Ready for next

Suraksha Chakra building, Eastern zilla

Under the circumstances, Ramanujam couldn't have entered in here without some sort of a weapon, howsoever feeble it may be.

It had been more than twenty minutes but Ramanujam held his position. He was a patient man and a cautious one as well. Even though it seemed that there was no one here, he wanted to outwait his adversary and make sure that it was safe to descend into the place. Just as he was about to lift his foot to take the first step, he froze. He had heard a rustle really close to where he stood.

Gurukul, Chandragarh

It was the time for the results to be announced for stage two. Everyone gathered in the corridor outside the dean's office waiting for the list of the ten selected candidates to be put out.

Even though Mriga's exams had gone well, she was nervous because of the 20% component which was the school performance. She had always been a good allrounder but wasn't in the top three students academically ever. Nor did she have any special relationships with any of her teachers. She was a respectful and cheerful student but she was worried that nothing stood out in her profile for her to get a high score in that section. She hadn't discussed this with any of her friends because she knew that she couldn't make any difference to it one way or another, hence no point lamenting over it.

Unknown to her, she was clenching and unclenching her hands while standing amongst the horde of girls, swarming around the place. She didn't know when but the idea of being the QIT was not alien to her anymore, it had ceased being just a competition to win. Couple of days ago, she had caught herself assessing her batchmates in terms of their strengths and inclinations, if they were to be included as her royal team in the far future. She had given herself a mental slap for thinking so far ahead at the time.

Suddenly a warm pat on her shoulder had her looking sideways at the person who came and stood next to her. Vaishali gave Mriga a tiny but genuine smile before moving her hand away. Right then, the peon had to almost fight his way past the people to reach the wall where he nailed the list before making his escape from there.

Since the place looked like a stampede waiting to happen, Mriga shifted a little close to the pillar on the side. There was no hurry, the list was going to stay there for the entire day! She looked around and saw that Vaishali, due to her strong built, was able to make way for herself and reach the place.

"Do you not want to find out your result?" Yash's voice from the other side of the pillar broke Mriga's gaze away from her competitor.

"Oh, you are brave enough to come here when you are not even a participant," Mriga grinned and shouted over the din.

With more than forty girls in the cramped corridor, there was literally no space for anyone else. This was also the reason that Abhirath hadn't come along as well. His face had gone pale earlier at the thought of being crushed and jostled by females of all varieties around him.

"I guess I am really curious to know the results," he said with wry grin.

Actually, he was speaking only half-truth. He did come here because he wanted to confirm that Mriga had qualified or not. Depending upon that, he would decide whether to react towards Vindhya's qualification.

When he met his mother the previous day, he ended up telling her about the conversation that he had overheard between Vindhya and another contestant. His mother's disappointed face had given him a sense of relief. It meant that she was not going to support that girl. But he didn't push for Mriga's name in front of her at that time. He would do it now if Mriga cleared this round.

It was his mother who had advised him to hold onto the truth about Vindhya if it didn't affect the one whom he cared about. She told him to use it if and when the need arose later on. She also told him to look for the girl who had been threatened, to be able to back his claim up. Yash had agreed to it, provided that Mriga cleared the stage today. If not, he would raise a major ruckus and make sure that the results are declared invalid, despite his mother's warning and the lack of proof.

He straightened up from the pillar and made his way, cutting through the throng. Mriga bit her lip in worry. He seemed a little aggressive today which wasn't a part of his nature in all these years that she had known him for.

After a few minutes, Yash came back without that black aura which had been surrounding him earlier.

He was grinning from ear to ear as he said, "Best of luck for stage three, Mrignayani."

Mriga's face split open in delight as she took in his words. Before she could respond to him, another voice spoke up next to her.

"Congratulations. I will see you in the next round," Vaishali's words sounded like a challenge but she had a tiny smile on her face as she said this.

Mriga responded in kind by offering her felicitations before making a move from there. Yash was in deep thought on the way back. Mriga's name had been at the bottom of the page and he nearly missed seeing it after getting angry seeing Vindhya appearing on the list. But right now it didn't matter to him.

It was time to go look for the other girl, the one who didn't make it!

Abhirath had been pacing nervously on the pathway to the dean's office. He told himself to believe in Mriga's capabilities but still the worry wouldn't leave him.

"Damn it! I should have gone in with her," he muttered to himself.

"She has cleared the round. Don't fret so much," Vaishali's light voice made Abhirath look up at her in surprised delight.