Immaculate understood what the staffs were trying to do by putting her in the volunteers club . Why can't they just accept her the way she was and move on ? Socializing is not a crucial need in life , people can manage without it also , she thought . Still, some extra curricular grade matters while calculating the Grade Point Average , so she agreed to help .

They were asked to plan the upcoming Cricket tournament for the freshers crowd . Every year they plan some events to encourage and make the new comers feel welcomed . Even before the academic year begins , they conduct this event so that the freshers get to know each other and blend in well .

She found this girl from the Computer Science Engineering kind of annoying at times but she seemed fun too . Fathima , she pranked the others into believing that the actual date of the event was preponed at the last moment , and the whole team were shaken up until Immaculate put forth the truth.

For others who completely play ignorant with her after the first meet , Fathima seemed fine. Finally did she find a friend after long days of exile ? Maybe.

Fathima opened a coke can , the gas slushed out along with the content inside . She held it far from her thus leading some of it to land on Immaculate who moved at once and glared .

Fathima- oh come on , it's just coke not acid Imma.

Imma looked tensed though . She was going to say something before which Fathima spoke .

F- oh yeah I remember, sorry you've got dance practice now right. Carry on , I'll give this list to the principal . See you at lunch then .

Seemed like the opponent team had come first today , they were still practicing and the others had to wait.
Shivaay stood at one corner of the ground , padded up when Arjun came and nudged his shoulders from behind.

Ar- Shivaay right ? We met at the Inauguration, remember.

S- yep .

Ar - you think we can take them down ?

He asked pointing the other team , shivaay smiled.

S- sadly I don't have a time machine yet . I have now idea .

Ar- come on , I saw the name list. You are our captain .

Shivaay shook his head slowly pressing his lips together to make a line.

S - still searching for the person who made the decision , captain - Shivaay . I had nothing to do this summer before college so I thought maybe I can come here and play . That's it .

Ar- wow , that's motivating enough .

Both chuckled a bit and prepared to start as the other team seemed to have finished by then .

S- know anything about the winning price .

Ar- hmm optimism . This sounds like a good captain , Captain .

S- seriously, just wanted to know that's all .

Ar -not sure actually, heard they'd put it on the notice board by end of the day.

S- I hope it's something cool .

Fathima was bewildered on seeing that particular check box ticked . She knew their principal was a bit weird but seriously, this is his choice ? Well the first one to be blamed is this girl Imma though , she sighed huge thinking how strange she could be at times. They were asked to come up with some ideas for the winning price , everyone wrote down theirs and a list was prepared . And this stingy Principal had to tick Imma's choice at the end , freshers are gonna curse the management for this .

Some cash price atleast would have made all the difference. She stood there mentally cursing Imma for doing this , while the principal appreciated the team for the same idea which she thought was dumb .

' It's nice that you guys still give importance to such stuffs , whose idea was it by the way ?'

F- dumma's

' Sorry what ?'

F - uhh ... I mean Imma's , Immaculate.

' Oh yeah I remember , the same girl who drew lots and chose the Team Captains, right ?'

F - yep , that same beauty nerd .

' Fathima '

F- sorry sir .

' Ok , thanks then . Your hard work is appreciated, keep that coming . I'll put this on the notice board . '

S- that was something .

Ar - something ? You were great man . I had no idea , the sweep shot in the 4th over , that was totally unexpected !

Arjun expressed his surprised self while shivaay emptied some water .

S- I think everyone are good in our team, especially your yorkers are too perfect you know .

They noticed a group of boys near the notice board , booing in disapproval.

Ar- what is it ?

Both cleared the way to reach close and when they finally saw it , they shared the same expression as all .

S- seriously?

Ar - I thought this was a college , my school gives better things than this .

S- boring , let's just enjoy the game and be done with it .

Immaculate watched the entire scene from far , from her department corridor . She couldn't tell what they were discussing, but sure they didn't like this . Not her problem , she just gave in her suggestion , didn't make the actual choice. She shrugged her shoulders and left .

' Thank you students for your cooperation , hope you all enjoyed the match . It's time for the awarding ceremony . So as we all know , please may I have Team Shivaay to come up on stage and collect the winning price.'

All the Eleven players jumped and ran accross the ground in excitement. The Dean distributed the price to each one of them . Arjun hugged and almost kissed shivaay in joy , today's match was hell of fun , well , a nail biting one actually.

' We have a special man of the match price for shivaay who played excellently today and took the team to victory. This is a special gift , we are planning to put these in our college campus somewhere and you get to decide where .'

Shivaay showed a thumbs up and went up to the stage to  receive it.

The captain did save his ship today , everyone cheered for him .

' Treat ,Captain !'

S- sure .

' You run like an animal man , how did you even make the last doubles ?'

S- well , you were at the other end so I knew we'd make it . Thanks .

They shared a hug .

Ar- hey shivaay , what about this ?

S- don't know , somewhere in college they said . Thinking of the spot near Auditorium.

Ar- hey wait , I think it grows into alphabets , your name maybe . I heard them saying something like that .

Shivaay just passed a nod seeing which Arjun replied quickly.

Ar- maybe this isn't that bad you know , you can be so popular before even starting college . The pride of freshers . Girls are gonna go insane , and

Shivaay immediately stuffed a whole samosa into his mouth and dragged him to the parking spot.

✅ Saplings.