“Our brothers and sisters are there with us from the dawn of our personal stories to the inevitable dusk.”

– Susan Scarf Merrell

Arjun's POV :

See, the thing is, my fate is screwed up. That's what it is.

It was a usual Saturday evening in Chennai and I could have been slumping on the sand at Marina Beach or catching the latest flick at Sathyam Cinemas but no, here I was in a NEET classroom in the burning weather even though it was almost five o clock.

"Pay attention all of you. We're going to study the most important topic under genetic diversity. Every single NEET paper has had questions from this for the last twenty years!" the guy in front of the class was saying.

"What's he playing at? There was no NEET until ten years ago" a boy sitting in front of me, whose name I didn't know, muttered.

I failed to suppress a chuckle. He turned and looked at me enquiringly but on seeing me grin, he grinned back and turned again.

Being a science group student in the twenty first century is no easy thing.

Okay, being any student in any century is no easy thing.

But, you know science group in the 21st century is a lightning strike followed by a snake bite called NEET classes.

Now before you label me as the guy who feels he is 'too-cool-for-school', I will admit that we do have some really amazing teachers at the coaching center who made even a person like me who hates science at least sit in class and try to make some sense of what was going on.

But some were as bad as others were good. Those were the classes that made me want to leave the class in the name of going to the bathroom and just run away to the chaat stall outside the building.

Not that I didn't do it at least twice a week.

In fact, the truth was, attending at least four out of the seven classes every week was an achievement for me. And the reason for that was..well...let me not talk about that right now.

Anyway, that particular afternoon was one of those cases.

Our teacher was droning on and on like an old vacuum cleaner. The power had gone off a few minutes ago and the room was stuffier than ever. The scorching Chennai sun was right on our faces which meant most of us were already lying down to avoid it.

All in all, the room provided a perfect napping ambiance.

I turned and glanced at the girl sitting next to me (no it's not what you think it is, there is no romance in my life right now).

It was my twin sister, Ananya. I could see she was also bored to death and really wanted to drift into a dream about Harry Styles.

But she unlike me, was valiantly trying to push aside her fantasy and pay attention. But then, she, unlike me, actually liked science. And, she, unlike me was a 'good student' with a conventional, 'Indian parents' favourite' dream of clearing NEET with flying colours.

For the first twenty minutes I sat wondering (not for the first time) why my parents wasted their hard earned money exclusively to send me to this stupid place. Why couldn't they just make my sister come here and let me do my thing?

And then, after that, I drifted into a stupor and was blissfully, halfway through my fantasy meeting with Selena Gomez that I was actually a bit sorry when I was woken up by the shrill sound of the bell.

Our teacher murmured something about an assignment which I did not pay attention to.

My eyes were sweeping around the classroom and settled on a girl with a messy ponytail in the first row namely my former girlfriend Farah.

Unfortunately, her eyes were on me too. I instantly knew what was coming and hurriedly looked away.

As soon as, we were allowed to disperse, I quickly threw my stuff into my bag and ran out of the classroom but Farah was as quick as I was.

Even as I ran, I heard a hasty sound of heels tapping, behind me and I didn't have to turn around to know it was Farah.

I stopped and turned. Farah was staring, at me.

"Listen! Please don't follow me", I said with folded hands and then turned around and walked away in the opposite direction wishing desperately that I had Harry Potter's invisibility cloak, leaving her standing in the corridor looking like a bruised lamb.

Hey, it's not like I dumped her or anything. No, I mean, she dumped me and I dumped her. It was a mutual dumping.

There was no need for her to follow me everyday, like an abandoned puppy with a woe-is-me expression on her face.

Unfortunately the building entrance was on the other side of Farah and there was no way I was going past her again.

So I ran the opposite way and locked myself in the bathroom, pulled out my phone from my bag to call up my over brilliant sister to come up with a rescue plan for me.

"Where are you?" Ananya asked as soon as she picked the phone.

"That Farah is following me again. Do something. Save me!" I said desperately.

Ananya sighed dramatically. See, my sister might have earned the 'good as gold' title, but that didn't mean she did not have a witchy side.

"Go and hide in the bathroom", she said finally.

"I am already in the bathroom. Even I have that much intelligence Ananya", I snapped, "But I can't keep sitting here forever".

"Why don't you just tell her to stop following you?" she asked.

"I don't want to see her face, let alone talk to her".

"Are you sure?" Ananya asked me, "But you're deliberately hurting her. We've got a NEET exam to write this year, you know. We don't want bad karma".

"Oh Please! Just don't!" I said.

"Don't what?"

"Don't give me the karma thing Ananya!" I said angrily "And I'm sure my karma is already pretty messed up anyway. Seriously, if I'd had any good karma, I wouldn't be stuck in this dumb coaching class".

Ananya made an annoying tutting sound and I could picture her shaking her head in disapproval."Stop tutting and try to help me!" I begged.

"Okay, wait in the bathroom. I'll come and get you" she said and hung up. In a few seconds my sister arrived to rescue me from my stalker ex.

"I don't understand her behaviour", I grumbled as we left the bathroom, "We weren't even too close. The only time we went anywhere was to that restaurant on the opposite road. She ordered a ghee roast. And I ordered a chilli parotta..."

"Her ghee roast was not roasty enough, so you gave her your chilli parotta. And then, you both had cold coffee from the same cup", Ananya recited, "You've told me this romantic story ten thousand times!"

"Don't exaggerate", I muttered "I just hope she doesn't come out and find me here."

"She can easily spot you with that neon coloured thing on your back. For heavens sake, you're, the only person in this building carrying such a tacky backpack!" said Ananya as she opened her own  grey coloured backpack and stuffed her phone into it "You just don't have the same taste as me".

"I'm glad", I said "It's irritating enough to have the same eyes, nose and face shape as you".

"Where is Arav?" she changed the topic as she peered out of the gate.

Our younger brother Arav had his basketball training right next to the building where we had our NEET coaching.

"Let's go there and see", I said leading the way into the next compound.

Arav came to us in his basketball shorts, dribbling his ball. He was a great player and more importantly he loved it, "We're wrapping up", he said, "Just give me five minutes to change. We can go home after that. Just hold this for me", he said throwing the ball on Ananya's face but I caught it.

"Hey, how about we both play till Arav comes back?" I asked Ananya impishly, "Whoever loses should carry the winner's bag home".

My sister looked at me. She was terrible at basketball but her ego was even more terrible and she couldn't resist. In ten seconds , I was dribbling the ball past her and throwing it over her head into the basket.

It took me three minutes, to throw the ball into the basket four times in a row and my sister didn't stand a chance.

"A deal is a deal" , I chanted after I won the game as I picked up my bag and held it out to her, "Now come on, carry my bag home".

A/N : Hope you liked the opening guys ❤️

If you did, please do give it a vote, before you click through and do leave a comment.

See you in the next chapter