Moving to the hostel was probably the best decision Anuradha had taken ever since she joined college but leaving Shark was the toughest part of all. Thankfully, Mark was ready to take in Shark until she finish her studies.

It was another busy day for Anuradha and friends, catching up with their classes, getting assignments done on time, going for rehearsal and lastly practicing for their fundraising event.

Since none of her acquaintance was in the same play with her, Anuradha had to stay alone for the evening till Mrs. Gracie was satisfied with their performance for the day.

Anuradha pulled the entrance door that she just locked, making sure its secured. She headed to the music studio for the final stop of the day.

On her way to the studio which was approximately ten minutes from the hall, there stood someone leaning to the wall a few meters away from her.

She stopped dead in her tracks when the person started to moved towards her. It was complete dark where the person was and she couldn't make out who was it with just the silhouette.

The dark never scared Anuradha before but now she realised why Shika always wanted Anuradha to accompany her in the dark when she stayed with Shika.

Slowly the person came out of dark and she relaxed. "Manohar!" she sighed. "You scared me. What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Came to accompany you to the studio since its quiet dark already" he said waiting for her to walk ahead.

"That's so sweet of you" she smiled.

"Did you really got scared just now?" curiosity was evident in his voice.

"Who wouldn't, Mr. Chauhan?" she replied.

"I won't for sure, Ms. Ray" he giggled.

"Good that you are here, hold this" she shoved the heavy file to Manohar and continued towards the studio.

"Have you been going around with this weight all day?"

"Every single day"

"So, how was today's rehearsal?" he started the conversation again after long silence.

"Good but Mrs. Gracie..." she shook her head "she is one fussy woman when comes to performance. Luckily, our fourth play satisfied her otherwise I doubt if she would have left us out of the hall today" she said walking backwards facing Manohar.

"She is quite particular with the quality of act we give" he agreed.

"I'm still waiting for the official email from the organisers" she mumbled checking her email in her phone.

"They should have sent by now, don't they?"

She nodded.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*

A beautiful tune of a melodious song greeted her as soon as she stepped into the studio. "A new song in the list" Anuradha muttered as she walked to the busy musicians.

"We have a mail, guys" Anuradha announced flashing an envelope to them.

"Oh... our band name! Quick open it" Cameron urged, hitting a short beat on the drums.

All eyes laid on the envelope as Anuradha slowly opened it. "You haven't seen it?" asked Cameron as he hit the hi-hat rhythmically giving a situational music.

"No! I wanted to do it together" she said tearing the edge of the envelope carefully.

Carefully because it's been ages since the last she received a letter by mail and as soon as the warden gave her the letter Anuradha got elated to open it but decided to suppress the excitement.

"Verdict is out! Let's see what our beautiful readers have chosen for us" Manohar rubbed his both palms in excitement.

"Wings!" Anuradha exulted showing the piece of card that had the name printed on it. In the background, Cameron hit the drums of a short beat of celebration.

"Woohoo... Isn't that the name I suggested?" Christopher cooed as he sat behind the keyboard, hitting a C minor.

"Thank you so much, Chris. You did a great help to the world" said Anuradha before heading out to make a short call.

"I must say the readers have picked a perfect name for the band. We must thank them in a special way" said Shika.

"Maybe a dedication during the perfomance" Manoj suggested, getting all nods. "Let's start then!" Manoj started strumming his guitar as all took position and begin the melodious night.

In the midst of practicing, "Oh, I almost forgot. I wanted to ask a of my friend from the South Arts College on the list of their play tracks" said Christopher reminding Manohar who thought of the same.

Both Christopher and Manohar headed out of the studio to make a quick call to their respective friends from two different colleges about their play tracks and their status of the entry in the competition.

The confirmation letter used to be sent out through email in two working days after receiving the emails from the participants but according to Anuradha it's been two weeks and there isn't a single email from the organisers. Following up with one of the person in charge wasn't helping either.

Two anticipated letters that they supposed to receive; one was the confirmation letter and the other clashing of titles if any.

Since they have not received any letter, the boys decided to do their own search about the competition status.

The midnight call was a call of enlightenment.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Anuradha and Shika had left the studio earlier than usual as they were not needed. Since Anuradha had moved in to the hostel for the semester, she had taken a single room on the second floor.

Lights off, Anuradha was about to drift off to sleep when a hiss sound alerted her. That was the second time for the day and she was sure this time it cannot be Manohar or anyone else.

Who would be in her room without her knowledge? She jumped out of her skin upon hearing the sound again. "Is it a snake?" she thought.

She picked up the broom stick, holding it in perfect angle Anuradha minced to the balcony where the sound was coming from. She was about to swing that broom at what she assumed to be a snake on the railing, stopped at the whisper of her name.

Startled, Anuradha clutched the broom stick tighter ready to attack whom so ever it was. She could barely see as the half moon light isn't helping as of much to figure out who whispered her name.

"But...ter...fly..." A familiar voice struggled to climb up the balcony.

"Christopher" she dropped the broom stick she held that was in the midst of hitting him and rushed to help him up to the balcony.

"What the hell..."

"Help me up?" came another voice interrupting Anuradha.

"That's Manohar!" Christopher pointed to the other side of the balcony as Anuradha leaned against the railing to get a glimpse of hanging Manohar.

"We need to tell you something important" Christopher began join Anuradha to have a look at Manohar's progress in climbing up.

"What's so important?" Anuradha hissed, ignoring the help call from the person dangling down there.

"Help me guys!"

"You can use something called the PHONE"

"GUYS!!" Manohar yell whispered, both realised that the hanging man hasn't moved an inch since Christopher climbed over.

"Use your damn feet Manohar, you are too low for us to pull you!" Anuradha tried her best not to yell at the stubborn Manohar who constantly shaking his head.

"I can't. I'm scared of heights!" he cried.

"We are half hanging here already, Karthik. Put your feet on that slab and push yourself up!" Christopher directed the poor hanging man.

Manohar did as say while grumbling out of fear that wasn't audible enough for the two up there. After a great struggle, Manohar finally was reachable for them to pull him up.

"Who gave this stupid idea of climbing?" Anuradha asked in the midst of grabbing a hand of the man who looked almost terrified of falling.

"Him" Christopher said with a frown. "I thought he is a good climber"

Hooking his right foot onto the railing, Manohar pushed himself over the railing, ending the almost disastrous night for him.

"That was the worst ten minutes of my life!" he trembled looking down the balcony.

"Then you shouldn't have suggested this" Christopher chuckled at the messed up Karthik.

"Finished? Now will you both tell me why you are up here?" Anuradha asked looking absolutely disinterested in whatever they where about to tell.

"I came to see my butterfly" said Christopher giving his famous flirtatious smile.

"Get outta here now!" Anuradha pushed them towards the balcony.

Anuradha was done for the day. First it was her lecturer who dismissed her class late, then Mrs. Gracie and now these two idiots invading her sleeping time.

"I need to sleep. Get out both of you." she pointed the balcony again.

"Listen, Radha. It's important." Manohar articulated as Christopher pulled her in to her room, turning the light on.

"What's so important that you can't use the so-called PHONE to communicate!" she yelled keeping her voice low enough not to get the attention of those students who are still awake, next door.

"Somethings are better to speak this way than over the phone" Manohar said handing her a piece of paper.

Reading the through the letter which she presumed to be the official letter of current list of participating colleges for the competition. Her brows were drawn together in a frown as she read the letter for the third time.

"Where is our college name?" she asked in perplexed.

"That's the thing. Are you sure you sent an email to the organisers as said?" Manohar asked pacing in the room.

"Of course, I did" she got up from the bed and rushed to the table where her laptop was. Rebooting the system, she looked at them for a brief moment before turning back to the screen.

"How did you'll know about this?" she asked as she waited for the system to connect to the internet.

"We both know someone from the South Arts College and the Ravenwood Arts College. Thought of just checking out their play list and this was what we got." Christopher explained walking to the table.

Checking her email history, she prayed she had sent them an email. Scrolling down the sent items, there is was

ATTN: THEATRE PLAY INTERCOLLEGIATE COMPETITION ORGANISER MR. DAVID

"See! I told you'll I did sent the email to David one of the organiser" she pointed to her screen and opened the email.

Everything in the email looked perfect as how it supposed to be with every detail about the team and play titles and why wasn't the organisers have not reverted back their email.

"Why? Why didn't they revert back my email? In fact, I have been constantly in contact with David about the new changes in the competition yet he did not even mention once that our college name isn't in the list. Why?" Anuradha was on the verge of breaking down as the closing date is in four days and they haven't got their names in.

What worried her even more was the play that they have been rehearsing for more than a week now. There are almost fifteen colleges participating and she was sure that by now at least two or three plays slelected by her team would have been taken by other colleges.

"This can't happen" she mumbled.

"There should be something that we can do about it" Manohar said as he read through the email again.

"Do what? The closing date is in four days and we have our fundraising event in two days. How are we going to fix this?" she wept dropping her head on the table.

"There is something that we are missing. I'm sure it isn't mere coincident that we are not in the list." Christopher chimed in, smacking the letter on his palm.

"I was thinking the same" Manohar concurred.

************************************

Thank you for reading!!