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Realization comes slowly, or fast. Depends on the realization. Realizations like you are growing taller, you're turning smarter and you're about to get punched by Gen (a very bad feeling!) comes slowly. And there is this other kind of realization. A confirmation.
Like the one standing before me.
In that instant I realized there is another Institute like Roya Institute, for boys. For spies. And one of them had just gotten the best of me.
"Nice work, Ayush!" Mr. Saxena said. Really, my favorite teacher complimented "Ayush" in front of me! And "Ayush" just kept smiling as if this was the bes thing that had happened to him!
I was distracted, I was sloppy and most of all, I let a guy come between my mission, and me again!
I was humiliated, and so I conjured all the courage that I was left with and said,
"Hello back, Ashvamedh Boy!"
For a second none of them spoke. Mr. Saxena blinked not once, but twice. And "Ayush" stood there with his mouth slightly apart, and I was the one smiling.
"Very good, Ms. Rai." Mr. Saxena said a moment later. "But not good enough."
I naturally turned scarlett.
"Your mission was what? Stope me from achieving mine?" I asked Ayush.
"Something like that." He replied. "I thought I could make you late for your meeting, but I didn't know you will lead me half way here!"
All I wanted to do was kick that smile off his face. Literally, actual kicking.
-----
The ride back wasn't as exciting as I expected.
COVERT OPERATION REPORT
Written by Neesha Rai
In order to make them less tailable, operative Shakshi Sharma traded uniforms with National Security's Jumpsuits.
In an effort to escape a boy who kept staring at her leg, operative Juhi Mathur tried to safely jump over a building. The operative didn't realize they were on the second floor, thus they now sit with an ice and a swollen ankle.
Operative Panchi Rastogi failed to notice their tail and when asked, the operative gave a thorough definition of "blind spot". The operative earned a very unconvincing look from Agent Saxena and a muffled laugh from Operative Raman and Operative Rai. (Though I promise I saw a little smile on Mr. Saxena too!)
Operative Genelia Raman successfully crossed the station, but picked up a tail in starbucks. Thus concluded, Operative Raman should stay away from caffeine.
Operative Rai doesn't feel any need to humiliate herself by repeating her incident with certain "Ayush", again.
It had come under notice that operative Jiya Ghodse is very bad at taking the success, as the operative sat there with her mouth open. Yes, the same operative Ghodse who had covertly managed to bleed from a coke can had succeeded in our mission.
And so, the entire Junior class sat in silence on the ride back to Royal.
When the helicopter finally descended to the grounds, Mr. Saxena moved forward to open the door, but then stopped and turned to us.
"Today I told you to do what maybe fifty people in this world can do." He said. I was hoping he would tell us who the boys were (though I already know.) and why did we meet them today. But he simply looked around, taking in every face and said, "By the end of the year, I want fifty seven!"
"Seven?" The words left my mouth before I could stop.
"Kiya Gujral." He said looking in my eyes. "She will be joining us on our next mission.
When Panchi later hacked into the school system, she found that Kiya had actually passed the tests and was now officially in their class. She was behind in Protection & Enforcement though. So she will have to wait to kick us.
"I can't believe I told him my destination! And worse, led him half way there!" I cried. My friends sat around me, still shocked from the fact that we had met a boy from Ashvamedh. The room was cold due to air conditioning, but I was craving for warmth.
I wasn't shocked by the fact that there is another spy school. I was embarrassed by the fact that a particular brown eyes boy had gotten best of me.
"It couldn't be that bad!" Panchi said.
"Oh it was bad! It was like he said, and I said and'I don't know!" I gave up. No words in fourteen languages can describe my humiliation-slash-anger.
"So'"Kiya trailed off. I turned to look at the girl who did been sitting there, just listening until now. I wondered how amused she felt. I wondered if she felt missing out. But She totally threw me off with her next words. "Exactly how hot was he?"
What. The. Hell.
"Kiya!" I cried. "Does it really matter?"
"He was hot!" Gen said.
"What kind of hot? Shahid in late years hot, or Sharukh in early years hot?" Kiya asked.
"Guys! It doesn't even matter!" I cried. "The fact I lost against him!"
The other girls were in the library, running scans of every boy from the age sixteen to twenty two present near the Gateway of India that day, and every other place they went to. But no one mentioned Ashvamedh or Southern Wing.
"Well, now we know what your mother and Mr. Solomon were talking about behind the door." Panchi shrugged. "You don't have to see him again."
Then she looked up at me and pondered over her own question.
"Do you?"
Late that night, I tossed and turned in my bed. I just couldn't sleep. Something lingered in the back of my mind, and couldn't quiet put my finger on it.
So I walked out of my bedroom, and down the hallway. I had no idea where I was going. I hadn't realized I was standing in front of the Southern Wing until I heard my bestfriend's voice.
"You thought you are going to have fun alone?" Gen said. I turned to look at her and my new friend. Then Panchi stepped out from behind them, still yawning. It took seven minutes for Gen to open the lock without breaking it. (It would have taken her seven seconds if I let her break it.)
The warm air greeted us as we stepped inside. Pale moonlight shone from the vents, and we all stood there, our eyes wide open. No one was sleepy anymore.
I have passed this room zillions times since seventh grade. I remember every corner of this place. Yet, looking at the divided rooms in front of us, it looked strange. There were bed, and study tables, lamps and chairs, couches and TV.
"These are'" Gen started.
"Suites!" Kiya finished for her.
"The boys are coming to Royal Academy!" Panchi said, not sleepy anymore.
"So that mean," I said. But I never got to say my thought out loud because Gen beat me to it.
"Rematch!" She said with a mischievous grin. And as I looked at my best friend in the pale moonlight, I wasn't sure if I should be scared for me (unknown to what she is going to force me to do) or for the boys.
The next morning was very quiet on our side, but Juhi was talking about the boys who tailed us (though only I literally met one) and Jiya was rambling about how she locked up a boy in a closet. They both entertained their listeners in Japanese, following the sign that strictly instructed us to talk in Japanese.
But the three of us were quiet, sipping on our delicious morning coffee. Our chef was probably the best cook in the world. She cooked every kind of food in the world. But not even the creamy chocolate pastry was enough to make us talk. Kiya was solving an equation for math, so that she can join us today itself.
When I first met her, I did never think she did be so smart. She looked rebellious, and snobby. The way she looked at our uniforms, and they way she did scrunch up her nose when we showed her the library. But now I realized, that it had always been Kiya's cover. A cover she kept for those who were strangers. We were her family, and she let's her cover fall when she is with us.
There are reasons Royal Institute is an institute that specifically subtitle itself with "For Exceptional Young Women". For example, by providing us with only one bathroom every suite, they save the square-feet for other training facility rooms.
Also, an average girl in educational system spends hundred hours getting ready for school. (That is, if the average girl is educated at Royal Institute.) When that tme could be used in studying, sleeping and other important activities.
But most of all, it is because more than a hundred your ago, boys were given the privilege to learn science and math when girls like Anamika were forced to master the fine art of needlepoint and cooking.
Anamika couldn't join the secret service, because they feared her dupatta might come in their way (though dupattas, sarees and skirts are excellent to smuggle sensitive information).
So Anamika did the next best thing, opened a school for girls, where those willing can learn all the things they were not supposed to without the influence of boys.
Now more then a century later, that was going to change. And I wasn't ready for it.
"Neesha, when do you think they will, you know'" Panchi trailed off, "'come?"
I honesty didn't know the answer. And if possible, I waned as much time can be provided. But then my mother rose from her sit and towards the podium.
"Ladies, I have a very important announcement to make." She said.
Just then the door of the Grand Hall opened, and I knew nothing at Royal Institute For Exceptional Young Women will ever be the same again.
"Forks dropped, and clattered against the glass plates. Heads turned. And for the first time in twelve hours, there wasn't even a whisper going through the hall. In that moment I knew that Royal Girls were prepared for anything, even an enemy invasion'but not a bunch of boys walking through our halls.
I mean, it's one thing to know that they are coming, and it's quite another thing to be enjoying a nice meal and see a mob of teenage testosterones walking down your Grand Hall.
The boys went up to the front and lined up against the front table, leaning against its edge.
"That's them?" Kiya said in a bored voice. I didn't even realize she was here. "I have seen better." And went back to her breakfast.
"The trustees of Royal Institute and Ashvamedh Academy thought it would be great if students could learn from each other. This is the first time we are experimenting that with our eleventh graders."
I wasn't even listening to my mother, until she said the words that totally knocked me out.
"The boys of Ashvamedh Academy will sit in your class, study with you, and do projects with you. And you will learn the best out of them. Let me introduce the teacher of Ashvamedh, Dr. Kumar."
"Dr. Desh." The man I noticed for the first time moved towards the mike.
"Excuse me?" My mother said.
"Call me Dr. Desh!" He said with a huge grin on his face. I turned to my friends, to see if they are surprised by this teacher's first name calling tactic. But my friends, other than Kiya, were to busy staring at the boys.
"Ladies, this is a wonderful opportunity to bond with someone out of the sisterhood, to forge friendships." My mother said. "That you can carry on for all your lives."
"I wouldn't mind bonding with him!" I heard Shakshi say, pointing at the boy with black hair and broad shoulders.
The boy who leaned against the table at the edge of the pack.
The boy who was smiling.
At me.
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