^^Above is a Pic of Divya, who is mostly known as Saash in the book (This is a real pic btw)^^

Pranitha's POV

First day of school! Er...college. But still, I'm nervous. It's 5:30, and my first class starts at 9. Yea, I woke up early, even though I slept at 1 in the morning because of the fear. Don't ask how, I just did it. I checked and rechecked to make sure I had everything I needed, I called my parents (yes they wake up at 5 in the morning) and now here I am, stressing. I have three and a half hours to go, and here I am, stressing.

Oh, so about yesterday. I managed to get a job as a waitress at the cafe. The manager was nice. She has a niece who works there too. Apparently her niece managed the cafe most of the time, and studies at Princeton. I met her, and she is nice, no complaints. Eva is amazing too. Her father had married an Indian woman, having studied at a famous college in India, so she understands and speaks a few Indian languages, including my mother tongue, Telugu. Her niece speaks many languages as well, so that's nice. I have the evening shift, which starts at 4, starting from today,

"Good morning." I hear. I jump, scared out to hell and back.

"Geez, it's just me calm down." Zaara says, smirking.

I roll my eyes. "Yea thanks for scaring the heck out of me, bestie."  I stress.

She chuckles a little. "That is what best friends are for right?"

"Oh?" I ask. "I never knew best friends are for scaring the hell out of their besties." I say with sarcasm gripping each word.

"No problemo!" she says, skipping into the bathroom. After 20 minutes, she walks out of the bathroom, all dressed up and ready. We were both taking the same classes, and luckily, we were in the same class. We practically have the same schedule, except for the fact that she comes back to the dorm after school and stays here while I have to go to the cafe at 4.

"You have work today?" she asks while doing her hair.

"No. I don't. I totally didn't tell you that I did yesterday, right?" I say sarcastically. When i'm nervous, I am sarcastic.

"Geez, calm down Pranu. You'll be fine." she says, finishing her hair and coming to sit next to me.

"I don't know Zaara. I'm just so scared you know. Ma and dad expect me to excel, and I do. I don't want to disappoint them, but..." I trail off.

"It's not your dream." she finishes off for me. I nod, close to tears. I'm very sensitive.

"Hey hey. No crying." she says, placing a hand gently on my shoulder.

"Maybe I should've told them." I think aloud, for the probably millionth time in my life.

"Look, you can always tell them." she suggests. I shake my head no.

"I can't though. I've tried, but I'm just scared you know. What if I don't succeed, and I lose not only my dream, but also the people who loved me and were there for me?" I say.

Before she can say anything, I hear knocking on the door. Zaara gets up, and opens it, revealing Vaidehi and the boys, along with another girl who I recognize as Divya, Sanjay's sister and Vijay's daughter. They walk in, and I hastily wipe my tears. Unfortunately for me, Karthik and Shreyas know me too well.

"Thinking about that again?" Shreyas asks. I shake my head no, but they won't take that for an answer.

"Pranu, we know you. Look, don't stress it. They have to accept you for you. If this isn't what you want to do, tell them." he says.

"Karthik, you know I can't do that." I say, tears brimming my eyes again.

"Hey hey hey." Divya says. "Don't cry on the first day sis."

I wipe my tears again, and look up, smiling. "Sorry. I just...I'm just very sensitive." I say to her, smiling slightly.

"No problemo. A girl's gotta cry, but not on the first day of college." she says.

I get up and hold my hand out. "Pranitha."

She shakes my hand. "Divya. You can call me Saash. Can I call you Pranu? Because Pranitha is very long." she says. Sanjay shakes his head.

"Calm down Saash. You're scaring her by talking too much. The girl's pretty calm, don't freak her out." he says to her.

I laugh loudly. "Ha! Excellent joke Sanjay. Man, I've never laughed so much in my entire life."

"Yea, Pranu, quiet. Man, get to know her and you'll wish you never knew her." Shreyas says, laughing.

"Yea, says the guy who called me one fine Monday morning four years ago and told me he liked me because Rana told you to get over it and fricking tell me. And then you ignore me, until one day I give Rana a lecture for being a complete asshole and covering for you, and then you tell me that you thought I would find it weird that you liked me. Which is weirder because I've known you from kindergarten, when Lav and I threw rocks on those third grade boys for bullying you. And here you are legit ignoring my mails, texts, and calls, because you thought I didn't want to talk to you. Yet I was trying to contact you, and you frickin drove me nuts those few months. And then finally, Lavanya and Rana force you to meet me when I came to India two years later, thanks to the stupid ass Corona shit, and what do you do? You act like you don't know me, and I practically was about to beat the shit out of you when you finally talked to me." I say, all in one breath, while exposing my long time best friend. Saash, Sanjay, and Vaidehi look at me. I smile innocently.

"You threw rocks on third graders?" Sanjay asks.

"Mhm. They were bullying Shrey, so like I had to ya know." I say casually, brushing it off.

"How old were you?" he asks again.

"5." I reply.

"Fi-" he stops.

"Yup." I pop the 'p'.

"Man, I love this girl." Saash says, giving me a high five.

"Woah. So your friendship from kindergarten basically started from you throwing rocks on third grade bullies?" Vaidehi asks.

"Yes Vai, keep up." I say.

"Dude, lets go." she says. We all chuckle.

"Wait, who's Rana?" Sanjay asks.

"My older brother." Shrey replies.

"Wait, his name is Rana? Like Rana Daggubatti?" Saash asks, referring to the Telugu Actor who had acted like balla in the famous Telugu movie, Bahubali.

"No, his name is actually Ranak, but I call him Rana, because I'm way too lazy to make the 'k' sound." I say.

"Bruh..." Vai says.

"Hehehe." I say.

"Dude, I get you." Saash says to me.

"Right?" I say.

"Yes. Les go. Someone lazy, just like me." she says, giving me a high five.

"I'm hungry." Shrey complains. I roll my eyes.

"When are you not hungry?" I ask. "That's legit the only thing you know how to say every morning."

"Dude, why are you exposing me like that!?!" he whines. We all laugh, and Shrey joins in after a while.

"Well, I'm hungry too." Sanjay says.

"Maybe we can go to one of the Cafe's on Dupont?" Zaara suggests.

"My class starts at nine, in an hour." Saash tells us.

It turns out that all of us have classes that start at 9. We all decide to go to Dupont, and visit Eva's.

**One hour Later**

We had a nice time. Eva was there, and so was Amy, her neice. Amy was majoring in literature, and her class started at 10, so she had stayed back. I am currently standing in front of my class, Zaara on one side of me, and Shrey on the other. We look at each other, and walk into the class.

College, here I come.

Sorry for the late update. I'm rlly busy, and I am juggling like 8 books at once. I finished my first book, Alone, so please check it out. Also, please check out my other books as well, and my other account, @telugu_girl