Reality Ever After

Part 66. Ground Rules

Hi guys,

As some of you may have noticed, I took off the previous chapter as I was not happy with it.
I thought we didn't need  the whole FAB5 drama again and I felt it was too repetitive and there was no point in redoing it. I tried to be okay with it for a couple of days but I just couldn't make peace with it and hence decided to post a revised version.

This is the revised chapter and I have changed a significant part of it. The edited version is highlighted in italics in the chapter below.

Hope you enjoy this version and let me know your thoughts.

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The next few days were hectic for everyone. All of them were busy preparing for their exams, including FAB5. It was very surprising for Nandini and Navya to see them study for a change. But this was their final graduation exams and they had to take them seriously. The two of them discovered one more thing about FAB5 during this time. And that the FAB5 were very practical and they knew when it was time for them to stop fooling around and take things seriously. They would chill and have fun and go crazy all the time but they knew they had to do decently well in their final exams to ensure they don't regret it in the future and hence, all of them sucked it up and started studying a couple of weeks before the exams.

Manik was even smarter about this. Like he had told Nandini, he went and got the last 10 years' question papers along with solutions of those and just started studying from there. He was glad as long as he got decent above average marks like always and didn't believe in boiling the whole ocean before the exams to score the highest and crap. However, this time, since Nandini had forced him to buy all the text books, he decided to go a tad bit of the extra mile and ask the professors tell him certain important topics he should deep dive into. He had one day walked into the staff room shocking all the teachers. He dropped all his textbooks on their common table and asked them him to mark all the important concepts in the book and give it back to him. All the professors had looked at him shocked when they saw his attitude but all of them knew how he was. He behaved the same way with the principal too. So of course the teachers were no exception. Some teachers had even gotten pissed athis attitude but some of them were more than happy to help. After all, a student wanted help to do better in his exams and it didn't matter who it was asking for help. Besides, it didn't matter if he attended their classes or not, he was an undoubtedly gifted musician and the teachers did want to see him prosper.

As for Nandini, she was getting crazy by the day as the exams kept coming closer. It almost felt like she studied 24*7. She felt guilty of wasting even a single minute of the day. She had solved all the possible past question papers she could find. Had even solved all textbook exercises and had reviewed her entire syllabus more than once. But she continued to study like a maniac. Manik and her had come up with a decent system on the days she studied at his house. He would stay up late in the night to study as he was a night owl and she would wake up early in the morning. So Manik studied until 4 am and woke her up that time after which he would fall asleep and she would start studying. Fortunately, they both didn't have to stay confined into Manik's room as Nyonika had gone for a long business trip to New York and hand not been around for almost 3 weeks now.

Navya was also busy studying hard nowadays. Abeer's new to-be parents had been of great help to Navya. They would help her in all possible ways to look after Abeer so she could concentrate on her exams. They couldn't take Abeer officially home until the adoption paperwork was completed but until then, they left no stone unturned to spend time with him and also help out Navya. Abeer was also getting used to his new parents' presence. He would squeal in joy whenever he saw Zoya and always kept leaning towards Arjun whenever he was around as he loved being carried by him. Navya was glad the whole adoption process was taking long as she got to spend a little more time with Abeer and also could witness for herself on how happy Abeer would be with Zoya and Arjun.