Nishant diligently read the novels for next few days. Just like Shradha had promised, Rajat did not give assignments to Nishant. But there was a book report/review that had to sent to Rajat after finishing reading, which was far better than the weekly assignments. The book was really interesting and nishant was hooked to the story to the extent of ignoring his daily routine. Of course he had to hide the book from his mother, to avoid hours of lecture on 'distractions'. He finished both books in one week and then sat down during the weekend to write the report. It was challenging task, considering Nishant had not been an opinionated person and as per google, book reports had to have readers take on the book. So it took few hours of thinking, re-reading few chapters and whole lot of scribbling notes to form a decent book report. Nishant thought of asking Shradha to read it before he could submit. Unfortunately they did not have each others contact information and the report had to be submitted on monday. After contemplating for a bit, nishant reluctantly installed instagram and started looking for Shradha. She was not an easy person to find and she was friends with only few people from their class. But she had added Rajat and he was easy to find. After sending follow request, Nishant waited impatiently.
This was the first time he was contacting a girl. This might sound absurd to many people but for Nishant, girls were distractions and he had always tried his best to stay away from any distractions. This did not mean he had never spoken to a girl. It was just that it was always about studies and notes and in the school/college premise. He had never seen those girls as friends and so there was never need of staying in contact. But with shradha it was different. She was obviously not a friend, but somehow he could not see her as a distraction. She was this 'no filter, and brutal honest' type of person and Nishant felt that he needed that right now. So "being friends with her may not be a bad thing after all" was the conclusion, which had led to the instagram request.
Shradha was at home that weekend. She wanted to buy a laptop and her savings were not enough to buy a good one. So she had plans of helping her mom with household chores, butter her up a little before asking for "college fees". She was laying down in her room after cleaning the entire house when her phone beeped. It was the instagram follow request from Nishant. She accepted the invite thinking "What does he want from me". She was about to type the same on the DM, but "hi" was already sent by Nishant.
"That was fast. Please don't tell me he is no different than other boys and he wants to go on date". She replied "what do you want" straight away. Nishant was taken aback by her message, but he recovered and typed fast.
"I have finished both the Dan Brown books and also finished the book report. I wanted to know if you can read and tell me what do you think of it"
"So you want ME to read YOUR book report?" "Why"
"Because… you said you were good editor." ….. "And.. I think I need a good editor to guide me. So" … "Will you help me ?"
Shradha was amused by this request. She thought of having some fun. So she started typing.
"Hmm.. I can surely help you. But… people usually pay me for these kind of requests"
"But I thought lit club does not pay anyone! No one told me about payment"
Shradha was grinning when she saw his reply. He was really easy to fool.
"Not that you idiot. I meant when I am doing personal favors. I get to proofread a lot of college application essays from seniors who are trying for abroad universities. I never do that work for free".
"Oh. I see… well.. My pocket money is not much. So I can only give you 500 rupees"
Shradha badly needed a new laptop and any small money could also be of use in such time. So she agreed to it right away.
"Fine. I will help you for now. But remember, if you need my help in the future, you better get your pocket money increased."
Shradha sent him a wink emoji and then sent her email ID, instructing Nishant to mail his report and she will read it right away.
Within a minute new email had arrived in shraddha's mailbox. It was around 1000 words and shradha read the whole thing in few minutes. The writing was basic, but Nishant's take on the books was interesting. It needed minor tweaking and a little bit of organizing. Shradha replied to nishant,
"Looks good. Writing is basic, but the thought process is interesting. You need to edit the whole thing once though. Some of the paragraphs need rearranging. And need to re-frame some of the scattered thoughts better."
She sent a further detailed message on what should be changed and fixed. Nishant replied, he will send the updated document by night, to which Shradha agreed. The update was completed and it was reviewed in no time. By sunday night, Nishant's book report was ready for submission and shradha had additional 500 rupees in her account.