Both of them stared at each other for what felt like hours.

"What are you doing with him?" Nikhil asks me, breaking the silence first.

"Dong saya dae." I squeak out below a whisper, without even thinking it through.

"Huh?" This time Ved asks, looking at me in confusion.

"Uh...I— um...I said I slammed into you accidentally?" I reply, trying to cover my slip up.

"Hmm. I know you read a lot of books but I never knew you had such a bad grammar. Stating something questioningly? Bad, bad Vicky!" Ved teases like we both do whenever we talked...even if it was for a span of sixty seconds.

I scowl at him playfully and get ready to give a comeback but Nikhil beat me to it.

"Don't insult her." He said in a deadly calm voice.

"Hey, I was just teasing man! Besides, it's kind of our thing. We both love reading and we like to do this. Don't we?" Ved retorts, directing the last part to me.

I was stunned that he even remembered our teasing talks and called it 'our thing' as I stand with my mouth slightly open.

I feel a warm arm wrap around my shoulders and starting to lead me away from Ved.

"You're bus's gonna leave you. It's too late already." Nikhil says as he leads me farther from Ved.

I look over my shoulder at Ved standing back with an unreadable expression on his face. I turn back to Nikhil, "But—"

"See you later?" Ved shouts from where he is and Nikhil's arm around my shoulder stiffens.

Grinning, I quickly turn and shout back a 'Sure!' and continue with Nikhil to my route bus. Even though Nikhil's house and mine are thirty minutes away, we come under different pin-codes, so we were in different route buses.

When I reach my bus, I turn to Nikhil, give a goodbye hug and get into my usual place in the bus near the window, beside Maya's which was near the isle.

As soon as I sat the bus was started, meaning...I was the last person to come, meaning...Nikhil was right about me being late. I see Nikhil standing outside the bus by my window with a wide grin on his face.

He fucking knows he was right!

I stick out my tongue at him for which he laughs and a wide smile stuck was on my as the bus drives away from the school.

***

Back at home that evening, I take a shower and change into my grey sweats and black t-shirt and go to the living room. Since it was first day to school and nothing much except the syllabus discussion was done, I picked up the remote, switched on the TV and started continuing Supernatural from where I left previously.

When I was halfway through the second episode, I heard the front door being unlocked and my mom entered with grocery bags. I pause the TV and help my mom with the bags into the kitchen.

"How was school?" My mom asks me as we put the groceries in their places.

"Oh about that! Ved actually changed his school. He's in mine now!" I tell my mom.

"Really? Wow! So, unlimited eye-candy now huh?" My mom teases back, wiggling her eyebrows.

Yes. That's right. My mom knows about my interests. With my dad staying about six months with us and going away to work as electrical officer in ships—mostly tankers—for six to eight months, my mom and I have only each other and we tell almost everything to each other.

"Ma, Please!" I groan, running my hands through my hair.

Sticking her tongue out, she goes back to arranging the groceries.

Yes, she stuck her tongue out.

Sometimes she makes me wonder if she really is a thirty eight years old woman.

Then again, it's not like I always act like an almost-fifteen-years-old girl.

But then again, I got my genes from my mom.

After finishing the chores, we have our dinner and later, I decide to finish watching the rest of the second episode.

When I switch on the TV and play the episode, my mom joins me.

"What's going on in Supernatural now?" She asks me.

"Saving people, hunting things, the family business. Y'know, the usual" I reply and we both go back to watching TV.

When a scene where a victim is killed is shown, my mom lets out a scream.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!"

"Ma, stop screaming! I'm trying to find out whom or what killed the vic." I tell my mom in agitation, without blinking and keeping my eyes on the screen as I look keenly for any clues about the killer.

"I don't know how you watch horror and thriller where so many killings and bloodshed are shown!" she exclaims.

"I love them. Duh. Not the killing and bloodshed, but the genres."

"Whatever. I'm going to bed. Good night." She says and walks away to her room.

"Good night!" I call back with my eyes still glued to the screen as Sam, Dean and Cas investigate the crime scene for clues.

Once the episode ends, I switch the TV off and go to my room and after five minutes of lazing around, I finally fall asleep.

The next day in school, I go to my classroom and take my place as yesterday, but the twins come ten minutes later.

The classes start and finally, every teacher start with the lessons.

Our class teacher, who was also our math teacher explains formulas and rules as if the numbers were alive which was actually fun! This just increases the mediocre interest I have in math subject.

During computer applications theory period, we are taught about HTML coding which is easier written than learnt about, considering my preference towards writing programs rather than studying about them from a lame ass book.

"Can anyone state the differences between 'base font' and 'font' tags in an html coding? Also which one of these two would be used by a professional programmer for an entire page with the same text format?"

The whole class shouts the main difference of base font being an empty tag while the other is a container tag.

Did they hear only that among all the differences that were taught?

As usual, I raise my hand and wait for the shouts to die so that the teacher can notice my hands.

"Yes? Rithvika right? Do you have more answers?"

"Yes ma'am." I reply.

She gestures me to continue, which I do.

"The base font tag is empty, as stated, and it is used to set default font settings, whereas font tag is container and used to set certain settings to specific texts in between. Base font tag is assigned in the head of a coding, while the font tag comes within the body. Also, the former can't be repeated in a coding, but the latter can be used more than once. Hence due to the default property, base font will be used by the professional programmer for an entire page with the same text format."

The entire class is silent and staring at me and so is the teacher.

What? Did I miss any points? Did I say something wrong?

I straighten my eyeglasses and look beside me to see the HD twins looking at me with wide eyes.

The teacher then slowly smiles, brings up her hands and started clapping while the rest of the class followed her actions. I look away from the students and teachers feeling a bit self-conscious and my eyes land outside the door, where I saw Nikhil, probably roaming in the corridors as usual, giving me a thumbs-up and a wink.

I oddly feel my face heat-up due to Nikhil's wink, but this isn't the first time he has done this.

I turn back to face the teacher when the claps die down.

"Very good. I'm happy that at least one student listened to all the words I said." She says with a smile.

'Not really. I just happen to have a habit where I can hear my surroundings while still doing some other thing. So I wasn't really paying attention to your words.' I want to say, but thinking better of it, I just smile at her and take my seat.

HTML, here I come.

***

"The ball is in the air, fielder's running towards it, will the ball make it beyond the boundary?" I say, giving my own commentaries to my hit, with my eyes on the ball that I hit towards the marked boundary in the empty ground near my house where I play with Nikhil and some of his friends after school.

"And DHONI FINI— sorry, VICKY FINISHES OFF IN STYLE. A MAGNIFICENT STRIKE INTO THE CROWD!" I shout as the ball flies above the boy who tried to catch it and beyond the boundary gaining six runs to my team, making us win.

Placing the bat down, I start running, due to the adrenaline rush I got from the win, shouting, "Fuck yeah!", pumping my fist in the air and grinning widely.

After the run, I put my bat in its bag, take my bike and go to Nikhil who always waits for me to come so we could cycle our way back together, since my house was on the way to his.

"That was cool Ritu! I thought you would go for a four and score the rest through running, but wow, that was something. It was risky though." Nikhil exclaims, getting off from his bike as we reach my house and I park my bike.

"Eh, it was risky and I did plan for a four, but I hit the ball a bit higher than planned" I explain to him as he comes up to me and we walk to the second floor.

"Who cares? You ended the game with a fucking six!" He almost shouts and hugs me.

"Ew! You're sweaty!" I tease and try to squirm away.

"Like you aren't." He snorts and hugs me even more tightly.

I'm filled with warmth as I lean into his hug and hug him back equally tight.

"Hey Nikki, You gotta go. You're Ma told you to come back a bit early today." I mumble against his chest, reluctantly pulling away slightly without breaking the hug.

"Yeah." he sighs and breaks the hug and I feel cold all of a sudden.

Brushing it off, I tell him a 'goodbye' and smile at him.

"Goodbye. Tell Ma I said hi." He says with a smile, referring to my mom.

He leans in and kisses my forehead, his lips lingering a bit longer than usual and leaves.

And I also didn't miss the teeny tiny smirk on his face as he walked away from me.

Whatever, that guy's crazy.

But my crazy— Whoa, whoa, whoa, where the heck did that come from?

Well, he's my best friend so I can say that right?

Right?

Trying to cover the disappointment of Nikhil's departure, I turn towards my house and my eyes catch something through the window beside our front door.

The first thing I notice is Ved sitting on the couch in our living room with his mom beside him and more voices were heard from inside.

What're they even doing here?

And the second thing I notice is that he was expressionlessly looking towards where Nikhil and I were standing.

A/N: Thoughts? Vote and comment, please and thank you!