Arjun's POV :

It was Saturday. The day of the competition commencement.

We were to go to a star hotel called Walter's Residency, where the competition was going to take place. Each round went on for two or three days and we had to stay in the hotel for those few days. After that, we could go home and if we were not eliminated we would have to come back for the next round.

My parents wouldn't be able to stay with us since the organizers strictly prohibited any guests. Only the participants were allowed.

"You're taking off from school?" Arav asked enviously.

"Yep", I guffawed.

"All the best", Radhika said giving us both curd and sugar for good luck.

"Really? This is so primitive!" I mumbled.

But Ananya happily took it and said "Thanks akka", and hugged Radhika.

I nodded at her and we picked up our bags and moved out.

One of the many weird things in our family was that Ananya's luggage would always be smaller than mine. And it was no different this time. She wasn't bringing too much cosmetics. Just some regular wear and basic essentials. I on the other hand, had thrown in deodorant, perfumes, moisturizing lotions and a dozen change of outfits and shoes.

Sometimes I wonder whether the Gods had mismatched our genders. But come on, I had to look good at an event that was going to change my life (Yes, I was sure of it. FYF would certainly change my life in one way or another).

Mom, dad and Arav came to drop us at the location. Janvi had gone to Bangalore for a photoshoot and hadn't been able to come.

We'd never been to a five star hotel before. I really don't understand my parents sometimes. What's the use of having money if you're not going to spend it lavishly?

But as I'd expected, my parents were not at all over awed by the setting of Walter's Residency (I'd always had strong suspicions that they'd gone to star hotels without us, I mean, please! Everybody knows those medical conferrence things are held in five star hotels).

While Arav, Ananya and me were busy looking around at the divinely captivating setting, mom and dad were busy advising us to play sportively and fairly and telling us that it wouldn't matter at all if one of us got eliminated first or even if neither of us made it through to many levels.

After seeing them off, I and Ananya went to have lunch. The hotel had many restaurants. There was a buffet lunch in one of them, so we went there. We served ourselves and went to sit down.

"So how are you feeling?" I asked Ananya. At the bottom of my mind, there was a small ounce of gratitude that I was not sitting here alone.

Ananya didn't respond. She kept glancing around us.

"Are you looking for Rubina?" I asked.

"Rubina? She's not even a real person to me", Ananya said "Plus why would I look for your girlfriend. I'm searching for Pooja".

"She'll come when she does. Or she could be in one of the other restaurants", I suggested, "By the way, what do you think of this place?"

"It's amazing!", Ananya said coming back to her usual enthusiastic state "I wish I lived here."

"Yeah, I heard Miss Tamilnadu takes place here every year. And a lot of film stars stay in this hotel too", I said.

"Wow! Do you think we'll get to see Jyothika and Surya?"

"Oh God! Ananya I said film stars come here to stay sometimes. I didn't say all of them are here in this hotel right now", I said and then as I chewed on my food I added "By the way, this ghee roast sucks. The ghee roast in Adyar Anandha Bavan is way better than this!"

"We're in a five star hotel for the first time I'm our lives and you are complaining?"

"I stated the fact".

"This is not our house Arjun. Try to eat whatever's available", Ananya advised as she started to greedily devour a slice of cheesecake. I felt sick just looking at it. God knows how much calories it contained!

"And you think you should be eating that cheesecake?", I shot back "You'll become a cheesecake yourself very soon, if you're not careful. I already see the tomato cheeks".

"At least, I'm not trying to starve myself on carrot sticks and drinking some puke inducing protein shake trying too hard to be fit. For heaven sake, go join a gym, if you want a body, that badly".

"I would, if mom and dad allowed me. Oh, how I wish I had some money!"

Ananya made no comment on that. She was behaving very weirdly. Yes, more than usual. I was wondering if it was nerves since my sister isn't very used to doing things infront of people, unlike me. But I had a very bad feeling that this was more than nerves.

After lunch we got up and went to the area where the competition was due to start. It was a grand setting. A very showily decked up dias was infront of us. There were many people moving up and down doing stuff. This was not new to me. I'd seen things like this many competitions and events. However I had to calm down my overwhelmed sister who was now behaving like a kid in a candy store.

"Will they be filming us? Are there really so many lights? Why are so many people standing here?" and a thousand other questions fell out from my sister's mouth.

"Be quiet Ananya", I said in exasperation "Why do you always behave like a geek? Can't you be normal somewhere?"

"Why should I be normal when I can be amazing?", Ananya asked.

I smacked my forehead.

"What? I've had my share of struggle in life Arjun. Don't treat me like a baby", said Ananya.

"You and struggling?! My foot! Do you even know what struggle is? Sorry, Ananya, you are not a struggler".

Ananya shot out her middle finger at me.

"Listen, Ananya, I'm a bird of the world. I know how people function. You are a donkey in the barn. You know nothing. You need me. Okay?"

"Don't try to tense me up. I'm here just to have fun", said Ananya "Because this nonsense won't get me into Madras Medical College".

"Then why didn't you sit at home learning for your bloody NEET exam?".

Ananya escaped from answering by the arrival of Pooja and Rubina. Rubina instantly took me by the arm and led me away and my over enthusiastic sister was left with an equally delirious looking Pooja.

After some time, a small group of people entered the room and the crewmembers immediately hushed into silence. All of us participants followed suit.

The group was led by a woman in a neon pink coloured designer saree with a very polished demeanour and a typical media savvy attitude.

I could easily make out that she was going to host the show. She could be hardly thirty but the lines of wear on her face could not be hidden under her gaudy make-up. She looked vaguely familiar. I presumed that she'd hosted several events like this and maybe I'd seen her somewhere or maybe on Instagram.

She went up to the dias while the other few people who I guessed to the sponsors of the competition took the chairs infront of it.

The woman introduced herself as Roma Chakravarty.

"But you all can call me just Roma", she said smiling at all of us, participants. But even when she was smiling, her presence lacked warmth and turned out to be very intimidating. She then invited all of us to go on stage one by one and give our introductions, after which the first task would begin.

We all quickly lined up. It was the first time I was actually noticing the other contestants. Some looked smart, some looked cute, some neither. But they all looked very determined. Man, this wasn't going to be easy!

I ended up third in the line and the guy in the first went up. There was nothing out of the world about him but there was nothing wrong with him either. He was confident and clear cut.

He said his name was Raghav and went onto say that he liked anything related to science fiction and that he was going to be a criminal psychologist. He then said a few boring lines about his beliefs that were way too obviously out of Pinterest.

Then the next contestant went to the dias as I moved forward. I was up next.

The guy now on stage was in outrageously loud dressing. Whether he had tried to emulate Ranveer Singh or Harry Styles, I couldn't figure out. But either way he had failed. And didn't seem to realise it either, the way he was standing with his chest thrown out. I could already see that he was a total amateur. But there was one thing. Through his shirt, that was thinner than a georgette saree, I could see, (with a little envy) his abs.

I looked behind me. There was Rubina, Pooja, Ananya and then there was a girl in brash glamourous clothing showing way too much neck and legs. I quickly shifted my glance to the person next to her. I certainly didn't want to stare at someone's cleavage when my girlfriend was right behind me.

After her were two more girls, both formally dressed. One a little more stylish than the other.

And finally the last guy in the line, had an undeniably captivating demeanour. He was very tall with long curls and dimples. I saw some of the girls staring at him. I couldn't blame them. I was staring at him. I turned around to see my no-wrong-doing sister and..ha! She was gawking too.

When it was my turn, I went up and recited what I'd rehearsed. It wasn't much.

I spoke about my family and dreams and then concluded saying, "I love adventures. I love taking calculated risks. Thats the fun in life. Because, yes, a ship is safe in the harbour. But that's not what it's made for".

I'd never been much of a speaker. But I guess I wasn't too bad either. Because there was quite some applause.

When my sister came up, she turned into a preacher. She spoke quite a lot of things. She finished with a big insight.

"Think positive and be kind", Ananya said "Make sure you emit what you would like to receive because the energy you give out will be what bounces back to you. Some call it the law of attraction. I call it Karma".

That received a lot of applause. Okay, I'll admit she was pretty good. Maybe I should consider Ananya for being my PR agent when I become a singer?

After Ananya there were three more girls and a guy.

The first girl called Shilpa boldly announced she wanted to be a fashion model (I should've guessed with her dressing) and the second one Neha was an aspiring nutritionist. The last one Oviya wanted to be an entrepreneur. Being honest all three of them, were quite intimidating and looked like they were going to kill to win. Especially the last one.

Finally, our 'it' guy came. He didn't have that ugly fierceness on his face like most of the other contestants. Despite having a very deep voice, his speech was pleasant to hear. He said that his name was Kishan and started off talking about himself while I zoned out and scanned my sister's face. She was still unmistakably oggling at him. Nice. For all the anger, I was feeling towards my sister right now, I still couldn't help feeling the need to crack up and make fun of her.

Finally, Kishan concluded his introduction by saying, "I've always wanted to spend my life saving that of others. I want to be a doctor."

Okay. Match made in heaven.

A/N : Hey my lovely people! ❤️❤️ Hope you liked this chapter. So much more new stuff is coming up.

We've dived into a new line and I'm really hoping you like it. (We won't be seeing the family scenario for a few chapters from now). Anyway, if you liked this chapter, please do leave your vote and comments!

Much love ❤️❤️ See you in the next chapter!