Chapter 1 - New Beginnings
It was a bright, sunny morning. The wind blew across Diya’s face making her quiver a little; she wraps herself in the blanket and turns over to the other side.
She starts to hear muffled noises calling out her name.
Mrs. Rita (Diya’s Mom): Wake up, you little brat! It’s 7:30!
Diya wakes up and while rubbing her eyes looks at the clock on the wall, which shows the exact time her mom had mentioned. She freaks out and suddenly comes to her senses.
Beside her mom were Dhruv and Sara, her two best friends who were right now glaring at her with anger.
Sara: Wake up D! It’s late, we have to be there by 8 am, remember?
Diya, Sara and Dhruv were best friends from school and also had joined the same college and now all of them were on a semester break, no, not the fun one, they had to start their internship and had a lot of work to be done during the break.
Dhruv: We don’t have time to waste. Hurry up!
Diya: Yes, yes! I’ll take bath after I get back. For now, I’ll just brush my teeth and freshen up.
Mrs. Rita: God save this child!
Diya quickly freshens up and throws on a light blue shirt with white trousers. She lets her dark brown hair fall down and curls the edges, applies sunscreen, lip balm, and perfectly strokes her black eyeliner, making her dark brown eyes stand out. She finishes all of this in 15 minutes—yeah, she’s a pro!
Mrs. Rita: Take this cold coffee and sandwich I made for you. Have it on the way. Also, good luck dear, even your dad asked me to convey his wishes for your first day.
Diya: Thanks to both of you. Now, I’ll leave. I’ll just take the coffee. Love you.
She grabs the tumbler of cold coffee, hugs her mom, and leaves with Sara and Dhruv.
Mrs. Rita: You forgot your lunch bag (her mom yells)
Dhruv comes back running, takes Diya’s lunch bag, and waves goodbye to her mom and leaves in a hurry.
They rush to Sara’s car. Sara, who knew all the shortcuts, takes a different route for the day. They reach the office complex within 10 minutes.
Sara parks the car in the parking area, and they all head towards the lift.
Diya: Thank god we made it on time! We still have about 3 to 4 minutes left.
Dhruv: Yeah, we made it just in time.
They head over to the lift to get to the 3rd floor where the office was located and as the lift descends, Diya, busy chatting with her friends and not paying attention to her surroundings, attempts to enter. She accidentally crashes into a guy who is coming out of the lift. The coffee tumbler she is holding cracks open, spilling the coffee onto his shirt.
Diya: What the...fish! I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to...
Ayush: What the hell? Are you blind or something?
Diya: Excuse me?
Ayush: Can’t you see where you’re going? Who rushes into an elevator like that without checking if someone is coming out or not? Look at what you’ve done, spilled your coffee all over my white shirt!
Diya: Look, I’m really sorry, but there’s no need to be so rude. I’m happy to pay for your shirt, you can get a new one.
Ayush: Seriously? You think I want your money? Tday is an important day for me and look what you have done. What am I gonna do now? I don’t even have an extra shirt.
Dhruv: Hey, I have an extra tee shirt. I thought to hit the gym once I was done with work so I brought it with me. I think we both are of the same size, it may fit you.
Dhruv digs out his tee shirt and hands it over to Ayush who then looks at the size mentioned at the neck of the tee-shirt and gives a nod.
Ayush: Yeah! This is my size. Even though this is not formal, it’ll do I guess, got no choice now. Thanks a lot; I shall return this back to you. I am Ayush by the way, (extends his hand to Dhruv and both shake hands) please can you enter your phone number in my mobile so I can contact you.
Ayush hands over his phone to Dhruv, who enters his number and returns it. Ayush gives Diya an irritated look before waving at Sara and Dhruv, and then heads towards the parking lot.
Diya: Did you see that? Did you see the look that he gave me? What a rude guy.
Dhruv: Don’t worry about him. Let’s go now; it’s already 8 AM.
They all leave for the office. As they arrive, they rush to the reception, where Mr. Raghav Gowda is standing. He glances at his watch, then at Diya.
