Gurukul, Day 3 of Prithvi's deadline, 11pm
"You look like you are dying," Abhirath remarked unkindly looking at Mriga who had flopped down on the ground without caring about the cold surface.
After a rigorous and never ending day, she still had the biggest challenge awaiting her. She peered at him through squinted eyes.
"I have valid reasons for it but why do you look like you died and came back?" she asked, returning the favor.
Her words may have been unkind but she wasn't exaggerating. He did look as sick as she felt. His sunken cheeks, dark circles under the eyes and droopy mouth told their own story.
"No, seriously, what is wrong with you?" she asked.
Abhirath looked a little hesitant but she glared at him and he couldn't hold it in.
"I have been assigned a secret task by Guruji with a deadline. Just finding it a little tough, so been burning the midnight oil on it, so to speak!" he said sheepishly.
Mriga stared at him in surprise, "You too? Is it a detailed map of Chandragarh?"
It was Abhirath's turn to look at her in askance.
"You mean, you too?" he asked and she nodded miserably.
"Why is Guruji doing this? Even the other three have got it. Havn't you noticed that all of us have been going easy on you in the past two days? Designing your lessons is a time consuming task, even though you may not have realised it. To have a near impossible task of learning the map within such a short span of time is adding to the pressure," he informed her in a pitiful tone.
"Huh! Was that sarcasm? Going easy on me? Can't you see that in three days, you people have managed to squeeze out whatever ghee* I had been fed in the past fifteen years. The four of you simply have to come up with the torture tools, I am the one experiencing them. How dare you compare your situation to mine?" she glared at him.
Before Abhirath could respond to her firing shots, she changed the topic herself.
"So where are you supposed to practice? I am assuming that Guruji is not letting you do it openly as well, right?" she asked him since she had been told to go to Shaurya's shop for the same.
"I am practicing in brother Sharuya's room here in the Admin building. I have been tasked to keep his place clean ever since I have come back," he told her.
"What is Guruji upto?" Mriga wondered aloud.
"So, when is your test? Mine is tonight," said Mriga, this time with real fear in her voice.
She wasn't half as worried about faring in the competition for the queen's selection as she was in terms of performing in front of Prithvi. The man exuded such a powerful aura that it was tough to imagine failing in front of him.
Looking at her pensive face, Abhirath felt sorry for her.
"I have an idea. Why don't I quiz you on the map right now? Since my test is tomorrow, you can help me tomorrow evening," he suggested.
Mriga brightened up immediately and agreed. For the next hour or so, Abhirath grilled her mercilessly. Even though she hadn't mastered it fully by the end of it, she was definitely more confident about it now than she had been sixty minutes ago.
Wishing her best of luck, Abhirath came to drop her till the gate and waited till she walked out of his sight. With a smile on his face, he turned back but stopped in his tracks, seeing two familiar faces.
Even though he didn't want to be anywhere close to them, he told himself that knowing about the enemy was always advantageous.
Yash and Vindhya stood under a tree in his direct line of vision. At this late an hour, there wasn't much activity around and their voices carried to him clearly as he moved in slightly closer.
"Why did you say no to my request for helping me practice? I thought we at least owed that much cordiality to each other," Vindhya's words trickled through her clenched teeth.
Even though there wasn't enough light, Abhirath could make out her stony expressions.
Yash replied in a soft voice and Abhirath had to really strain his ears to hear his reply, "I am sorry. My father is in town and I am spending all my free time with him, aiding him in his work. I have started apprenticing under him. It is inconvenient for me to step away from my duties, currently."
Vindhya's face cleared suddenly and she nodded in understanding.
"Oh, I didn't know that. Till when is he here? Can you help me once he leaves? We still have some time before the competition starts. You see, I am not allowed to bring in my tutor for practice and none of the students..." her words were interrupted.
"I am really sorry. Now that Mriga is taking part in the competition, I really can't be helping her competitor. I hope that you can understand," his tone was polite and respectful.
Suddenly, Vindhya's smile turned jeering and she couldn't help but shoot back, "Is it so? How touching is that sentiment? But then why has she chosen to seek help from those weird losers instead of a qualified guy like yourself? Are you sure that the girl, for whom you are upsetting the people around you, is even remotely interested in you? To the best of my knowledge, she has found herself new pastures, or maybe they are the old ones and you just didn't know about it."
Yash looked at her steadily for a second before walking away from there, quietly.
*Ghee - Purified Butter