then. "For god's sake call me later. Good night."
She put her phone on silent for good measure and was asleep again within seconds.
After half and hour, Neha returned to the room, looking for Siri, who had simply disappeared from the field.
"There you are!" she said loudly, lobbing a pilllow right at Siri's head. "Shirking work as usual!"
Siri woke up with a start as the pillow hit her head. "WHAT?" she demanded.
"Why are you sleeping at this odd hour?" asked Neha.
"Is there anything called my life, my choice?" said Siri angrily; people were always interrupting her sleep in this place, and she had mostly gotten used to it, but thrice was too much, even for her.
"You were supposed to be out on the field to help me," said Neha, not realizing that she was working herself up into a temper.
"So ask someone else to help you," said Siri, and stormed out of the room staright to the terrace to cool her brain. She would not be able to sleep in this condition even if she did manage to chase Neha away.
The terrace was already occupied...and by her idol.
Siri, like Tani earlier, turned to escape quietly, but Mahi bhai noticed her and said, "Hey, why are you going? Come sit...I didn't have a proper conversation with you yet..."
Siri felt more nervous than ever. "Uh, ok," she said and joined Mahi bhai on one of the seats, but she couldn't think of anything to say.
"I heard you sing well," said Mahi bhai at last. "I like singing too, though I sing very bad."
"Yeah...I mean I did see clips of you singing."
"And you think I'm a bad singer?" said Mahi bhai, apparently enjoying making this nervous girl even more nervous.
"No...no..." stammered Siri. "I didn't mean that!"
"Relax," said Mahi bhai with a grin. "I know it's bad, but it's, you know, just one of those things I can get away with."
He laughed. Siri laughed a little too.
"Who told you I sing?" she asked, thinking how wonderful it was that MAHI BHAI knew a thing like this about her.
"Kuli, Harry, Jaddu, Bhuvi, almost everyone...they're quite impressed I must say."
Siri smiled.
"I also heard you could compete Ro in sleeping?"
"Why does everyone talk about my sleeping? I don't even know why I sleep so much, I can't help it..."
"Hey," said Mahi bhai, seeing that she looked genuinely bothered. "Do you think that;s a bad thing?"
Siri stared at him.
"Ro loves to sleep, Zak loves to sleep, I love to sleep...Do you think that makes us inferior?"
"No!" said Siri, because how could Mahi bhai ever be inferior??
"So why should it make you inferior?" said Mahi bhai with flawless logic.
"Neha keeps teasing me about it," said Siri sulkily.
"Cheeku keeps teasing Ro about it. Your point?"
"Nothing," said Siri, her sulkiness vanishing slowly. "So you don't think it's bad?"
"Why on earth would I? And I'm sure no one does, not even Neha."
"Thanks..." said Siri, feeling a lot better suddenly. "It means a lot...you know...you are my idol...I love you a lot...I mean, not in a creepy way...not like..."
"I get your point," said Mahi bhai. "Cheeku was right, you're so like Ro." He laughed.
He sounded so affectionate as he talked about Rohit bhaiya that Siri felt both validated and inordinately proud that Mahi bhai thought she was like him.
She couldn't believe she had been ready to smash Neha's head half an hour back.
Mahi bhai had this unique ability...to make everything right.