Face Off - Part 1

Mriga had never felt like this ever before. For the past half hour all her senses had been reduced to a single point in her head where she could see the chessboard and the pieces moving on it. She had drowned out the crowd murmurs along with her own fears.

As the announcement regarding the result came into focus, she started realising other things around her as well. Her legs had turned numb by sitting in that stiff position for so long. Her hands were cold and the neck seemed to have developed a crick because of being kept at one particular angle.

She shook her limbs to get sensation back in them and turned around to greet her competitor. Gangadhaara was not just her senior at the Gurukul but also a fabulous chess player and she bowed to her as a mark of respect. It had been a closely fought game and both of them had given it their best.

She believed that had it not been for her early exposure to the game with her mother and her recent training with Prithvi, the result would have been different for sure. Unknown to Mriga, there was more than one pair of eyes who had followed and observed her game closely.

"You were fantastic! Had I not seen you play today, I would have never been able to visualize this serious, mature demeanor of yours. You looked like a complete different person during the match," Ishani exclaimed.

She had come down to the playing floor along with Vandit and Abhirath to congratulate her. The boys also complimented her profusely, making her feel conscious. All of them decided to step out of the hall for a quick break. There was still sometime before the quiz commenced.

"Oh! You are here. Is everything alright? I looked for you everywhere but couldn't find you. Where were you?" Mriga ran into Yash at the hall's entrance and blabbered out of relief.

"Clearly you were busy with your new friends else you would have found me. I had gone to the dispensary to help a friend who got hurt badly during the pyramid game. By the time I came back, you were busy registering yourself with a new set of members for the quiz. So, I decided not to disturb you," Yash replied pointedly.

Mriga went red with embarrassment. Both Vandit and Abhirath were standing within hearing distance and looked uncomfortable at his blunt words.

Suddenly Ishani pushed Mriga back and poked her index finger into Yash's chest.

"She stood right at this place for half hour and asked around amongst common friends for your whereabouts. If you didn't bother sending a message or coming yourself, in time, were we supposed to get an epiphany about it? So what if we were registering it at that time, you could have come up told us that you were here instead of sulking like a crybaby," she said in anger.

Ishani had always supported Yash when it came to helping Mriga understand his perspective. But she did it all because Mriga was fond of the guy and she wanted to help smoothen things between them. But she was a staunch loyalist to her friend and in this case, Mriga had done nothing wrong. So she didn't curb her words.

Yash let his gaze travel from Ishani to Mriga and then silently walked off from there.

"What a jerk!" Vandit didn't hold back his reaction, either.

But Abhirath immediately shook his head and told the girls that they will get something to eat while the girls could go freshen up.

"You shouldn't have said that," Abhirath told Vandit once they were out of Mriga's earshot.

"Why not? He was behaving like an as*h**e and that's what I said. And shouldn't you be happy that I spoke up, for a change?" Vandit said.

Abhirath smiled strangely and replied, "I know why he lashed out like that. Had I been in his place, I would have probably done the same or worse. Maybe I have been in that position for too long... Anyways, leave this topic. We need to concentrate on the upcoming competition."

Half an hour later, the students had gathered back into the hall and stood near the podium where the contest was going to take place. The moderator asked the teams to take their seats. Mriga looked around for their team's placard and suddenly saw Yash's name on another table. She stopped there confused till Ishani came and nudged her.

"What is the meaning of this? And who are these three girls with whom his name is written? How dare he question you when he himself went and registered with another group? I am going to go and ask him the way he grilled you at that time," Ishani breathed fire.

"Nevermind. Let's go from here for now," Mriga said in a subdued tone.

She was thoroughly confused but had no time to think about it at the moment. Their table was positioned in such a manner that she could see Yash's table in her diagonal vision. As if her thoughts had conjured him up, he arrived there with three girls and took his place. Mriga didn't recognise one of them while the other two looked familiar. But even after thinking hard, she still couldn't recall where had she seen them.

"Mriga, focus on the game right now. The moderator is about to tell us about the rules now. We'll handle the arrogant Prince later," Ishani whispered to Mriga, who wore a distracted expression.

In the meantime, Vandit and Abhirath had also spotted Yash and looked at each other in surprise. Abhirath looked at Mriga out of the corner of his eye. He knew that he should be happy that there was trouble in paradise for the love birds but his heart ached seeing the expressions on her face. He knew that the guy was lashing out at Mriga in this manner but the actions had exposed his maturity level which was sadly lacking.

He looked at Vandit and said, "Let's try and win this, please!"