It's the next day. Rhea is standing inside the kitchen, beside her mom, holding a tray, which had three glasses of orange juice. Mrs Laghari then puts the pakodas on a plate then the plate on the tray.

[Pronounced as Pa-ko-ra]

[In Hindi, the plural of "Pakoda" is "Pakode"; But we've put (s) just as if it's an English name. But it isn't]

"Oof this getting heavy! Imma go and put this in the living room." Rhea said, exhaustedly.

[Imma(I'ma): I'm gonna/going to]

"Won't you take them to your room?" Her mom said, stirring the spatula in the oil, on the frying pan.

"Nah. It's too small for that many people. And this monkey keeps interrupting."

"Which monkey?" Mrs Laghari turned her head towards Rhea.

"Who looks like a monkey in our family?" Rhea said irritatedly.

She whispered, "Your dad."

"Pff-!" They both laughed. "But I'm talking about his son. Who's also a monkey."

Mr Laghari and Noor stood at the kitchen doorway, with their hands folded.

Mrs Laghari & Rhea: *gulps* 😅😅😅

* * * * *

"What the-! You didn't tell me that your friend is a girl!"

"Shut up." Alicia said and rang the door bell of Rhea's house. Rhea rushed from between her dad and brother and through the kitchen doorway to opened the main door of the house.

"You may leave now." Mrs Laghari stated in a cold tone and continued frying the pakodas, at the same time as Rhea opened the door. Noor and Mr Laghari looked at each other, being dumbstruck.

Rhea opened the door and suddenly turned pale. She gulped as a shiver ran down her spinal cord. "He-hey, lovely boy." She tried to fix the awkwardness as the guy in front of her, glared at her.

"YOU?!" He felt a lighting shock as he suddenly remembered last day's curtain incident.

"Y-you?!" Rhea repeated after him.

"YOU?!" He said again and Alicia laughed in the background.

"YOU?!"

"YOU?!"

Rhea's imagination:

"THOO *Spits*!!

"-the hell?!?!"

Reality:

"Why don't you come in?😅" Rhea greeted and he entered the house with Alicia, passing her a look.

They all sat in the living room and it was the time for Alicia to introduce them to each other!

"Okay, so, Rhea, this is Neel," She spoke and Rhea felt something which she couldn't understand. She glimpsed a little boy, playing football(soccer) in negative and glitched colors. "And Neel, this is Rhea."

Neel went into a deep thought, as he heard her name. Rhea.

Rhea shook her head sideways and waved at him nervously, "Hello."

"Hello." Neel said, without any expression on his face.

Mrs Laghari entered the living room with two plates, full of Pakode. The third one was already on the tray which Rhea carried earlier. Neel stared at the burned pakoras. Mrs Laghari laughed nervously and glared at Mr Laghari and Noor, for wasting her time in the kitchen. Then she walked into the kitchen once again, to teach them a lesson.

"I've heard that you've been to North America."

"Yeah, right." Rhea nodded.

"Why did you return?"

Rhea froze. Alicia thought about why didn't she ask her that question yesterday.

"Uh, well..." She hesitated. "Dad's job was done there."

He narrowed his eyes. "Was he demoted?"

"W-what?! No!" She said in her defense. And he grinned.

"Stop it Neel," Alicia said. "Come on, don't be a jerk while giving her your first impression."

"I'm not here to impress her or anything." He rolled her eyes.

"Dear, why don't you have some juice?" Mrs Laghari asked him politely. They doubted if she could have been eavesdropping them. But in reality, she didn't. She was just done with her teachings in the kitchen.

"Wha-!" Neel realized that it was orange juice! And he hates CITRUS FRUITS!! "Um..."

"What's the matter, beta?"

[Beta; phonetics: Bay-ta: Hindi endearing of a child; They will keep calling you beta till their last breath. Cause in India, you never grow up in their eyes(sight)]

"Nothing aunty." He faked a smile. She beamed at him and left. "Ugh guys! I hate citrus fruit juice!"

"What's wrong with you?!" Rhea asked.

"It's just so disgusting!"

"But we can't possibly waste it." Alicia said.

"We can." Rhea grinned. "We have something that collects every waste food. No leftover is left that way."

"How?"

Rhea screamed, "NOOOOOOOR!!!" And Noor swam down the wet stairs—he had dropped his water bottle a while ago and didn't bother to clean it up. "Drink that glass of juice."

"Isn't that a too lot for him?" Alicia worried. But Noor sipped the entire liquid in one go and Rhea folded her arms in pride.

"What did I tell you?" Rhea said with her head high.

"Thank you, bhaiyya." Noor smirked and swam back upstairs. All of them laughed at him. Including Neel.

They gossiped for a while and then left for their homes. Neel realized that Rhea wasn't that bad as he expected. And Rhea realized that she was right the whole time.

He's a jerk.

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-to be continued...

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