Hey guys, glad you enjoyed the last update and I'll try my best to keep it as funny in the future, lol, it's quite hard. And liquidfantasy, that pretending dialogue was one of the hardest I've ever written!! I kept getting confused myself!

Chapter 12

Everything was going absolutely fine until three days before Republic Day, that was when Raj's parents decided to give him a nasty surprise.

After the orderly informed him that he had a call, Raj immediately rushed to the phone, thinking that it might be Naina. However he was disappointed and a little nervous when he heard the voice on the other end.

"Raj Beta, it's me."

"Oh hi Dad, how are you?"

"I'm fine, son. How's your training going?"

"It's going very well."

Raj wasn't really sure what to say next, or the reason why his father had called, so he just waited.

"Actually Beta, it's about Republic Day…"

"You haven't decided to change your mind and actually come have you?" Raj asked, horrified. That would ruin all their plans. Then he realised that he had sounded rather rude and tried to cover up. "I mean… I was supposed to hand in some forms before now if you were coming."

"No Beta, we're not coming, work is too busy for me at the moment and your mother has some charity function to attend. However there is somebody coming that we would like you to meet."

With every word his father said, Raj was becoming more and more nervous. "And uh, who is that, Dad?"

"Well Beta, very soon you'll be finishing your training, and after that there'll be nothing stopping you from settling down," This was not sounding good… "By coincidence I happened to run into my friend Mr Sahni at a meeting the other day and found out that he lives in Ambala. He has a lovely daughter and I don't think it would hurt you to meet her."

"Wait a minute, Dad. Mr Sahni?? Do you mean my batchmate Yudi's dad?" This had to be a joke, it just had to be…

"Yes that's right, his son is at your academy too, I'd forgotten that. Anyway, Neelu will be coming to the Republic Day celebrations so you two can meet each other and see whether you like each other."

"Uh dad, I really don't think that this is…"

"Why not, Raj? The girl is from a good family, and from what I've heard she's both pretty and smart. It won't hurt you to at least meet her once."

"But dad, I…"

"She's coming to the ceremony. You'll meet. There will be no more discussion about it."

His father hung up and Raj groaned, this was the last thing he needed right now. While Navin was scheming to get him married to Naina, apparently his parents had started scheming to get him married to Yudi's sister.

How did he get himself into this mess?

**

Not wanting to waste any time, Raj immediately dialled Naina's number, panicking when her mother picked up, he hung up the phone. He had been so desperate to talk to her that he had forgotten it was her college time at the moment.

The rest of the day, Raj remained extremely stressed. All of his friends noticed, and even Navin and Tanu began to get worried, thinking that there was some problem between him and Naina.

"Raj, are you okay?" Navin asked him, honestly concerned about his best friend. "Is there some problem?"

"Just a small one," Raj reassured him, "Hopefully it will be sorted out by tonight."

He could barely wait for the time when he knew Naina would be back at home after college, rushing to the phone rather than going to the mess for his dinner. Luckily this time it really was Naina that picked up the phone.

"Thank god," he told her, "I've been waiting to call you all day, there's a huge problem."

"What is it?" she asked him, concerned, "You're alright aren't you?"

"Don't worry, I'm fine, and so is everybody else. It's about Republic Day…"

"Oh no," Naina exclaimed, "Your parents haven't decided to come after all have they? That would really ruin all our plans."

"No, even worse in fact. My parents have decided to trying and set me up with Yudi's sister Neelu, they want her to come at meet me at Republic Day!"

"WHAT!" Naina exclaimed very loudly, "How can they do that? Just set you up with somebody you don't even know?"

"Well Naina, do I need to remind you that Navin did exactly the same thing? At least my parents are being honest about it."

Naina had to admit that he had a point.

"But why? And how do they even know Yudi and his sister?"

"Well dad and Yudi's father are both business men so I suppose they know each other from meetings. Anyway, forget that, how do we deal with this?"

"Well what sort of a girl is this Neelu?" Naina asked him.

"Honestly I have no idea, and I'm not brave enough to ask Yudi, because it's so embarrassing."

"Well she better not try anything with you or she will learn very quickly that NOBODY messes with Naina Singh Ahluwalia's pretend boyfriend!"

Raj felt quite happy at the possessive tone in Naina's voice, and how offended she was on his behalf.

"You know, this could work in our favour." He told her, after he had thought about it.

"Really, how?" Naina asked.

"Well you know how you were joking we should get another girl to turn up, here's one that's going to. It's the perfect opportunity to mess with Navin and Tanu's minds even more."

"So then what do we do? Are you going to pretend you like her?"

"No, that wouldn't help our plan" Raj replied, "I'll show them that I'm not in the least bit interested and keep trying to avoid her to spend time with you."

"Excellent!" Naina told him, "We'll have to get Alekh to run interference for us, he can help to keep her distracted so that you don't have to spend too much time together."

"Good plan," Raj replied, "I'm sure he'll agree, as long as he doesn't decide to take a holiday again."

**

Alekh promised that he was not going to take a holiday on Republic Day, and that he would help them in whatever way was necessary. Actually he had no choice, because after the last experience, Navin and Tanu had both promised to murder him if he decided to take another chutti on the 26th January.

Finally it was almost nine in the morning on Republic Day and everybody was excited to have their families arriving. Everybody except Raj, Alekh and Abhimanyu that was. Raj and Alekhs for obvious reasons and Abhimanyu because he was sure that his father was going to bring a whole royal entourage with him.

The first to arrive was Pooja's family, followed shortly afterwards by Ali's. Everybody immediately became very interested in seeing whether the two families would meet or not and how Ali and Pooja would introduce each other to their families. Nobody was disappointed to watch Ali's shyness or Pooja's enthusiasm, and they all exchanged secret smiles. It was obvious to everybody how much the very mismatched couple liked each other.

Meanwhile, Raj had his arms crossed and was drumming his fingers impatiently.

"Who are you waiting for?" Abhimanyu asked him, "I thought that your parents weren't coming."

"Ahhh… me?" Raj asked, suddenly caught. "Nobody, nobody at all. I'm just… waiting here."

He could see that his answer clearly didn't impress Abhimanyu at all, but it didn't matter. It would just lift Navin and Tanu's hopes even more.

Finally the moment that Raj had been waiting for arrived, as Naina's auto pulled up in front of the academy. Paying the driver quickly, she ran up the steps so quickly that she tripped on one of them. Even as Navin went forward to catch her, he noticed that Raj had moved any faster, catching her by the arms before she could fall down.

"Nice catch!" Naina complimented him, blushing a little at her clumsiness. She couldn't believe she'd managed to embarrass herself in front of almost the whole academy. But seeing the looks on Navin and Tanu's faces as they watched them, she thought that her almost accident had worked in their favour.

Quickly recovering, she decided that she couldn't waste this moment. Noticing that Raj hadn't let go of her arms just yet and was staring down at her with an unreadable expression on his face, she quickly threw her arms around him. "Raj it's so good to see you again! I've missed you so much!" She announced so loudly that nobody watching could miss out on hearing, "And you've got perfect timing as possible!"

Catching on to Naina's plan, Raj hugged her back, honestly he couldn't describe how happy he was to actually see her. The moment when she had tripped on those stairs, it had been as if his heart had leapt out of his chest to settle in his throat. "I've missed you too, Naina." He told her slightly more quietly, "But uh, maybe you should go and greet your brother and Tanu as well."

"Er, right." Naina replied, and reluctantly took her arms from around him, only half acting this time. "Navin! Tanu! I've missed you too!" And she hurried towards them, this time managing to avoid tripping. Giving them both tight hugs, she grinned at them as Raj made his way over to join them.

"So guys, what about my tour?" Naina asked them, "You know that I missed out on coming last year due to my exam. Now I want to see the entire academy!"

Navin seized his opportunity, "We've just got to wait for Tanu's parents to arrive, would you mind if Raj took you on a quick tour?"

"Of course not!" Naina announced, and immediately linked her arm through Raj's, then just as quickly went to remove it, pretending that she had made a mistake by acting so affectionately in front of her brother and future sister-in-law. "Shall we go?" She asked a bit more sedately, wishing that she hadn't had to let go of his arm in the first place for the sake of acting.

"Yes, in fact let's go right now!" Raj grabbed Naina's hand and practically dragged her away from there. He had just seen something that had caused him to panic, Yudi greeting a girl that had gotten out of a car.

As far as Raj knew, the only girl Yudi could possibly be greeting was his sister.

"What's the hurry?" Naina asked him, as he continued to drag her around the corner until they were out of sight.

"You don't recognise Yudi do you?" Raj asked, knowing that Naina hadn't met him, she just shook her head. "Well I just saw him greeting a girl, it has to be his sister."

Naina made a face, "Then let's get as far away from here as possible." She told him, "You really can take me for the tour, I do want to see the academy."

"Alright, I'd be happy to, first we'll go to see…"

Naina linked her arm through Raj's again and they set off to see the academy.

**

Meanwhile, Yudi was greeting Neelu.

"Hey bro," she told him, "So this is your academy, I can't believe I've never come here before when it's so close by."

"Believe me, Neelu, there's a reason why you've never been here before." Yudi told her, "I would prefer to keep you as far away from the academy as possible. And why is it that you've come instead of mum and dad?"

Neelu rolled her eyes. "Because of their stupid plans, they threatened not to give me this month's pocket money unless I turned up." Yudi was just about to ask what plans, when Neelu interrupted them. "So where's your friend Raj?" she asked him.

"Raj? What do you want with him?" Yudi asked her, confused, and then suddenly remembered Raj's words, that his girlfriend would be coming to the academy on Republic Day.

"Neelu! You're not…" And then utterly horrified by the thought of Neelu being Raj's girlfriend and that all of Navin and Tanu's plans were about to be ruined, he ran off in the direction that he had seen Raj run off in.

"Weird…" Neelu muttered, as she saw her brother disappear. Just great, now her entire day was going to be wasted, she had to meet one her parents' boring friends' son, who was probably just as boring, and now even her brother had gone off and left her here alone. What was she supposed to do, just hang around a military academy by herself?

Neelu was tempted to just go home, but she knew that her parents would quiz her so much that she was sure to stuff up if she didn't at least meet the guy. Sighing, she wandered into the academy. Stopping the first guy she met, who at least looked slightly cool, she thought that she would ask him.

"Oy, do you know who Rajveer Singh Shekawat is and where I can find him?"

"Do I look like a saala information service?" The guy asked her, giving serious attitude.

"Whatever," Neelu replied, "I don't even want to be here, now if I can't find this stupid guy, I'll have to miss out on a month's pocket money…"

"Wait…" The guy replied, "Who are you and why are you looking for Raj?"

"I'm Neelu, Yudi's sister, and I'm being forced to find him due to my stupid parents."

Suddenly the guy's eyes lit up. "Apun Alekh hai." He told her, "So you're not actually interested in getting married to Raj?"

"As if," Neelu snorted, "He's probably completely boring and definitely not my type if he's someone that my parents would want me to get married to."

"Well that's good," Alekh tells her, "Because right now Raj is running away from you since he doesn't want to get married to you either."

"Excellent," Neelu said happily, "Then all I need to do is find him so that I can describe him to my parents when they ask me."

"That might be harder than you think," Alekh told her, "Raj is one of the best cadets here, he's pretty good at hiding. And he's got Naina on his side as well."

"Naina? Who's Naina?" Neelu asked, suddenly interested. This was turning out to be a better day than she thought it would be.

"She's his…" Alekh thought about what to say to describe Raj and Naina's relationship, but failed to find anything he could tell her without revealing the whole plan. Suddenly Alekh made a decision. "Do you want to hear a very long story?" he asked Neelu, "If you promise not to tell Yudi what I'm telling you?"

Neelu's day at the academy was suddenly looking better and better.

**

Meanwhile with great difficulty, Yudi had finally managed to track down Raj and Naina. Especially difficult because Raj had been giving her a tour of the academy at a lightening fast pace, moving from one place to the next before anybody could catch them. He still hadn't let go of Naina's hand, but didn't mind the people whispering about it. With any luck at least one of them would tell either Navin or Tanu what they had seen.

"Raj, do you think that maybe this is a little bit ridiculous?" Naina asked him, "Maybe you should meet this girl and just tell her you're not interested in getting married."

"And if she's anything like my parents' friends' daughters are, she's not going to take no for an answer." Raj replies, looking over his shoulder to check that nobody was following them.

"Ooo look, the canteen." Naina said, "You know I could really do with a chai, I haven't actually had one this morning and it was a long train ride. Let's sit down."

Reluctantly, Raj allowed her to lead him to a seat. "Suriji, could we please have two chais?" he asked politely, while continuing to look around nervously.

"Raj, just relax!" Naina hissed at him, "Whatever happens, I'm here to protect you. I'll tell her that I'm your girlfriend and threaten to slap her if she comes near you, alright?"

Raj relaxed slightly at this and smiled at Naina very affectionately, "You're the best, you know that?" he asked her.

Naina just grinned at him, "I still remember what you did for me when Huda was following me around. Can't I do even this much for you?"

Raj took her hand from across the table and squeezed it, unable to believe how wonderful it was to have her there with him again. It made him wonder how he'd ever manage to spend these last two months without her.

Naina was also wondering the same thing, she was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't even notice she was still holding his hand until Suriji placed their chais down and cleared his throat.

The two of them suddenly jumped apart, and Naina looked down at the table, not sure why she was feeling so embarrassed.

"So Raj Putar, who is this lovely young lady?" Suriji asked him with a twinkle in his eye.

"Suriji this is Naina, and Naina this is Suriji. Naina is…" Raj wasn't sure what he should introduce her as, his friend or Navin's sister.

"It's okay, Putar, I understand." Suriji said, and winking at Raj, he left them alone together.

"This is almost too easy…" Naina had just started telling Raj when suddenly Yudi burst into the canteen and made a beeline for them.

"Dude, your girlfriend is my sister??? How could this happen without me knowing! You could've told me the truth!" He announced loudly in a very hyper way.

Raj just stared at him, it was obvious that there had been some sort of huge misunderstanding on Yudi's part.

"Yudi, I think that you haven't heard the whole story…" he began to say.

"The whole story? Here I was thinking that…" and suddenly he noticed Naina sitting at the table with a stunned expression on her face. "Uh, who are you?" he asked, suddenly realising that he might have made a big mistake.

Suriji came up and quietly told him, "Yudi Putar, that is Rajveer's girlfriend, now she's not your sister, is she?"

"Uh, no, she's not." Yudi said, feeling very silly and also wondering exactly who this girl was. "I'm so sorry, that was a huge misunderstanding. I'm Yudi, and you are…"

"Naina!" Navin called out her name, entering the canteen with Tanu, "I should've realised that you and Raj would eventually end up here."

Then he noticed Yudi standing by the table, "Oh hey Yudi, I see that you've met my sister Naina." He said casually, before pulling up a chair to join Raj and Naina at the table.

Yudi wasn't sure whether he should be laughing or crying.

None of them realised at this point that the best of the day was still to come.