It had been a week since Naina and Rishab had become friends. Rishab had started opening up to her, as per her advice and he kept thanking her for initiating the conversation the first time.

 "I would've missed a good friend. Thankyou Naina."

And Naina had only been too happy to have spoken to him the other day. He was a great guy.She got to know many things about him,his family,his likes and dislikes and she told him hers.

Naina had introduced him to her friends.

"So Rishab, they are Deepali, Ankit, Karan,Sana, Aman and Nivedita..and people, this is Rishab!"Naina had done the formal introduction. They had welcomed him to the gang and he had recollected Naina's words and had tried to talk to them. It was tough initially and his replies had mostly been in monosyllables but he was trying his best to do better.

Rishab had started liking Naina's (now his) friends. They were nice people, who always made him feel like a part of the gang. Most of them were from well off backgrounds but that didn't show one bit, in the way they interacted with him. Rishab had learnt from Naina that Deepali-Ankit, Aman-Sana and Karan- Niveditha, were seeing each other.

"What? Already? It's hardly been a couple of months here!"

"They studied in the same school, Rishab. Deepali and Ankit are family friends and the other two couples are kind of high school sweethearts,"Naina had explained and his "Falling in love during school. Wouldn't they have been so young?"had amused her.

The following week, Naina and Rishab were on their way to the library to get some reference books, when they met Ankit on the way.

Naina was surprised to see the troubled look on her otherwise cheerful friend's face.

"Ankit! Are you okay? You seem stressed "

"Hi guys! Ah nothing much..Karan is down with viral fever and we have our culturals in a week. He is the lead singer,so we kind of don't know what to do..," Ankit explained.

"Oh!"Naina said and racked her brain to come up with some way to help her friend out.Before long,she came up with an idea,one that might require a lot of convincing.But she was Naina Mehta and nothing was impossible for her.

 "Ankit! I know someone who can help us", she replied and cast a glance at Rishab.

Rishab,who was looking at the thoughtful expression on Naina's face till then,quickly realised that he was in trouble when he saw the glint in her eyes,one that she had whenever she came up with a plan. "What? No no no! No way Naina," he shook his head vigorously,an alarmed look on his face.

Naina chuckled at that. He could be a kid at times.But she knew he was the right guy for this and she didn't waste another second.

 "Rishab,come on! This is for our college! We have always won the cup and we can't afford to lose it this year. Please!"

"Rishab! You sing?"Ankit asked him. He had not heard Rishab sing before and so was kind of surprised at this piece of information.

"Umm. I just hum tunes when I am bored. You can't call that singing "

"Yeah right! I have heard you 'hum' and you are brilliant! Ankit,trust me.I am sure he will do a great job!"

"Rishab, please! Just once. We will just see if this works. We don't know what to do.We had auditions earlier and we couldn't find anyone as good as Karan but now,he will not be able to participate. Please?"

The helpless and desperate avatar of Ankit, made Rishab take pity on his friend.He looked from Naina to Ankit,back and forth and finally decided to go for it,for both their sakes.

"Fine.. But I am telling you,I won't be good enough"

"Yeah we will see about that,come on now,"Naina took his hand in hers and they proceeded towards the auditorium where the others from the music team were present.

"I have found us a singer!" Ankit announced as they went in and Rishab looked at Naina with a 'Why did you have to do this to me ?' look. Naina smiled back reassuringly and he relaxed a bit.

The other members of the music team,took their respective positions with their instruments and Ankit handed a mic to Rishab,with a hopeful smile on his face.

 "Rishab,we are ready.Can you sing any song of your choice?"

"Umm okay", he replied,thought for a minute and started singing his favourite song from the movie 'Aashiqui 2'.

"Apne karam ki kar adaayein
Yaara, Yaaraa... yaara!

Mujhko iraade de
Kasamein de, waade de
Meri duaaon ke ishaaron ko sahaare de
Dil ko thikaane de
Naye bahaane de
Khaabon ki baarishon ko
Mausam ke paimane de
Apne karam ki kar adaayein
Kar de idhar bhi tu nigaahein

Sun raha hai naa tu
Ro raha hun main
Sun raha hai naa tu
Kyun ro raha hun main"

He stopped after this first part and there was complete silence. He didn't know what to gather from their reactions and went ahead to give the mic to Ankit , telling him a "See? I told you! I am not a trained singer" but got a "Dude! You think THIS is not good enough? We had goosebumps from the sheer intensity of your voice" for a response.

Soon, the music team applauded enthusiastically and Rishab's face broke into a wide grin. Naina gave him a side hug.

"My God,you were mindblowing! I love that song and now whenever I listen to it, I will get reminded of this performance of yours,"Naina said,grinning broadly.He could clearly see the pride on her face.

"You serious? It was okay?"

"Now don't fish for compliments ! Can't you see from everyone's reactions? We are winning this year! I know!"

"Yeah we are! Thanks for the suggestion Naina. He is amazing," Ankit thanked her and asked Rishab if they could discuss the songs that they had planned for the culturals.It was supposed to be a medley of many hit songs and Rishab,who had now overcome all the nervousness, was eager to participate. With a bit of practice he would hopefully be able to perform even better.

Naina excused herself,stating that she had to visit the library and then go to her dance practice sessions.The culturals followed in a week and as expected ,the music and the dance team won the first place in the respective categories. The students were on cloud nine,as ultimately, they had won the cup, after taking into account the other events in the culturals.

Classes had resumed after the culturals and were going on in full swing.

"So this is where I leave you for today, class. Your first cycle test will be held in a week. So start preparing whenever you find time. See you tomorrow",their lecturer had announced,before leaving the class.

"Did you hear that? Cycle test! Oh no !" Naina said,while shutting her book loudly.

"What's wrong now? It had to happen some day anyway," Rishab said,amused by her reaction.

"Yeah,why would you bother? You would've finished revising the whole thing twice already"

"One and a half times,to be precise"

"What? You ACTUALLY read this thing one and a half times?"

Rishab couldn't help but chuckle at the look of horror on her face."Kidding. Now will you relax? 'THIS THING' is an interesting subject,for your information."

"Fine I need help then. It's Greek to me. I have no idea how you even follow this subject,"she mumbled,gathering her bag from beside her,all set to leave.

Deepali,who had just come to their desk to borrow Rishab's notes,heard about the study session plan and requested him to teach the others in the gang too.

Finally, Rishab ended up having seven students that evening and the venue was changed from the canteen to Naina's house.

"We won't let you go till we understand the subject anyway, so why stay in college when we know it will take a couple of hours? Also, you can have some proper home food before you go back to the hostel,"Naina had convinced him.

Naina had introduced Rishab to her parents and they had welcomed him with a warm smile, asking him how he liked Mumbai. They made some small talk and her parents liked Rishab and found him to be a well mannered boy while the well mannered boy found Naina's parents very friendly and nice.

The study session went well and Rishab was satisfied,as they seemed to grasp whatever he explained to them.The others couldn't thank Rishab enough for making Greek seem like English. Naina was happy,now that Rishab was slowly starting to feel like he belonged with them.He was no longer Mr.Silent.

Part 2 is done.Hope it was okay!

And the song that Rishab sings is a famous Bollywood number.Checkout the external link for the song.

Thanks for reading,guys.