I am dedicating this chapter toswedish63, divss for constant encouragement.

Sab ko dil se Eid ul fitr Mubarak

Wishing all Happy Ramzaan from bottom of my heart.

Anu's POV

"Avoid him as he never existed for you".
Nandu's words were ringing in my ears as continuous beat. He gave company till my home and left.

I thought about what Nandu said. Actually it's not a bad idea. I too want sometime and space for myself. And also I am curious about Surya's reaction. Will he made an effort to be with me or ignore. With these thoughts I spent a sleepless night.

Morning

I woke up due to my alarm. I am already tired in the very early morning due to lack of sleep. My mirror was showing my dark circles with puffy eyes. Arghhh!! I don't want to go school. My bed was opening it's arms to welcome me to sleep. But, a thought aroused in my mind, if today I won't go, they will think of me as a coward. No way, I don't want to allow them to think like that. Though I'm insecure, but I want to mask it. I want to overcome this. I have to go. I'm determined. I got ready within minutes, waved to mom with a smile. Fake, I know, but what can I do? They already had enough of suffering due to my nature.

I prefer to walk to school everyday but today, being sleepless girl and already late so haven't ate my breakfast, my body was not at all energized. So, I waited for an auto and started my bad day. Yah, it was very late and auto was overcrowded. However, I reached school on time. I went directly to my classroom only to found that leech on Surya's shoulder. Don't confuse, leech in my language means, Nandana. Immediately, I felt a rage in my body, my legs turned backwards, even without knowing myself.

Stop! I should not go like that. I closed my eyes. Left a sigh and went inside. I sat on my previous usual seat which was far away from those guys. Yes, I changed my seating also for them. They looked at me as I have horns. I ignored them. In reality, inside I'm feeling so much insecure about my decision.

Surya saw me but resisted to talk to me. I wonder why? May be due to my approval to Nandana's words. Suddenly, I am feeling sad and also I felt pity for myself for not defending yesterday. It's ok, I agreed to her words. But about him, doesn't he know about me? Arghh! My head was hurting very badly. I should have taken rest, instead of entertaining all these senseless rats. Lately, I realized onething I'm very good at giving names.

While I'm thinking all these, I got zoned out. I came into this world only when our lecturer asked me a question. He was waiting for my answer. I stood there like a statue. He gave up and said, "You are a student who excel in exams with very good grades but in person you are nothing. I don't know how you are managing. Sit down!" Everyone in the class laughed at his statement. Am I joke to these all? I was angry.

After the class ended, immediately I packed my bag and went to library to get some peace. That lasted only for a few minutes because, I was asked by English lecturer. Uff!! What's now?

I went to his cabin. To my surprise, there were so many students standing outside his cabin. What should I do now? To go in or to wait outside? My dilemma was relieved by Nandu, Nanda Kishore. In my sense when Nandu means Nanda Kishore only. Nandana will be a leech for me. Okk now I again I am zoned out, to be interrupted by Nandu. He asked me to come inside the cabin. Since, the college day was in a few days, they planned an act or a drama whatever. Main lead role male was Nandu, his heroine was Radha our junior, Second lead role was Surya and his heroine role was pending, Nandana was also there, she was playing a small role as a cupid. My lecturer was saying that I should atleast play a role this time otherwise he gonna give non satisfactory conduct certificate. Until now, I never bothered with his threats because they were like, 'I will cut your assignment marks', 'I am gonna give you low grade' because, somehow I study harder to makeup them. But this time, it's about conduct certificate. So I should be careful and must play in this act. So, I agreed with lecturer. He asked the class representator, "Which roles were unselected?" He replied, "The second female lead and the assistant of first male lead but that should be a guy so, for her it will be the second female lead."
Lecturer said, "So, you are going to play the second female role, pairing with Surya. Go and start rehearsal."
My mind went blank with the new information. Its gonna be hell for me!!

The rehearsal was started there itself. Since, being me, I am very bad at acting. One time, I will say my dialogues before Surya, another time I will forget the dialogue. If I remember both things, there will be no emotion on my face or in my voice. All my efforts went in a vain. On other hand, Surya was not at all cooperating. Nandu was looking at me with pity. He was trying to encourage only to be encountered by Surya and co. Due to all this, my stress reached to the core, and suddenly when I am saying dialogue, my world went black.

I regained my senses, after sometime. My lecturer was looking at me with a guilty face. I felt sorry for him. So, I asked him, " Sir, is there any role or character whose appearance was not much needed?". He said, "All the other roles were already occupied. The voice over team was still on hold, so, if you are okay with that, you can do but, you need a male partner". I said , "I will do that sir, I will ask someone to be my partner." He gave me a suspicious look. May be he has doubt on me, whether I can get a partner or not.

I was still not recovered, so I went to canteen to eat or drink something. I have to ask someone to be my partner, so I gave a look through out the canteen. Now, I get too know how much ignorant I am because only a few are known to me. Most of them are strangers to me. The few faces I know are once badly encountered by me like, when they say hi, I simply walk past them, when they try to initiate chat, I would say, I am not interested. So, I am left with a big None option. I wanted to cry out my sorrow.

I want to be alone for sometime, away from the drama, both reel and real. While I was sipping my drink and thinking I don't know why, my always privacy intruder, none other than, Mr.Nandu came. No one knows that I will be thinking like this when they saw me. Because, I am as quite as a dead tape outside. He gave me a small smile and sat besides me. I, being an upset introvert, have not reciprocated him. He cleared his throat to get my attention. I gave him, what's now? look.
He said, "I want to be your partner in you voice over team. Will you let me? Please".
I bewildered with his request. Immediately, I asked him, "What's with your role in the act, you were the leading one right?!"
He said grinning, "Since, I am a worst performer, they ditched me, so I am requesting you to allow me as your partner at least."
I looked at him with a raised eyebrow because his answer was not at all convincing. I was surprised and at the same time confused. If he was a worst actor, they shouldn't have selected him right!! So I said, "You are seemed to be so much suspicious, I am not really believing your story but, since I badly need a partner to team up , I am taking you."
He was happy with my answer and became melodramatic saying, "You are really a friend of mine, because no one were ready to do something for me now to be able to pass English".
He wept his invisible tears. I laughed at his antics. He know how to make me smile.

When we went to report to our English lecturer about our team, he handed over me the story, roles and performers names, our plots etc. I red the story once. It was really a nice one , actually a cool love story. I checked the performers names. I felt a pang in my heart and also I was shocked.

Want to know what happened next.....wait for my next update. If you like the story, vote for me. Comment your opinions

To be continued.........