Aru's pov--

The limo was as awesome on the inside as on the outside. The seats were a deep teal colour and the walls was lined with dark stained wood. Even the ceiling looked cool, decorated with turquoise lights, like blue stars. (Image below)

Aru could hardly believe that this was happening. She was standing in a limousine on her way to the biggest competition in the country that could change her life forever. She half expected that someone was going to shake her awake. To be sure it was real, she pinched herself, extra hard. The result was surprisingly painful. Note to self: just flick yourself next time.

A voice knocked her out of her thoughts. A very familiar voice.

"Aru?"

"No. Frickin'. Way." Aru replied. "YAMINI KAPOOR-MERCADO-LOPEZ!!!!!"

"ARUNDHATI SHAH! - also we'll talk about your language later -"

Aru ran towards the other girl, about to tackle her into a hug, before stopping short and stretching out her elbow. Mini bumped it approvingly.

"I knew you could do it!" Mini said happily, pushing her gold-rimmed glasses up her nose. "And you don't look overly stressed either! If you're stressed that could lead to insomnia, and loss of sleep can affect your brain's ability to process and reason, resulting in unstable decisions and eventually..."

"Death?" Aru answered, smirking at her friend.

"I was going to say comatose, but death works too!" Mini replied, "Did you bring your sanitizer like I told you to?"

"Umm... I used it all up already?" Aru lied.

She'd actually tried to cook an egg in it, but Mini didn't need to know that.

"Okaaay theeeen," Mini said slowly, "I brought 5 extra bottles just incase anyway."

Kara poked her head round the door.

"Ok guys, we're about to start moving now, so everyone take a seat and get to know each other!" After a cheesy thumbs up, she disappeared to the driver's seat.

Once she was gone, Aru looked around the car for a seat. There was only one spot in the corner... And it was right next to Aiden. She had almost forgotten about him being there.

Almost.

Aru shuffled into the seat, trying to get as far away from Aiden as possible - which went crushing her face against the wall, because they were a bit short on space.
She noticed him smirking at her out of the corner of her eye.

"What?" She demanded, letting her Irritable-Morning-Person Aru kick in.

He gestured to Mini. "I didn't know you still had emotions."

More than you know, Aru thought bitterly.

But she didn't say anything. Instead, she shot him a look that wiped the smirk off his face and went back to ramming her head into the wall.

After a few minutes, the girl on the other side of Aru prodded her in the side.

"Hello? Um, you're kind of pushing into my hairstyle, and these braids took me, like, 3 hours to do this morning so..."

Aru pulled herself up properly to see a short-ish girl with dark brown skin, steely blue eyes and some very intricate braids, pushed behind a delicate-looking headband almost like a tiara. But nothing about her facial expression said delicate. It seemed to give more of a shift-or-get-pushed-out-of-a-moving-car sort of feel. Aru quickly obliged.

As soon as she was satisfied, the girl turned back to her sketchbook.

"I'm Aru," Aru offered, attempting to make conversation.

"Nikita", muttered the girl without looking up, brushing an imaginary speck of dust off her pale blue romper. Another girl - identical to Nikita, except for having brighter blue eyes, looser braids and a more friendly expression - leaned out from and did a small wave.

"I'm Sheela," she chimed, looking a lot more cheerful than her twin.

"I guess we're introducing ourselves now? I'm Brynne, by the way." Said another, really tall girl across from Aru with her long highlighted hair pushed over one shoulder. She grinned wildly and fiddled with a bunch of gold bracelets up her wrists.

"I am Rudra Naga-Loka, better known as Rudy!" Announced a boy in a white jacket that hurt Aru's eyes. Although, that didn't stop Mini from staring at him though...

"I'm Kemi," whispered a shy looking girl, hiding behind a cloud of curly hair.

"And I'm Joshua!" Added a boy, smiling directly at Aru. The back of her neck felt suddenly warm.

"I'm Mini, or Yamini as Aru said," Mini gestured across to her.

"Hira," mumbled another girl, almost as quietly as Kemi.

"I'm Aiden." Aiden said finally, beaming at everyone except Aru, who smirked at individually. Aru pointedly ignored him.

There was an awkward pause. The only thing that could be heard was the engine.

"What courses are you going to do?" Joshua asked, " I'm doing design-engineering - if I win that is," he added quickly.

Design-engineering, thought Aru, that's pretty cool.

"Psychology I think and fashion for Niki," Sheela replied, "but I've still got 5 years to decide."

"Wait - 5 years. That means you're... 13?" Aru asked. Sheela nodded.

"Don't you have to be 16 to enter?"

"Me and my sister were allowed to go early because we are smarter than most 16 year-olds anyway." Nikita interrupted. She quickly eyed up the room. "Exhibit A, everybody."

"I'm doing cuisine if I win," Brynne said, leaning forward and ignoring Nikita, "but my uncles will help me pay for the course anyway."

"Same for me, my parents really want me to become a doctor!" Mini laughed, sounding cheery, but not looking it. Aru made a note to ask her about it later. And about Rudy, Aru added whilst cackling evilly in her head.

"I'm doing special effects," Hira said, her eyes lighting up.

"That's interesting," said Brynne, smiling at her. Hira's cheeks coloured and she looked away.

Who knew that there would be so many people to ship at a national competition?

"I'm doing music!" Rudy told them all with a massive grin.

"I'm planning to do history," Kemi added, barely loud enough to be heard.

"Photography for me," Aiden said. Aru looked over, vaguely surprised. Last she'd heard, he had had to do law.

"What about your dad?" Aiden heard snapped up.

"He... Doesn't know."

"Oh."

Queue the second awkward pause of the car journey.

"So, what do you want to do Aru?" Joshua asked.

"Yeah, Aru?" Aiden echoed, almost sounding genuine.

But Aru knew that was wishful thinking.

She turned back to the question. "Scriptwriter, definitely. It would be so cool to see people become a character just based on your writing."

"That's, cool." Joshua said, smiling at her again. Aiden caught her eye, before quickly leaning back and glaring at the ceiling. What was that supposed to mean?

Whatever Aiden Acharya. I will not let you get in my head.

Suddenly, the whole car jolted sideways. The journey had been pretty smooth so far, what with it being a fancy limousine, so no one was properly braced. Nikita fell forward, cursing a huge amount for a 13 year old. Mini fell backwards, yelling for everyone to resume the brace position. And Aru..

Aru fell into Aiden's chest.

Sooo... What do you think?

What do you think of the new characters?

Hope you like it!

-BBB