New AvNeil SS: The Challenge | CHAPTER 7- PG 17 |April 04 - Page 4

"And that's why I believe GMO crops must NOT be entertained."

And the audience broke into another fit of applause as Ved, from the science department concluded his debate speech that was centered on the veracity of GMO crops.

"And the next participant is Juhi Mishra, from the organizational psychology department."

Rhea announced, as she was doing the compering for the segment since the past one hour. Around 3 students from each of the streams made their appearance on stage and delivered their speeches and no one could deny that the competition was going to be neck-to-neck this time as all the participants from both the streams gave their best shot.

The audience sitting in the Grace Rodge Hall where this segment was being conducted listened patiently as Juhi made some unique points, making hoots and cheers come her way from the audience.

Avni felt immensely happy witnessing the positives for her stream; after all she was also the class representative of psychology department other than being the topper.

She gave a contended smile to Ali and Sunehri who were sitting on her sides respectively as Juhi successfully concluded her speech.

.

"Okay guys, now that all the participants from both the sides have delivered their speeches, it's time for rebuttal. So, the rules are ... "

And Rhea went on to explain the rules for the final rebuttal round of the debate. The judges, who were professors from the department of English, Drama, and Political Science eagerly waited to see the final round, because up until now, it had been quite difficult for them to come to a unanimous decision on which stream beat the other.

Avni sighed, keeping her fingers crossed and praying to her Mata Raani fervently in her mind to help her classmates give their 100%. As soon as she opened her eyes, she slowly darted her sight towards her right where she could spot him. Sitting with Vidyut and another classmate of his, he was only 10 feet away from her.

Why did it have to be like this?

A little normalcy in life doesn't hurt right?

She hated some cheesy chori-chori, chupke-chupke kinda things, and see the irony! Today her own love life had turned into one such flick!

"Hmph!" She exhaled deeply as her mind taunted: You found only your arch rival to fall in love with under the endless sky and whole wide world that had precisely millions of other men out there!

But as they say it, the heart wants what it wants.

Avni's little rendezvous with her conscience ended then and there as she saw the rebuttal round begin and the Q's and A's started.

..

Wow.

It seemed as if both the sides were hell bent at winning this segment by hook or crook. Not even once did it happen that someone flinched at a cross question. It felt like some confidence mojo resided in the hands of every participant on the stage today.

The judges felt their predicament only magnify after the final round. They were busy discussing with each other, each giving their own opinion and validating it with theories that they deemed factual as what they saw in each of the contenders.

Avni smiled to herself, gratified.

Her million-dollar smile was actually flashing on her lips for two reasons.

A. Her classmates outdid themselves in the whole debate segment, and,

B. The ever-arrogant Neil Khanna didn't throw any unwarranted questions at the contenders from her stream during the Q's and A's from audience.

How did that happen in the first place?

She was utterly sanguine that Neil was definitely going to be his monstrous, intrusive self to deliberately irk her and jeopardize the opportunity for the participants from her stream. But to her sheer surprise, nothing of that sort happened and he only sat at one place being a silent spectator, clapping and cheering occasionally.

Well, looks like Khanna wasn't really a self-obsessed, arrogant, brat after all!

Avni chuckled to herself at that thought but the humorous tinge was only short-lived as she spotted Rhea come towards their line of seats. She gleefully tucked herself beside Neil, Vidyut, and the other guy, making Avni purse her lips in frustration.

A different girl started compering on stage, but Avni's attention was now fully focused on what that bimbo was up to, chatting merrily with her clandestine boyfriend.

"Everybody, we will announce the final results of the Debate segment by EOD. And now after a 10 minutes break, we will start with the Extempore segment."

The girl announced, making everybody in the audience either sigh in relief or agitation for their own personal reasons.

"See Neil! The new filters of Snapchat are TOO GOOD!"

Rhea exclaimed as she turned on the Snapchat app and lifted her hand upwards so that her little gang could pose in the frame of her iPhone's front camera.

Avni was fuming at the sight. Bloody bimbo selfie queen!

Her annoyance, however, witnessed a rampant downfall when she looked at Rhea's face in the frame of the iphone, with the latest Snapchat video filter that got perked ears and a dog's tongue on her mouth.

Avni burst out in giggles at that scene, making Ali and Sunehri look at her questioningly.

"Does that bimbo even need those filters to present herself as a female dog, err, b*tch? No way!"

Avni muttered in her mind, her giggles still not fading.

"Oh god, Avni, is something wrong with you? Why are you laughing so much?"

Ali spoke in a tone blended with concern as well as confusion.

"No, no.. nothing. Just recalled a joke."

Avni lied, her giggles finally subsided, but an amused smile still adorned her lips.

"Okay, okay then. By the way, don't forget ha, we have to rehearse in the evening today for our duet dance tomorrow in the music & dance segment."

Ali said to Avni, while she only nodded in affirmation, with a casual, "Yeah of course, I remember, don't worry."

She didn't notice however, an angry pair of hazel eyes looking at her direction when she was busy talking nineteen to the dozen with Ali.

..

He had been patiently listening to the speeches, arguments and yada yada of every participant who went up on the stage from both the streams.

Normally, he would be all game for being the bratty troublemaker that he had always been and throw some really tough questions during the rebuttal round in such debate competitions.

But today, something had stopped him from doing so and ushered him to this saint-like-phase of mind where he just sat silently and observed.

Observed how much sense the arguments of both the sides in the debate made.

Observed how well some participants refuted the motion.

Observed how some participants came prepared with their speeches like those were their wedding vows.

And observed how his clandestine lady love was sitting on his left with the geeky Sunehri and clingy Ali.

Oh, not to deviate from the main topic, why didn't he butt in, in the rebuttal?

Well, a little predicament that he had faced mere hours ago led to the lion's resting phase.

The very helpless situation wherein his epic intelligent yet psycho girlfriend had presumed that he addressed his classmate-slash-family friend-slash once upon a time GF Rhea as Love!

And after that fiasco, he was in no mood to take another chance at teasing her lest he would be teleported into a post-apocalyptic world where people would have to kill each other to survive.

'The Hunger Games?'

'What the hell man!'

He berated himself for such weird, sporadic thoughts, but also felt a happy tinge, some congeniality in the atmosphere for it was the first time he was having a cauldron of random thoughts bubbling in his head.

He, the rational-thinker, all-rounder, women-charmer, was having a dam of unrelated thoughts? Whoa! Turns out psycho Mehta was actually capable of messing with your brain without even beginning any counselling sessions with you!

LOL.

He had chuckled at that thought and continued to observe her silently. His feisty princess hadn't yet answered what segment she was going to participate in the combat, but he knew deep down, it had to be dance.

Other than being an academic topper in her stream, everyone knew she was also a voracious dancer and always kept herself busy in some or the other dance classes when it came to engagement in co-curricular activities.

He had enjoyed every ounce of her jealous expressions when Rhea was being her usual victim-of-social-media-syndrome self, and he also observed how her anger had evaporated gradually and she was giggling like a 9-year old.

'What did she find so amusing to giggle like that?'

He was definitely going to ask her that later. But regardless of the reason for those giggles, he felt extreme satiety, looking at her infectious, carefree laugh. Seeing her in that level of apple-pie happy, somehow made even him feel the same.

"Apple-pie happy?!"

'Dude! Okay, you are in love. Doesn't mean you will adopt your girlfriend's ENTIRE vocabulary!'

He reminded himself before that whole humour died down as he heard that clingy Ali say, "By the way, don't forget ha, we have to rehearse in the evening today for our duet dance tomorrow in the music & dance segment."
.

"What the F?!"

He had muttered under his breath as he observed and listened to their interaction. The sudden wave of anger multiplying all the more as he watched her nod to Ali's words and say, "Yeah, of course I remember. Don't worry."
.

"Damn it!"

He had remarked, loud enough for Vidyut to hear, but not Avni who still seemed super engrossed in her conversation with that moron admirer of hers and her best friend.

"What's wrong, man?"

Vidyut had kept a hand on his shoulder and asked him, but the angry young man aka Neil Khanna only shoved it off, muttering a "nothing" as he made a furious face.

Uh-oh. There was no apple-pie happiness in the air suddenly.

Rather, it felt like Newton's apple fell on the hot head of an enraged Neil Khanna, opening Earth's gravitational gate of molten-lava anger.

..

.

"We are starting with the Extempore segment now. I request all participants to come down to the front row."

Avni heard the anchor of the segment say and she immediately looked at Neil's direction. It was no news that Neil had always been the champion when it came to things like scholastic decathlons, basketball tournaments, science expos, as well as extempore.

They were divided by the streams and arch-rivals in the eyes of the world but from deep within she was madly in love with him, the bratty, self-obsessed weirdo; the same way he was in love with her.

Who would have thought that Neela Mehta would turn out to be a long-lost childhood friend of Shweta Khanna, and out of the blue their visits to each-others' houses would become so frequent. So much, that one would invite the other, with family, for every tiny Puja and every little festival, paving way for the most unexpected thing to happen--Neil and Avni coming face to face with each other in a different zone altogether, far, far away from the rivalry and cobwebs of Hillridge International.

Not that it was all smooth sailing in the last three months that they have been each-others' family friends more than college-mates. But yes, the hatred between them kept diminishing exponentially with each passing day in the last three months, out of which the past one month was their true term definition of official courtship.

Avni smiled as she in retrospect cherished every little facet of how their relationship transformed into what it was today, and kept looking at Neil's direction waiting for him to pass a glance at her so that she could silently wish him good luck.

But to her surprise and disappointment, he didn't even look at her and descended towards the front row where the other participants of the segment joined him.

..

.

She watched as the rules of the round were announced and until now at least seven participants had already performed. Each speaking for around two minutes on whatever topic that chit box assigned to them.

Avni's mind still pondered over what happened at least half an hour back. On one hand, she was thinking why he ignored her like that when things were all sorted between them, and on another hand, she only felt that she was over thinking.

Maybe he didn't avoid her at all as his mind was occupied with the segment.

'Yeah, that must be the case.'

She comforted herself to end that dilemma, when the host's announcement made all her focus divert back to the center stage.

"Next up--Neil Khanna, Physics Honours."

Her heart skipped a beat as she watched him go towards the big glass bowl filled with sachets. He put his hand inside it and picked up one sachet while the audience hooted and cheered for him-- the devilishly handsome hunk of the college, the mighty Mr. Khanna.

.

.

'Helplessness'
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"You gotta be kidding me!"

"That's what I have to speak on?!"

Neil muttered to himself as he opened the sachet that had the topic he had to speak on for next two minutes.

He expected current affairs, abstract, movies, science, ANYTHING! But THIS?

"What the hell man!"

...Unless of course..

He paused in his thoughts as his brain suddenly hatched a wicked idea and his signature smirk appeared on the canvas that was his face.

He raised one eyebrow as he smugly held the mike in one hand and looked at the audience with his devilish charms.

"Helplessness"

He enunciated.

Avni watched him attentively as he lifted his gaze from the audience and specifically looked at her direction before commencing,

"I haven't really pondered much about the word, guys! I mean, to be able to speak on anything like that for as long as two minutes you need to know something about it if not everything. And since I don't even know what this mood, or feeling, or whatever is, I guess it's better to leave it untouched.."

He shifted the mike slightly away as flabbergasted gasps and murmurs broke from the audience's end before the mike again went back to its prior position and everyone heard him say,

"Well, this is what I would have said until today morning. But now, peeps! Let me tell you that I can't really say all that I said seconds ago, since I very well know what helplessness truly is. And, since 25 seconds of two minutes are already gone, without further ado, let me tell you what helpless is to me."

Avni was shell shocked at that mini-yet heavy stunt he pulled on the stage. And why was he being so unrealistically bratty right now? She rolled her eyes knowing very well his seductive, arrogant tactics to have all the attention of the galaxy to himself, but what was he really up to with this?

"So, everyone, helplessness to me is that feeling when you really can't do anything to make everything better. When you can't rectify a mistake, you committed for which you repent heavily. When you can't fix the misunderstanding of the one you love the most in the world. When you desperately want to confess something in front of the whole wide world, but are restrained by some age-old restrictions. When you want someone all for yourself, but the world conspires against you. When you want to have everything hunky dory, but some imposters wouldn't just allow that..

..You know how that feeling you get when you want to be the savior but alas! End up being the sinner? Something like trying to fix everything and do good to mankind, but boom! You are blind, and you step on ants and voila! You are a killer!

..You are helpless since you are blind, you didn't want to kill those tiny organisms, but then you did! Likewise, say when the love of your life who knows how much you love her, goes on to dance in the embrace of another man! You know that weirdly painful tingling sensation you get, but alas! Yet again, you can't do anything about it! Helplessness, mates. Helplessness!"

<dramatic pause>

"..So yeah, in a nutshell, all the crazy stuff I said just now, that's helplessness to me!"

.

.

Pin. Drop. Silence.

Avni felt like someone verbally undressed her with accusations, and she felt both angry and guilty about the same.

'So, this is why he was being all snooty of late?'

Oh God!

This Khanna weirdo was not just self-obsessed or arrogant, but extremely, extremely possessive too.

'As if you aren't one yourself, Avni.'

A voice in her head reminded her and she only smiled sheepishly at that thought.

The crowd broke into applause as soon as Neil concluded that heavy-dozed speech with a "Thank You," with his minions hooting and whistling, while many still thought in their minds, what was that?

Neil Khanna was always an uncanny, sarcastic speaker, but whatever he said today was something extremely unusual.

But the bottom line that no one else could figure out was that Neil's objective was fulfilled.

He very well knew who his target was and as he finally reclaimed his seat in the audience and glanced at that female's face, he knew for sure that his words had hit the bull's eye.

Avni Mehta.

**

Rather, it felt like Newton's apple fell on the hot head of an enraged Neil Khanna, opening Earth's gravitational gate of molten-lava anger. This one was my fav.🤣

And Riya snapchat part. I found it hilarious.🤣

Helplessness Now that Avni knows why Neil was feeling 'helpless' bcoz of her no touching policy. I don't know how she going to make him cool. But it will be treat to read.😉

I loved Neil's speech. U know what,I learned many good thing in this chapter. So, avni and Neil r family friends. Finally we got to know about back story.😉

They r so possessive. Can't see their partner with other.

Loved the chapter continue soon.