Time to go back

Two weeks later

Mriga couldn't believe that time had flown by so quickly. Shaurya had told her previous night that it was going to be the last time she would be stepping out for an assignment during her internship.

"Don't assume that you have suddenly acquired some life altering skills in the past few weeks. You are not to step out this late in the night EVER, without a senior team member accompanying you. I shouldn't get to hear about you showing off your observation power to anyone nor should I catch even the slightest whiff of you bragging about the various places we visited, to your classmates, friends etc," he had warned her last night in his customary cold tone.

Since that moment, she had been feeling low spirited. It was as if something precious was being taken away from her. Looking at her being so quiet, Shaurya had asked her if she was unwell before they parted for the night. She had shaken her head in negative and gone inside the shop without a word.

But the feeling had lingered on through the night. She had been awake till wee hours, first cleaning the shop thoroughly, updating the register and then doing the same to the room where she had spent her nights for the past month or so. Shaurya hadn't returned back through the entire time that she had been awake.

"Does this mean that he not been sleeping here at the shop for the past weeks, as he had claimed?" she thought to herself drowsily when she finally went to bed near dawn break.

Her mood hadn't improved by the time that she woke up. In fact, she was downright morose the next morning and not looking forward to reacquainting herself with other team members, who were to arrive at the store in the next few minutes. Despite the fact that she hadn't seen them in weeks, she wasn't excited. Shaurya had dropped in with some breakfast for her sometime back and gave her this news before stepping out again.

She had nodded her head at his instructions but not said anything else, earning her a frown from him.

"Are you sick?" he had asked her brusquely but she assured him that she wasn't.

Shrugging his shoulders, he had left the place, telling her that he'll return soon. Mriga placed the food bag on the table and went to freshen up and pack her things.

"Well well well, it seems that they didn't send you back to the Gurukul but trained you to become a shopkeeper, instead. The place looks clean enough so I guess you didn't do such a bad job after all. Maybe you have finally found your core competency," Abhirath's grating voice did nothing to improve her already rotten mood.

But she ignored his comment and instead summoned a smile for the other boys.

"I hope you have been well. I came looking for you a couple of times in the night after the completion of our tasks but found the store always empty," Vandit spoke the words softly, only meant for her ears.

She gave him an apologetic smile but didn't offer the reason for her absence.

Chiranjeev looked at her curiously and said, "there is something different about you. I can't put a finger to it, though."

Nirbhay maintained a stoic silence and surveyed the shop and its surroundings.

"I'll tell you what's different about her. The superior attitude which she carried on her shoulder for no reason, seems to have melted in the face of her poor performance in the past few weeks. Think about it. Why was she not involved in even a single task which we were assigned? And, you don't know what amazing learnings you have missed," Abhirath aimed the last sentence at her.

"How do you know that she wasn't given any tasks to perform?" Nirbhay asked him, suddenly.

Before Abhirath could respond to the question, Shaurya arrived there.

"I see not much has changed since the first time I saw you guys in the Administrative office. Seems like the past three weeks have done nothing to improve your manners," he remarked dryly.

Immediately contrite, Abhirath lowered his eyes.

"Never mind! I have gathered you all here today because I wanted to wish you good luck for your remaining period of training. I hope that all of you have managed to improve your skills to some extent in the time that you spent here. Make sure to continuously persevere and try to apply some of the learnings from the past few days into enhancing your level further. This is a small farewell gift from me for all of you to serve as a reminder of your time spent here," Shaurya said and started handing over identical bags to all of them except to Mriga, who received a different sized pack.

Touched, they all thanked him and peered into their gift packs. A beautifully carved wooden cover held a large sheaf of parchment and there was an inscription on the first page – "A new chapter in your life begins now, make it memorable".

Mriga looked at the packet in her hand and then looked at Shaurya in bemusement.

"Why is yours different from ours? I want to see what have you received," said Nirbhay, curiosity written over his face.

She unwrapped the bag. Peering at the contents inside, her face broke into a tremulous smile for the first time since last evening. Chiranjeev took the package from her hand and brought out the gift. The boys' mouths fell open.