*Flashback*

A week later

"What girl this is? No makeup on face." said Lakshmi Aunty. I was yawning at being woken up at 4:30 am for grooming classes. You can't exactly blame me for not wearing makeup this early in the morning!

"Sorry Aunty. I will wake up at 4:00 next time and spend time with my make-up." I said sarcastically. Apparently my sarcasm was still intact even though I lacked from sleep. I cursed my grandmother over and over again for this stupid grooming class thing I had to go to.

"This girl need the grace of girl. Look at her tongue! Look at the slumped shoulders and demon walk. She will have to attend dance classes." said Lakshmi Aunty.

"Dance classes? I can't dance for my life aunty, please don't make me!" I begged her. I was so bad with balance but Lakshmi Aunty forced me to join her best friend's Kathak dance classes, because it had grace and poise in it.

A month had passed, school had gotten busier and I was busy with college applications. Priyanka and I both wanted to stay in state for college and Vikram had also planned on applying to the same colleges as us and some other out of state colleges so he could select where to go after he gets accepted. I had decent grades, a decent GPA and good extra curricular activities so all I needed were some smashing SAT scores and a well written college essay. Ved had become a part of our group and we hung out often. But Ved and I were particularly close. We shared a love for music and ranted about our favorite kinds of music.

"You have never listened to American Music?" He asked me one day as we walked to AP Computer Science Principles.

"Nope." I said with a wave of my hand.

"What have you been listening to?" he asked me in disbelief.

"Hindi and Tamil Songs! Duh." I said, as we walked into the classroom.

"Maya, please go and get a life. Too bad I can't purchase one for you as a gift." he said. I hit him with my book in response.

Meanwhile, I had grown to really like Kathak classes and we were performing a dance drama soon on the epic Ramayana story. I was essaying the role of Sita, angering some of the other experienced dancers but the teacher had dismissed them saying that I deserved the role.

One day during rehearsal, someone was taking pictures, particularly zooming into me. I was too focused on the dance so I could only see a hazy outline of the guy from my peripheral vision. After I finished though, I looked up only to see that it was Ved!

"Ved, what are you doing here?" I asked.

"Taking pictures of you dance!" Ved said, taking another picture of my bewildered face.

"Ved! Quit it!" I said. Parvathi Aunty, who was my dance teacher walked over to Ved.

"Ved, nee vandutiya, nalladhu (you came, that's good)" said Aunty in tamil. She looked at me and smiled. 

"Kanna, this is Ved, my nephew. He has an eye for dance photography and he will be the one doing your photo shoot on Saturday." said Parvathi Aunty. Paati demanded that I should have a photo-shoot of myself so my future husband could look at me as a graceful person. Do not ask me where she gets these ideas, because I am not getting married anytime soon!

These grooming classes didn't really change anything for me except for the fact that I stopped slouching after being so traumatized at the gory images of what would happen to me if I slouched. I still didn't really care for make-up and could not cook anything more than keeping rice in the rice cooker.

That Saturday, Paati and Lakshmi Aunty dragged me to the salon at 8:00 in the morning and I was manicured, pedicured, hairstyled and makeup'ed to perfection. They didn't let me wear my glasses and forced a pair of eye defining brown contacts. After the full look, I saw myself in the mirror. The person that looked back at me was nothing like me. More like a masked version of me.

I was dressed in a dark purple and black embroidered lehenga with my hair curled and my make-up overdone. I didn't like it but still stepped out into the hall where Ved was ready with his camera.

"Wow!" Lakshmi Aunty said and even Ved's jaw dropped at the change.

"Now you are looking like a girl." Paati said, satisfied. Lakshmi Aunty told me how to pose and Ved took my pictures one by one. I changed outfit after outfit, from lehengas to anarkali's to half-sarees to western wear.

Finally, I called it quits. "This is my last outfit, make-up and hairstyle change."

"Fine." Paati grunted. I was wearing a red full sleeved tee shirt and a navy blue and red skirt with my hair straight down my back with a braided headband. Ved took the last of the pictures.

"Perfect! You have completed the grooming course now." Lakshmi Aunty said.

"Wait, what?" I asked.

"A woman is not just about cooking or cleaning for her husband. It's not about how she dresses or how she makes an impression on people. It's her patience and grace that will help her support her life partner and be his other half. You have proved that today and through this course." Lakshmi Aunty said.

Who cares! I never even realized I displayed the so called 'patience and grace' she was talking about but I was done and no longer had to wake up at 4:00 am in the morning!

I jumped up and down in happiness as she handed me my diploma! Ved looked at me in different eyes today and I didn't know the exact feeling but I felt like I wanted to dress up for him like this more often.

*Present Day*

"Do you remember how we met Maya? In math class?" Vikram asked. I looked up at him and Priyanka also looked at Vikram in curiosity.

"How can I ever forget Vikram? That was the start of our friendship!" I said, laughing as I remembered that moment.

*Flashback*

I entered my math class on the first day of freshmen year. I wasn't very good at math so I was in the lower level math class called Geometry. Other kids were doing Calculus at my age and I was three levels lower than them. I thought I would be the only Indian in my math class but it turned out that there was another guy who was sitting across from me in my table group. I was too shy to start a conversation so I kept quiet for the whole class period.

After the class ended, my backpack was way too heavy so I had to carry my Geometry textbook in my hands. I passed by some Indians who were standing outside the Calculus classroom. They called me.

"Oye, girl in the red sweater! Come here." they said. They looked like upperclassmen and I couldn't mess with them so I obeyed, keeping my eyes downcast.

"Caleb, look at her! She's in Geek-o-metry!" a tall Indian guy said in scorn to me.

"Born with a birth defect, eh girl? Such a shame to the Indians here." a white guy responded. I could feel the onset of tears coming when suddenly another Indian guy stepped in front of me.

"Aryan, How many times do I have to make it clear to you? Stop harassing people." he said, a smirk on his face. This guy was handsome but not my type.

"Oye, move out of the way." Aryan said, shoving the guy. He yanked my Geometry textbook out of my hands and the white guy poured water all over the book, soaking it. I gasped.

"This is what happens when you disgrace the population of Indians, freak dumbo." Aryan said and sauntered into his Calculus classroom. I sunk to the floor and picked up my water soaked Geometry textbook. People were laughing at my state. The guy crouched to my side.

"Hey, it's ok. We can dry it out." he said, looking at me. He pulled me up and we dried the book in the library.

"We must plan revenge on Aryan." he said, strolling back and forth. I looked at him in confusion.

"Oh, I am so sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. I am Vikram Kumar." he said with a smile.

"I am Maya Srinivasan." I said, smiling. "But how can we get revenge on Aryan? He looks to be older than me."

"Are you kidding? He is a freshmen guy, just like us." Vikram said chuckling.

"Then we have to do something." I said.

"But the next bell is going to ring in three minutes. I have to go to my Global Studies class." I said.

"Meet me here at Lunch. We will plan something." Vikram said. I walked to my Global Studies class and found Aryan with his gang outside the classroom. I tried walking past them silently but Aryan whistled and I stopped in my tracks.

"Oh, I see Freak-O-Metry is back. Why don't you get it? I don't want to see you!" he said, walking around me. I could see people inside the classroom give me pitiful glances.

"Please...Aryan." I said in a faint whisper.

"No, no, no. You have upset me, which means that you have to bow to my feet and clean my shoes." he said.

"No!" I said, outraged.

"Do it!" he said annoyed. Then I got a brilliant idea. I could see Vikram approaching me but I signaled him to stay away. I bowed down to him and tied the shoelace of one shoe to another shoe. I dusted his shoe with one hand and tied Caleb's, Wong's and Nicholas's shoes in the same way.

I acted in humiliation as I stood up. "Can I please go Aryan?" I asked, stepping back.

He waved his hand and stepped forward and tripped on his own feet. Nicholas and Caleb tried helping him but fell over instead. Wong fell also without even stepping forward.

"Aryan, Aryan, Aryan. I bowed in front of you. In return, I got three additional people other than you to bow in front of me. You think your bullying would work on me? Don't mess with Maya Srinivasan, Freak." I said and sauntered into the classroom, leaving them there on the floor. Vikram high-fived me and it was the start of a friendship.

*Present Day*

Priyanka laughed out loud on how we had humiliated Aryan that day. I also smiled fondly but my smile instantly faded away at the memory of Aryan today.

"I guess he never forgot that, didn't he?" I asked Vikram weakly.

"Maya, please don't wrap your head around this guy! Ved has deceived you and everybody and he is not worth your time." Vikram said.

"Maya, Ved was a person in the past. Don't look back at him!" Priyanka said.

I guess everyone was correct. It was time for me to forget this day, the past few months and most importantly, Ved.

A/N: Hey Guys! How was the chapter? It was a filler, sorry for the boring stuff.

1) Maya and Ved are growing closer over her Kathak and Grooming classes. Their friendship is sweet, but she doesn't know what is going to happen to her!

2) Maya and Vikram's friendship! Isn't it hilarious, what they did to Aryan?

3) It's time for Maya to put back her past. What do you think is going to happen next?

4) I have included a cast now guys! You guys can tell the cast of Ved and Maya already with the cover but I cast Harshvardhan Rane as Vikram and Arjun Kapoor as Aryan (sorry for any Arjun Kapoor fans out there). I am kind of confused on who to cast for as Priyanka. Any ideas?

Please keep voting and commenting because this is seriously the longest chapter I have written (in spite of having an History Test on Chapters 1-23 in my textbook tomorrow) and I need the luck!