ManeetFF Dancing Frm The Ashes link on pg146 - Page 66

tradition is very important amru!!!!!!!!!!!!😳😆...aha...she is hated by many ...very intriguing...why don't you tell me right now why that is...😉

Hola...its 100 pages ...century century... we should celebrate with extra update😆 thats all thats in my mind 😃

Maan got into the car and swiftly swerved it out of the gates. He took out his phone and dialled. A sleepy voice answered.

''Get up and be ready in 30 minutes. I'll pick you up.''

''Maan, get lost, I'm not going anywhere with you'', Geet grumbled sleepily.

''Oh, aren't you? I thought you were going to oversee the new Jive routine. Never mind! I'll get Lyla to do it. Bye.'' Saying this, he hung up and smiled to himself. ''See you in 30 minutes, Handa!'', he muttered to himself.

Sure enough, Geet stood outside the Handa residence, sleepy eyed and sullen, but ready.

She got in the car and whacked him. 'Git, you said that on purpose, didn't you?'.

He feigned ignorance. She shut her eyes in irritation, and went back to sleep.

...

The evening before, the troupe had finished late. The heavens had burst just as they were about to leave and Maan had refused to let Geet drive back in her open Jeep. He'd literally picked her up and dropped her in his car, despite her incensed protests...But he hadn't given in-and she'd sulked all the way back. He'd expected the drama and had kept the back-up plan in mind too.

...

It had taken him all of one day, to realize the kind of abhorrence the troupe held Lyla in. Why, he didn't know and to an extent he didn't care. But he wanted to make sure she wasn't a danger to Studio 77.

So he discreetly devoted time to observe her behaviour. She seemed to be outrageously arrogant and rude at that. The fact that her colleagues hated her outright, didn't seem to faze her. She only seemed to deign it natural. Her behaviour towards Isra was borderline appalling and Maan found it hard to believe that they were siblings. Isra didn't seem to mind much, considering the fact that Lyla seemed to treat her like a stray dog that had ventured forth in her vicinity.

But , the troupe seemed to be quite friendly with Isra. They managed to find conversation time with her too. She, however seemed shy and introvert-ish. Her attitude reflected her shy and sensitive, but she was more of a quiet girl, doing her bit and retreating in the shadows. And that made the others try to involve her more in their work and play.

And it was the other extreme with Lyla. It was brazen indifference. Especially from the girls. The boys too ignored her, but she took advantage of Maan's anger and connived to make them aware of her presence, very often testing their patience. What amused Maan was the careless way in which they seemed to scorn her advances. Even Maan seemed to find it ridiculous that she'd try to make advances towards Zakhir and Farhan, but it became evident to him that this was her case with anything that came with an XY chromosome. The earliest example came when she started fawning on him, all propriety of boss and subordinate forgotten.

He had of course glared at her, but she had turned on an effeminate charm that had jus annoyed him and he'd taken pains to ignore as much as he could. But, he concluded that there was no great threat from her.

Geet and Nida showed animosity the most. Prior to her entry, they had been friendly and courteous towards each other, but with Lyla under the same roof, they had united like two opposing dynamos, uniting to fight the Great Evil.

There was obviously a lot of history.

*************************************

''Guys'', Farhan's calm voice, came to their attention. ''Get the Bluetooth on. Am sending you the remixed versions of the latest tracks. Get them one with your system and start working on routines. We have one week to go, ok. Let's brainstorm tomorrow over them.''

Farhan being the quiet one, spoke only when he absolutely needed to. And these were the times he spoke. His persona always exuded calm and a dependable intensity. So when he asked them to do something, the response was immediate.

''Ok'', he said looking at his phone. ''I've got Zak, Nids, Geet, Isra...who the hell is Aphrodite?? As good as saying; ''Hello, I'm a narcissist''.

Laughter erupted around him as the others looked at Lyla's red outraged face.

Geet laughingly looked around, when her eyes fell on Isra. She was smiling shyly and looking at Farhan with an undisguised adoration. She looked away blushingly when her Bluetooth responded.

Geet stared, excitement building in her as she saw Isra sneak glances at a completely oblivious Farhan. She looked around excitedly, and saw Nida mirroring the expression, she felt on her face. They nodded at each other discreetly and their eyes sparkled as they recognized a enterprise at hand.

Geet stood up and walked towards Maan's cabin. She was brimming with excitement. She had always hated the way in which Lyla dismissed her sister. On more than one occasion, she had seen hurt on Isra's face and had wanted to do something for her. The opportunity was perfect! And Geet would try her best to fix Isra up with Farhan..

Maan was engrossed in his cell phone. She sidled up to him, conspiratorially.

''Maan.''

''Hmm'', he grunted, not taking his eyes off his phone.

''Maan, '' she said, louder this time. ''I've just found out something.''

''Hmmm,'' was his only response.

She looked at him irritated. ''Fine!!'' She picked up the 1^st thing that came to her hand, the said object unfortunately being half a glass of water, and dumped it down his shirt.

You know what they say about Newton's law of equal and opposite reactions. Maan sprang out of his seat, his eyes blazing fire, then looking around and focussing on Geet, and finally comprehending what she had done, as water seeped through his clothes on to the floor.

''Geet,'' he said quietly, '' You shouldn't have done that.''

She watched his hand inch towards the bottle, as his eye bored into hers purposefully. With a yelp she took off , with him close on her heels.

Maan watched her run from him, he hair streaming behind her as always, frequently turning to see whether he was closer or not. But something seemed to catch her attention and she jumped in the air. He watched puzzled at her behaviour, when she suddenly ran faster and jumped into the arms of a boy, walking towards her. The boy in turn, hugged her and picked her up and twirled her.

The bottle clattered to the floor, but Maan never noticed, as he watched dumbstruck.

The boy finally let her and she stepped forward to hug the girl, waiting behind them. She turned and her eyes fell on Maan. Pulling them by their hands, she brought them to introduce them to Maan.

'' Maan, this is Sid and Raina. Two very close friends of mine'', she said hugging their arms on the word 'close'.

Maan noticed each and every action, his eyes narrowing. He nodded silently, grabbing Sid's extended hand.

''Dude, you're wet'', Sid commented, looking at his clothes. ''Lemme guess...'', he said and looked at Geet. ''This looks like your work.''

In response , she shrugged mischievously and pulled Raina along with her.

*************************************

Maan was losing it. What it was that he was losing, he didn't quite understand. From the outset, it seemed as if Sid and Raina were quite popular with the troupe. Geet's face had a glow on it and she seemed happier that he had seen her recently. She sat now with Sid's arm around her shoulders, while Raina sat in front of her, relating something. The entire troupe seemed to be enthused by their arrival.

Right after they had arrived, he had called Zakhir for the update on the new students and their progress. But Zakhir had stopped short at two words into his update, and had pleaded to do it later. ''Sid and Raina are here,"was his happy excuse. He had almost kicked himself, for not calling Farhan and had proceeded to do so. Farhan, however came only after he was called thrice... and he very contritely explained, 'was updating Sid and Raina......' And even after that, he'd been inattentive.

Frustrated he walked up to the one way glass of his cabin and watched the scene outside.

Geet was giggling as she watched Lyla shamelessly hit on Sid, while he tried to fend her off, throwing glares at Geet. Close to them, Nida and Raina were deep in conversation; Nida's hands flying in the air and Raina responding animatedly. It was useless asking for her attention.

He walked out dejectedly to the cafeteria, with the intention of getting a coffee, when he bumped into somebody.

'Vicky?'', he said, surprise and oddly, relief flooding through him.

''Hi bro, '' was his cheery reply.

''What are u doing here? Everything OK, right?'', he asked worriedly, but happy nevertheless to see his younger brother there. Vicky had never stepped in the Studio to meet him, post their bet.

''Yeah yeah, bro'', he said just as cheerfully. ''I heard Sid and Raina are here!!...''

Maan couldn't take it anymore. He turned abruptly and walked off towards the exit.

***********************************

He returned an hour later after he'd driven around aimlessly. There was no point burning fuel, when he could try to finish some work. 'Try' being the important word here.

The troupe was still sitting and chatting when he returned to his cabin. Geet came in the moment he'd sat down.

''Where were you?'', she asked. ''Come sit with us, na''

''No'' , he said abruptly. ''You go ahead. I have work to do.''

Saying this he turned back to his files, pulling out the pending work. She looked at him , puzzled, but headed back anyway.

Trying his best to ignore the 'fun' taking place outside, Maan finished all the work he could and walked out towards the car. Just as he sat in the car.

''MAAN'', Geet's voice rang out. She ran towards him and got into the passenger seat.

''Gimme a ride home na.''

''What happened to you jeep?''

''Sid's taken it. He didn't get his car and he had to drop Raina home. Plus, they had all their luggage, you know. ...'' she trailed off.

''You trust him with your beloved jeep?!''. He couldn't keep the bitterness out of his voice.

''Sid is my oldest friend... of course I tru...'' She looked at him, suddenly and scrutinized his expression.

''You're jealous!!'' she said, her voice, a mixture of incredulity and cognizance. ''Maan, are you jealous??''.

He sighed and abruptly swerved to a side and parked the car.

Then, without looking at her, ''Of course I'm jealous, Geet. You're my best friend and I don't like sharing you.''

It came out of the blue for her and she went silent. But, that wasn't for long. Maan was recently coming to realize that Geet Handa could rarely do that for long.

''That's not fair.'', she blurted, not paying much attention to what she was saying.'' What about your other friends that I share you with.''

''What other friends?'', was his only response.

_________________________________________________________

Precap:

''I'm sorry sir, but it goes against our office decorum.'', she said a tad stiffly.

''That office decorum's gonna last only a week longer, so I'm hoping you give some attention to my words. I mean them.'', he replied.

Chapter 39 Hope... - Page 110

Hey guys, was gonna put in Vicky n Meera, but have been basking a lil too much on Maneet lately. So none of them. And, I'm guessing, I wont get many disappointed comments either. 😆Ok ok ok...so lots of things happening in this update na...what do you think happens next?

OK There'll be stuff in the next update and hopefully, I can get in a long one then. My chutti's coming to an end, so sorry bout the short update! Hope you enjoy it.

Comments people!!

is this fellow goin 2 b one of her old frnds???