LOVE is in the air.

Rivals?

Have you ever felt that your grades were never good enough to please your parents?

I have, and believe me, it is the worst, because no matter how hard you push yourself, in the end, the result doesn't please you. Maybe you feel proud of what you achieved, but that's temporary because it wasn't good enough for your parents.

You know the simplest way to be happy is to do it for yourself, not anyone else. At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter what others think, it's about what you think, are you happy about what you did? are you satisfied?

Some might say that society's and your parent's opinions are important. Yes, they are, but there's also a limit to what you do to please society and your parents because, at the end of the day, it's about whether your work brings you the minimum prosperity to buy your meals and whether it brings you happiness.

Well, here I am talking like a philosopher, but believe me, before I met a certain someone, I never really knew how to be genuinely happy. I am indebted to that person for making me understand what life truly is about.

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Aanya P.O.V. (17 years old)

By this time my leg was shaking like an auto-rickshaw moving on the infamous, low-maintenance Indian roads. Sweta who sat beside me, turned and looked at me annoyed, probably because my shaking leg was causing our desk to move. I offered her a sorry look, which made her shake her head in disappointment. But that was hardly of any importance at this moment.

Finally, the teacher called out, "Aanya Sharma." I walked up to the teacher's desk with my fingers crossed, silently praying to god.

"Well done!" our mathematics teacher said with a broad smile. I bowed my head, as a gesture to say 'thanks' but did not dare to look at the marks at the top of the paper.

"Relax! Ye thori tera JEE advanced ka result hain?" Sweta told me on seeing my nervous condition. (Translation: It's not your JEE advance's result) "Chal bata kitna mila?" she asked. (Translation: how much did you get?)

With shaky hands, I opened the folded paper to check the marks. 96/100, so that would make it 585/600 after adding the marks of the other subjects. Not bad right?

"Woww! Topper isiko to bolte hai, tera marks e highest hoga lagta hain," Sweta squealed looking at me as if I was some sort of alien from craneus.
Aarav was the guy who had been a pain in my ass my whole school life, mainly because he was my parents' colleague's son so they never lost a chance to compare us. He came up to my desk, probably with the motive of getting to know my marks.

"How much did you get Ms. Allrounder?" he asked smugly. Yeah, he had to call me that, every goddamn time. Why? Just because I did swimming and karate on a competitive level and got standard marks. Okay, not maybe standard marks, good marks.

"Why do you need to know my marks?" I said with the most annoyed look ever.

"Nah I got 98, just wanted to know yours," he said with the same smug smile. With that, I knew what awaited me at home wasn't going to be pleasant.

"Can't you just leave people in peace? Is my marks so important to you?" I said raging with anger.

"Relax girl! I thought we were okay with this because for your information we've been doing this since childhood, it's our tradition remember?" Aarav said taken aback.

"Well, can you just leave me alone now?" I said in a tone which I didn't recognise myself. It came out harsher than I had wanted it to.

Now you must think that I am a bitch, well I sure was for talking to Aarav like that, all I cared about at that moment was what my parents' reactions would be.