"Ash promise me that you will reply to your messages within three hours every day. And don't you dare forget to send me all the pics of that MUN of yours," said Radhika.

The last day of school had just come to an end. We were all torn between our feelings of glee to be saying goodbye to school for the next couple of months and a bit of premature nostalgia due to the prospect that we won't be seeing each other for seven whole weeks.

"Of course I would sweetie. You don't expect me to leave you alone during the holidays do you?" I replied a bit distractedly. It was not as if I was the only one receiving that threat, because as soon as I had stopped talking, she turned to Karan to repeat the whole process again.

Absentmindedly I wondered how many times Vivaan had to reassure her, quickly stopping myself from pitying the idiot though.

However, it was not as if I had nothing to do in the weeks that would follow the temporary pause to school life. Being the deputy director general, I had to report to the venue of YDMUN every other day and help in organising seven committees, along with completing tons of holiday homework.

After all the hugs and goodbyes, back slapping and empty promises of checking texts every hour, and a brief exchange of formal nods in the case of me and Karan; I dragged myself towards bus route number nine. Physically shuddering while imagining the wrath of my bus teacher for not marking my attendance yet again, I dropped on the last seat, trying to dismiss the unwanted thought.

No sooner had I closed my eyes in an attempt to calm the raging headache, Aryan dropped beside me and I was hit with a smell as pleasant as the one coming out of an overflowing dumpster.

As soon as my corneas were exposed to the world again they unfortunately were greeted by the devastatingly ugly sight of his grin.

He was also sweating profusely might I add.

I closed my eyes again.

"Haven't I told you thousands of times to not come near me after your dance practice sessions?"

"But I love you darling; it is a physical pain to be away from you."

"Shut up."

Alas! Not unlike most people, he ignored my wise advice.

"I legit love being in class eleven, for the first time in forever we have no holiday homework."

I knew what he was doing, that lucky commerce bastard was trying to provoke me to start complaining about my homework.

Not today buddy.

So what if I had to write seven spotting practicals for bio or complete sixty questions on mole concept or conduct that stupid psychology experiment on learning.

"You know, I think I might even be able to visit WOW a couple of times these holidays."

Ignore him, think of something else.

"Oh the bliss of spending hours on tumblr."

Think of something else, the hot Weasley twins.

"I can go swimming in the morning and the evening."

Captain Steve Rogers, imagine him.

"The library in also a major attraction."

Liam Hemsworth. Logan Lerman ...Ranbir Kapoor...Anyone?

"I can even watch all the potter movies back to back with cold coffee, cheese popcorn...oh the endless possibilities!"

I could not take it anymore; the words were out of my mouth before I could reconsider.

"This is so damn unfair! Do you know how merciless my teachers are? I have got so much to do..."

The rest of the ride was spent with me ranting about anything and everything; I didn't even notice that ugly grin part two was released again.

{[]}

"Ashiana we have a problem," a vaguely familiar voice said behind me.

Turning around I came face to face with Sarthak Gupta. It was a week later and we all were finalising the insignificant details of the first ever MUN organised by Young Debaters. Sarthak was a year older than me and had spoken a total of three sentences since Ria, the owner of YD had introduced us.

He was somewhat a legend in the Delhi-NCR MUN circuit with an experience of about forty committees as a delegate, all resulting in several best delegates or high commendations in his name.

One would expect that such a person would know how to verbally communicate, but everyone at YD had to decipher the meaning behind his wide variety of scowls every time his opinion was required.

"What happened?"

I was exhausted; we were here since the past two hours, constantly running around like headless chickens, preparing all the best rooms in the local college, which happened to be the venue of YDMUN.

"The co- vice chair of ECOSOC called in ten minutes ago. He said that he can't make it because of some family emergency. And now we're one chairperson short literally twelve hours away from the opening ceremony."

"That is a serious problem but it doesn't concern me. Talk to Ria."

"I did and she for some bizarre reason thinks that you are perfect to take over his position," he said, rolling his eyes.

"But that is not possible, I have zero research on the agenda and tomorrow is the first day! Why don't you do it? You're clearly more experienced than I am." I was one second away from having an anxiety attack.

"That is true, but you have participated in some economic committees in the handful of MUNs you have done. How many four? Five?"

"Nine."

"Still a single digit." He shrugged. "Besides I, unlike you, am a crucial member of the secretariat."

"I am deputy director general," I retorted.

"Which is nothing compared to secretary general, we don't even have a picture of yours on our facebook page. No one is going is going to miss you honey."

Ouch that hurt.

"Although," he continued, "If you accept a position on the executive board then you would walk away with a cheque of Rs 8000 along with at least one good experience on your portfolio."

I was starting see the reason why he was so good at MUNs. It took only those few words to convince me.

"Alright I'll do it."

{[]}

"Delegate of Bangladesh."

"Present and voting."

"Delegate of Bhutan."

"Present and voting."

"Delegate of Canada."

"Present."

"Delegate of China."

"Point of order ma'am, it's 'People's Republic of China'."

"Point in order delegate. Now please answer your roll call"

"Present."

"Delegate of Cuba."

"Present and voting."

My head snapped up. That voice was so familiar, but I had to confirm. And sure enough, Kian was grinning at me, waving his placard.

So he did apply after all.

I must've missed to see him. I mean, I did skip the opening ceremony, preferring to read whatever I was unable to last night. Although my research would surely not be as good as that of some delegates.

The chairperson, Ishaan, was very sweet though. He had given me full permission to access the internet whenever I needed to.

'All that is fine Ashiana, but why are you still staring?' my inner voice snidely remarked.

Apparantly, she was not the only who noticed that.

"Pathak," Ishaan said.

"Hmm..."

"Roll call?"

"Wha...oh yeah sorry." I looked down at the list.

"Delegate of Denmark."

The rest rest of the committee went by smoothly. Once I had gotten over the fact that my hot neighbour was here, I was able to focus again.

The agenda was an interesting one--'Privatisation of higher education'.

However, I couldn't help but think that this conference would have been far more fun if I was a delegate.

Judging others was way too boring, not to mention frustrating. Seeing so many people making the most silly mistakes, and not being able to do anything about it, was practically torture.

Then again, most of them were first timers and were performing much better than I had during my first MUN.

Although, the biggest surprise to me was Kian. I didn't know why, but I had somehow assumed that he would have not been noticeable in a forty five member council. Personally speaking, if I had been his co-delegate, I would've underestimated him. Dismissing him to be one of those participients who simply deliver their memorised GSL speech, and contribute to a few moderate caucuses.

As it was, however, he was among the top seven within the first day itself and had steadily risen to the top three by the end of the third day of the committee.

The MUN had a total of ten sessions stretched within a span of four days. We were supposed to submit the final award list by the ninth session.

The last session was merely a formality, in which the delegates had to officially close the debate, and choose between a motion for entertainment or getting feedback from the EB.

They went with the former and made me sing a ridiculous item song.

Bastards.

We were making our way to the closing cum prize distribution ceremony when Ishaan decided to change some plans.

"Pathak."

"Yes?"

"Why don't you announce the winners of the two high commendations. Ahmed can announce the verbal and special mentions," he said.

Ahmed, my fellow co vice chair, was another excellent debater. But unlike Sarthak, he was not arrogant about it.

"What caused this sudden change of heart?" I asked Ishaan.

"Well, it's your first time as a chair person, I figured you'd want to give away a proper award. And Ahmed doesn't have a problem with swapping places, do you buddy?"

"Not at all. I just want this to be over so that I can sleep," he said.

"Okay if that's the case then let me announce the best delegate."

"Oh no darling, no one but me has the right to hand over the best delegate," Ishaan arrogantly stated. He smirked slightly before adding, "Besides, it is not about what the prize is, it is about who is getting it."

I blinked at him.

"Close your mouth honey, I know it is hard to believe but I am an observant person."

And, leaving me gaping like a goldfish, both of them entered the auditorium.

{[]}

It was ten fifteen in the evening by the time I reached home. I was ecstatic because I had earned money for the first time ever. That small, rectangular piece of paper was the most beautiful thing in the world.

Ma opened the door to let me in and I handed her the cheque. She smiled and patted my cheek.

"I am proud of you honey, but your father and I need to talk to you. Come to my room after you change."

I was confused, but nevertheless replied in the affirmative.

Ten minutes later, I was sitting criss-crossed on my parents bed, facing them.

"Look Ashiana," my father began, "we have never forced you into anything right?"

"Right." I nodded, slowly growing wary.

"And," he continued, "it was entirely your decision to pursue medicine. The first step for doing that would be cracking NEET."

"I know that."

"And every year ten lakh candidates appear for NEET, competing for fifty thousand seats," my mother added, "out of which there are only twenty thousand seats in govenment colleges for the general category," she finished.

"Why are you guys quoting these statistics from the internet?"

"Because honey, we don't think you are working hard enough."

"But my marks in school--"

"Are good," papa said, impatiently. "However Ashiana you have to realise that in order to get into a decent med school, you have to go beyond your NCERT textbooks."

"What we know," ma said, stopping me from responding, "is that your father and I would be able to afford coaching classes for you. But we cannot pay for you to study abroad, or worse, a private medical institute."

"And if you do decide to enroll for coaching, then you'd have to dedicate at least ten hours to academics everyday. For that to be possible, you would have to give up certain things."

Suddenly it became clear what they wanted to say.

"So, you're asking me to give up debating, reading, writing and countless of other things and go for coaching classes?" I was surprisingly calm about it.

"No Ashi, we're not asking you to do that, we're asking you to decide. You've always said that it is your dream to become a doctor, but how serious are you about that? By all means continue to invest your time in co-curricular activities. You would be able to maintain your good grades in school with five hours of studying everyday, and would easily get admission in a good degree college. However, that would not be enough for cracking the competition. In order to actually secure a seat, you would have to do more than that." Papa took a deep breath and continued.

"We don't want you to stop following your passion. But you'd have to reduce the amount of time spent on it, if you opt for extra classes. If not, well that's fine too, but the thing is, you have to choose. It is a harsh fact of life beta but you can't have everything."

"You have to make a decision within a week honey," ma said. "The admission process at all the best coaching centres is starting from next sunday."

That was perhaps her final thought because once my mother finished speaking, there was expectant silence. I tried to formulate a proper reply but ended up bidding them a hasty 'good night' and escaping to my room.

I was lying awake in bed for hours after that discussion. My parents were right, I had to choose.

I had to choose between something I liked a lot and samething I wanted the most.

And damn was that a difficult choice.

{[]}

NCR - National capital region

ECOSOC- Economic and Social Council (one of the original committees of UN)

Present and voting- I am present in the committee and I would vote during substantial voting.

Present- I am present in the committee and I choose to have the power to abstain from substantial voting.

Point of order- the power given to the delegates to correct factual inaccuracies (its such a pain in the ass, literally everyone abuses it)

GSL- General Speakers List

Moderate caucus- discussion moderated by the chair

Unmoderated caucus- discussion amongst the delegates, not overlooked by the chair.

EB - executive board (another name for chair)

Item song- a raunchy song every typical bollywood movie has

General category- the segment of people belonging to castes that were considered priviliged by the framers of the Indian constitution and hence do not benefit from reservation of seats in government colleges and offices.

NCERT- National Council of Educational Research and Training (standard textbooks throughout the country)

Well that's it.

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