Naina

Stealthily walking inside Ritu's quarter, I start looking around, wondering from where I should begin.

I took Aalekh's help earlier, requesting him to take Ritu out of her quarter, so I can enter here and finish my work.

He had been reluctant at first because he did not see my point in pranking Ritu just because she called Rajveer by his name, but I was adamant.

When he did not relent even after me continuing to request him for the entirety of us having breakfast at the meas, having no other choice, I emotionally blackmailed him, playing my sister card.

I am not too proud of it, but sometimes, sisters are allowed to use tactics to coerce their brothers in helping them.

And it is not that I am doing anything wrong. I just need to make Ritu back-off from flirting with my Rajveer.

That is why, I have decided that whenever she flirts with him, I will play a prank on her, until she realizes that flirting with Rajveer will equal to her getting pranked. That will effectively make her back off from her being over-the-top seductive in front of Rajveer.

Now that I am here, I need to move quickly, making sure I don't get caught.

Aalekh has taken Ritu to the academy's infirmary in pretense of needing a psychiatrist to deal with the problems he has been having to cope with and adjust in the academy.

Of course, he has no such problem. We had planned to tell that to Ritu so she would agree to go to the infirmary with Aalekh.

But now, I am slightly worried Ritu might catch Aalekh's lie and return to the room.

She is a professional psychiatrist, after all. She might find out Aalekh is lying and is not having any problem sooner or later. I just wish it will be later rather than sooner so I can complete my work here.

"Let's start, Naina," I say to myself before walking to the bathroom.

Entering the bathroom, I first empty the shampoo bottle.

Then, taking the mayonnaise I stole from the academy kitchen, I fill the shampoo bottle with that mayonnaise.

After that, walking to the sink, I open the handwash bottle kept there, and pour the food coloring powder into it.

Then, walking out of the bathroom, I walk to the dressing table in the room and take the hairdryer from there.

Taking out the baby powder I brought with myself, I pour it into the hairdryer.

And for the final touch, I walk toward the cupboard and placed the fake snake there in such a way that when Ritu will open the cupboard, the snake will fall on her.

'What did you think, Dr. Mishra? You will keep flirting with my man in front of me, and I will not do anything? From now on, you will have to face my pranks whenever you flirt with my Rajveer.'

Satisfied with my work, I smirk slightly, thinking about how Ritu's condition will be by the end of it.

------------------------

Third Person's POV

Ritu walks inside her room, annoyed by the way Aalekh kept her stuck in the infirmary.

He endlessly ranted about how hard it has been for him to adapt to this new life in the academy and even asked for her advice on how to cope with his anxiety.

She had been clueless as to what to tell him because she is not even a real psychiatrist. Her boss had pulled his strings in faking all her certificates to make her join the academy as a psychiatrist.

Now too, whenever she has to conduct a class or give advice to students, she prepares everything beforehand by researching and reading the books related to psychiatry, so no one would be suspicious about her.

But today, Cadet Aalekh took her by surprise by coming to her suddenly and asking for her advice.

She had first told him she would meet him some other time to be able to prepare what to say to him, but he had been insistent. So, having no other choice, she had relented, and had gone to the infirmary with him.

Only she knows how she made up and gave him all that gibberish advice.

She had been anxious initially, thinking if Aalekh would get suspicious, but thankfully he pondered on her advice and told her he would try to follow it.

Although she was relieved he took her advice and did not question it, the way Aalekh looked pre-occupied made her wonder why it was so.

"Whatever the reason is, it is his headache, not mine. I just need to focus on getting closer to Captain Rajveer." She shrugs and walks to the bathroom to take a shower.

Once inside the bathroom, Ritu turns on the shower and shampooes her hair, but in a few seconds, she is astonished to find her hair smeared with mayonnaise instead of shampoo.

Getting confused, she opens her shampoo bottle, and her eyes widens in shock, seeing the mayonnaise inside the bottle.

Getting angry at whoever did that to her, she quickly washes her hair with soap.

Her hair was still sticky, but at least it was not smelling.

Then, wearing her bathrobe, she walks out of the shower, walking to the sink to wash the stickiness of mayonnaise off her hands.

She groans out loud when her hands get colored green after washing them.

She hastily opens the handwash bottle and throws it in anger when she sees green color mixed with the liquid handwash.

Fuming in anger, she leaves the bathroom and walks to her dressing table to dry her hair.

But soon, her whole face and hair turns white due to the powder inside the hairdryer.

"This is too much. I will file an official complaint about this. I will make sure whoever is behind this mischief gets expelled from the academy."

She pats the powder off her face and hair, and opens the cupboard to take out the clothes to wear for the day before going to the Brigadier's office to file a complaint about what happened to her.

But as soon as she opens the cupboard, a snake springs at her from nowhere.

Getting scared, she screams and hastily moves back.

In her haste, her right foot gets tangled with the edge of the carpet carpet, and she loses her balance, due to which she falls on the floor, hurting her back.

------------------------

Hearing Ritu's scream, all the cadets and Rajveer assemble in front of her room.

Rajveer is confused as to why Ritu suddenly screamed that way, but when he peers around, he sees Naina with a smug look on her face.

He then understands she must have done something to Ritu.

Shaking his head, he walks toward her. "What did you do to Dr. Mishra, Naina?" He asks her, taking care no one around them hears him.

Naina pretends to look innocent and unknowing of what Rajveer was insinuating, when she turns to face him.

"I have not done anything to Dr. Mishra, Sir. I don't know what you are talking about," she lies.

"Naina, you know you cannot lie to me and get away with it. So, just tell me. What did you do?" Rajveer asks again, hoping she did not do anything stupid that might get her in trouble.

He is not concerned about whatever happened to Ritu, but he is worried about Naina getting caught in whatever mischief she made.

"Why do you want to--" Naina starts to ask Rajveer, but is interrupted when Brigadier Chandok arrives there.

"What happened here, Captain? Why is everyone gathered outside Dr. Mishra's room?" Brigadier asks Rajveer.

"We all heard Dr. Mishra's scream a few minutes back, Sir. Since then, we are here, waiting for her to come out," Rajveer replies.

Wondering what must have happened, Brigadier knock on Ritu's door. "Dr. Ritu Mishra, are you fine? Please open the door."

Everyone continues to wait along with Brigadier, and it is few minutes before Ritu opens the door.

A collective gasp from everyone is heard when they see Ritu walk out of her quarter. They are all astonished seeing white powder all over Ritu's hair and face, her hands were green, and she was clutching her back in pain, hunching slightly, unable to stand up properly.

"Dr. Mishra, what happened to you? Who did all this?" Brigadier asks Ritu immediately, worried as well as angry about who could do this to one of his faculty members.

"Sir, I will answer all your questions, but may I please go to the infirmary first? I need to get my back checked. It's paining a lot," Ritu tells Brigadier and starts walking toward the infirmary slowly when Brigadier nods.

Naina feels bad, looking at Ritu's condition. She had wanted to prank Ritu, but did not want to hurt her in any way.

So, walking forward, she supports Ritu's back and helps her to walk.

"Thank you, Cadet Naina," Ritu says, gratefully looking at her.

Naina gives Ritu a small smile, continuing to lead her to the infirmary.

While walking there, she stealthily glances at Rajveer and gets scared seeing him glaring at her.