||CHAPTER 67||
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The school uniform was mandated for the flight to Udaipur, which quite obviously did not settle well with any of the students. Brooding and complaining early in the morning was, however, unnecessary, but the girl-gang that had initially planned on befriending me for luxurious purposes, didn't seem to understand that.

"But Ma'am," Roshni, I suppose was her name, pouted, trying to make Mrs. Negi understand, "The security check's over! Can we please go and change now?"

"No, you may not," Ms. Negi replied, not bothering to elaborate further. From our seat in the third row, Ishita and I kept refreshing our Instagram feed, bored out of our minds. For a flight that departed at eight in the morning, we were summoned two hours prior to the departure. The fact that the flight was delayed by forty-five minutes more didn't sound smashing either. Behind us, Ritwik, Vansh and Arnav were playing some stupid game. I don't know if matters were settled between Vansh and Arnav, but for the trip, we were pretending nothing ever happened. We were pretentious, and we were pretty good at it.

"Girls," Ishita nudged me when Thakur Sir intervened in the matter concerning uniforms. The crowd addressing the meagre issue mainly consisted of three Malibu Barbies, but hey, we were silent supporters too. "It's only for security purposes. Once we reach the hotel, you can change out of your uniforms after the routine head count, but ID Cards are must. You are old enough to understand what security reasons I'm hinting at. Please don't counter the issue further."

"Head count se yaad aya," Ishita spoke looking around, "Avni nahi dikhayee de rahi hai. Karan pe line maarne ka kitna sahi mauka hai. Is she not coming?"

I pursed my lips, shrugging. "Pata nahi." Yawning, I stretched a little before standing up. "I'll go ask Karan. Yaha baithe-baithe neend aa rahi hai."

At the charging station by the pillar nearby, I found Karan was charging his phone and swiping through random memes. I stood beside him, grabbing the pin of a random charger and inserting it inside my phone. "Avni nahi aa rahi kya?"

"She isn't responding to any of my messages," he replied monotonously.

"But Ishita bol rahi thi ki kal raath bara baje taq you guys were tagging each other in memes. And not just the cat ones."

He passed me a glare. I smirked it off.

"Don't worry," I dared to fist-bump his biceps. "Ooh, you've been working out, huh? Solid lag rahe hai."

"Stop teasing me."

"I'm just trying to make a conversation," I shrugged innocently. "But okay, I get it. You're worried about her. Aa jayegi, pareshaan math ho."

"Ek aur word bol Avni and mere baremein, and I promise you mai un ladkiyo ko penthouse-suite mei bula loonga," he warned me, pointing towards the whining ladies.

Alright, that was a tough bait. He caught me there. I mimed zipping my lips, preventing myself from claiming them to have a clichè Bollywood Airport confession scene.

"When do we leave?" He asked after a minute.

I glanced at the time on my phone. "Half an hour tops? Jitne jaldi ho utna achha, theen ghante se yahi par hai."

"Great," he muttered under his breath. "Isn't that friend of yours coming?"

Assuming that he was referring to Armaan, I clicked my tongue. "Nope. Family issues."

"You mean his family couldn't afford-"

"His father is in the hospital, Karan. Be a little sensitive," I snapped. I had could have offered him the money for the trip, but Armaan was desperate to stay near his Abba Jaan. I couldn't take his time with his father away just for selfish reasons.

I could sense his gaze on me, "Fine, sorry. I just don't understand why you're friends with him."

Because I don't have to pretend around him? Because the friendship he provides is not based off pretences, like us at the moment?

"Add that to the list of things you'll never figure out then."

He let out a sigh before looking past me. "Avni's here."

"Have you been to Udaipur before?" Vansh asked me while entering the Baggage Claim counter. It was a little past noon when we had landed, and had been asked to assemble near the counter number three.

Taken aback by his sudden attempt at making a conversation with me, I fumbled. "Wha-what?"

"I asked whether you've been to Udaipur before," He said, with no hints of any smirk.

"No," I shifted my gaze to the conveyor belt that had started moving with luggage on it. "I'd once been to Jaipur, but not to Udaipur."

He nodded, acknowledging my answer. "Me too. But I've not been to Jaipur."

The vague talk about the pink city reminded me of the pink denim that I still had with me. I had to return it to him once we reached our hotel.

"Vickey!" Ishita called out from the other side of the counter. Excusing myself from Vansh, I walked over to her, pausing to collect one of my bags on the way.

"Kya hua?" I asked, sliding up the handle of bag.

"Oh, nothing," she shrugged, "I thought I saw one of your bags, hehe."

"I only got this bag pack and this trolley one," I replied, pointing to my luggage. That was the permissible limit set by the school anyways.

"Oh," she noted. "By the way, I saw Vansh talking to you. Are... are you guys on talking terms now?"

Arnav came walking hurriedly to us before I could reply. "I need your help."

Ishita and I smirked at each other before looking back at him. It was not a shocker that Roshni and her gang were trying to seduce my brother into getting an entry into the suite that the boys, Ishita and I were going to share. It was a gift from our father to us, his grand gesture of informing us that we should not do anything he didn't like. The school authorities had to exempt us from the strict rules in this matter for obvious reasons.

"If that girl touches me one more time, I swear-"

"Arnav," the girl in question moaned out. "I got you a decaf cappuccino!"

It was amusing to watch Arnav getting irked by a girl so much. My brother was not a playboy, but he did have a string of girls he led on. Roshni, however, was not one of them. She was just annoying.

"Thank you so much!" I grabbed the Styrofoam glass from Roshni before she could accidentally spill it on Arnav, and she could get a chance to soak away the latte by touching him- I did know a thing or two about superfluous intentions. "I was just telling Arnav that I was in dire need of some caffeine."

"But it's decaf," she eyed my hands encircling the glass.

"Coffee is coffee," Ishita quipped. "Ab kya fark padta hai decaf ho ya na ho?"

We were obviously making no sense at all.

"Okay... I guess," she shrugged. "I'll get you another one, Arnav."

"No," he shifted a little, creating more space between him and her. "I'm... I'm..."

"-avoiding all kinds of beverages," I completed for him. He was a pathetic liar. "You see, his body," I staged a whisper, "he needs to maintain it. His diet is screwed up."

Arnav glared at me. Roshni giggled. "Okay! I don't want to harm this hunk."

The decaf coffee was wiggled out of my grasp, and I watched as Ritwik drank it in one go. "Hunk who? Are you guys talking about me?"

"Why should we even?" Roshni muttered in a frustrated reply before storming off. 

Ritwik looked at us, "Decaf coffee tastes yuck."

Thakur Sir was handing out the accommodation arrangements to us in the hotel lobby when I actually started paying attention to the discussion going on about the secret pool party. The students were under the faux belief that Arnav and I had access to everything inside the six-star hotel. Of course we could manage a pool party, like they were planning, but no, we couldn't keep it a secret forever.

"Bhai dekh," Shayan Ganguly said in a low voice after Mr. Thakur did a head count and passed us the papers. "Ek baje ke baad rakhte hai. Bara baje se sadheh-barah taq ye log hamare upar nazar rakkhenge."

"Woh sab tho theek hai," Karan joined them, "par peey-jal ka kya?"

Peey-jal was the code word for booze.

"Arey," Shayan countered, "Hotel apne bhai ka hai na! Uska intezaam tho Arnav karwa lega na.  And yeah, Arvika, tum. Tum na bass ye assurance do hame ki ham pakdey nahi jayenge.

I raised my eyebrows at him. Was he giving me orders now?

"I mean, of course tumhare bharose hi ham ye sab kar sakte hai na," he fumbled when he received the message. "Of course, if you don't want, that's okay too."

I rolled my eyes, looking ahead. The teachers were dividing us into groups for better supervision. 

"Par hame kal jaldi utthna hai," Arya, Shayan's girlfriend pointed out. "Take a look at the itinerary."

"You know what?" I addressed them. "Pool party kal raath ko karte hai. Aaj teachers alert rahenge, kyooki aaj ham sirf shaam ko do-theen jagah jaa rahe hai. And kal ham subah se lekar shaam ke seven-thirty taq bahar rahenge, which means ki teachers bhi thhake huye honge, and woh jaldi rounds maatke, sadheh-barah taq so jayenge."

"I agree with Arvika," Karan nodded. "This also gives us more time to arrange things, properly."

Begrudgingly, Shayan agreed with us. "Okay, fine. You guys have a point." He stalked away with his group of friends.

"Will you be able to arrange the booze?" Ritwik turned to Arnav.

"Yeah," Arnav reached out inside his bag pack, fishing out his DSLR, "par idhar se nahi. Bahar se khareedke layenge. Yaha se lenge tho hamare pitashree ko pata chal jayega. Now say party!"

The five of us posed maniacally just before his flash went off.

_____

Namoshtaii!

Another double update today, so keep on reading :)

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~chaashnee