Happy Reading, honey buns!
**not proofread and not edited **

Ekantha got up at 5am quite late from her usual routine, she felt like sleeping more but she had work today and she can't afford to take more leaves after yesterday.

Quickly she freshened up and was dressed in her formals as always. She came out of her room and went into the pooja room.

"God, Give me the strength to face everything that I have to. Bless me with strength, courage and confidence",she prayed and lit the diya.

She went back to her room, and started arranging her office essentials in her bag. She looked up for one last check in front of the mirror.

You should walk 2 kms a day, it will help

You should eat phulka instead of rice, it will help

She took a deep breath and put the bag on her shoulder and went to the living room. Her father and mother were there.

"Kanna, are you off to office? Come, breakfast is ready",her mother called.

"Yes amma, please pack it for me. I need to go to school quickly. I will have it when I have free time",she said to which Kanyaka nodded.

"Why? Couldn't you wake up early in the morning and have your breakfast and go to work, Ekantha? Just because-",he was going to say something more but his phone disturbed his flow and he excused himself to take the call.

In the mean time, Kanyaka packed both breakfast and lunch for Ekantha and gave it to her.

"I am leaving to office, amma. Take care! I'll see you in the evening. Do you want anything from outside?",Ekantha said.

"Nope, travel safe dear. Bye",she said and saw her off till the gate.

Ekantha drove her scooty to her school. Since it was school time, she was getting struck in traffic but somehow managed to reach just in time.

She rushed into the office and marked in the attendance register. She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around to see Asmita standing with a serious face.

"Good morning, Ekantha",Asmita wished her.

"Go..Good morning, Asmita",she wished her and gave her a nervous smile.

"Ekantha I just wanted to tell you that you can't take work from home nor leaves any time sooner. You just joined the job and this is no way will represent professional behavior. Just because you are being promoted as some other departments in such a short time, you should not be doing this. Such uninformed leaves will not be entertained, remember",Asmita said strictly to which Ekantha nodded.

Ekantha walked to her cabin and looked around to find nobody else there.

She put her bag aside and took a deep breathe and gave herself a pep talk to face this.

She started working on the emails and some reference work which was needed. Her work was pending, and quite a lot of it was pending.

After about two hours, she moved her chair back from the screen and looked around to find Asmita seriously working on something.

Her phone buzzed at the exact moment and she checked to see a message from Vennela. She made a mental note to text her in lunch and got back to her work.

After an hour or something, Valli and Ajay were there in the room asking for permission to enter into the room.

"Come in, Valli and Ajay",she said and both of them came in.

"Good afternoon ma'am. How are you doing?",Valli asked.

"I am good, thank you for asking. How are you both?",Ekantha asked.

"Good ma'am",both of them responded at a time.

"Yes, so tell me. What brings you both here?",Ekantha asked.

"Ma'am, we made a team of seven members and all of them are waiting outside. Co ordinator ma'am said we could use the Multi purpose hall to discuss content related meetings and all",Valli said.

"And ma'am, we also have some rough ideas. We made it into a document and mailed it to the school mail id yesterday. Whenever you are free just have a look at it",Ajay said.

"Wow, that's really wonderful. I'll definitely have a look at it. I'll meet the members once and then you guys go have lunch. We'll meet when you are free again or after school hours, yeah?",she said to which both of them nodded.

Ekantha was surprised to see them working all good for this. She made up her mind that she would give her hundred percent for it too.

Quickly, she went out to see a group of students sitting on the waiting bench outside and talking to each other. As soon as they saw her, they stood up and wished her.

"Ma'am, we're all ready to help you out. We will try our best to be helpful to you as much as we can",one of them said.

"Yes ma'am!",all of them said.

Ekantha was informed that they will meet her in the multi purpose hall in the last hour. She went back to her cabin to have her lunch.

Asmita came and sat with her box beside Ekantha.

"I'm sorry, Ekantha. I shouted on you, but if I don't do that, the others would think I am doing favourism for you. How are you feeling now? All okay?",he asked.

"Yes, Asmita. All okay hopefully and please don't apologize. It is your responsibility and you did it. I don't take that as an offense or something",she said and Asmita side hugged her.

"Didn't you bring your lunch today? Why are you not eating yet?",Asmita asked.

"No, Asmita. I brought my lunch. I was just going to start eating, just now I had a talk with students and came back",she said to which Asmita nodded.

Both of them had their lunch together and got back to their work. It was the last hour of school and Ekantha walked to the multipurpose hall with the help of Ajay who showed her where the multipurpose Hall was.

They discussed about it for a while and made plans as in what to do. Some of them divided a few simple tasks whereas Ekantha took the rest of the work on her plate.

"That's all guys, we'll do the rest of the things later. You guys do the work here only tomorrow whenever you are free. No more home works for you, home work is for me, okay?",she said to which all of the laughed and she laughed with them.

"Okay guys, see you tomorrow!",she said and bid them bye. The students left and she got back to the office room. There was a little bit of pending work, which she decided to do and then go back home.

"Ekantha, aren't you starting?",Asmita asked.

"I'll complete the work, Asmita. There is a bit of pending work. You carry on. Don't worry, I'll be all good here. Take care, see you tomorrow",Ekantha said.

"But, I'll just stay back to keep you company-",Asmita tried saying but Ekantha convinced her and sent her back home.

She started working and that's when she remembered that Vennela dropped in a message. She took out her blue tooth and phone and connected it to her phone, and dialled to Vennela while still continuing to do her work.

Vennela : Hi, Ekantha! Where are you? Still at work?

Ekantha : Actually yeah Vennela, I took a leave yesterday and I have a little more pending work, so I thought I will complete it and go back home. How are you?

Vennela : All good, Why did you take leave yesterday? All okay?

Ekantha : That's a long story, so much happened.

She narrated what all happened.

Vennela : Oh my goodness, so much happened and you are telling this to me now!

Ekantha : I didn't mean to Vennela, it's just that I couldn't do anything yesterday and I was going to call you tonight but got the opportunity before only.

Vennela : Look take your time, before jumping into any final conclusion. If you feel like doing it go ahead, and if you don't say no. Got it?

Ekantha : Yeah!

Vennela : Take care dear, I'll meet you this weekend hopefully!

Ekantha: Okay, Vennu! I'll catch up soon with you. Bye

She disconnected the call and continued to do her work, her phone beeped again. It was from Abhimanyu. She texted him back that she will text him soon and tried to complete the work ASAP.

On the other hand, Abhi left for work early in the morning. He was selecting some event locations and making bookings for the event that he agreed to make contract for.

The staff was busy since Abhi assigned them all their respective works. When it was evening time, Abhi texted Ekantha but he got a reply that she would text him back soon.

He wanted to meet her and check on her once after the before day. He wrapped up his work and drove to the school that she  worked in. He saw her coming out and slowly followed her on his bike.

Ekantha who was going to start her scooty looked behind to find Abhi there.

"Abhi, you here?",she asked surprised.

"Yeah, just thought to drop by and check on you",he said and she smiled at him.

"I thought you were going by bus. No issues. You come on your bike and I will follow you on mine, we'll meet near your home, talk for sometime and then I'll get back to work",he said.

"But, wouldn't that be double work for you Abhi? It's okay we'll talk on a call and you just got one more event also. There will be a lot of things to handle",she said while he just looked at her all the time she was speaking.

"Abhi, I am speaking something",she said when she noticed he was literally staring at her and a lot of people are moving past them who could be parents of the wards studying in the school.

"Fine, let's move",she said and drove towards her home and he followed her.

Both if them reached home, and parked their bike and scooty aside.

"How are you, Ammu?",he asked her when she just turned to him after putting the side stand to her scooty.

"I am okay, Abhi. Today is going to be a long day and I am preparing myself for it",she said.

"Whatever it is, you'll do good and everything will be good. You have me no matter what. Remember, I am just a call and text away if incase you need me",he says to which she nods.

"I understand that there is a lot going on in your brain, and I understand all of this you are doing now you might not have even thought about something like this, but let me tell you, I'm indeed really proud of who you are becoming day by day",he said and she smiled at him trying to hold her tears back.

"Thank you, Abhi. I really needed to hear that. I'll text you tonight. Take care of yourself and dont forget to keep yourself hydrated",she said and he goes to his bike and gets a yellow rose and hands it to her.

"Aw, this is so good. Thanks a bunch for this Abhi",she said and took the rose from him.

He bid bye to her and left from there.

Now came the actual deal of the day. She has to talk to her father somehow today, and if not her nobody is going to take a stand for her and if not now, it's never.

She took a deep breathe and entered into her home..

To be continued..

Hello dear readers,

How are you all doing?.

I hope you liked this part of the story. The story is slowly going to unveil and I'm hoping you all would definitely love it.

I'll be back with another update real soon.

Thank you so much for reading, please do vote and comment your views, they mean the world to me.

Let me know how the chapter was!

See you in next chapter! Take care

Adios
Sakshi Devi