The huge campus of the college of Espionage had five buildings.

"That is the administrative building." Shivam pointed at the white two-storied structure infront of us. The cobblestone driveway forked at its front, only to circle and converge behind the building. Our car drove past the administrative building along driveway that ran across the campus.

We crossed the large dome shaped theory building to our right which was further away from the administrative building.

"Whoa this looks like an army camp!" Mandy gasped in amazement. The open stretch ahead left us dumbstruck. A gigantic swimming pool and an open-air firing range separated by a row of cabins, stood to our left, with a jogging track acting as their boundary.

To our right there were a soccer and volleyball field, bleachers rising on their either side. That part of the campus appealed to me the least, since I hated sports. There was an obstacle course beside the sports fields, much grittier than the one I had gone through in the Stage II tests.

"Is that a part of our training?" I asked, warily looking at the obstacle course.

"All of them are," Shivam chuckled, noticing my expression of horror, through the rear-view mirror.

"This is where your time with me comes to an end." Shivam said, parking the car on the side of the cobblestone driveway. Two tall five storied brick buildings stood opposite to each other, on either side of the driveway.

"That is for the staffs and mentors," Shivam tilted his head towards the brick building on the other side of the driveway. "And this one is for the students."

I could make out the outline of the fifth building in the distance, situated near the edge of the campus. It was humongous and looked somewhat like a stadium, the field beyond it gave way to the forest.

Shivam told us, that was the indoor sports arena. It was well equipped with a swimming pool, tennis court, gymnasium, football field and basketball court along with an indoor firing range and an indoor obstacle course.

Since most of the other rooms allotted for the first years were taken, Mia and I were allotted the last one. The room was tiny with two single beds, a study table, two chairs and a cupboard.

I was relieved that the rooms had attached-toilets. Atleast we would not have to endure the pains of community bathroom for the next four years.It was already past midnight, and the journey from Dehradun to Auli had left us exhausted, so we went to sleep without wasting much time.

We got dressed early the next morning and joined the rest of our batch for the Orientation Program in the large auditorium situated at the top floor of the theory building. I didn't want to leave Brute at the dorms alone, so he was giving company to the security guard and his indie guard dogs outside the theory building.

Once we settled down, nine middle-aged men and women climbed up the stage of the auditorium.

"Welcome freshers," the oldest of them spoke into the microphone on the podium. "I am Jeevan Rathore, your guide, criticizer, care giver, and most importantly your principal for the coming four years."

Jeevan Rathore was probably in his early fifties. The salts on his head were more than the peppers. He wore a V-necked tshirt and a pair of military cargo pants. Even though there was sternness in his poise, his voice was laced with compassion.

"Each of you who sit here, were chosen from thousands of brilliant minds in your states." He continued. "You each possess a unique talent, but just like a diamond needs to be polished and sharpened before it can be used, for the coming four years, we shall do the same to you."

"You shall be straining every muscle in your body, be it on the limbs or the ones in the brain." Jeevan Rathore carried on in his baritone "You shall push your physical stamina and enhance your mental agility. You shall improve yourself everyday till you know you can rock climb and recite medieval history at the same time, shoot targets and solve equations together. Play chess and sing a song of R.D. Burman simultaneously."

His words were slowly building the panic attack I was always apprehensive about. I follow the google instructions and tried to breathe in and out.

I wished Brute was there. Ever since he came into my life, these anxiety attacks had minimized. Damn the orientation. This was our first day and Jeevan Rathore had already made me feel on the edge with his speech.

"If you are under the illusion that just because you are sitting here, you have already become a spy," he smirked, "then snap out as fast as you can, because right now you are as close to becoming a spy as humans are to setting up residential colonies on Mars."

"Oh shut up already!" Mia muttered under her breath. She was getting irritated with Rathore's drawl.

"Varun Dixit, Mohini Agarwal, Rohit Biswas, Sakshi Krishnamurthy, Kavya Bakshi, Luke D'Costa, Rudra Sangwan and Ankita Tripathi," Jeevan Rathore waved at his eight companions who hovered behind him "will be your mentors. They will transform you lost and aimless teenagers, into indispensable national assets."

Most of the mentors were young; some of them looked like they were in their late twenties. Each of the mentors took turns in driving most of us to sleep with their tediously long speeches, that followed Jeevan Rathore's rant.

I noticed the only occupants in the campus were we freshers along with the staffs and guards. This was supposed to be a four years course, then where were our senior college mates?

Mia and I along with Junaid, Mandy and Brute, strolled around the campus through most of the day, before dragging ourselves to the cafeteraia on the ground floor. of our residential building for dinner. Blue benches and tables were spread across the large cafeteria hall. I picked up a section tray and allowed the server to fill it with ladles of rice, spicy lentil soup, tofu curry and Fried potatoes. My stomach grumbled in anticipation as we sat down to devour the food.

We were nearly finished, when unknown faces started to fill the cafeteria.

"Seniors." Mia scorned.

"Finally," Mandy sighed in relief, "I was beginning to fear that I would have to be satisfied with the limited options."

"Aah come on!" Junaid slapped him on his arm "the girls in our batch are pretty too." We had total eighteen students in our batch and of them only eight were girls, including myself.

"Yeaaaaah, right!" Mandy sneered, "You may prefer to straddle froggy eyes there," he said pointing at a girl from our batch, with spectacles and mousy hairy, sitting two tables down from us "or eat puke queens lips, but I can't." Junaid blushed as I angrily kicked Mandy under the table.

"What about Mia?" Junaid said recovering from the awkwardness.

"Firstly I am not into men," Mia raised one eyebrow "and even if I were, I wouldn't be interested in this asshole." She said pointing her index at Mandy.

Mandy pretended to look hurt. "Oh you don't know what you are missing out on young lady." He teased Mia, bouncing his pecs.

"Ewww gross," I and Mia both screwed our faces at his gesture.

Mandeep Chautala was as a pure Punjabi. With a height of over six feet three, he was probably one of the tallest in the college. I was amazed to know that he was quite good in decoding too. I always had this notion that the ones with muscles had a less active brain.

His light brown wavy hair coupled with the dimples that appeared whenever he smiled and his dreamy brown eyes, were ofcourse going to get him what he was looking for from the senior girls.

As if to prove me right, a group of senior girls passed our table giggling foolishly amongst themselves, when they noticed Mandy. Mandy ofcourse smiled smugly enjoying the attention. I wondered whether any of the seniors would even notice me.

"See it's that easy." Mandy smirked finishing off his meal.

"Don't you have a girlfriend back home or were you always a man slut?" I rolled my eyes at him.

"Actually puke queen, once upon a time I was a Duff like you." He grinned, "got enrolled in the gym right after school ended, and got these beauties." He said flexing his biceps.

"By the time I was finally ready to explore the beautiful options of Ludhiana, got admitted to the College of Espionage instead," he paused "and this my friend is now my playground." He said dramatically waving his arms around.

I don't know whether I was angry for being called a Duff or surprised that Mandy too was like me once. I had no choice but to embrace my fate of the Duff because I was part of a group, which had the two most good looking guys, and the prettiest girl of our batch.

I missed my school suddenly. Atleast amongst my geek friends I never felt this inferiority complex. Junaid and Mia were nice to me and even though Mandy was a jerk, he wasn't rude. Just that his honesty kind of hurt. But it was the truth, I was the ugly duckling in this group of runway models.

We finished our dinner and made our way out of the cafeteria, which was now brimming with chatter, since the seniors had finally shown up. It seemed Junaid and Mandy where grabbing quite a lot of female attention. While Mandy enjoyed it, Junaid was somewhat shy and wanted to get out of there.

I was lost in self-pity and ever growing insecurity over how unattractive, I looked... when I first saw HIM care-freely walking towards the cafeteria.

I was friends with two of the hottest young men of this college, yet never for once did I feel attracted to either of them, but this boy who was sauntering down the corridor hooked me to him like a magnet. I guess even Mia could not resist his charm, even though she wasn't into men.

A sleeveless grey hoodie hugged his exceptionally toned body. His sturdy arms swayed casually, while his long legs, hidden behind a pair of white three quarters, carried him towards us.

I noticed his short hair was spiked up and his light olive skinned face glistened with perspiration. The way his full lips arched into a smile, in response to something one of the boys accompanying him had said, made my surroundings blur away.

He walked past us, with his group of boys trailing beside him, but those intense hazel eyes did not even spare a glance in our direction. Of all the things delicious about him, his sharp pointed nose was surely the winner.

"Puke queen, clean your drool." Mandy chuckled. I hadn't realized my head had involuntarily turned around, ogling at the guy shamelessly.

The smoldering stranger disappeared behind the cafeteria doors leaving me dazed. He felt like gravity, pulling every nerve of my body towards him.

"That my friend is a tenner." Mia slapped Mandy on his back.

"Well, I am not going to waste my time, on any girl, that guy is even slightly interested in." Mandy said. "He looks like a fucking Greek demigod, I mean that is serious competition." He grimaced.

"He is apparently a senior, so may be the girls you would be interested in, have already got over his charm." Mia said hopefully.

I was too dazed to keep track of the conversation they were having. Many a times, lying on my bed at home, I had fantasized myself with a guy, who resembled this demigod. However, never had I expected to see the guy of my dreams personified.

I had to fight the urge of running back to the cafeteria to grab another look of him; just to be sure that he was real. I walked back to my hostel room, my brain fogged with the thoughts of that demigod, who just passed by, not even knowing, that I existed.

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