Chapter 1 - Two Nerds
"MAAA!" A sixteen-year-old Suman Tiwari
yelled at the top of her lungs running into Tiwari Villa. She was wearing her
school uniform, and a piece of paper was in her hand along with a wide smile on
her face. Priya Tiwari came running out of her room at the exuberance in her
daughter's voice, the rest of the Tiwaris also stepped out of their respective
rooms at the commotion.
"What happened?" Priya asked but she knew that
her daughter had good news for her.
"96.5%. I beat Shravan by a whole 0.5%!" She
laughed jumping up and down, she handed her final transcript to her mother who
smiled happily along with the rest of the family. "Oxford, here I come!" Suman laughed.
"Congratulations Beta." Her Sameer Mamu said with a
smile and her Mami nodded happily, they were glad that all her studying had
paid off, they heard her complaining about it enough.
"Di! You're such a nerd." Preeti teased with a
laugh.
"Yeah, yeah. With a Bachelors in Management
& Economics, and an MBA, I am going to turn your business into an empire
Maa." Suman laughed smiling at her mother.
"Hold your horses Suman, you still have to get
your acceptance." Priya Tiwari laughed happily at her daughter's exuberance,
thankful that her insistence on her doing her best in high school had paid off.
"Shravan helped me with my application Maa, and
my final marks are even better than his, so I should be okay, which reminds me,
I have to call him and tell him!" She said running into her room and grabbing
her MacBook to contact her best friend. She checked what the time was in Oxford
because she never remembered the difference in hours and sometimes she annoyed
him at the weirdest times. "It's 4:00pm here meaning it's 11:30am there, and he
has class until 1:30pm. 2 hours." She mumbled to herself sadly, she sighed and
opened up her iMessage app and shot him a message to FaceTime her as soon as he
finished class.
She ran and changed out of her uniform into a
pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt before running back out towards the living
room. Preeti was sitting with her mom, who was about 6 months pregnant with a
baby boy and Rachna Maasi was painting her nails while the three of them
watched TV. "Where is Maa?" Suman asked.
"She is on the phone with a client." Maasi
answered causing Suman to nod. After Suman's dad had passed away, Priya Tiwari
had opened a catering business which occupied most of her time and was
the major source of income for the Tiwari Villa as it had grown to multiple
locations all over Delhi over the years. The whole family was involved in the
business, excluding Naanu of course, who had comfortably retired a few years
ago.
Suman had taken a keen interest in cooking since
a young age because her mother loved it so much, according to her family her
cooking was just as good and sometimes even better than her mother's. She knew
that she was going to join her mother's business and help it grow, she already helped as much as she could. Suman walked into her mother's room and jumped on the bed listening
to her talk to vendors on the phone.
"Did you talk to Shravan yet?" Priya asked her
daughter as she hung up.
"He has class for another two hours." Suman
groaned as her mother's phone rang again.
"Hello?" She answered. "Nirmala!" Suman's ears
piqued at the mention of Shravan's mom.
"Sorry, I missed your call in the morning, Ram
and I were discussing an important court case and I didn't realize the phone
was ringing." Nirmala said from the other end on the phone as she settled into
the couch, she had just gotten home from court after a long day.
"Oh no problem, I was just calling to wish you
good luck, I am guessing it went well with both you and Ram working on it."
Priya laughed as she talked to her best friend.
"Yeah, it went well. Suman's results were
coming out today, no?"
"Yes, 96.5%." Priya said.
"0.5% more than Shravan." Suman
yelled causing Nirmala to laugh over the phone when she heard her. "Tell Ramnath uncle he owes me
some money since I won the bet."
"Will do Beta." Nirmala laughed.
"Priya, now we're going to be all alone with our kids in Oxford."
"I don't know how I am going to
adjust to life without this jhalli
around." Priya said.
"RUDE!" Suman gasped.
"You get used to it, at least
they'll be together." Nirmala said, the past year had been difficult for her
with Shravan's move to England. It was hard for him too, a new country without
his parents and best friend.
"That's the only good thing, but I
don't know who is going to resolve their fights there." Priya laughed causing
Suman to huff in annoyance.
"They'll figure it out, it is not like they can stay mad at each other for more than a day." Nirmala
laughed.
X-X-X-X-X
"Twenty-seven messages, who's dying
Sumo?" Those were the first words out of Shravan's mouth as the FaceTime call
connected.
"You're going to die after you hear
what I have to tell you." She smiled to her best friend.
"What?" He asked confused.
"96.5% Shravan Malhotra!" She yelled
holding her transcript up in front of the camera of her MacBook.
"Wow, I can't believe I outdid
myself." Shravan smiled on the other end, he knew just how to rile his best
friend up.
"You?" Sumo gasped and Shravan
smiled at the annoyance on her face.
"Yes, me, I am the one who helped
you study, you used my notes and my help." Shravan said.
"Oh hello, I still wrote all the
tests and did all the assignments."
"But you had my help." He pointed out.
"By that logic I am the one that got
a 97% in Literature, if I recall correctly I helped you write that essay."
"Touche." Shravan laughed. "So Oxford is happening then."
"Yep." She smiled.
"Finally, someone to cook me good
food and bully people for me." He laughed.
"I am not coming there to cook for
you Mr. Malhotra." She teased.
"Please Sumo, the food here sucks."
"Yeah yeah, I know they put sugar and coconut in all the Indian
food." She laughed imitating his voice and failing miserably.
"I don't sound like that."
"Yeah you do."
"Shut up."
"Rude." Sumo replied. "When are you
coming back?" She asked.
"Flight is booked for May 14th.
I am guessing we're going to leave
again mid-August."
"I hate planes."
"I know, drama queen, last time you acted like the plane was going to crash
as soon as it lifted off the ground."
"You weren't helping with your they have emergency escape rafts and
parachutes." She pointed out.
"I was just trying to explain that
we could survive even if the plane crashed, we got to and from Dubai in one
piece, chill." He said, their families had taken a trip together to Dubai two
years ago and Sumo had absolutely abhorred the flight.
"Independent events." She reminded
him.
"Okay, my statistics nerd."
"Listen,
don't tell anyone that I did better than you."
"Why?"
Shravan asks confused.
"I have an
image to protect." She scoffed.
"Seriously?"
He laughed. "Everyone is going to know you are a secret hardcore nerd when
you come to Oxford."
"No one
needs to know." Sumo said.
"You are
crazy."
"You miss
me anyways." She teased.
"I just miss
your cooking."
"Rude. So, what is new?" She asked.
"We talked last night Sumo, and
Oxford is pretty boring, so nothing." He said but she had a lot to share with
him so she went on a tirade about what was going on and he listened intently
even though he had no interest in what other people at their high school were
up to.
X-X-X-X
"I still
think you should consider law school Suman, you can talk your way out of
anything." Ramnath laughed as he played a riveting game of chess with
Shravan. Sumo sat beside Shravan and cheered her best friend on.
"It would
be unfair to the general populace if I use my natural talent like that."
Sumo teased causing Shravan to guffaw. He had missed her antics.
"I
guess." Ramnath laughed. "Are you done packing yet?"
"Mom keeps
packing my suitcase and then unpacking and repacking to make sure she didn't
forget anything."
"Nirmala
is the same way." He laughed.
"What did
I do now?" Nirmala asked sitting beside her husband with a smile.
"The
packing and unpacking disease." He teased.
"Haha
Ram." Nirmala rolled her eyes with a smile.
"Excited
Sumo?"
"She is,
especially for the plane ride." Shravan teased causing Sumo to whack his
arm. "Maa, you're asking me to take care of an abuser."
"Take care
of me? I am not a kid Shravan."
"You are
younger than me."
"By a
year, plus it's a known fact that girls are more mature than guys by a few
years at all stages of life." She pointed out.
"You're a
girl?" He teased.
"Shravan
Malhotra, I think you need to get thicker glasses." Sumo retorted.
"Or get a new brain."
"Might as
well get yourself one while we're at it since you don't have one." He said
smiling at her.
"Shravan!"
She said whacking his arm again.
"See,
abuse!"
"I feel
sorry for the people at Oxford." Nirmala murmured.
Edited by astonm - 7 years ago
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