The Great Indian College Romance

4. A Fresher Start

The first three weeks at Maurya had passed in a whirlwind of figuring out where our classes were held, gathering material for said classes and signing up for society auditions. The amount of time we had spent standing in queues to get photocopies of the class text seemed unreal. 

I had also started sort of campaigning for the post of Cultural Secretary as my next big step in the 'New Meera' plan. Also because Smriti really wanted to see me contest and offered to make posters even which I thought seemed excessive but whatever made her happy, I guess.

To our pleasure and surprise, Vahni and I had two out of four classes together. The first one was our Generic Elective i.e. Philosophy and the other was an additional mandatory course in Environmental sciences. 

Vahni had taken Smriti under her wing immediately. One conversation is all it took. Consequently, the three of us spent most of our time together because Vahni felt, and I quote, her class was full of 'Snorlaxes', like the pokemon. She was currently carefully lining Smriti's eyes with gold eyeliner much to Smriti's distress and her delight. 

"But Vahni I don't want to walk into class with a gold eyeliner wing," Smriti complained but made no move to actually physically move away from her.

"Nobody is even going to notice, baba." she coaxed her. 

Once she was proud of her masterpiece she turned to me with the bottle of the gold liner and looked at me expectantly. 

"I mean I'm not opposed to the gold eyeliner but I'm already wearing black eyeliner and it won't go with my outfit," I shrugged.

"Maybe we could try it for your fresher's party look?" Smriti suggested. The date for it had been announced and everybody was looking forward to it. 

"Yeah babe, you need a dramatic look for your performance," Vahni said capping her bottle.

I had auditioned to perform in the fresher's singing competition a week ago and had made it in. Another step for the 'New Meera'. Thinking of the upcoming solo performance made excitement ripple through my stomach.

"Have you guys decided what you're wearing?" I asked. 

"I will probably wear my black top with these jeans," Smriti said gesturing to the rather washed out pair of jeans she was currently wearing.

"Noo... You can't do that to me." Vahni wailed. 

"You know how my parents are guys. They won't approve of me in a dress. Besides, I will have to take the metro back home and it's not exactly the ideal way to travel via when I'm in a dress." Smriti said sadly.

"Then you're coming to my PG and changing into a dress before we come here," Vahni said in a no-nonsense way. 

"But--" Smriti began but Vahni quickly cut her off.

"No buts or ifs. You are wearing a dress. Your parents won't find out and you won't have to travel in the dress because you're gonna change back into your boring jeans and top. Problem solved."

She then turned to me before Smriti could protest further and asked,

"Are you wearing two dresses? One for the performance and one for the party."

"Definitely not. I already have a dress picked out." I said and showed them a picture of it. 

They leaned over to look at my phone.

"Hey, that's really gorgeous," Vahni said and Smriti nodded enthusiastically. 

This was one of my first purchases when I had started shopping for my new look with Sarah. She had literally whistled when I tried it on.