Randhir's POV

I walked into the hotel room and spotted Carter sitting on the couch, surfing through channels on the TV.

"How dare you!" I raged, pulling on Carter's collar.

"What the hell?" he said. Jake and Mason looked at us in shock.

"Randhir! Stop! We will get in a lot of trouble!" Neel said, pulling me back.

"If you dare mess with Nidhi, you are dead, you understand that?" I said, threatening him.

"What did he do?" Neel asked after pulling me out of the hotel room.

"That idiot spiked Nidhi's drink!" I said, furiously.

*Flashback*

I called the hotel staff. "May I see the CCTV footage from this evening?" I asked.

"Sorry sir, we don't give out the CCTV footage to everyone." they said.

"This is Randhir Singh Shekhawat speaking. My father is the owner of the restaurant." I said. It was true. My father was the owner of this restaurant and many other restaurants like this, around the world. I hated using his name to get things done but I was willing to do anything for Nidhi.

"Sorry sir. We will email you the footage immediately." the employee said and within the next minute, an email popped up in my inbox.

I forwarded it to when we were at dinner and sure enough, when all of us weren't paying attention, Carter poured some drink from a flask into Nidhi's drink.

*End of Flashback*

"What? How could he? And why?" Neel asked.

"He has been eyeing Nidhi like a piece of meat for the past week. I think he has bad intentions." I said.

"We will deal with this after the competition ends. We can't afford to get suspended from the team." Neel said.

Nidhi's POV

The next morning, I woke up with a throbbing headache.

"Oww...!" I said, holding my head.

"Here, this will help." Meera said, handing me some lemonade.

"What happened last night?" I asked.

"You got drunk." Meera said, simply.

"Drunk? What?"

"I think the waiter mixed up your order but Randhir brought you in here last night." Meera said.

I walked into the bathroom, showered and wore a green and black kurti top with black leggings. I felt much better and was ready for the next challenge.

We went up to the bulletin board and read our assignment. "Out in the field?" Jake said in confusion.

"Yes." Joyce said.

"Well, well...Mr. Shekhawat. I never knew your mother would be so cheap." Carter said, clapping.

"What nonsense are you saying?" Randhir asked.

"You should know about her sleazy acts." Carter said challengingly.

"Carter, don't talk about Randhir's mom that way!" I said. Carter noticed me and scratched his head sheepishly.

"I don't need you to defend me Nidhi." Randhir said, facing me.

"How can I be quiet? When someone insults a friend of mine, then I have to defend my friend right?" I said, without thinking.

Ok What?

"Well, we should probably go." Nina said and all was forgotten for now. 

We walked to the field. The other team was walking behind us and we faced each other. There were judges and other people sitting in the stands but they were protected behind a wall. Then the instructor came and addressed us.

"Your task today is harder. You must find a buried bomb on your side of the field, which is marked here by white. You will need to find where it has been buried and diffuse it. You have exactly 30 minutes to complete this task. There are some supplies you will need here but you cannot take anything until you find the bomb. Your time, starts now!" he yelled. We were shocked! None of us were prepared to do this task.

I dropped down to the ground and frantically began searching for it. Randhir and Meera crawled down on either side of me and began to search for it in the grass. I was getting mud all over myself but I didn't care.

Suddenly, I heard a beeping sound.

"Do you hear that guys?" I asked them.

Randhir moved to the location of the sound and began digging. All of us helped him.

Then, he pulled out the bomb from inside.

"Quick guys, we have only 15 minutes left to diffuse this!" Joyce said.

Neel and Mason carefully messed with the wires. Kate ran and got the supplies we needed. One was a diffuse kit and two, was an instruction manual. After skimming through it, I knew that if they moved the yellow wire, that would cause an immediate explosion.

"Careful guys! Don't move the yellow wire!" I said, just as Joyce reached over to move it. Finally, we diffused it and showed it to the instructor, just as I heard a blast from the other side.

I turned around and found that the other team had moved away before they could get hit.

"OEHS moves on to the next level!" said the instructor. I was thrilled! Only three more tasks to go and we just might win. The judges came and shook our hands. Randhir was walking towards me when I saw them.

"Mom? Dad?" I said in disbelief. "What are you doing here?"

I hugged them, only for Dad to push me away from him. "How dare you? You have ruined the family's name."

"Dad, what did I do?" I asked in confusion.

"Look at you! All this mud on your face, like a boy. You should be like a girl, like your sister. Instead you are out here with all of these boys. I am embarrassed to call you my daughter." Dad said.

"Do me a favor and stay away from us. You will ruin Naina's image." Mom said. My eyes filled with fresh tears.

I sunk to the floor crying. Randhir ran over to me.

"What happened? Are you ok?" he asked. I hugged him.

"Why do my parents hate me so much? Just because I am not a typical girl who coats her face and personality in society does not mean that I am going to leave my dreams and become like my sister." I said, sobbing into his shirt.

"Shh...it's going to be ok." Randhir said, patting my back.

Then we awkwardly withdrew. This was the same Randhir that I always fought with. But he was so nice to me now?

"Thanks." I said, wiping away my tears.

"For what?" he asked, confused.

"For this, for last night. I am indebted to you. Sorry I ruined your shirt. Should I wash it for you?" I asked.

"It's fine." he said awkwardly and walked away. I was still upset but my mind was on Randhir.

I decided to write him am email of thanks. He, he was like my friend now, right? He was the only one who knew about my family problems.

I went back to the hotel room and the girls decided to go shopping. I said that I wanted to rest in the hotel but really, I just wanted to get started on the email.

Hello Randhir.

No, scratch that. That sounded terrible. How about Hey Randhir?  Too casual.

Dear Randhir?  Perfect.

Dear Randhir,

When I first met you, we always clashed with our ideas and thoughts. Then you grew to become someone I admire. We shared many vulnerable moments together and what I said this morning was true. You are my friend. But I don't know if you will accept my friendship. Whenever you do, I'll be waiting.

From,

Nidhi

I pressed Send and hoped for the best.

The next day, our challenge was a trust test. We had to place immense trust on our team mates. 4 representatives of the team had to be sent away to do a scavenger hunt. We decided Jake, Joyce, Nina and Carter would do the scavenger hunt. Mason, Meera, Neel and Kate were sent away to participate in a race where they would be tied together. The objective of splitting us up was to analyze our individual performance. That left Randhir and I. They wanted two of the representatives, one boy and one girl to report to the theater after they had selected the members of the team.

Randhir hadn't replied to my email yet and he seemed oblivious so he must have not received it yet. We took our seats on the chairs in the theater.

"You are here today to trust each other. If you don't trust your partner, then you will not succeed in this challenge. And the rule is that you must win all three of the challenges to proceed to the next level. Only two teams with the highest points will be selected for the final task. Now, coming to the task. Your task today will be a dance. Sounds simple right? Not quite. The guy will be blindfolded and the girl will have to dance with the guy and protect him from falling.

Randhir looked at me in horror.

"I don't trust you!" he said.

"Well Mr. Shekhawat, it's too late for you to leave. Because if you leave, we will be disqualified and you will be suspended. So unless you want that to happen, please don't make a fuss." I said.

"Ugh, fine." Randhir said, crossing his arms. What a drama queen!

We walked up to the stage to get the blindfold. I tied it around Randhir tightly. Then I spun him thrice.

"What nonsense! Are you crazy?" Randhir asked as he slightly stumbled forward, attempting to regain his balance.

"No Randhir, this is just to make sure you actually can't see. Because the thing is actually, if you can see, we will get disqualified." I said, sarcastically.

"Whatever." Randhir said. I held up four fingers.

"How many fingers?" I asked him.

"Are you seriously making me do this?" he questioned.

"Just answer the question!" I said.

"Um...three?" he guessed.

"Yep, you are definitely blind." I said. Then I softened up a bit after looking at Randhir's anxiety. He probably never trusted anyone before this.

"Please trust me Randhir. I know it is difficult for you but please give me a chance." I said. He simply nodded. I couldn't read his expression because of the blindfold but his posture slightly relaxed after my little speech.

"First college is NCOA. You will be dancing to piano music." the judges said. The duo made a fool of themselves and fell over within the first minute. They were instantly disqualified. After three more groups getting disqualified, it was our turn.

"You will be dancing to flute music. Please begin." The judges said. I put one hand on Randhir's shoulder, after guiding his hand to my waist. He pulled me closer to him. I was conscious of the close proximity of our bodies but the music began playing.

I guided Randhir slowly. We stepped right, them left. Randhir held onto me tightly as I waltzed with him. After he gained confidence, he moved more freely and even dipped me down as the song ended.

"Very good! You have passed this trust test." The judge said.

Randhir held my hand for support as we walked down from the stage. Then I removed his blindfold.

"Thank you for not killing me onstage." he said after I removed the blindfold.

"Oh shut up!" I said as we walked out of the auditorium.

I hope the others did well and we would move to the finals.