"Guys,all set?"Naina said,looking at her friends who came to a halt beside her.

"For the 100th time, yes ma'am,"her friends replied in a chorus. Some of them were yawning and the others were trying hard to stay awake, not wanting to be subjected to Naina's glare.It was 11:20 pm and they were sleepy.

"Okay I will call him now and ask him to follow the clues, alright?"she said and her friends managed a nod.

"This is going to be excitinggg," Deepali exclaimed while the others grinned and asked Naina to go ahead and make the call.

The call got connected after three rings.

"Hello..Rishab?"

"Um..Naina? " his sleepy voice replied.

"Full marks for the correct guess"

By now he was partially awake. "Uh? Why are you calling now? Is everything alright? Are you okay?"

"Yes,relax.I'm perfectly fine. Now just get up from your bed and do as I say"

"Do as you say, at.. ",he saw his phone screen for a moment before continuing with a "11:25 in the night? Am I not doing that all through the day ?" he groaned.

"Just get up Rishab. Trust me, you won't regret it,"she said and somehow managed to convince him to get up.Knowing fully well that he had no other option,Rishab decided to bid his sleep a temporary goodbye.

"Now what?"

"Do you see a paper near your bedside table?"

Rishab looked at his bed side table and there it was,a white sheet of paper that looked like it was folded some 4 times.

"Yeah,I do,"he replied,wondering how he didn't see that when he went to sleep.

"Cool. Now open that and follow whatever it says"

"Nainaaa. I am sleepy. Can't I do this when I am wide awake,like as soon as I get up tomorrow?"

"Nope. Right now.Just follow the clues,bye"

"Bye?"

"Yeah just do it boy!"

"Fine,"he muttered into the phone and placed it on his bed,to open the folded piece of paper.

'Finding the first clue will be a treat, Look for it where you get something to eat'

"Eh? A clue?? Um..something to eat..Canteen? I should go the canteen now? What if someone sees me roaming around the college at this time of the night? Fine.. she won't let me sleep peacefully otherwise..I will try my luck", he thought to himself and left his room with the first clue and his phone in one hand and the room key in the other. He didn't want to disturb his room mate whenever he was back.."Atleast let that poor guy sleep peacefully"

Rishab reached the canteen door,all the while looking around to check if some security guy or someone saw him roaming in the corridor.Luckily there was no one to be seen. Just outside the canteen, there was another folded paper. "Thank Heavens I didn't have to sneak inside".

He opened the second clue and it read 'Now that you're fed, go and look for the next clue where you lay your head'

"WHAT? MY bed? I just came from there! Nainaaa!"he whined and walked back to his room.

There was no paper on the bed and so he lifted his pillow to find it staring back at him.

"Oh here you are! What have you got to tell me now?"he asked while opening the paper.

'The next place you'll need to look, is the place where you can find a book'

"Library!"

Once again, he left his room and started hisjourney to the library. He had started liking this, now that he was wide awake.This was getting kind of exciting.

'Have you heard the news? The next clue can be found where you keep your shoes'

"Oh my God, What's with this girl? Why does she want me to keep going back and forth between my room and outside?"

So,yet another time, Rishab went back to his room and looked at the shoe rack in the corner of the room. The next clue was under the shoe rack.

"Want more? Why don't you check the front door?"

"Front door? I went past that twice already and I missed a clue? "he murmured,scratching his head and opened the front door to find a now very familiar piece of paper,beside the door mat.

'To end the wait, check the gate'

"Gate? What gate?"..he thought for few seconds and came up with the answer .."The college gate, I guess it means the entrance !"

For the third time in half an hour, Rishab left his room and proceeded towards the entrance. It was a five minute walk from his hostel, which was inside the college campus.The moment he reached the gate, he started looking for another clue to tell him what to do. On not finding any, he was not sure what he had to do next and so decided to call the person who was the reason behind all this running around. But before he could do that, Naina and the gang emerged from their hiding spot and came to stand in front of him.Rishab was thoroughly surprised to see all of them there,given the time.

"WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING HERE AT THIS TIME OF THE NIGHT?"

Everyone chuckled at his reaction and Naina looked at them and conveyed what she wanted to. They nodded,grinning, looked at Rishab and said, " Happy Birthdayyy Rishab!"

They then went towards him and pulled him for a group hug.

Rishab didn't know what to say, even after they had moved back and were now looking at his face for some kind of response.

"Say something man!"Naina said,kind of aware of what he was going through.He had never celebrated his birthday with anyone other than family before, he had told her once. Naina had immediately decided to make this birthday, his most memorable one till date.Naina's voice brought him out of his stupor and he looked at them,struggling to find words.

"Guys.. I..No one has ever done something like this for me.. Every year, I used to celebrate my birthday with my parents, which used to be my mother preparing my favourite dishes and the three of us going to the temple nearby.. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that one day, I will have friends, who would want to celebrate my birthday with me, who would sacrifice their sleep and come all the way just to wish me..Th..Thankyou !" his voice nearly cracked with emotion.

His audience, his seven friends, smiled back, too glad to have made him happy.

"Mission accomplished guysss,"Sana announced and the smiles turned into grins.

"Okay now, before we get all emotional,it's time for the cake!"Naina stated, and Ankit brought the cake and placed it on his bike which was parked nearby. They asked Rishab to blow the candles and after the hushed happy birthday song (as they did not want to wake anyone up and the security had given them permission only for ten more minutes),the cake was on Rishab's face the next minute.

"Oh no! I won't let you get away with this,"the birthday boy declared and they had a lot of fun with all the cake facial on everyone'sfaces.

"So how was the clue hunt ?"Karan asked , after they had all washed their faces to some extent,thanks to Nivi's presence of mind to bring two water bottles along.

"Oh I loved it! I was obviously frustrated initially because I didn't know what this girl had in her mind,making me run around the college in the middle of the night,but after a while, it was exciting,"Rishab replied,looking at Naina with a warm smile on his face.

"Sorry. But didn't I tell you you won't regret it?" Naina winked and continued,"Anyway don't you want to know what the prize is ? For successfully completing the hunt?"

"Prize?"

"Of course,"Naina replied and the gang got all the gifts they had bought for him.

"Guys! You have already done a lot!! Please , you don't have to do this!"

"Come on Rishab! It's your birthday!Birthday=gifts,"Deepali replied and Naina added a "Exactly! Now stop talking and just open them."

Rishab did as he was told and was overwhelmed with all that they had bought.-A watch, a gift card from 'Lifestyle' and a couple of books written by his favourite author.

"Wow! Thankyou so much! You guys are the best!".. and this is what the friends kept hearing, atleast for a week after the birthday surprise.They felt very good at having made him so happy.

The following weekend, Naina took Rishab to Lifestyle so that he could buy whatever he wanted with the gift card. She helped him select a pair of formal shirts, a trouser and a T shirt.

"This is such a useful gift Naina,"Rishab said,while they were waiting at the billing counter.

Naina just smiled and nodded.A gesture, as simple as a birthday surprise and some gifts, had such an impact on him. "I would've missed such lovely people in my life, if it had not been for your pep talk Naina. Thankyou"

"Say that one more time and we will reach 1000"

Rishab chuckled at that. He knew he had been thanking her over and over again but what could he do when he truly felt blessed and happy to have nice people with him? His life had changed so much,the past couple of months. He now had people whom he could call friends,he got a chance to explore his love for music,his outlook towards things was slowly changing and it was all because of this selfless girl beside him.

The duo went around the mall, doing some window shopping and chatting all the while and left the place after having lunch at the food court. It was a Saturday well spent.