The envelope was kinda heavy.
Normally, these sort of letters were like one page things, but this felt like four or five.
Great. A whole essay about what a disappointment she was.
Aru slipped her thumb under the seal (fancy or what?) and emptied the whole of its contents onto her lap. A card came out with it.
Not like a birthday card or anything, but like a debit card with no engravings, almost like...
A key card.
She immediately russled through the papers and opened the first page.
Dear prospective competitor, Arundhati Shah,
We have reviewed your entry and are delighted to inform you have been excepted to take part in the National Competition of Brilliance, otherwise known as the NCBs. Within this letter you will find the details of your partner, your stay (key card included), and any other necessary information. Please contact us if there is anything else you require.
Sincerely,
The NCB team
She pumped her fist and was about to squeal loudly before realising she was on a bus. So she squealed at a medium volume.
The National Competition of Brilliance. It was really happening!
After all that had happened, thing were going to get better. For her.
For her mom. For everything.
Nothing is going to dampen my day! Aru thought as she turned the page, Nothing is going to ruin -
And then she saw who her partner was.
She stared at the name. The name stared back.
She took a deep sigh.
"Well, shoot" she muttered, stuffing the sheet deep into her bag.
~~~
Aru stormed over to Aiden Acharya's house, bouncing a ping-pong ball on the pavement at lightning speed. It was the last place she wanted to be, but since when did anyone care what she wanted?
Hence the visit to her most-hated person of the year.
She punched the doorbell with her knuckle, gave him (a very generous) 3 seconds to get to the door, before punched it again as many time as she could in the time given.
She got 13 before the door opened. Aiden pulled back the door and rage swelled inside her. She pushed it down a little box of loathing for later.
Apparently Aru wasn't the only one with emotions. Aiden's expression flickered from shocked to happy to hurt to worried till it settled on shocked.
How hard is it for 1 guy to pick a facial expression? Aru thought. He could at least pretend to be normal!
She caught the ping pong ball and leaned against the door frame.
"Sup, snob."
Aiden flinched. Aru smirked.
"Could not call me that?" He pleaded.
Aru pretended to think for a second, before replying sarcastically. "Let's take a look at my options. Loser, moron, idiot, numbskull, dip-sh -"
"Okay, okay! Snob works!" Aiden interrupted before she could get to the good insults, "What are doing you here?"
"We need to talk." Aru replied simply.
"I thought you said there wasn't anything to talk about?" Aiden asked raising an eyebrow.
No, no, no, not this.
Donotlookinhiseyes, donotlookinhiseyes, donot...
Aru glared at his forehead.
"Not about that."
Aiden groaned. "You can't just avoid that forever!"
"Watch me."
"Ugh, you're impossible!"
Aru rolled her eyes and rummaged around in her bag, before pulling out her acceptance letter. It was printed in a neat but fancy font, like the font you find in a book. But this was no storybook.
"I take it you haven't had yours back yet?" Aru asked, holding up the letter.
All high schoolers in the state had entered the National Competition of Brilliance, it was a chance of a lifetime. If you got accepted, then you are assigned 'teams" of 2 and the team that passes all of the trials gets the grand prize!
If your team won, then you would get a scholarship to the prestigious Night Academy, ( I don't know if this is a real school or not lol) and you could do any course you want. And it couldn't be revoked! Aru had been dreaming about it ever since she'd heard of it. She'd even (based on her friend, Mini's instructions) gotten a library pass.
It was Aru's chance and she could not blow it.
"Not yet... I don't even know if it will come..." Aiden trailed off, finding an interest in the carpet.
Aru considered letting her enemy wallow in self pity but decided it would take too long.
"You got in." Aru told him sharply.
He looked up at her suddenly.
Avoid eye contact! Avoid eye contact!
Aru looked straight ahead, which, because of her lacking height, happened to be Aiden's chin (genetics 1, Aru 0)
"H-How do you know?" He asked, failing badly to hide the excitement. Aru stood up properly and kept her face as blank as possible.
"Because..." Aru took a deep breath, accepting the truth.
"Because, you Aiden Acharya have been selected as my partner."
-Bea
STAI LEGGENDO
Brilliance - Aruden AU
FanfictionAru Shah's life is just getting better. Her mom had almost recovered from the past few years, she had finally finished middle school and she'd been selected to take part in the National Competition of Brilliance! The prize, a scholarship to the most...
