Rewrite the Stars | A Ruturaj Gaikwad Fanfiction

Days 1 and 2 (Mahati's pov)

Mumbai University, April 2019  (Past Flashback 1)

Like all ordinary looking girls, Mahati Chaturvedi condemned pretty girls with lots of makeup, the kind whom all the boys in the class would stare at, and the kind her own crush in school would stare at and never care for her affections at all.

That meant not only was she displeased that her roommate on the first day of college turned out to be the most stunningly beautiful girl she'd ever seen in her life, she was upset, too. Without makeup, though, which made her feel less resentful than she might've felt.

It was late evening that she'd arrived, so Aditi had already settled in and was curled up on her bed, immersed in her phone. She looked up with a smile as Mahati entered but almost immediately turned back to her phone that had emitted a shout.

"My god," said Mahati, reaching Aditi's bed in two long strides. "You're not watching IPL, are you?"

"Yes I am," said Aditi, looking up in a baffled sort of way. "Why, am I not supposed to?"

"According to my mother, no," said Mahati, grinning. "She took away my phone for whole of the journey, because I'm not supposed to start college watching unauspicious things, do you think cricket is unauspicious?"

"Well, no," said Aditi. "Why on earth should it be?"

"Same question," said Mahati. "No difference."

And that was it.

One Sarfaraz dialogue reference, and Mahati and Aditi were best friends from day 1. Not even the discovery that the former supported CSK and the latter their bitterest rival MI could affect that.

Heedless of her mother's insistence, Mahati lost all incentive of unpacking and settled down to watch the match and they left afterwards to explore the campus.

Eventually Aditi was the one who unpacked and arranged Mahati's stuff, a week later, and they spent another whole day printing cricket posters for the walls.

MSD for Mahati's, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja for Aditi's. 

Their college, it turned out, was a force to reckon with in the city's inter college cricket tournaments, and a few months into classes, one guy outplayed the entire campus in the trials, who, it was rumoured, had played age group cricket for Maharashtra and hailed from Pune, which was how Mahati met her second best friend.

***

Three months later...

Sports Complex, Mumbai University

"Rakesh! Rakesh! Rakesh!" hollered the crowd of Mumbai University in the quarter final of the intercollege T20 tournament, the first home match of the season. 

India had recently lost the 2019 World Cup in the semi final, the country had had precious little to celebrate in cricket in the last two weeks, and most of the hostel boarders had turned up to cheer for their team. As it happened, they'd safely been on the losing side for three fourth of the match, till lower order slogger (and ace spinner and top class fielder, the only one who had taken a wicket in the first innings) Rakesh came to the crease.

The required run rate, which had shot up to 18 at the end of 15th over was now down to 14.5 thanks to a bit of crazy hitting, and the crowd cheered on their hero for all theyr were worth.

A pull shot straight into the crowd started the penultimate over. Mahati and Aditi both tried to make a grab for it, but one of their other batchmates caught it and threw it back, the vicinity yelling hoarsely.

"DID YOU SEE THAT?" screamed Aditi. "DID YOU SEE THAT SHOT?"

"DON'T SAY IT'S LIKE ROHIT'S," Mahati shouted back.

"BUT IT WAS!"

"IT WAS WAY LOWER THAN ROHIT'S PULLS, ADI-"

The next ball flew above everyone's head, out of the stadium. Maybe it landed on the moon, but who cared!

17 off 10 needed from a impossible 70 off 30, and the semi finals now seemed very real.

And they did reach it, with a over to spare, too.

***

Two days later...

Mahati realized she'd fall down just a second before she fell down the ladder, the heavy stack of books raining down around her.

"Heavens, what happened now?" she heard her professor shout from inside his room. "Did you break something?"

"No sir, no, nothing's broken..." Mahati sat up, rubbing the arm on which she had fallen and shrieked; evidently, something had broken.

The door of the mini library swung open and Professor Dhar stepped in, followed by someone else.

"I told you the ladder wouldn't hold you," he said sternly. 

"I just needed one book, I thought I'd scoot up and..." Mahati broke off with a groan.

"You broke your arm. Rakesh-" Professor Dhar turned to the boy standing in the shadows. "-I'm afraid we'll have to discuss your disgraceful submission later. I need to take her to the hospital first."

Rakesh seemed abashed at the rebuke; he assumed a meek demeanor and asked, "What was Mahati doing in your library in the first place, sir? She has already topped every exam in the semester, hasn't she?"

Mahati stared at him in not-unpleasant shock.

Wasn't it flattering to hear the college sensation knew her name, and the fact that she was a topper, and moreover, he hadn't spoken the last sentence in any mean way.

"She's taking a project, she was looking for journals," said Professor Dhar, rolling his eyes.

"Outside academics, you mean?" Rakesh asked Mahati.

"Kind of," said Mahati. 

"What for?"

"They add to your CV."

"What's a CV?"

"I had no idea sports quota people were this stupid, you know," said Mahati.

Both Rakesh and their professor laughed.

"I'll take her to the hospital," offered Rakesh on spot. "I have a bike with m-"

"Bike?" The teacher levelled his gaze on Rakesh. "Are first years allowed to own bikes?"

"I meant my cycle," said Rakesh quickly. "Just cycle. Come on, Mahati."

"I'd better put back these books first," said Mahati, glancing at the untidy floor.

"I'll do that, get your arm fixed first," said Professor Dhar. "Maybe you can give Mr. Singh a few pointers about how to pass exams, at least, Mahati."

"He took us to the semi final, sir," protested Mahati.

Rakesh beamed.

"Go," ordered their professor.