Party And Prejudice

4. The Many New Faces

Okay, it's not like I'm one of those sick females who wear dagger talismans and ditch makeup claiming to be tomboys. Me, Riya and Zoya are all quite girly or whatever you want to call it. We loved vibrant colours, lip gloss, chihuahuas and Shawn Mendes.

But the room I had just entered was too much.

It seemed like the entire barbie-girl energy in the world had been squeezed into the room. Except the walls and floor, everything in the room was pink and if something wasn't pink, it was covered in laces. Could these rooms be customized? That didn't seem likely.

A girl who looked slightly senior to us came out of the bathroom. She wore pink leggings, a pink crop top, a pink cardigan and the ends of her hair were curled and coloured in, you guessed it right, pink.

The other girl was in slightly more sensible dressing. She had a very prominent crooked canine teeth giving her a childlike appearance.

"Girl! Why did you scream like that?", Revathi demanded.

"Sorry", Ms Pink said sounding not at all sorry, "I saw a ghost".

"I told Mishti not to remove her makeup", Riya said.

"I'm here you idiot", I said.

"It must've been the curtain", Zoya said softly.

"Or maybe it was the shadow of the tree", Maya said.

"Or maybe it was your stupid imagination", said Revathi "Wasting my time!", she ranted before leaving.

The rest of us quickly made introductions. Ms Pink's actual name was Sanam Chabra and the other one was Ameesha Sood. They were here as volunteers too and had arrived only a few hours before. They clarified that they had brought all these pinky things with them and they had not been provided by the resort. Both the girls were all giggly and chirpy and easy and Riya completely fell in love with them. I, on the other hand, wasn't so sure.

•••

We all went to our respective rooms to unpack. The rooms were nothing exotic but they were compact enough. But then, this is all you can probably expect from a free stay.

After unpacking,we all went down to the restaurant to eat something. Sanam and Ameesha settled down in a table for two. The rest of us pulled over chairs and settled around a large table.

Maya came last of all, "Sorry guys. I was talking to my mom..as in step mom...as in Reyansh's mother..as in.."

"Okay, okay enough come and sit", Riya said.

Maya crossed her arms, and stared at the ceiling with a pout. This was a reaction that me, Zoya and Riya never used. I realised I was only beginning to actually notice the person that Maya was. I hadn't actually known her while we were at school. I had just hated her because Riya hated her.

"What did mom say?", Reyansh said.

"Nothing", Maya said "She just scolded us for not calling her as soon as we reached".

The dining room door opened and another girl entered. This one neither wore a pink cardigan nor had crooked canine teeth. She looked slightly younger than us and was wearing black shorts and a puce coloured tank top. Her hair was tied into a tight ponytail. She walked upto us with a confident gait.

"Are you here for the volunteer program too?", Riya, always eager for conversation asked.

"No, I'm Mr Neel's daughter", she said looking around "I'm here to meet my cousin Joshua".

I hadn't realised Josh had stood up. The girl spotted him and broke into a smile showing all her pearly white teeth. The cousins simultaneously walked forward and hugged briefly. I could tell though they were family, they were not too close. Just the oh-yeah-we-are-related type of cousins.