Love changes everything Mayur - Chap 18- 20/7/10

Previous FF's

Key trilogy - Nora Roberts - Ongoing

http://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1411855

The Proposition - Complete

http://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1421175

Love changes everything ' Mayur FF

Weddings are the perfect place to fall in love...

Nupur is not looking forward to being part of the ceremony in her cousin Suhani's wedding. To make matters worse, Mayank, the biggest jerk at Excel College, is going to be paired with her at the wedding! The last thing Nupur wants to do is walk down the aisle with him. But the more Nupur gets to know Mayank, the more she realizes that he's actually a very nice guy. And now she finds herself wishing that the wedding would last forever...

Note:

Hey guys,

This time the characters are centered as college students so as

passionate as the last FF was this one is going to be just as sweet'..

Its also going to be mainly revolving around nupur and her thought processes.

This is going to be a short story, wont be very big..

I hope u'll enjoy it'.looking forward to the comments'.:)

Index:

Chap 1 - Page 1

Chap 2 - Page 3

Chap 3 - Page 5

Chap 4 - Page 6

Chap 5- Page 8

Chap 6 - Page 10

Chap 7 - Page 12

Chap 8 - Page 12

Chap 9 - Page 14

Chap10 - Page 15

Chap 11 - Page 17

Chap12 - Page 20

Chap 13 - Page 21

Chap 14 - page 22

Chap 15 - Page 24

Chap 16 - Page 25

Chap 17 - Page 27

Chap 18 - Page 29 (last Chap)

Chapter One

N- Any messages for me?" I asked as I entered the office for The Pipeline, our school newspaper.

G- "None in your box," replied gunjan, our managing editor. "We've already

given the police all the small, ticking packages and kidnapping threats."

I smiled and shrugged.

N-"Another day, another unhappy jock." It wasn't my problem that some of Excel college's athletes couldn't take criticism. And at that moment I wasn't very popular with the men's Hockey team'especially their star, Mayank Sharma, and Mayank's many fans.

SH-"I have trouble imagining Mayank wanting to kidnapping Nupur," Sheena

remarked. "Kidnappers and their victims have to spend time together." Then she

turned and touched me lightly on the arm. Sheena was one of Mayank's biggest fans

and editor of our People page. She'd also stopped by after dismissal to check her mailbox. She fished out a wad of gossipy notes from her "sources." "Just teasing, Nupur."

N-"Yeah, yeah," I said. Samrat, our editor in chief, laughed.

SA- "Well, I'm sure our budget will cover the ransom," he said. "After a few hours of being grilled by Nupur's questions, Mayank wouldn't demand much money. He'd probably pay us to take her back." I grimaced, and he laughed. Samrat was a senior, a year older than I. A cute guy who both Gunjan and I'd had terrible crushes on in our first year. Now Gunjan had something worse than a crush. She was best buddies with him and, being second in command at the paper, the girl he was most likely to lean on, but she also wanted to be the girl he kissed. Samrat had more sophisticated tastes, however, and was dating a girl who was older to him. It didn't matter to me anymore. I needed him as a sounding board and levelheaded editor in chief much more than I needed a romantic interest. Actually, all of us depended on Sam.

Our adviser Ms.Tamanna, a reporter for 'The Mumbai Sun', taught journalism the first semester of every school year, then worked as an off-campus adviser second semester--very off campus. Sam stayed in contact with her, but he carried most of the responsibility for our four-page tabloid. It was a lot of work producing a weekly paper, especially for a school with eleven hundred students, but the 2nd and 3^rd year students who wrote regular columns and did the editing were given independent class time to work and received full course credit.

N-"Just remember," I said, "if it wasn't for me, we wouldn't have nearly as many letters to the editor."

Sa-"I'm grateful, Mayank's letter ran so long this week, I only had to write one paragraph for an editorial."

N-"Too bad Sharma doesn't spend his time practicing shots in front of a goal instead of on a keyboard," I remarked. "He's got an incredible amount of ability. If he played up to it, I wouldn't get on him." I wheeled my desk chair over to the stack of newspapers that had been released that day. "I guess I should look at what he has to say."

Sh-"You mean you haven't read it yet?" Sheena asked, her eyes big with surprise. She was always checking the mailbox for letters to the editor to see if people had said anything about her.

N-"I didn't want his comments to influence what I wrote this week," I explained.

Sa-"And obviously they didn't, We've got another Nupur Bhushan analysis, calling it like she sees it."

Gunjan opened a copy of the paper that was sitting on top of her monitor and began reading from my column.

G-"If you're going to play a run-'em-gun-'em style of game, you had better make sure you've got some bullets--"

N-"And we don't," she and I said at the same time."We really don't," I said, spinning around in my chair, then pushing off from the wall so that I ended up side by side with her. "We're not using our talent. Even our wins have made us look bad. In the first four games this season some of our shots at the goal have been--"

Sa-"Like Ping-Pong balls lobbed at a goldfish bowl,"' recalled from last week's column.

N-"And our passing game," I went on, determined to explain why the guys'

Hockey team made me crazy--

G-"Is like a game of keep away among our own players,'" remembered.

N-"So I like to write in images! It's how I reach my reader."

G-"Well, you reached the guys' Hockey team," gunjan replied, grinning.

N-"Instead of writing a letter, I wish they'd prove me wrong with a solid win," I said, then opened my copy of the paper to the op-ed page. "Well, let's see what Sharma has to say."

Dear Editor,

As captain of the college Hockey team, I am writing to protest the poor coverage we have been receiving from your sports editor, Nupur Bhushan. Each week, instead of writing a clear and unbiased account of our games, she gabs on like a late-night talk-show host.

N-"Oh, really," I said.

"'Like an obnoxious comedian, she oversimplifies the games so she can make jokes at the team's expense.'

N-"Sounds like he got his feelings hurt," I muttered.

"I don't mind her negative comments about my leadership skills.'"

I glanced up from the paper for a moment and said,

N-"Like heck you don't." Then I continued to read.

'"But I resent the constant and unfair criticism of my teammates.'

N-"Okay, tell me how it's unfair," I commented.

G-"He does, for the next two and a half columns. To be honest, I had no idea jocks could write that much." I skimmed the letter.

N-"Well, if he wants to convince me, he's going to have to give specific reasons and support them with stats and examples," I said.

N-"All he does here is turn my own statements back on me, using things I've said to take clever shots at me-- talk about sounding like a late-night talk-show host! But what really annoyed me were statements like,

"Knowing the game of girls' Hockey doesn't prepare a writer for guys' Hockey." I read it aloud. "What's he implying by that?" I exclaimed.

"'If Hardy is truly interested in producing fair and informative articles

rather than showing off as a writer ...' yeah, yeah, yeah." I read on silently.

Sh-"I think you and Mayank need to get together and talk things through," sheena said. I glanced up at her.

N-"Why?"

Sh-"To make things friendlier between the team and the paper."

N-"Why would I want to do that?" I asked. Sam snorted.

Sh-"Because we're a school paper," Sheena replied, her face puckering with earnestness. "We're not real journalists, Nupur. We're only supposed to tell everyone about the good things we're doing at Excel College."

N-"That would make us a public-relations office." She shrugged.

Sh-"All I know is that there are a lot of people who like my columns."

N- "Like your feature about the nasty cafeteria lady who snarls if she has to

give change? The woman you described as 'serious in her work and focused on

efficiency'?"

Sh-"She's mailing the article to her grandchildren."

N-"I bet she is." I shook my head. "I hope they recognize her."

But the fact was, I knew there were students who loved Sheena's articles. To

me the writing was dishonest, but this didn't bother some people'especially when she said something nice about them the following week. I glanced at Sam, who was turning a pencil over and over in his hands.

N-"What are you thinking?" I asked.

Sa-"Just thinking," he said.

N- "If you believe we need to smooth things over, you can have Sheena do a

feature on Sharma in the People section," I suggested, trying to draw Sam out,

hoping he'd say, Heck, no. But he just nodded thoughtfully.

Sh-"Could I do a piece on him, Sam? I think a lot of kids would be really interested." Like the girls Sheena hangs around with, I thought.

SH-"He's a terrific player--" Could be, I added silently.

Sh-"--and has a great body and a great smile," she went on. "He's interesting--kind of the silent, mysterious type who studies a lot."

N-"Studying makes someone mysterious?" I asked, and Gunjan laughed.

I knew that Mayank was really smart. We'd had one class together'last year- English. He wouldn't say a word for a week, then we'd discuss a short story and he'd argue his view against anyone---including the teacher--and be totally persuasive. But that's as much contact as we'd had. Since I'd covered basketball last year and those games often conflicted with Hockey, I hadn't seen him play regularly until this year.

Sa-"I'll think about it, and we can run it by the rest of the staff next meeting," Sam said. I stuffed an extra copy of the newspaper in my backpack.

G-"Heading off for the girls' game?" Gunjan asked me.

N-"Yup. I told Vinay, Rahul, Ria and that I wanted them on the fields and tennis court as soon as the players are. I can't be lagging behind."

Rahul and Ria are in my year and already solid reporters. Vinay, an eager 1^st year and my trainee, was another story. He helped me cover the girls' Hockey team, whose games were usually on Monday and Thursday, and the guys, who generally-played Tuesday and Friday. If I could've cloned myself, I would've covered every sport---reporting on sports was what I lived to do.

I pushed hard against the school door, eager to get out into the sunlight. But the door gave way faster than I expected--someone was pulling from the other side. I started to pitch headlong, I instinctively shut my eyes, only to get caught by the person coming in. As I opened my eyes I saw intense dark eyes staring down at me, they belonged to Mayank Sharma. And the eyes did not look friendly. Maybe he thought I'd look away, but I didn't. He up-righted me and then we silently continued on our separate ways, letting the metal door slam between us.

Awesome one............

aastu interesting concept 👏