Mr. Matthews and Mr. Robin had a tensed face when they got to know the student who was about to perform for the one on one dance had got into a major accident and had a fracture.

Sanskaar was there beside the teachers who were discussing about who would do well in the last minute. While the participating students were standing a little away from the teachers wondering who was going to do it.

"I don't know who can do it perfectly in the last minute for the dance competition." Mr.Robin said still thinking if he can suggest anyone of the students he had trained before.

"Let's drop it off Robin. Just because of this we can't take much tension." Mr. Matthews shrugged his shoulders in defeat.

"Can I give it a try?" All the heads turned around to see Swara decked up with the red silk frock for the play and had wore a long black jacket.

Swara walked forward amidst the crowd with a determined face. Sanskaar looked at her surprised. Mr. Robin's eyes lit seeing the girl while Mr. Matthews narrowed his gaze at her thinking if she could really do it.

"Can you do it Swara?" More than a question it sounded like a excitement. He mentally questioned himself how he missed out his best student Swara while thinking all the while.

Swara nodded with a smile. She wasn't sure if she could win it but then trying would least hurt her right? 

"I'll help you." With that Aditi had already dragged Swara to the dressing room before Swara could say anything further.

Exactly 15 minutes later Swara came out totally dressed up in western wear and a perfect amount make up on her skin, no less or no more adding more radiant glow. Thankfully she had brought her black demins and red shimmering top for back up so that she can change up after play and it had helped her out along with her black over coat. She had ditched her high red heels she brought for the play and wore Aditi's dance shoes since both had same size. Aditi made sure of the make up look perfect on her face despite Swara throwing tantrums to go with the natural look.

"All set Miss. badass?" Jay approached his best friend first after she had come back assuring the teachers again.

"Of course I am." Swara smiled as she rubbed her palms together. It had been so long since she had participated in any dance competition and so she was pretty excited.

"All the best Swara." Laksh wished her luck to which Swara smiled and mumbled a thank you.

"Swara I've changed the name and have given yours. All the best." Sanskaar informed and wished her luck.

Before she could say anything they heard the announcement which asked the dance competitors to move to the back stage immediately and others off the auditorium.

"You guys leave and have fun watching me." Saying cheerfully with a wink Swara left the place.

"Will she be able to do this?" Sanskaar asked Jay.

"Chill man. This girl is more than what she looks, now let's go." With that Jay and Sanskaar downstairs to have a great watch of the show which was about to put of by their best friend.

Arya had already kept his camera rolled. Thankfully Mr. Robin helped to convince Mr. Matthews saying they need photos for the year book which is made at every end of the year with photos, articles and other things printed in the book besides he was the chief editor.

It was a one on one competition and whenever Swara came, the girl made sure to make everything awestruck with her exclusive, perfect moves and moved faster towards the finals. Swara had a great time dancing her whole heart with every song they played.

Sanskaar was so surprised seeing her ace every music they threw at her, be it western, classical, jass and anything she did everything perfect. She has again made him dumbstruck. Jay already had a i-knew-it face. Aditi was happy seeing Swara moving forward towards the finals. Arya would have hooted and gave a victory dance if Mr. Matthews wasn't there. Laksh was also happy for Swara as everyone was.

After they announced Swara was entering finals she sat on the floor backstage taking breaths and wiping the sweat but the contented smile that she had on her lips never left. She was happy after a long time.

The ribbon that Aditi had tied her loose hair in a pony tail had fallen somewhere when she was dancing. Running her fingers in her smooth hair she quickly stood up and walked to her friends who were looking at the other competitors performance.

"Hey." She sat on her knees beside Sanskaar.

"You're doing great. All the best for finals." Sanskaar wished her with one of his charming smile.

"Thanks." Swara said and took the cool drink tin which he had in his hand and took a sip. She was so thirsty and when the cool liquid seeped in her throat, she felt relief and heaven. Sanskaar's eyes widened seeing her drink his drink he bought for himself.

"Swara you want me to tie your hair?" Aditi asked. She was sitting next to Jay who was next to Sanskaar,  to which Swara denied.

"Like always rock it up babe." Arya who was sitting beside Sanskaar showed a thumbs up.

"Why should I say all the best when I already know you are going to win this." Jay shrugged his shoulders while Swara chuckled.

"Okay guys I'm going back again. See ya." With that she fled back again to the backstage after handing over the cool drink tin to Sanskaar again.

The finals started and this time her competitor was a trained dancer who had almost won all the dance competition he has participated in. When Swara got to know the information about him she merely gave a nod to it. Swara didn't mind much because her force was only to give her best and dance to the fullest and not about the one who she was going to compete with.

Swara was soon called and she took her place on the left and other on the right. When Swara heard the music it was like liquid adrenaline injected and rushing into her blood veins and streams well enough for her to start moving her body. Her movements flowed with a dazzling grace that took away the breath of every person in her audience. She could feel her soul become one with the music and she unleashed her emotions into her dance.

On the other side the boy who was competing Swara looked her and was surprisingly himself seeing her dance heavy and difficult steps with so much ease. To much to his shock she still managed to dance without any flaw and had the energy well intact from the start. With all those thoughts running in his mind he failed to keep up his dance and stumbled back making all shocked.

Swara hardly noticed it and kept dancing upto the last minute of the song and finished her dance with a bright smile, pounding heart and sweat dripping from her forehead and her nape.

Without any doubt Swara was declared as the winner and got the trophy from the judges making her school mates hoot and jump in joy while the teachers were delight.

"Congratulations!" Arya and Jay took the girl in bear hug at a time and ended up glaring at each other making Swara chuckle. These two were never going to change.

"Guys no time for fighting. I'm going to change." With that she handed over the trophy to Sanskaar and walked along with Aditi to the dressing room.

Minutes later Swara came dressed up in her glossy red silk bell gown which had thick straps on her shoulders. Her hair were neatly brushed and left loose with a flower crown on her head. Aditi took charge of the make up department again and did a perfect job by making Swara even more prettier. Swara ditched to wear much ornaments and choose to wear her usual diamond stud earrings and a sleak silver chain with a white stone shining between her collar bones.

"I have no idea of how many boys are going to lay flat just with a sight of you." Aditi teased. Definitely, Swara's appearance had that power.

"Should I give you the credits for making me look prettier?" Swara winked at Aditi as they walked towards the boys.

"Oh my god! Be my girlfriend already babe." Arya wrapped his arms around her neck and said playfully.

"Stay away from her." Jay warned and smacked Arya who by now made a crying face making all giggle.

"Looking beautiful." Sanskaar commented. She was making him breathless with her looks and he wondered what all he was going to bear when they were going to enact and dance.

"Thanks Sanskaar." Swara smiled softly.

Laksh stood a little away from the group, leaning against the pillar admiring the beauty who was taking everyone's attraction. She looked no less than a princess who just came out from the book of fairytales which we all have read and listened in childhood. His heart was still beating barely with her sight and was recklessly happy just because he watched her laugh so melodiously. Laksh felt ironic of how Swara and him were near by circumstances yet so far, miles away by hearts.

Mr. Matthews called everyone since it was time for them to enact the play. Laksh broke his trance and walked and so did others. After giving a small instructions to the students he took few steps away from them.

Sanskaar noticed almost most of them were nervous as he was. Taking a heavy breath in and pushing away all his jitters he spoke, "Okay guys, listen! We are from Elite school and we are Elitians. We are not going to let our hard work fall by focusing on our competitors but instead we are going to give out our best." He breathed and before he started again this time Swara spoke.

"So let's act whole heartedly and keep your emotions to the best of entertainment and let your heart take over.. okay?"

"Yes!" All replied in unison.

Swara smiled letting out a huge breath. "Let's rock this up Elitians!!!"

Sharing a group hug and mumbling all the best to each other, all left to their respective places waiting for the curtains to unveil. For one last time Sanskaar looked at Swara who gave an assuring blink and a smile to him.

As the screen unveiled, both Swara and Sanskaar being the leads of the play narrated the start from off stage before they could give a grand entry.

An age-old vendetta between two powerful families erupts into bloodshed. Sanskaar, being Romeo Montague and a group of people gatecrash Capulet's party using masks to meet Rosaline, the lady he claims to love. Amidst the search for Rosaline, Romeo meets the gorgeous Juliet Capulet and instantly fell in love with her who was in due to marry her father's choice, the County Paris. Romeo manages to meet up again by climbing on Juliet's balcony to express his love for her and so does she. They again meet up as Juliet escaped from her castle to meet Romeo in the party and they danced.

Sanskaar and Swara managed to pull out strings well by dancing flawlessly with their eyes locked and a soft smile spreading on their lips. Their performance almost felt so real and not a play by the audience.

With the help of Juliet's nurse, the women arrange for the couple to marry the next day, but Romeo's attempt to halt a street fight leads to the death of Juliet's own cousin, Tybalt, for which Romeo is banished. In a desperate attempt to be reunited with Romeo, Juliet follows the Lawrence Friar's plot and fakes her own death by having sleeping potion. The message fails to reach Romeo.

When Romeo reached the tomb Paris sees him and thinks he is trying to vandalise the tomb, so he tries to arrest him. They fight, and Romeo killed Paris. Romeo grants Paris' dying wish to be placed next to Juliet in the tomb. Even though he had no real reason to kill Paris, he was blind in his grief as believed he lost his beloved Juliet forever. He took his own life by drinking poison and died proving his words and love for her.

Juliet who woke up found Romeo's corpse beside her.

Swara managed to shed tears in real making many shocked, surprised and awestruck seeing her act with real emotions. There wasn't a single audience who weren't spellbound by last part of the act and some literally teared up.

Juliet who could take any more grief of losing her love of her life pulls out his dragger and stabbed herself to death. Finally the grieving family agree to end their feud.

The curtains rolled down for a moment and immediately all gathered together in a straight line. Swara managed to rub of her tears roughly stood in the middle with Sanskaar. Her make up was not smudged or spoiled due to her tears and all thanks to Aditi's water proof make up. When the curtains were opened again, the entire team bowed down. A breath-taking silence appeared before the crowd broke into huge roars of applause.

The team moved to back stage while the teachers had a satisfactory smiles on their face. All most everyone congratulated, mainly for the leads. Swara managed to surf in the crowd with a smile and eyes stuck on the floor to hide her brimming tears from everyone.

Finding a place where no one was, She quickly sat on her knees and let the tears roll down from her eyes. Swara had carried away by the character she played so much that she didn't even know she started crying on the stage but thankfully it only gained more positive response for the team.

When she saw a tissue being forwarded to her, Swara quickly grabbed it and wiped her tears giving heavy sigh out. She looked up and saw Laksh standing with a concerned smile. He forwarded his hand to her and placing hers she got.

"Thanks Laksh." Swara smiled.

"You okay?" Laksh asked. When all others were busy chatting and congratulating each other for doing their parts well he noticed Swara sneaking out of the crowd and he followed to check for her well being.

Swara could see his genuine concern for her in his eyes. She nodded with a smile and both of them walked back to their team.

When Jay saw Swara coming he quickly walked towards her and took her in a bear hug. The way she cried on stage literally made him so worried and scared but then it took him minutes to understand that she was actually crying for the play.

"You made me worried." He whispered. Jay was actually searching for her when everyone was back to the backstage and Swara smiled.

"I know, sorry." She apologized as they broke the hug.

"You look so pretty in all the pictures babe." Arya exclaimed with his eyes stuck on her photos which he clicked.

"You better send me all." Swara snapped at him.

"I'll just meet up our teachers." With that She excused since she didn't meet them not before giving a assuring blink to Sanskaar who looked worried as Jay was.

Since their act was over they were asked to have their seats in the auditorium. Swara gained permission from the teacher to stay out of the auditorium for a bit of time. Though Mr. Matthews was not very convinced with the idea, Mr. Robin managed to convince him and asked her go out for a some time.

"Sanskaar coming out?" Swara asked him as they were only left.

"To have some fresh air? Yes then." He said.

"I definitely need them now for my sore eyes." Swara replied as they walked out of auditorium and settled themselves on the downstairs steps. 

Swara had her eyes closed for few minutes since it burnt a little as she not only cried now but had cried last night in the dance studio too.

"I had no idea that you would cry there." Sanskaar started to speak. He couldn't see her cry because he had to act as dead according to the character but then when he felt her tears dripping on his face, he was shocked.

"Ah! That's because I got to much carried away by the character." Swara replied and opened her eyes with a small smile as saw the warm summer's sunshine glazing in yellow along with the morning breeze.

"Hmm. Swara, how do you managed to dance so well in the one on one competition?" Sanskaar had the question from the time he saw her dance like pro but couldn't ask her since they were all busy getting ready for the play.

"Credits to Robin master. I was his student from the age of 5 and it was him who taught me all of these." Swara explained.

"That's nice. You know him more than a decade now." Sanskaar said.

"Yeah. Master owns his own studio and also teaches us in the school. Remember Classic studio you came? It actually belongs to him." Swara informed further.

"Really? I didn't know." Sanskaar blinked his eyes to which she nodded in a yes.

"By the way you danced well." Swara  remembered how they danced on the stage. He actually did great and all thanks to their tireless efforts and practices.

"I know right?! But the credits goes to the dance teacher who taught me so well." Sanskaar winked at her.

"Now can I know the pleasure to know much about this dance teacher of yours?" Swara played along with him and he chuckled.

"Of course that's going to be my pleasure to tell you. She's somewhat your height, your age. She's even got the same eyes and facial features of yours. She teaches so well that even the ones who has no interest in dance would try for her sake. She's got the passion to dance that it would pull their eyes out off the sockets of the ones who watches her performance..." As he continued Swara butted in before he was going to say more about this 'dance teacher' who was no one but herself.

"God Sanskaar! That's too much okay." Swara chuckled softly with her eyes lashes beating against her cheek bones often due to his words that had surprised her.

"I have more to say or wait a second, are you jealous of my dance teacher?" Sanskaar had a smirk and a glint of tease playing in his eyes.

"Me? Jealous? Sanskaar you just clean your eyes and brain. You are talking about me and why would I be jealous of myself?" She rolled her eyes while Sanskaar still smirked.

"You are jealous." He concluded.

"Let's get in. I don't want to be beheaded by Mr. Matthews." Swara got up and straightened her gown.

"You are jealous!" He repeated again.

"I'm not!" Swara repeated again and 'you are - I am not' game continued for a longer time even after they went inside until the host asked only leads of the plays to come up on the stage as they were about to announce the results.

And with no difficult stones that hindered their path for success, Elite school won the competition. The judges were deeply impressed by the way the leads and team carried the emotions and made everything felt true.

Adding more happiness the school also got the 'Over-all championship' to their glory since they won most of the competitions that was held.

Everyone was going out of the auditorium since everything ended but Sanskaar was confused of why Swara had dragged him not to go down but instead dragging him back to the auditorium which they exited just a while ago.

"Swara what's it?" He asked again but seems like Swara was playing a deaf ear to answer him.

"My camera." She forwarded to the photographer and the man accepted with a smile.

"Sanskaar, we never took a photograph with each other so I thought of taking one. Is that okay?" Swara asked and he wondered if they took any before. In backstage they had so many pictures taken with groups with the phone but it's just with her words he realised they never took one together of them alone.

"Right. We'll have one." Sanskaar smiled making Swara happy.

"How about one of you sit on the chair?" The photographer suggested as he saw a royal chair which was used for plays were beside them and they were still in their costumes. Both nodded and then decided Swara would sit while Sanskaar will stand behind her.

Swara quickly took the seat and Sanskaar stood beside Swara and both gave their beautiful smile to get a good photo. The photographer snapped their picture and they instantly got the copy of it since it was an instant camera.

"That's just one and we are two of us so let's have another shot." Swara said to him and asked the photographer to get another picture of them.

This time Sanskaar had placed his hand on her shoulder making jitters in her heart. Swara looked at him who was already looking at the photographer with his best smile. A soft smile spread on lips seeing him smile so beautiful. Even before she could register what she was doing the photographer already snapped the picture.

"Another one." Swara pleaded since she had totally forgotten that she was getting snapped and was lost in her la la land. No way she was going to give the picture to him and embarrass herself for looking at him like that.

Swara managed to control to her pounding heart which was beating against her ribcage, she knew her cheeks were turning red and would be visible even though Aditi had applied some artificial blush power on her cheeks for the play. His touch did something to her but then she smiled. A smile that not only curved her lips upward but also reached her eyes.

Sanskaar's state was no less than how Swara was going through which was unknown to him but everything paused for him when he saw her smile, his heart skipped beats. Her smile was one of happiness growing, much as a spring flower opens. He could see how it came from deep inside to light her hazel eyes and spread into every part of her and unknowingly his lips curved up too.

Snap!

Again the picture was snapped. The photographer already managed to see the sparkling emotions the couple shared and smiled.

"Thank you." Swara beamed at him as he handed over her camera and the snaps he shot for them.

"You guys look perfect for each other." With the compliment he left making both of them baffle but they shrugged away their thoughts to go beyond and smiled looking at each other.

Swara opened her small bag, took her pen and scribbled the date with a smiley drawn in the back of a photo and gave the photo to him without looking which one gave to him.

"Our first photograph! Keep it safe for a lifetime and cherish it well. Let's go." Swara took her sling bag, kept the pen and photos inside safely and wore the bag's strap to one side. If Mr. Matthews gets to know that they were missing he was going to show hell to them and she knew it.

Sanskaar looked at the date and the smile smiley emoji she drew on the backside of the photo with a smile but then when he turned to see photo, he was stunned.

His eyes widened, lips parted a little and his breath stuck in his throat. Stunned and shock words were not enough for to express the emotion he felt and stood rooted.

Swara was looking at him... The same way he did for the last photo.

"Sanskaar! Dream later now let's go." Swara huffed seeing him looking at the photo as if it was going get faded if he looks anywhere else. Swara had to literally drag him to save him and herself from the clutches of Mr. Matthews before they get screwed by him and taunted, after all both were the president and vice president of the student council.

☆ Camera does capture moments which can never be reproduced again but then we fail to realise that our hearts captures too, keeps the emotions and feelings intact, makes us picturise the moment and make us live it again! ☆

4k words! I didn't even know when it came this much.

I had a very hard time with making the summary of Romeo and Juliet since I had to squeeze it in limited words and only this much I was able to.

I don't want anyone to speak ill of Laksh. Before you do, play yourself in his shoes and then comment. It's not easy for him as well. Any hate comments towards him you'll got to face me.

Guys I am not going to speed up the feelings of how the leads feel. I want to take it slow and show you more things of their friendship before they step up into any relationship.

Hope you'll all like the chapter.

Love,
Diya❤️