Ananya's POV :

In 1913, observers in Furnace Creek, California  - Death Valley, watched the thermometer reach 56.7°C and declared it to be the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth. (I read this in Arav's social science book a couple of days before).

But I was pretty sure the heat in our house on certain days had definitely exceeded the temperature in Death Valley.

Okay, exaggerating limitlessly is one of my hobbies. Why? Because nobody takes me seriously anyway.

It was just another morning before school, that saw me perched on the sofa scrolling through my Instagram, reading sad quotes about one sided love (God knows why!) and feeling utterly depressed with my life inspite of getting a ninety-five percent in the last chemistry test. 

Now remember me talking about the heat in my home beating the heat in Death Valley on some days? Well, this was one of those days.

But it was just that, today it wasn't caused by the usual action hero of the family (namely, Arjun). The adults had decided to be the showstoppers for a change.

"Ananya, are you still on your phone?" dad demanded from the dining table "It's time for school! Drop that phone and come have 

The bedroom door was thrown open and mom marched out in an unmistakable "I-need-to-make-an-announcement" demeanour. We all automatically looked at her.

"My mother is coming for dinner tomorrow", she declared. There was a pause. Our grandma also lived in Chennai but away from us. Even at her age, she still continued with her confectionery business.

"Vidya.." dad began.

"No she's coming. That's about it. No arguments please", she said.

"Can I tell you.."

"Come on Rajesh! Ask the children to stay back on Saturday and meet my mother".

Arjun switched off the TV and turned to mom and dad.

"I like to watch when she fights with someone other than me for a change", he mouthed to me. I rolled my eyes at him.

"What?" mom snapped when dad did not reply, "If it was someone from your family, the kids would be under house arrest by now".

Dad glared at her but still didn't argue back. Our parents rarely fought infront of us. Even if one of them started, the other wouldn't take it ahead. Like everything else, they were successful in the marital department, as well.

"Go on. Tell them", mom egged him on.

Dad turned to us, "You heard your mom, you people are going to stay at home on Saturday evening. No basketball practice, no hanging out with friends and definitely none of your music nonsense Arjun! Keep Saturday clear all of you".

It was one of those rare occasions where I unexpectedly and unplannedly felt sorry for Arjun. Did he need to have his passion insulted again and again? I was sure there would be a revolt from Arjun's side for this comment of dad's. And sure enough...

"While I appreciate your sentiments and have utmost regard for your policies, I must say, I'm not in the least interested in this familial rendezvous and have better things to do", Arjun said with a very serious face, "Therefore kindly excuse my absence and grant me leave".

"Arjun!" mom snapped.

"No", Arjun said stubbornly.

"Arjun come on", I nudged him, "Don't make a mess now".

"Okay fine", Arjun mumbled.

Mom shifted her glance to me. I nodded. She then moved to Arav. He nodded too.

"There you have it", dad threw his hands up in the air and turned to mom "Enough? Now let me eat".

"There is one more headache", mom said.

"What?" dad asked, creasing his forehead.

"We forgot about Janvi".

Dad let out a loud sigh and threw up his hands in the air in exasperation.

Janvi was like pizza and grandma was like chocolate sauce. Nice as they both are, they just can't be put together. If they are, it's a hot mess.

My aunt and grandma had had a distasteful relationship forever. It was that type of thing where nothing had ever gone enormously wrong, nothing particularly appalling had ever happened to create animosity. There was just this default dislike for each other from the first day. But the whole thing didn't matter much to us because grandma rarely visited us.

Just then the concerned person herself came out of her room, with her laptop and perched herself on the sofa. She opened the laptop and started meddling on it.

We all stared at her.

After a few seconds, she looked up, "Guys? Anything wrong?"

"No", mom said coldly. The animosity between her and mom was still intact, from two days ago.

"Huh?"

"What Vidya wants to ask is, do you have any plans for tomorrow night?" dad asked.

"Oh yeah", Janvi said off handedly "I'm going clubbing tomorrow night with a friend. Why?"

Mom let out an irritated sigh.

I had a strong suspicion that this friend was Shaheer.

"Well you'll have to cancel it", dad said brusquely.

Janvi frowned "Why?"

"My mother in law is coming to visit us tomorrow night", dad said, "And we should all be here".

There was a momentary pause. Janvi threw her head back and let out a loud mirthless chuckle, "Bro, your mother in law is a mooood!" she drawled.

"I won't have you talking like that!" dad snapped.

"Rajesh, don't be a spoilt sport", Janvi chortled, "She's coming to meet you, Vidya and the kids. Just leave me out of this. You know, I'm a very peaceful person".

"You're disrespectful and rude", dad told her.

"And you're old and crazy!" Janvi shouted, loosing her calm.

"Janvi!" dad snapped, the colour draining from his face, "You are not clubbing tomorrow night. That's it! You get me? You'll be here to receive Vidya's mother!"

"Whatever!", cried Janvi, "You often seem to confuse between me and Ananya! I'm not your daughter. I'm twenty eight, dammit! And you can't fucking tell me what to do!".

She scooped up her laptop and stormed out of the room.

"That ended a little too quickly", Arjun muttered to me.

"Shut your useless mouth for one minute", I snapped.

Janvi did not turn up for breakfast. She left for work without talking to anybody. Dad was in still in a bad temper. Radhika unexpectedly called to say that she needed a day off. So mom had to do all the cooking and cleaning which meant she would be late for work. Our lunch was not ready yet. Mom decided to send it across to us before lunch break at school. She was in a very foul mood.

All in all, it was a very unpleasant morning in the household.

"I don't understand this! The woman should have said something earlier", mom grumbled as she  hastily sat down to shell the peas, "How can she just call me up now and say she can't come?"

"Moooom! I can't find my socks!" Arav wailed from his room.

"Go and look inside the washing machine", mom, replied and Arav dashed to back of the house to dig for his socks.

I and Arjun sat quietly, eating our cornflakes, trying not to raise anymore heat in the house.

"I forgot to get dad's signature in my answer sheet. Should I do it now?", Arjun muttered to me.

"No, just shut it", I replied "Save your action movie for the evening".

A/N : Okay babes, I know this was nowhere close to a punctual update. I'm really sorry *pouts*. Hope you liked it though ❤️

Please do leave a comment and do make that star orange ❤️ It would mean a lot to me!