Arjun's POV :

The next morning, I woke up in a daze. Okay, I always wake up in a daze. But this morning, a little more than usual. Last evening I'd managed to get the coveted 'parents signature' on my answer sheets, and for once it was quite a pleasant affair. I'd managed to pass decently. After that my ecstatic mind had refused to sleep and I'd stayed up till 3 am watching Bigg Boss on Hotstar.

I didn't know how on earth I was going to endure nine hours of torture at school after sleeping for less than four hours. But all the same, I got out of bed and turned on the shower and...shit! The water was freezing cold! I knew who did these things.

"Arav!", I yelled angrily coming out of the bathroom shivering "Why did you turn off the heater?! There's no hot water in my room now".

Arav was sitting with his face glued to the window and was watching the rain coming down heavily, "Its raining so heavily. Maybe we won't have school today", he said turning to me hopefully.

"What?", I heard Ananya wailing from the next room in dismay, "I've already worn my uniform!"

"It is a holiday", said mom coming into my room with Ananya behind her, wearing her uniform and a frown.

"Are you sure?", I asked.

"Yes, I just saw the news", mom said "Plus, just take a look outside. It's technically impossible to get out in this rain".

"What about the hospital?", Ananya asked.

"The hospital is open of course", mom said looking at Ananya disbelievingly "We work on Diwali and Pongal, Ananya. This rain is nothing. Also, what are me and your dad going to do sitting at home, all day? I'll be bored to death without work. Plus, I have no pastimes. Now here, your uniforms are back from dry cleaning", she said placing Arav's and my uniform on the bed, "You don't need them today anyway, though".

Ananya walked off back to her room to change and Radhika came in with coffee for me and Arav.

"Mom, you said you don't have any pastimes. Why don't you also join our society's kitty club?", I asked.

Mom looked up suspiciously, "Why?"

"Just saying.."

Mom shrugged and said, "Well, it's a total waste of time. Just jobless women sitting around and gossiping. I don't understand why rich ladies have to spend their time like this instead of doing something useful".

"Well, not everyone is noble like you".

Unfortunately I often seemed to forget that, I inherited my fondness for flattery from dad.

Exasperation replaced curiosity on mom's face, "Please don't tell me you want money now Arjun" she said.

"Why can't you take a compliment from your son Vidya mam?" Radhika questioned from the background.

"You don't know Radhika. The last time I was a noble lady I had to buy him a whole music system".

Before I could reply, there was a loud groan from the next room.

"Noo!" Ananya wailed, "Mom it's not a holiday! We just got a message in our WhatsApp group".

Me, Arav and mom rushed into the next room to find Ananya looking hysterical and staring at the phone in her hand.

"Should I call the school office?", mom said uncertainly.

"Come on!" I said "Even if it's not a holiday, let's call it one. Please! I'm not going to school today".

"What's going on?", Janvi walked into the room looking curious, "Are you any of you coming for breakfast or not? This rain ruined my plans today. I was thinking of going to that Rajini movie".

"Since when did you start watching Rajinikanth's movies?", mom asked "Thought you didn't like him".

"Since..umm..never mind. Well anyway", she added brightly "As you guys don't have school today, I was thinking of trying a new lasagne recipe".

"Cut it. They have school today", mom said sourly.

"What? How can they ask you to come to school? There's a thunderstorm out there! Even our studio is closed today!"

"There is no thunderstorm, Janvi. Stop exaggerating", mom chided and then turned to us, "Alright you three, get ready quickly. I'll drop you on the way to the hospital. You can't walk in this rain".

Sure enough with all the chaos in the house, we reached school late. Like, really late. So late, that there was already a bunch of latecomers standing outside the classroom as a punishment and Rekha mam didn't even notice as me and Ananya added ourselves to the lot.

Pooja was also a part of the crowd as me and Ananya automatically moved towards her.

"What were they thinking, asking us to come to school on a day like this?", Pooja complained, "I had changed out of my uniform,back into pyjamas and was halfway into making Maggi for myself when someone sent that wretched message on WhatsApp".

"Should we say 'Excuse me mam' or just stand here all day?", I grumbled.

Both Pooja and Ananya simultaneously turned around and glared at me in vexation as if it was me who had cancelled the holiday.

"What?" I asked.

"Standing here all day is fine with me", Pooja said looking warily at Rekha mam, "At least she's ignoring us now. She might explode if we say something".

Almost as if on cue, Rekha mam turned around to face us. She was always so sweet that it was alarming to see her in a temper, "What are you all thinking?" she snapped "Now don't tell me your dad's car broke down, your mom wasn't feeling well and your auto driver went for a wedding, or something like that. I know you people were halfway into watching some serial on Hotstar when you got the message. For your information, I had to travel 15 kilometres in the rain to get here. All for your sake! I will not tolerate this again.  Now get inside all of you!".

"Burger King today evening?" Pooja asked me as she opened her tiffin box during lunch. Ananya had gone to get our lunch which mom had sent to the office. The pouring rain had finally stopped and now it was almost sunny.

"No, the matriarch is coming tonight. We're hooked to the fort", I said.

Pooja gave a forced laugh.

"Did you get the next revision test timetable?" I asked.

"Don't talk to me about any test", Pooja said dismissively "I feel like I have one brain cell and that too has depression", said Pooja, as she fiercely dug out the lemon rice from her lunch box and shoved a spoonful into her mouth. She choked a bit before swallowing it with difficulty.

"Are you okay?", I asked.

"It's horrible. I can't eat this" she complained.

"At least finish half of it", I urged.

Another spoonful went in and the momentary choking repeated itself.

"That's it", she said as she got up closing her lunch box, "I'm going to the canteen to see if there's anything",

One of our classmates walked in clearly from the canteen with a full stomach.

"Bro, what are they serving in the canteen?" I asked.

"Duh! Food, of course", he said indifferently.

"No what are you having?"

"An unwanted conversation", he said in the same tone and swaggered off.

I turned around to see Pooja giving me a sympathetic smile.

I shrugged, "What was that?"

"Just one of the many cases of hormone imbalance in this classroom. Don't you think about it for one second. Come on, let's go", said Pooja.

I'd spent very little time in my life wondering why  I had very few guy friends. The only guys I spoke to cordially, were the ones in the choir. We were friends. I mean the friends who talked during recess breaks, who exchanged DM's on instagram and caught up once in a while. I didn't have any brother-like friends. But I was happy that way. I didn't need them. Pooja and Ananya had ensured that.

"I am going to the canteen", Pooja said for the third time.

"Don't go", said Ananya coming inside the classroom, "There's nothing there. Unless you count that samosa filled with only onions, which I'm sure was made three days ago".

"Right then. I'm on fast today", said Pooja.

"Don't be an idiot", said Ananya "We have beetroot rice which sucks, by the way, so come and help me finish it".

A/N : Hey my lovely people! Hope you liked this chapter. If you did, please consider giving it a vote and do leave a comment! ❤️

Thank you so much to the sweethearts who gave me their encouragement in the previous chapter *big hug* (It meant a lot, really)

See you, till next time ❤️❤️