|Chapter Five|

"Can't he walk like normal humans?" Aisha can't help but ask.

"Well," Veer chuckles. "Walking and Vivek are pretty much on two different pages, you see."

Shaking her head, Aisha averts her eyes back on the lean and tall figure who has been constantly strolling over a few feet ahead from them, swaying his head occasionally to the beats of the tracks which he is listening to, earphones plugged into each ear. Aisha wonders if Vivek ever gets tired of sprinting.

"How much farther is it?" Nitya asks, practically wailing, as she tugs at Aisha's hand in reluctance.

"There," Veer tells Nitya, pointing a finger at the huge campus gates which are painted in gold and black, wide open and students dressed in their white and grey uniforms crowding the place. Aisha wouldn't have walked all the way to her school in such a stranger place but when Veer and Vivek offered for her to accompany them on the walk; she thought it won't be bad with these two coming along.

"This is huge!" Nitya exclaims as they four walk into the Lotus Valley campus.

It's true though, Aisha admits internally. Back in her hometown, schools are literally living up to their names, in all sarcasm that is. Most of the schools back in Guwahati only have an open ground which the administration calls the 'playground', whereas here, there's even space for a front yard, covered in neatly managed carpet grass. The school building is painted in spotless white and stark red, making it resemble more of a resort than an educational institution.

"Vivek and I drag our asses to classes in summer only because of the air-conditioned rooms in here," Veer whispers, grinning sheepishly.

"Impressive," Aisha sighs sarcastically as they three –Aisha, Nitya and Veer –walk into the campus building.

Aisha furrows her brows when the sharp voices of an argument pierce through the school corridors. A few steps ahead, she notices, is a crowd of students forming a circle. Turning to Veer, her smile vanishes when she sees the worry in his eyes.

"Ayan, hand me back my binder," Vivek's calm, yet bone-chillingly threatening, voice reaches them from somewhere amid the crowds.

"Nitya, go to the third floor, the fifth grade classroom's in-" Aisha was telling her sister.

"Chill, I know my way," Nitya waves off. "Bye-bye."

"What's happening?" Aisha asks Veer as she follows him once Nitya's gone.

"Uh...some shit that needs to be handled?" Veer answers her, preoccupied, as he and Aisha navigate through the crowd of students.

"And why do you sound guilty?" Aisha asks, feeling like the situation has got something to do with Veer.

Before anything proceeds, Aisha gapes at the sight ahead. Vivek is kneeling on the tiled floors, his one hand grasping a boy's school blazer and the other clenched into a fist. The boy has a similar grasp on Vivek but it seems like he's more caught up defending himself from any upcoming punches.

"Damn it man," another guy sighs. He's standing a few steps away from the fighting duo, flipping through that red binder which belongs to Vivek.

"It's the wrong twin," the guy with the binder says as he reads off the name on the binder.

"I had told you not to mess," Vivek says, releasing the boy's blazer with a jerk before getting up to his feet. Reaching out, he snatches the binder from the guy who raises his hands as if to gesture a truce.

"Relax, bro," the guy says, chuckling. "We accidentally thought you to be Veer."

"Get your facts right the next time, Ayan," Vivek tells the guy who nods noncommittally. Turning, Vivek scans the crowds, causing a few students to scurry away, minding their own business. He pauses when his eyes rest on Aisha, his gaze softening a little.

Turning on his heel, Vivek marches away after throwing a venomous glare at his twin who had been a silent spectator of the fight.

"What happened?" Aisha asks the moment Ayan and the rest of his friends merge away, rushing off to their own classes.

"Nothing specific," Veer mumbles while fidgeting with the buttons of his blazer.

"Veer," Aisha says.

"Okay fine," he sighs. "I am the co-editor of the school's weekly paper and basically last Friday's edition comprised of an article which bashed Ayan and his friends pretty bad. Ayan's a part of the current sprinters who represent the school and some student had wrote about his lack of sportsmanship and how there are many others who deserve to represent the school instead of Ayan," Veer explains.

"And?" Aisha asks.

"Me being the editor, I shouldn't have let such a toxic article to be published for the whole school to see, but maybe I agreed to that write-up and... I got the article published under an anonymous tag," Veer finishes.

"Unbelievable, Veer," Aisha shakes her head.

"Now let's get to class before those guys spot me," Veer says, holding Aisha's hand in his as he leads the way.

Had it been anyone else, Aisha would've raised an eyebrow at the bold move of grasping her hand and leading her through the corridors but over the span of time she's spent with Veer, she's concluded that he likes expressing himself through physical contact rather than words, which is quite opposite to Vivek's persona who prefers eye-contact and gestures rather than anything else to convey his thoughts.

_________

"I'll buy this month's Netflix for you," Veer tries.

No response.

"Okay, two months?"

Vivek silently chews his sandwich, his free hand shuffling the playlist over his little portable music player and one ear occupied by the earphone as he continues ignoring his brother.

"Three months of Netflix on me?" Veer offers.

Aisha simply glances back and forth between the two brothers as the stakes of the bargain scale higher and higher with every moment passing. She stops eating her lunch when her eyes spot a tall, dominating figure storm their way. She recognizes it to be Ayan, the guy who had been hunting for Veer since morning.

Before anything proceeds, the guy reaches their table and smacks a hand on Veer's head pretty hard, the impact making him yelp with surprise. Ayan then grasps Veer by the back of his shirt, jerking him in an attempt to threaten. Both the boys lock eyes and the air turns thick with tension.

Students around them in the canteen are either busy minding their own business or are enjoying with watching the drama proceed from their seats. Aisha blinks in disbelief when Vivek pays no heed to his brother, still reshuffling the songs and eating.

"You think being the editor of a weekly paper of a small school gives you the power to publish shit about me?" Ayan asks.

"Oh believe me," Veer chuckles, slipping out of Ayan's grip. "I'm not interested in letting your filthy name ruin the ambience of my paper either. But someone's gotta enlighten the masses about you being a dickhead, right?"

Many kids around their table snicker and laugh when they hear the words roll out of Veer's mouth. Ayan simply clenches his jaw, his hands balling into fists.

"You're in school campus, and the authorities won't mind throwing a student out for unacceptable behaviour," Aisha pipes in before a punch comes Veer's way. Some had to stop it, right?

Both Veer and Ayan turn to glance at Aisha's sudden interruption, with Vivek still interested with his music player. Ayan smirks at Aisha, his eyes inspecting her face as he pushes his hands into his pockets. "I didn't know Lotus Valley began enrolling Chinese kids into the campus," he says, gesturing a hand at Aisha.

Clenching her jaw with fury, Aisha opens her mouth to counter the racist asshole when a voice beats her to it. "Speak another word about her and the consequences won't be pretty."

Turning, Aisha gapes at Vivek who is now glaring up at Ayan from where he's seated, his fingers curling around the little device in a death-grip, his jaw set tight.

If the air was thick initially, it was now radiating tension all around with Vivek and Ayan staring at one another.

"Don't you boys have anything better to do than to stare holes into each other's heads?" a feminine voice hits Aisha's ears. Averting her eyes from the duo, she spots a girl who now stands behind Veer's seat, her arms crossed on her chest and amusement crystal clear in her fawn-brown eyes which are shielded behind those round spectacles.

Ayan glances at Vivek for a moment more before turning on his heel and marching away towards his table at the far end. Sighing, Vivek resumes to listening to the tracks over his earphones. Aisha realizes that the girl who had interrupted the banter has now walked around and is facing Veer with a look of disappointment and fury. Veer, meanwhile, looks at anything but the girl with the specs.

"How smart of you to sneak that article into the paper and risking both of us getting suspended for a year in regards with attempts to defame a fellow peer at school, eh Veer?" the girl asks, her voice dripping with sarcastic reprimand.

"Relax, Payal," Veer mutters. "Ayan and his pals deserve that anyway-"

"But the authorities won't look at it that way," Payal cuts him off with a matter-of-fact voice.

"Fine," Veer sighs. "I'm sorry for being such an impulsive idiot."

"That's better," the spectacled girl nods with satisfaction before turning to look at Aisha with a questioning look. "New admission?" she asks to which Aisha nods with a smile.

"She's our girl next door," Veer grins at Aisha.

"Neighbours, he means to say," Vivek glares at his brother who shrugs indifferently at the sharp look thrown his way.

"I apologise for whatever Ayan spat," Payal says, stretching a hand out and shaking it warmly with Aisha. "Not everyone is like that in here."

"It's okay," Aisha shakes her head as if to wave off the matter.

"I'm Payal Desai, the co-editor of our weekly newspaper and Veer's part-time babysitter when he's at school," the girl speaks, earning a scowl from Veer.

"Aisha Medhi."

Vivek glances at Aisha with raised eyebrows and a funny expression crossing his face. "What...?" Aisha asks him with curiosity.

"Just the fact that...I didn't know your name until now," Vivek explains sheepishly.

"Great neighbours, I see," Payal giggles, shaking her head at Vivek.

_______________

Author's Note:-

Is there anyone who ships Veer and Payal? Or are you guys going for Aisha-Veer?

I know some are expecting a love-triangle as well, so it's really amusing to see y'all try and guess the relations out XD

Anyone going for Aisha-Vivek? Lemme know ;)

See ya at the next update!
*waves a goodbye*