Arjun's POV :

"Okay, ready all of you?!" asked Roma briskly. Her bright orange designer salwar was already making me dizzy. She was limping slightly. I didn't know why. But her makeup was on point as usual and every single strand of her hair was in place, as usual. What she said next was also usual."Today is an important day for all of you".

"Please woman! You say it everyday", Dulquer muttered behind me as he chewed his gum, like a typical back bencher. Only, we were not in a classroom and Roma was not a teacher. But it pretty much was the same scenario

"As you all know, we're now into the fifth level of competition. Congratulations!"

We all clapped unceremoniously.

"She's limping isn't she?" whispered Oviya "What's happened to her leg?"

"Whatever it is, I hope it's really hurting her", said Raghav bitterly.

Roma was going on theatrically, "You all have come here to discover your true self. Because after all, there is grime even under the most sparkling glitter".

Dulquer yawned deliberately. Roma ignored him. She was very good at ignoring things she didn't like.

"Well, so now we're going to start with the competition. Today it's Raghav's turn to choose the slit. Raghav, come here and pick up a slit", she said holding out a glass bowl with colorful slips of paper in it.

Everybody knew this 'choosing the competition' thing was a big sham. The team would decide what competition was to be held at which stage during each round, beforehand and then put up an act by making a contestant choose one from many chits, all of which would have the same thing written on them.

So far, we'd had physical tasks that involved running, cycling and stuff like that. And we'd also had a little more mind oriented tasks which involved stuff like cracking codes and finding clues. Some tasks required neither physical nor mental strength but just pure talent. If you were inherently gifted you won it, otherwise you lost.

Personally I felt such tasks were unfair since the specifically talented people could easily win those.

And every single task was important in this game. Because we got points according to our performance in each task and the total points helped us go to the next level.

Raghav strutted up to Roma, put his hand into the bowl and pulled out a slit.

"What is it?" asked Roma impatiently.

"Well..." Raghav looked at the paper and gave a dramatic pause. He had learnt something from Roma in the last three weeks, "Cooking".

Just what I'd been afraid of. Other than washing my hands, I'd never done anything else in the kitchen.

Wait, I do have a vague memory of making a spinach sandwich in first standard for a "Let's Eat Healthy", project in Moral Science class.

I looked at Ananya who was blinking rapidly trying not to look too terrified. She was no better than me with the culinary arts. The only thing she knew to cook was fake stories about me and random girls. To be honest, I was surprised that Ananya had survived even three weeks. She was holding up better than I had thought.

"Right", Roma said briskly, "Now you will all do this task in pairs, so all of you quickly find yourself a partner and then I will tell you what you will be preparing today".

We had different tasks each day. Some were done solo, some in pairs and some as trios. I had already paired with Rubina in two tasks, and had lost both times too. I didn't want to be rude to her but the truth was that, as much as she was a clever player she was not very willing to work hard.

So this time I was silently going to give her the slip and find another partner who had both brawns and brains. And as much as I didn't like him, the only person who fitted that bill was Dulquer. So I surreptitiously moved to his side.

"What? Dude, you actually want to pair up with me?" he snorted, trying in vain, to hide his surprise "Okay very well, we'll do it then".

Roma gave us a thumbs up. I tried not to think of Rubina. But I didn't have to worry about her. She was no lamb. She would wisely pick her partner too. Sure enough when I turned around after a bit of hesitation, she was standing with Oviya, the infamous strategy queen. That's right. Oviya was always the one thinking of notorious ideas to win the game. And her ideas usually meant that someone else got damaged in some way.

However my sister who never seemed to put any thought before a task began, automatically went and stood next to Pooja.

Roma instantly raised her tweezed eyebrows at them.

"Ah-ah!" she said disapprovingly, "You two are pairing up for almost every competition. That's not fair. You can't always have the same partners. Come here now. Time to split the dream team."

Pooja and Ananya looked at each other, terrified.

"Hmm...let's see", Roma said enjoying the effect she had created, "Pooja come here, go and stand with Shilpa. And Ananya, you can pair up with Kishan".

Struggling to control my laughter, I looked at Ananya. Disbelief and nervousness raced each other on her face, but as she walked up to Kishan and stood next to him, I couldn't fail to notice a not-so-obvious ray of glee in her eyes.

A/N : Hey my lovely people! I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you did, please do vote and comment before you click through ❤️❤️