Those Bonafide Teens

18. Home Truths

"Oh my God, Riya. I didn't know you were Saba's daughter", Mrs Malhotra said.

Reyansh looked startled but all the same beamed at me.

"What?" my mom asked "You know Riya?"

"I saw her at Reyansh's birthday party".

"Oh. That's great", Mom smiled at Reyansh.

"Oh yeah", I said "We are.. we are very good.. err..locker mates" and then felt totally stupid.

Mrs Malhotra looked at me confused.

"Mom she means we are good friends", Reyansh said looking amused.

"Okay right", my mom said "Why don't you both come in? Krish come and meet our guests".

Krish came out his room looking sullen. I knew, he knew Reyansh. But he was acting like he didn't. My brother was such a brat!

"Say hello to Mrs Malhotra" Mom beamed.

"Hello to Mrs Malhotra", Krish repeated dully.

Mom sensing the danger, immediately moved on to introduce dad to Mrs Malhotra. Dad performed the act much better than Krish. He almost hugged mom and I couldn't help wishing that it wasn't an act.

But why were my parents even bothering to act? Mrs Malhotra herself, had been divorced, was now remarried and even had a step daughter. Why would she bother? And she was actually wearing a black suit while I was standing there looking like a Christmas tree.

All this marriage stuff was so complicated!

The evening mercifully ended without any drama and that night I ticked off the date on the calendar and realised we had only four days for the show. YAY!

Everything was going brilliantly and I just had to survive Loukya mam's histrionics and Aaliyah's mind games.

But it was NOT going to be that easy. At all!

The next day a rehearsal was scheduled for the afternoon, but I had to endure four sickening morning hours in the classroom before that.

And Loukya ma'am told me off right in the first period for tying my hair in a bun.

"Riya what have you done with your hair? This is school. Not your bedroom. There's a decorum! Go out, plait your hair and come back in only at the end of the period!"

I frowned as I pulled out my comb from my bag and walked out of the classroom.

Aaliyah was gloating at me.

I hurriedly pulled off my bun and started plaiting it.

God! Why was my life so miserable?!

But then it just got worse.

I was half way through my plait when Aaliyah was thrown out of the classroom after five minutes for talking to Maya!

Now what?! I was stuck outside the classroom with my worst enemy for the next forty minutes!

This was terrible.

And to my absolute frustration, Aaliyah was in no mood to stay quiet.

"Riya you can't knot your hair like that! You have to braid it! Ewww.. I am getting a migraine. Clumsy hair plaiting should be made illegal!"

"Aliyah you're in punishment! Sorry, but I am not the person to vent out your anger".

"Actually I am venting out my hunger", Aaliyah said ruefully, "I skipped my avocado breakfast because I couldn't find my Yoga pants".

GOD! That girl was such a.. I can't even name it! All I knew was that, this was going to be a very long period.

The bell finally did ring. But my troubles had just begun. After Chemistry, we had swimming class!

Devika ma'am asked us to perform practise laps for conditioning. But I, Zoya and Mishti just sat at the side of the pool in our swimming costumes and gossiped about the show, which was totally fine with me, since I wasn't a very good swimmer anyway.

With the show just three days away, a new haul had come up. People were starting to ask out each other for the after show dance.

Reyansh and Mishti had not asked each other but it was obvious that they were going together anyway. I had decided to go solo.

Come on! It was just a DJ night! There was no need for all this couple drama!

"Who do you think Aaliyah will take?" Mishti asked us.

"Don't tell me someone will ask that to the dance. Not that vain, spoilt and plastic drama queen!" I said quickly.

"But she's good looking", said Mishti "And that's the kind of dance partner anybody would want".

"Mish who's team are you on?" I groaned.

"See I am gonna be honest. Whatever you might say, we all know Aaliyah is a popular girl. So be prepared", Mishti said stiffly.

"Actually you have to be prepared" I said, "Haven't you noticed how Aaliyah has been stalking Reyansh since day one?"

"Yeah but we've known Aaliyah for so many years! How worse can she possibly get?"

"Mish that girl is a witch.." I said shaking my head, "I think you should just ask Reyansh once so that it's official. Aaliyah is capable of all kinds of treachery."

"Oh come on", said Mishti "Even if Aaliyah is upto something, Reyansh is not stupid enough to fall for it."

Zoya had remained oddly quiet. "I think we have to worry about ourselves first" she said dully.

"What do you mean?" I asked quickly.

"About the aftershow dance."

"What of it?" I asked. Zoya looked at Mishti.

"Girlfriend wants to ask Varun", Mishti said grimly.

"Then do it" I said automatically.

"What do you mean do it?" Zoya snapped, "It's not that easy. You just got an attitude about the whole thing and said you were going solo. How would you understand this?"

"I think you should ask him soon", Mishti said, "Personally I feel he is expecting me to ask him. But I am going with Reyansh. I can't change that."

"What?" I asked flabbergasted by this new information. Hadn't Varun still given up on Mishti?

I was beginning to feel that maybe the aftershow DJ night wasn't a very good idea after all!

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