The lines in front of banks and ATMs didn't decrease over the next two months. Cashless transactions stopped being a trend and became a necessity. Hundred rupee notes became as precious as gold and the new, crisp, two thousand rupee notes became a thing to fawn over.

When papa had arrived after exchanging our money, we had all bent over the three, two thousand rupee notes eagerly.

"The angle of Gandhiji's face has changed," ma had remarked.

"This is the most scientific note in the world," I gave my two cents.

"Yes," papa agreed, "but it is pink," he finished, trying very hard to hide his disgust.

We all passed the notes around and examined them from every corner before ma carefully kept them in her strange looking gigantic purse, and securely locked the cupboard.

I went to my room and took out the old currency notes of five hundred and one thousand, which were handed to me by Kian.

He said that his parents were planning to throw those away, since they couldn't get them exchanged. He had sneaked three thousand rupees out of the bundle and given me half of it. When asked why, he'd simply shrugged and said,

"They're for you to look at twenty years down the line. You'll be reminded of this historical event."

After my thorough examination was complete, I put them back in my wallet and closed the drawer.

I changed and went back to sleep. Smiling slightly upon recalling the way Kian's cheeks had flushed pink.

{[]}

January arrived with a considerable decrease in temperature and increase in anxiety among me and my fellow peers. The annual exams were exactly two months away and the eleventhees had the added responsibility of organising, and I quote Aryan,

"The best freakity frackity farewell ever."

The class twelfth farewell was an annual event which could be compared to senior prom in an American highschool, minus the dates, dance and drama of course.

Aryan, being the biggest drama queen, was taking his role as head of the student functions  club very seriously. My class teacher had forced me to volunteer for organising the farewell. Yes, that's right, forced me to volunteer.

Hence I was stuck in a free classroom with fifty other miserable volunteers during break time, which included Vivaan, Radhika and Kian as well.

"We have to do something different this year guys," Aryan addressed us exitedly, deliberately ignoring our disinterested faces. "Suggest a theme, we need an awesome theme."

"How about retro bollywood, the 1970s?" Naira, a fellow biology student said.

"That's good, but it's not exactly unique is it? Think of something else," Aryan remarked.

A few other hands that were raised went down, as expected, everyone had similar ideas. It was not their fault though, the hindi film industry was always the theme of farewell.

Last year the theme was 'nineties nostalgia'.

The year before that it was 'songs special', in which everything was expressed through bollywood songs.

And the year before that, it was 'Dharma dhamaka' where their were enactments only from Dharma films.

I was pretty sure Aryan was going to fail in his quest to be different. Everyone expected a bollywood theme, it was standard.

"How about a theme of friendship?" some girl from commerce said, "and our acts and performances would be inspired by the show                    F.R.I.E.N.D.S."

"That's a good one," Aryan agreed, "how many in favour of this?"

For the sake of getting this godforsaken meeting over with, everyone raised their hand. Everyone except Vivaan.

"Isn't this too...I don't know, American?" he said, "to do this we'd have to assume that everyone is familiar with the show, which might not be the case."

"I don't think so," I interrupted him, "everyone has seen the show, it was a trend a few years ago."

"Exactly," Aryan said, "and we can have a dress code, where everyone has to dress like the cast members."

"No, that would be wrong, morally wrong," came the same girl's voice who had suggested this idea in the first place. "I don't know about you guys but every girl looks forward to wearing a saree on her farewell, you can't take that away from them."

At this, every girl in the room nodded. No one cared about their wedding, we wanted to flaunt a saree in the much awaited farewell.

"Alright alright, no dress code. Is that all? Okay, so I'll talk to the principal. She'll be really pleased, we've finally broken the tradition. Cheers!"

We all gave him a deadpanned look.

"Okay, don't cheer." He sulked. "So lastly, I'll be hosting along with Ashiana Pathak. Is that fine with everyone?"

After a loud and exasperated chorus of 'yes', the meeting was dispersed. Catching up with me, Radhika said, "guess we're actually  doing something different this year huh?"

I smiled, looking at Aryan, who was practically skipping due to happiness.

"Yes, yes we are."

{[]}

"Here," Aditya handed me a spoon and settled down beside me, oblivious, as usual, to the attention of the giggling monsters in the common area.

I dug my four and a half inch long plastic spoon in the extra large chocolate cone he was holding between us. He did the same with his spoon before grumbling,

"Next time, you'll be the one paying."

I smirked, "keep dreaming buddy, you said that last week too."

He rolled his eyes at me and scanned the scattered mass of students, his bored gaze quickly flickering over the faces of all the girls. Leaving them a giggling, blushing and (in some cases) a swooning mess.

"So Karan called me last night," he said finally, making me the subject of his scrutiny.

"Adi, I love you and everything, but I don't think I am the right person to share your phone sex escapades with."

"Ash," he groaned, his tone laced with annoyance.

"Just kidding, jusy kidding. But seriously though, let's not talk about him. I am so fucking sick of that creature."

"Yeah I agree," he said, suprising me, "he is taking this a bit too far."

"A bit too far?" I gritted out, "he is being more irritatable and unreasonable than a fucking pregnant ass woman. The only difference is that he has been like this since the past eleven months instead of nine." I fumed.

"Mind your language Ashiana."

"Shut up."

Thankfully, he heeded to my not-so-polite request and didn't say anything for sometime. However, curiosity can be a hard thing to control.

"So what really happened then? According to Karan's version of events, you elbowed his head while stomping on his foot for no fault of his own," Aditya asked, rather timidly.

I took the cone from his loosened grip and finished the remains before answering.

"The first and last part is a lie," I said, wiping my mouth with a tissue. "I did not elbow him. I was trying to catch my notebook and his head just happened to be there. Secondly, yes, I stomped on his feet because he lectured me for forty five minutes during English period for loosing twoarks in my physics UT. I mean, I've scored twenty eight out of thirty dammit, cut me some slack, I hate that fucking subject. Besides, he has no right to say anything to me. I wouldn't have had to sit with that piece of shit in the first place if Vivaan hadn't hijacked my seat for the millionth time this month. Why can't Radhika dump him already?" I huffed out, finishing my mini rant.

"Aww Ash don't say that, I know you secretly love them as a couple."

"Not right now, I don't."

He went silent after that and stared at the pea green pillars in the common hall, intently observing the chipping paint on them, when suddenly, he asked,

"If you hate physics, why did you choose it?"

I furrowed my brows at him, wasn't it obvious?

"Because I like biology and I can't study biology without studying physics. Plus, I need it to clear NEET."

"Are you sure you wanna be a doctor then?"

"Yes...." I replied slowly, "what are you getting at?"

"So basically, he continued, ignoring my question, "you like only four out of your five subjects? And you're fine with it?"

"Yep," I said, "it is a good enough bargain. One can't like everything."

"How about a bargain of three subjects against two?"

I snapped my eyes to his, which, to my annoyance, were determinantly avoiding me, "what?"

"I just like two out of my five subjects," he explained, still not looking at me. "Math and English are amazing, physics is easy enough but boring as hell and chemistry and C++ are just plain killing me."

"And you're realising this now?" I asked, "you do know that you can't change your subs now."

He sighed, "I know, God I know. But I never wanted these subjects in the first place. I wanted to study commerce with math but baba didn't allow that."

"So he wants you to be an engineer? Is he crazy? Doesn't he know the number of unemployed engineers in this country?"

"Don't call him crazy," he snapped. "He said engineering is just backup. I need a graduation degree to appear for IAS enterance. That is what he wants me to be, an IAS officer."

I blinked at him. "Do you want that?"

He shrugged. "That's the thing Ash, I don't know what I want. I like handling money, as boring as that sounds, but I have science. And I know Indian Administrative Services is a pretty darn good job, though it is not very easy to achieve."

I didn't say anything for a while. IAS was something every middle class parent wanted for their child. Even my mother wanted me to apper for IAS prelims after MBBS, although she never insisted on it.

"Well," I began, "here's what you should do, you can't give up science at this stage but you do have math and that opens a lot of options. You work your ass off in class twelfth and then apply for economics honours in a good college. Preferably, one in Delhi University. After that you can appear for IAS, if you still want to that is. Screw engineering."

"Have you seen the cut offs at DU? I'll tell you, it is hundred percent. Students with ninty nine point five are on the waiting list."

"I'm sure you can get good enough marks to get in."

He let out a mirthless chuckle at that.

"Yeah, we'll see."

{[]}

Three days later, I found myself clicking selfies with every saree clad senior. My cheeks were hurting from fake-smiling too much and my throat was sore as I had been shouting on the mic for four hours straight.

What can I say? I am an overenthusiastic anchor after all.

After the programme was over, everyone started clicking photos before proceeding to the common hall for lunch.

I dropped down on a confetti covered plastic chair when the auditorium was almost empty. Only a few eleventhees were there, dancing on the stage and mimicking everyone.

Kian settled on the seat beside mine.

"You're not hungry?"

"I am, but ma packed me home made pizza. Aryan was so dedicated to have a fantastic entertainment programme and decorations that he hardly had any money left for lunch buffet. Cheap food is bad for health so....yeah. Do you want some? I have extra."

Not one to refuse, he took a slice and stared with me at the adrenaline charged kids on the stage with me.

After a while, he rested his head on my shoulder, making me stiffen. Forcing myself to relax,and act casually, I fought against my reflex of shrugging his head off.

"I've never had a girlfriend before."

My stomach dropped at that.

'Please God , I don't want this conversation to go where I think it is going.'

"Oh," I got out, clearing my throat, "that isn't a big issue, not a lot of seventeen year old boys have dating experience."

He straightened immediately after that.

"What? No! That's not what I meant. I studied in an all boys school uptill tenth and even though I consider myself confident, I didn't have many interactions with girls my age. I was about to say that you are my first girl hyphen friend."

"Oh...okay..."

"And after saying that I would've given you this," he said, handing me a rectangular, neatly wrapped gift."

"Happy birthday Ash. Now you're officially a year older than me."

"Oh shut up! You'll be seventeen on march....umm....third?"

He raised his amazing eyebrows. Why am I obssessed with his eyebrows?

"That was fortunately a correct guess."

"It was not a guess!" My reply was a tad bit too quick.

"Ashiana don't lie, you're pathetic at it."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, yes it was a guess. I'm not good with birthdays. But anyway, thanks for remembering mine."

"Oh no, I am not the only one who remembers it. The gang is downstairs at lunch, waiting to suprise you with a half kg cake they purchased after pooling money. You almost ruined the plan by sitting here and munching on this thing. My God it is hard! What on earth did your mother add in the crust?"

"Don't say that, my mother makes amazing pizza."

"Are you cognitively programmed to reply like this?"

"Pretty much, so don't say anything bad about my mother's cooking. Ever."

"Alright, alright message received," he said, raising his hands above his head.

"Good, now let's go enjoy my suprise." I stood up, tugging his hand.

"Yes well, remember to act suprised. They don't know that you know and I wish to live for seventy more years thank you so much."

I let out a grin.

"Yeah yeah, I got your back."

I was greeted with a loud chorus of 'Happy birthday!' as soon as I stepped in the common hall beside Kian. Radhika hugged me lightly while mercilessly squeezing my cheeks while the guys landed insanely hard blows on my back.

I had to cut the cake with a fork (since they all had forgotten about a knife) and most of the chocolaty goodess ended up on our faces instead of our stomachs.

This was expected of course. What came as a true suprise was that everyone had gotten gifts for me, properly wrapped gifts, even Karan (who hadn't even bothered to wish me. Not that I cared anymore).

I got home elated and sticky. Elated because of obvious reasons and sticky because I had to wipe the icing off my face and neck with a tissue. As the tap water in our school was as good as mud.

After a much needed shower, I settled on my bed with my legs crossed and began opening the presants.

Vivaan and Aditya had contributed ten rupees each to buy me a large packet of cheetos. Aryan, bless his generous soul, had gotten me a large cheese ball packet all by himself.

This was considerably better than last year, when those three idiots had pooled money to give me a delux chewing gum pack.

I had received the standard Cadbury silk from Radhika while Karan had given me a pen.

At last, I moved to the only good-looking gift. Uncremoniously ripping the shiny paper, my eyes widened as they scanned the name of the book, for it was a book.

A beginner's guide to
a polite way of life

I tried to calm my initial indignant anger and intently read the note, the contents of which allowed me to calm down even more, until I was finally smiling like before.

You're very honest and
believe in no-non sense
conversations and I admire
that, I really do.
But even though you have
people's best interest at heart,
you can be a bit harsh
sometimes. I don't want
your future patients to think
of you as an insensitive doctor.
Hope this helps, even though some things written in this
book may come off as highly
pretentious. I speak from experience.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Love,
Kian Dhawan

{[]}

Once my mundanely epic birthday was over, I buried myself in books. Our annual exams were upon us at last.

Learning from my past mistake, no wait, past blunder, I completed my preparation for physics first. I was confident when it came to biology and psychology while chemistry required a bit more work. Not the theory exam, but chemistry practical.

I forgot the entire analysis for cations and ended up recognising only half of the unknown salt given to me. My viva was royally fucked up (but so was everyone else's). The only consolation I had was that my NaOH titration hadn't ended up with magenta solution in the end, it was a perfect pale pink.

"I'd consider myself lucky if I get passing marks," Radhika said, while we walked out ofthe chemistry lab.

"Me too. But ma'am is not going to fail anyone in practical. That would be just cruel. Mostly everyone's gonna get between thirteen to nineteen out of thirty," I said, in order to reassure both of us.

"Yeah, hopefully. I just want this year to be over with, it was the worst in my entire school life."

"True." I nodded. Everything had suddenly increased in class eleventh, studies, pressure, responsibility and (in my case), tension between old friends.

We got the datesheet after the day of chemistry practical. Ironically enough, physics was the last paper, on fifteenth march.

I was relaxed though, everything was prepared and I had to simply revise the syllabus by the time a week's countdown had begun before the first exam.

All the papers went smoothly, especially physics. I was sure that I'd score more than fifty five out of seventy, which was enough to pass the subject.

This time when Radhika asked me to join the gang to visit The Great India Place, I didn't hesitate to say yes.

{[]}

"Alright people, it is decided that we wouldn't ever let Rads pick out a movie, she'll just waste our money again." Everyone cheered in agreement when Aditya said this. Everyone but me and Radhika.

We were sitting in the food court after watching 'Badri ki dhulhania'. Creating the kind of ruckus only school kids can get away with in a restaurant.

"It was a good movie," I protested.

"Oh please Ash, you were too  busy staring at Varun Dhawan to pay attention to the actual story. Same goes with you Radhika," Aditya said.

"Yeah whatever, I don't feel the need to apologise to you all when I loved the film. Besides, don't blame Ashiana for liking it, after all, she has a has a thing for all Dhawans," Rads replied, winking in the direction of Kian, whose face tured pink immediately.

I spit out my cold coffee I was blissfully sipping and glared at the she-devil, who merely grinned while everyone else howled with laughter.

"Okay guys, stop laughing. It was not even that funny." I said, in what I'd describe in my perfect bored, sarcastic face.

"Yeah stop laughing already, my ears are bleeding," Karan seconded me, perhaps for the first time in ages. It understandable though.

We steared clear of such topics after that. Two hours later, we all said our goodbyes and Kian, Aryan and I squeezed into an auto rickshaw.

"Bye guys," Aryan said before getting off in front of his residential society.

Once alone in the auto, Kian turned to me.

"So...umm...what Radhika said earliar...is that true?"

"Sort of, I do like Varun Dhawan, but that's just a celebrity crush," I said, as nonchalantly as possible.

"So you don't like me?"

"No, I mean, yes, you happen to be the most good looking guy I know in real life. But that's it really," I said, in a meek voice.

"Well," he said, in a hoarse voice, "you're the most good looking girl I know in real life as well."

I didn't know if it was flattering or not. There were only a few girls he knew in real life, but either way, I could not control the warmth creeping up the back of my neck.

We went quiet after that very awkwrad topic. The auto screeched to a stop. Climbing out, we paid the fair and started the oh-so-familiar walk to our tower. Once we were inside the lift, Kian spoke again.

"Okay, umm...I don't know how to say this but....would you like to be my girlfriend?"

I frowned, confused, "I am your girl-friend."

"No, no, girlfriend, you know? Without the hyphen," he explained, starting to go pink again.

Oh. My. Fucking. God.

{[]}

Hello awesome people!!

So....a cliffhanger...I don't usually leave those but today I was like, Muahahahaha ;)

Questions, questions, I have two questions,

1. What do you think Ashiana's answer would be?

2. Apart from Kian and Ash, who is your favourite character?

Please do let me know the answers.

Lastly, if you liked this chapter, then please;

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