Royal Institute - Next Series Link on Page 1 - Page 43

Lol! Thank you so much!

I KNOW!! I wanna go there sooo badd!!

Ahh!

Thank you! :D

Thank you =) I will try!

I don't remember replying to you! 😆

Thank you so much! Love you too <3

Hawww! Ayush mera hain! :P

Haha! He is whipped ;) Haha!

Thank you so much PPM :D <3

Thanks!

No problem, you deserved it :D

They do meant alot to me atleast! 😆

I am trying to keep Royal in its world. I don't want to mix it up with normalty, lol! Thinking hard over the plot! Haha! Ayush might have chosen it! You never know! 😆 Just kidding, no he didn't! He is a student, remember?

Every girl has that side inside them, spy or not. It's her story and the way he shield herself to protect the girl in her. :)

Lol! Sometimes when I am reading FFs, people forget that there is a grade higher than theirs, and give all the responsibility to Juniors! 😆 I just find it hilarious and annoying, so made sure I don't make that mistake! :P

Haha! Glad I did :D

Thank you so much!

Thank you so much :)
I will try my best, glad you liked them! Thank you so much for reading!

Royal Institute is a spy school. Until we met the boys from Ashvamedh I was sure that is the only school of it's kind. There are things in our world that holds more secrets than I could even imagine. And some of those things were minds.

Mr. Saxena stood with his gaze fixed on the girls. He stared at them, taking in everything. The comms units had been silent for more than ten minutes and I wondered what was the matter. He was wearing a grey tie over a grey shirt and black coat with shining borders. His hair were cropped and gelled up. As I looked at his attire, and then glanced at Ayush who handed me the orange drink, I realized how similar he was to Ayush in style and personality. The thought of how much he related to Ayush striked me. It was almost as if Ayush was a younger version of him.

Almost as if he could sense my gaze on him, Mr. Saxena turned to look at me. And Uncle Jay smiled at me. Neesha would have smiled back but Sheikha simply raised her eyebrows and cocked her head. I raised my glass towards him and pursed my lips, hiding my smile.

"You admire him a lot, don't you?" I found myself asking Ayush. He turned to me with a knowing smile.

"I apologize my lady, but who might possibly the 'him' here?" He asked. I bit my lip and decided to let it go. We were silent for a while, eyes gazing through the heads of hundreds of teenagers dressed in their most uncomfortable attire. I didn't know why he wasn't asking me for dance, but his hand was draped around my bare waist in the most flirtatious manner and I couldn't be more tensed. I wasn't sure I could handle a dance either.

"I do." He said so silently, that I barely heard him.

"Pardon?" I said, wondering if it was Ayush or the English art thief with numerous aliases, one of which was Aryan Sharma for the day. He removed the hand from my waist and I felt the warmness abandon my skin.

"I do admire him a lot." He repeated and swiftly took the glass from my hand, turning to walk away.

"You will make him proud." I replied as he paused, and then he was gone.

My eyes were fixed on the crowd, looking at no one in particular. But I could see tat as the night walked towards its complex, people had settled for their partners. Gen was dancing with Kush, their eyes fixed on each other as they gracefully twirled around the room. It was as if they were competing, who can make the other feel the tension game. Panchi was dancing with Ranveer. She was laughing at his jokes and hitting his shoulder at his comments when Madam Rochette wasn't looking at them. Ever since I have known Panchi, I know that she was a crazy headed best friend of mine. Her intellectual mind held more than numbers and codes. She has grown watching and loving Bollywood movies, and she know her Prince Charming will come along someday. But there is a problem. Panchi is looking for a guy who would be the replica of the bad boy. She believes that the guy would walk in her life with a sole purpose of making her life a living hell, bully her and then eventually fall in love with her. I don't think she recognizes the relationship hidden under her and Ranveer's friendship. I have a feeling that her life is going to turn into Cinderella, not Beauty & Beast.

Kiya was dancing with KD, her eyes glaring at him. The exchanged words in hissed whispers, but I could feel that it was an emotional talk. Kiya might be the most beautiful lady with equally beast brains, but she had no idea how wrong she was in judging her acquaintance.

"They surely know how to entertain the crowd." Ayush was by my side again. "Our friends, I meant."

But I wasn't necessarily paying attention to the suave art thief, because across the crowd, on the other side of the Grand Hall, I saw Mr. Saxena's face turn into a frown. He wasn't looking anywhere in particular, but his eyes looked concentrated. As if, waiting for a signal.

"Yes." I replied. "They do."

My eyes scanned the room nonchalant, and turned back to Ayush. His eyes turned dark when he took in Mr. Saxena but relaxed again. I wondered what was going on but before I could let my thoughts go far, darkness fell over the room. The music stopped, and lights turned off. There was not a single flicker of light; even the candles that had been burning on the ceiling decors were dark. Silent fell over the room.

Normally, when lights go out at normal schools, normal girls scream and panic. But in this exceptional school, when lights go out, exceptional students fall into a deadpan silence.

"Do not move." My mother's voice echoed through the silence. "I will go check."

Those two minutes were the hardest, most painful minutes of my life. The lights came back on and the music filled the room again. Everyone stayed still until my mother announced that it was just some wiring default, we can resume our party, or exercise now.

"Well, that was...weird." Ayush sighed. "So, Miss. Brian," He turned to me, his hand held out. "Would you like to dance with me?"

Just as I smiled and accepted his hand, the music changed, and beautiful Hindi lyrics filled the room. I felt my heart flutter, and for this just once, I let it have it's own mind.

"It didn't seem like an accident." Kiya said, getting under her cover. Party ended at 1:45, and everyone had retreated one after another.

"Well, glad we are still alive!" Gen said waling out of the bathroom. A towel was in her hand as she rubbed it against her face.

"And gladder we have no school tomorrow." I buried my face in the pillow. All I wanted to do was sleep. "What do you guys think? Why did the lights go out?"

"Someone had breached the wireless security." Panchi said and all of us turned to her. She had been typing on her aluminum laptop ever since she walked out of the bathroom.

"What?" Kiya frowned.

"Someone had breached the security." She repeated, looking up at us. "It had shut down everything except for the outlets that weren't connected to the main meter."

"How about the Code Black?" I asked.

"That was the first try at breach. But before they could, Code Black started. Staff thought it was a manual breach but in fact, this was a wireless breach."

"Can you trace down the op?" Kiya asked and Panchi looked up at her as if insulted, then went back to punching her fingers on the keyboard. "Signals are bouncing, and I can't keep following. I don't have secured allowance to--you--know, trace people. So not right now." She said, disappointed.

"Let's sleep right now." I resigned.

The air was misty and sticky, adumbrating the coming of rainy night. I ran through the corridor and towards the P&E Barn. I had to do my extra credit of the week.

The next day we spent sleeping in and watching movies. We had sneaked in and brought bowls of ice cream, popcorns and soda to our room. It felt like a normal girls day out. But it ended soon as the school resumed on Thursday.

Panchi was now trying to get into CIA's database to retrieve a license to trace the breacher without being caught by whoever it was. If she does it over unsecured way, they would know someone is trying to get to them.

The next few days were weirdest in my life. Not for what had happened, but for what hadn't happened.

Ayush hadn't talked to me ever since the dance. He didn't tease me. He didn't annoy me. He didn't harass me. He didn't call Princess or flash that cocky smile. After being invisible in my school for almost three years, I think I have just turned a different type of invisible.

"Sorry." I heard someone whisper as I bumped into them around the corner of school's gate. I didn't reply, instead turned to look at who it was. Ayush was walking away with three textbooks balanced on his arm. I sighed and turned again. It wasn't until I stepped out of the door that I felt a crumpled up paper in my hand.

I didn't think about how Ayush pulled off one of the best brush pass ever, or didn't even run to the shelter of Barn. I stood there and read the note over and over again. Just as my mind started to register the words on the paper, thick water droplets started dropping on the white paper and spread the blue ink. Soon enough, the water washed away the little piece of paper.

So I hear we get to go to town this weekend. Want to catch a movie or something?

-AK

P.S. That is, if Kartar doesn't mind.

Translation: This weekend might be a good chance for us to see each other outside our school in a social environment, free of competition. I do not view other boys as threats, and I enjoy making them seem insignificant by calling them the wrong names. (Translation by Kiya Gujral)

"OMG! He asked you out!" Panchi squealed, even though she was disappointed I couldn't bring her the paper to calculate with how much force and intensity did Ayush put the pen on the paper.

"What does it mean?" I asked. Ayush hadn't talked to me for two days, and now he suddenly wanted me to go to movies with him.

"You mean besides the obvious he-just-asked-you-out-for-movies part?" Kiya rolled her eyes.

"Yeah." I said. I mean, why would he ask me out in a note in a totally Ayushman Khurana: Too-mysterious-for-you way? "He is upto something." I said. "Don't you think he is upto something?

"You know what?" Gen said, sitting on my bed. "I think he is upto something too."

"Right?" I exclaimed.

"Yes." She replied. "And that means, you should go and find out."

"Am I going just like this?" I asked, a bit unsure. My hair was down till right past my shoulders. My skin was left untouched from any cosmetics and my dress up was shorts and a blue camisole with light black hoodie over it.

"Neesh! He has seen you all dressed up." She said.

"And he has seen you in P&E." Gen joined in, butting a head band over her head.

"What he hasn't seen," Kiya put her chin on my shoulder and smiled. "Is our real Neesha"

I sighed defeated and pulled the mood ring over my finger.

It was Saturday, and the boys were leaving tomorrow.

One day before Royal turns back to normal.

"What if he drugs me?" I asked. "What if it's a trap?" I was panicking. I wasn't ready to believe that Ayushman Khurana had asked me out on a date.

But then I asked the question I feared the most.

"What if I see Kartik?"

"Neesh! What are the chances of him seeing you in the whole freaking town?" She asked exasperated.

"One to three seventy four." Panchi said. "What? If you factor out traffic lanes, side walks and population, answer is three seventy four."

I sighed. There was another thing that even Panchi hadn't learned to quantify. Fate; I was tempting it again.

As my friends walked out of the room to go downstairs, I sat there a moment longer.

"It's okay if you like him, you know?" Kiya's voice was almost a whisper as she stood in the door way.

"I could say same about you and KD." I told her. Her eyes widen a bit but she relaxed again.

"See you downstairs." She smiled and walked away.

We learn a lot of things at spy school. We learn to protect our selves, defend ourselves. We learn to shield our eyes and dodge punches. We learn to protect kidneys, and our noses.

But not even the best training at the best school can teach us to protect our hearts.