Returning to college was no fun. By the looks of it, every first year student was still suffering from the trip hangover. That's why today, instead of rushing to their classes, everyone was either hanging around in the canteen or bunking by not coming at all.

I also wanted to do the same, but Mehta Sir had texted everyone that he had a very big announcement to make. Whatever he had to say would greatly affect our internal marks, so we had to attend the lectures.

If that surprise wasn't enough, I got one more shock yesterday. After visiting Rajeev's gym and quarrelling with Ved, I paid a visit to Faiyaz's (Rashi's boyfriend) house. I met his mom and waited for Zoya to return from her evening classes.

But when she came back home, I saw Katherine with her. I was going to ask Zoya what she was doing with Ishaan bhaiyya's girlfriend (Ishaan is Rashi's brother) but realised that she wasn't aware of the whole situation.

So, I kept my mouth shut and acted like I didn't know anything. But Katherine was looking at me curiously, and I doubted that she had something going on in her mind.

When I asked Zoya about it after Katherine left, she informed me that she met that girl one day outside her school by coincidence, and Zoya herself recognised her. That's how they became acquainted and have been meeting each other frequently.

Really suspicious.

"Down to Earth, Sandhya." Parth patted my shoulder and handed me my third cup of tea. It was freezing cold and Chaiwale bhaiyya (teaseller) was selling hot drinks at a lower price.

"Thanks," I replied and took a sip.

"Why were you zoning out? Don't tell me you were revising your notes in your mind." He widened his eyes.

"You should work on your jokes, Parth. They are getting lamer day by day," I teased.

"But seriously, what were you thinking about so intently?" Surbhi asked.

"Random stuff."

"Does that random stuff have a name? Something like Priyaank?" She wiggled her eyebrows.

I glared at her. "Shut up."

"Are you going to confess to him?" Parth asked with a worried look.

"I am not sure yet." I shook my head.

As I had expected, Surbhi told Parth about my new crush and they had a very good time making a laughing stock out of me. Just like my female bestie, Parth wasn't excited about it; he told me that I shouldn't think about it too much.

I didn't understand why my best friends were waving it off like nothing. After arguing with them for quite a good time, all of us walked toward our classroom where Mehta Sir was already waiting for us with a huge evil grin on his face.

"Is everyone here?" he asked and when he got a satisfactory response, he told us to prepare ourselves for the surprise.

Don't tell me it was going to be a mock quiz again.

"No, Miss Sandhya Rai, it is not a mock quiz," he announced, making other students laugh out loud. "But something that will decide the majority of your Physics internal marks."

A loud wave of 'What?' traveled through the students. I exchanged a curious glance with Surbhi who looked like a ghost on hearing that. Mehta Sir laughed like Mogambo (a veteran villain from an Indian movie, Mr. India) when my classmates began complaining without hearing the whole thing.

"Calm down, kids. First listen to what I have to say." He managed to silence the class and continued. "As you all know that your Physics professor is on a maternal leave, so she won't be able to attend college. So to save time and avoid your study loss, I will be your substitute teacher for Physics and-"

"Then what about Math? You ain't gonna teach that?" I cut him off in his speech.

He shot me a death glare, similar to that of Mayank. I averted my gaze and slumped back in my seat.

"As I was saying, I will teach you Physics from today onwards, but I will still be there for Math. But as you can already imagine how difficult it would be to handle both subjects, I have come up with a proposal for all of you. Are you interested?" he questioned.

When everyone nodded, he smiled and told us about his plan. "I have decided to give you guys a group project for this semester, for which you will be divided into different groups having four members each. It will cost you 30% of your overall marks.

"I am doing this to build teamwork and to save you the trouble of the various preliminary internal exams and some assignments you need to do for those same marks. But I want to know whether you are on board or not.

"Either choose those hundreds of assignments and surprise tests or just one group project. Which one do you want?"

Just as he completed his sentence, the whole classroom erupted in a loud cheer. "Group project!" Some of the students even got up from their seats and hugged Mehta Sir.

"Thank you so much Sir!" I yelled. He smiled at me, but it didn't look that sweet.

He had something else up his sleeves!

When everyone was done crying tears of happiness, he dropped another bomb. Well, the others looked kind of unaffected, but I was the one who felt like he had purposefully tied that bomb to me and pulled out the pin.

"I knew how you guys would have reacted, that's why, I have already made the groups. I hope no one will have any objection, or we can just drop the plan," he blackmailed and everyone shook their heads vigorously.

"Good. I am really blessed to have such obedient students." He grinned like a Cheshire cat, his gaze moving over all of us.

He picked up a brown coloured register from his desk and started calling out the names one by one according to the groups they were put in. I sulked when I wasn't in neither Surbhi's nor Parth's group.

But the moment Mehta Sir announced my team, all the colour drained from my face.

"Group number Eleven: Ayush Vashisht, Nikhil Avasthi, Ved Rajput and Sandhya Rai."

"What?!" I shouted, and Mehta Sir paused just in time as if he already expected my reaction.

"Is there any problem, Sandhya?" he asked calmly.

I glanced at the backside where my group members were sitting without any problem regarding the arrangement. I looked back at my lecturer and made a sad face.

"Can't I change the group?" I questioned.

"Well you can, but then there won't be any group project. If you aren't satisfied with my decision, I can dissolve the whole idea altogether." He smirked, and then turned to others. "One of your classmates doesn't want to do it, I think we should cancel the whole plan, shall we?"

Everyone shot me such intense murderous glares-including my best friends-that I couldn't speak anything else in protest. My teacher smiled in delight when I obliged and accepted my fate.

"Now, I would request every one of you to sit with your respective team mates and decide on a topic. Twelve days will be given to you to complete the whole project for which you will have to make two charts, one digital presentation and a fifty page record sheet.

"I expect the best, so don't disappoint me," he concluded and left us alone for the discussion.

Surbhi got up from beside me and went to sit with her group. I looked over my shoulder and realised that none of the guys were going to come in the front row. So, I picked up my bag and went to them myself. Ved was sitting with Ayush on his left while Nikhil was sitting in the penultimate row.

I glanced at all of them and none of the boys said anything. "Can I sit here?" I asked and threw a worried glance at Ayush who shifted in his seat uncomfortably.

Still, no one responded. Nikhil had a hard expression on his face while Ved was staring holes in my face. I felt so awkward-I didn't want to be in their group because I already knew how they would have reacted.

"Umm.. Nikhil, can you... shift a little?" I decided to ask him instead of Ved who might have punched me for even thinking about sitting with his childhood best friend.

Even though Ved was confusing me with his hot and cold behaviour, I still remembered that day when he had blown off on me for making Ayush cry. I didn't want an encore of the same thing, so I kept my distance.

Nikhil gave me some space without any objection, and I made myself comfortable, making sure to sit away from him. I was in the enemy's territory and any wrong movement could result in my death.

I took out a rough notebook from my bag and asked them what topics we could pick for our group project. Ayush adjusted his specs and picked up his phone. Nikhil also did the same, and they began playing an online multiplayer game.

I turned to Ved who was staring at me with narrowed eyes, and I blinked rapidly when I saw the colour of his eyes completely different from the original one-almost black. I tapped my pen on his desk, and he shifted forward in a flash.

He moved over between Nikhil and me and grabbed my notebook. He wrote down a few topics on it and gave the book back to me. "Choose anyone you want," he said in a clipped tone.

"What about others?" I asked while glancing at Nikhil and Ayush who were lost in their own worlds.

"They don't have any problem," Ved answered, and I bit back my sarcastic reply.

"Okay, I will leave then. I will tell you guys the further details later. Should I make a WhatsApp group?" I unlocked my phone, but mentally facepalmed myself.

I didn't have Ayush's number, Nikhil had blocked me and Ved... I hadn't yet saved his number in my phone. Before I could put my phone back, I received a notification of being added in a WhatsApp group.

"I already did it, so save yourself some time," Ved informed, and I thanked him.

"I should get going," I said and got up from my bench after packing my bag.

That was fucking awkward!

I walked down to my usual seat and waited for the class to get over. I looked around sadly and saw that other groups were still busy in discussion, laughing and goofing around.

Brrrrrinnng!

I left the classroom as the bell rang and went to the library. After a lot of brainstorming, I chose a topic out of the ones Ved had suggested and sent it on the WhatsApp group. Since I had a free period, I decided to spend some time researching about the project.

Like last time, I wouldn't take my studies lightly. I was lost in reading an article from a science journal and didn't notice Ved sit beside me. I got scared when I saw him, but he didn't make fun of me like he always did.

"You haven't saved my number, right?" he asked while glancing around.

"No," I replied.

He fixed his gaze on me. "Are you worried about Ayush?"

"Is he okay?" I questioned back instead of answering his question.

He didn't say anything and just stared at me with a foreign expression on his face. "What if he isn't? Why do you care?"

I scooted away from him, fearing he might lash out. "I am extremely sorry, Ved, but I wasn't the one who put us in the same group. If Ayush isn't comfortable around me, we can ask Mehta Sir to change the arrangement by giving that reason. And if it doesn't work out, then don't worry, I won't go near him.

"If there is anything I need to tell him, you can pass it on to him on my behalf. Same for Nikhil too." I gave him a small smile.

He extended his right hand forward and wiped under my left eye with his thumb. I didn't realise that I was crying. I quickly rubbed my eyes with my hands and acted like nothing happened.

Damn, I cried in front of Ved? Good job, Sandhya.

"You are still the same; always worrying about everyone-except for one." Ved shook his head lightly.

What was he talking about?

"We are meeting at my house for the studies on Sunday. You are also invited, if you want to come," he announced, subtly changing the topic. "I will text you the address."

"Okay, I will see if I can come," I told him, and he stood up from his chair.

"Good then." He patted my head and exited the library.

I stared at his back as he vanished from my sight, my head still warm from his touch.

Ping!

My train of thought was broken by the sound of a text notification on my mobile phone. I checked it and saw a message from Ved. He had texted me his home address and the time of the meeting.

I couldn't help but smile at it. I thought Ved would get angry and take me to Mehta Sir to demand the group exchange, but he didn't. Instead, he acted calm and didn't even give me a lecture related to Ayush.

Which means that my ex-best friend is okay; I was really glad to know that.

I was about to lock my phone screen when my eyes registered Ved's phone number which I hadn't saved yet. So, after whole seven months, I went to the contacts section and updated the directory with a new number.

My thumbs hovered over the 'Name' column as I pondered over if I should save the number under his original name or the one which was ringing in my head for the last five days.

A huge grin crept up my lips as I saved his contact under the nickname I had chosen-it was perfect for him.

Natural Heater.

I just had to make sure that he never noticed it, or else I could kiss my life goodbye.

Or maybe not.