The next part of the journey uphill was less eventful. They walked up. They climed a little uphill. They were both silent, for their heads were abuzz with loads of arguments. They were not talking; yet they were arguing. With each other. They crossed many a thorny bushes and even their thighs would have been wounded had not they wore jeans and quality shoes. Even another snake crossed their path, it terrified them a bit, but they went on as if nothing had happened. They were too engrossed in thought that they just walked like dead men walking. And it was inevitable. She was only sixteen. He was too. Both were teenagers. She was aggressive; he was a bit dispassionate. Veronica was assertive, dictatorial, bossy – the warrior type; while the boy was flirty, cunning, determined – the trickster type. She hardly met a boy so closely. Both were powerful in their own ways. But they were determined not to lose before the other.