"I can't believe Ami ditched me for cram school and left me in the clutches of the devil himself!" Swara complained, bemoaning the act of her traitorous friend.

"Just answer the question, smart-mouth. What's six times seven?"

Swara tapped her pencil impatiently against the edge of the table. "Forty-two?"

Sanskar let out a sigh of relief. "Good. So that's-" He checked his watch, wearing a look of detached amusement. "Sixteen minutes, thirty-six different guesses, and twenty-five more problems to go. And that's just simple multiplication." He shot her a sarcastic look. "Joy."

"Okay, look." Swara huffed angrily, staring up at her archenemy defiantly, "I didn't ask for you to help me-"

"-and I'm guessing you didn't ask to be academically incompetent either, did you?" he observed, leaning back arrogantly in his seat. He was met with a glare of pure hatred, but Swara seemed to have enough sense to know that she couldn't afford losing his help.

"Alright," he continued, "Now if you're finished whining, we can go on."

Swara folded her arms and did not respond. Sanskar sighed again, peering down at the mixed-subject review sitting in front of him.

"There's another mistake."

Swara's eyes narrowed as he pushed the paper in front of her. "Miss Bose, tell me, what's the capital of the United States?"

She studied the sheet for a moment, and looked up at him. "I wrote New York."

"I know what you wrote, Swara, but your work is careless. Think! What's the capital of the United States?"

Swara twirled her pencil speculatively between her fingers. "Washington?"

"Close. It's Washington D.C., to be exact." Sanskar saw her frown and added hurriedly, "But that's improvement, Swara! You're getting quicker. You know the answers, you just have to focus sometimes."

She brightened considerably at his words. "Really? Okay, next!"

He smiled. "Spell 'infatuation'."

"I-N-F-A..."

She bit her lip for a moment, hesitating, and Sanskar silently urged her on. "Um...T-A-Wait, no! U-A-T-I-O-N. Infatuation!" she finished proudly, smiling happily up at him.

"Good. Now seventy-two divided by nine is not six."

"Oops. Eight." Swara scratched out her previous answer and wrote the correct one in.

"The biggest animal to ever exist was not the dinosaur."

"Oops. Blue whale." Scribble.

"June 6, 1944 did not involve World War I."

"Oops. American D-day Omaha Beach invasion."

"152 plus 38 is not 220."

"Oops. 190."

"You don't hate me."

"Oops, I love y-"

Her pencil hovered over the page, floating for a moment above the nonexistent mistake. Then her eyes grew wide as she realized what she had almost let slip.

"Umm..." Swara mumbled, looking down hastily at the table. "I didn't-I mean, that-forget what I-"

"No," she heard Sanskar interrupt suddenly, and at the sound of his voice she chanced an apprehensive peek up at him.

He was smiling.

"No," he repeated softly. "Try again. Your answer was right the first time."

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A double update for today coz now there will be no update till the coming thursday. Credits to my studies, assignments and tests ofcourse.

Enjoy and miss me ❤