Nidhi's POV

The next morning, Aashna di called me into her room.

"I want you to name the child." she said.

"Di, I have just known you for 4 days, how can I name your child?" I asked in shock.

"Don't say that. Even though it has only been four days, I feel like you have been a part of this family for longer. Tell me the name by today evening, we are having the naming ceremony." Aashna di said.

"Ok di." I said. I went back to the room and told Meera the good news.

"OMG! Naming a baby! What are you going to call her?" she asked.

"I have already decided." I said.

"Tell me!" Meera insisted.

"You will come to know in the evening." I said with a smirk.

The entire day was in a flurry of excitement in preparing for the naming ceremony. The priest came, set up for all the prayers and did the naming ceremony the Tamilian way.

"What is the name of the baby?" the priest asked at the end of the puja. I whispered the name in Aashna di's ear and she beamed at me. She whispered it in the priests ear.

"What is this yaar! Tell the name already!" Randhir protested.

"I agree." Meera said.

"Patience, Patience, all will be known in time." I said, smiling. The priest whispered the name in the baby's ear three times. Then he called it out.

"Adithi Shekhawat." he said.

"Beautiful name!" Meera said.

"I love it." Randhir said.

All of us whispered the name in the ear of the baby and rocked it in the cradle as per the ritual. The event ended and all of us rested.

The next day, we had to go back to college as our lectures were starting from the next day. After we bade goodbye to Akhil bhai, Aashna di and little Adithi, we took the first plane to Portland. I was catching up on whatever I missed with Meera when Neel and Randhir snored off. Lucky guys! We reached Portland and received a message from Joyce. We were supposed to report to Professor Derek's cabin immediately. We drove to college quickly and ran to Professor Derek's cabin. The others were already present there.

"We are sorry for our tardiness sir." I said, out of breath as I faced him.

"WHAT IRRESPONSIBILITY IS THIS?" Derek sir raged at me. "Where were you on Monday? You just walked out of college? You realize that this is a serious violation of the Aspire team rules right?"

"Sir, I am sorry sir. I had a family emergency."

"I don't CARE ABOUT YOUR FAMILY EMERGENCY. You were supposed to be here and you weren't and neither was Randhir. Were you two together?" he asked.

"Sir, I flew down to San Francisco shortly after hearing about Nidhi's problem." Randhir said, his head hung low.

"You could be kicked off the team for this you know." Derek sir said. I looked up in alarm.

"Please don't do that sir. I am sorry, very sorry. I am willing to do anything to make up for this mistake!" I said, pleading.

"You will have to finish analyzing these documents by tomorrow morning at 7:00." Derek sir said, handing me a stack of files. It was already 8:30 in the night here.

"I will get it started immediately sir." I said. He dismissed the team. Kate smirked at me when Joyce and Nina gave me looks of sympathy. The boys were animatedly chatting with Neel. Meanwhile, Randhir took my hand.

"Come with me." he said.

"I can't go anywhere! I have to analyze these things!" I protested.

"And I am giving you a place for that!" he said, walking into an empty classroom. After talking to the Janitor, he got permission to use the room. We pulled up a table and I set all the documents there.

"Thank you so much Randhir. Now jaake so jao (Go and sleep)" I said.

"Are you kidding? I am not leaving you alone. I will help."

"Randhir, that's cheating. Derek sir gave me the job." I said, tiredly.

"That was unfair of him in the first place. He didn't assign me anything even though I was equally at fault." Randhir protested.

"Just give me company. But don't help and don't even think of trying to do the work for me." I said.

"Oh fine." Randhir said and took out his Mechanical Engineering textbook and began studying.

Randhir's POV

It was so unfair of Derek Sir to punish only Nidhi when in reality, even I was at fault! I wanted to help Nidhi so badly but if I did that, then Nidhi would be punished. So I had no choice but to study ahead in my engineering textbook.

An hour later, I told Nidhi that I would be right back and I went to the cafe and got her some hot chocolate and I got some coffee. I also got her a sandwich and walked back. As I walked back to the classroom, I passed Derek sir's cabin. I heard voices inside.

"She is truly a talented person. If she manages to decode all of those business files by tomorrow morning, she would be able to get a job already at the top hospital in Portland." Derek Sir said.

"But the business has nothiink to do with the naarsing though!" I could hear RM sir say from inside in his Indian drawl.

"Don't say that RM. The decoding is not in the thing she is decoding, it is the efficiency of her work. Whether these kids on the Aspire team know it or not, I keep very close tabs on them. Closer than they think. I know about Neel's prosthetic foot, Meera's therapy sessions, Kate's drug addiction, Joyce's horseback riding, Nina's language learning classes, Jake's basketball failure, Carter's love for Nidhi, Mason's sick grandmother, Randhir's bipolar issues-"

What? He knew? And he knew very personal things about the others! This guy is creepy!

"And for Nidhi, I know about her media issues with her sister. I know a lot more about these kids and each one of them posess a unique talent. I have to bring that out in them! For Nidhi, it's her leadership and motivation, for Meera, it's her idea, Nina has a gift of languages, Joyce has a gift with animals. Carter has immense skills in mathematics and Jake has skills in analyzing literature. Randhir has a gift of high level knowledge in everything and Mason is gifted in programming and coding. The Aspire team is deeper than you think it is RM. These kids are the makings of the future generation." Derek sir finished.

I was shocked. Derek sir knew so much about us! He knew more about the others than I knew about them! I didn't know what 'media issues' he was saying about Nidhi or Meera's therapy sessions. And if Nidhi did well in this, she would have a successfull future!

"This may sound creepy RM, but only on these basis am I able to recruit the team and pinpoint the various abilities." he said.

"If you say so Deriik." RM Sir said.

I rushed back to the classroom and found Nidhi sound asleep on top of the files. I woke her up and as she did her work, I fed her the sandwiches and the milk.

Finally at around 2am, she fell asleep on my shoulder in exhaustion. She still had 10 files left to analyze. I had a battle with myself.

Should I help her or not?

I finally decided to help her because it depended on her future. I finished the files around 4am and reviewed the ones she had already done. After correcting her mistakes, I fell asleep.

I woke up to Nidhi shaking me.

"OHMYGOD! I didn't finish the files! I can't believe you didn't wake me up! It's five minutes to seven! Oh god, Derek sir is going to be so mad!" she yelled at me as she tied her hair in a bun.

"Nidhi, I-" I tried telling her that it was done but she wouldn't listen.

"Don't have time to listen. Sorry Randhir, I will see you in the café after I meet him." Nidhi said, grabbing the fines. She threw her dupatta across her shoulder and ran outside.

Oh well, It will be a pleasant surprise for her. I hope she likes it!

A/N: Hey Guys! How was the chapter?

1) Aditi! This name was suggested by @Krazy_Kiran so thank you so much gurl! So many of you suggested other awesome names and I am going to be using them in the future!

2) Do you think it was such a good idea for Randhir to tamper with Nidhi's things? Is she going to get mad?

Please keep voting and commenting!