His First Friend

-3-

                   

"Guys,all set?"Naina said,looking at her friends who came to a halt beside her.

"For the 100th time, yes ma'am,"her friends replied in a chorus. Some of them were yawning and the others were trying hard to stay awake, not wanting to be subjected to Naina's glare.It was 11:20 pm and they were sleepy.

"Okay I will call him now and ask him to follow the clues, alright?"she said and her friends managed a nod.

"This is going to be excitinggg," Deepali exclaimed while the others grinned and asked Naina to go ahead and make the call.

The call got connected after three rings.

"Hello..Rishab?"

"Um..Naina? " his sleepy voice replied.

"Full marks for the correct guess"

By now he was partially awake. "Uh? Why are you calling now? Is everything alright? Are you okay?"

"Yes,relax.I'm perfectly fine. Now just get up from your bed and do as I say"

"Do as you say, at.. ",he saw his phone screen for a moment before continuing with a "11:25 in the night? Am I not doing that all through the day ?" he groaned.

"Just get up Rishab. Trust me, you won't regret it,"she said and somehow managed to convince him to get up.Knowing fully well that he had no other option,Rishab decided to bid his sleep a temporary goodbye.

"Now what?"

"Do you see a paper near your bedside table?"

Rishab looked at his bed side table and there it was,a white sheet of paper that looked like it was folded some 4 times.

"Yeah,I do,"he replied,wondering how he didn't see that when he went to sleep.

"Cool. Now open that and follow whatever it says"

"Nainaaa. I am sleepy. Can't I do this when I am wide awake,like as soon as I get up tomorrow?"

"Nope. Right now.Just follow the clues,bye"

"Bye?"

"Yeah just do it boy!"

"Fine,"he muttered into the phone and placed it on his bed,to open the folded piece of paper.

'Finding the first clue will be a treat, Look for it where you get something to eat'

"Eh? A clue?? Um..something to eat..Canteen? I should go the canteen now? What if someone sees me roaming around the college at this time of the night? Fine.. she won't let me sleep peacefully otherwise..I will try my luck", he thought to himself and left his room with the first clue and his phone in one hand and the room key in the other. He didn't want to disturb his room mate whenever he was back.."Atleast let that poor guy sleep peacefully"

Rishab reached the canteen door,all the while looking around to check if some security guy or someone saw him roaming in the corridor.Luckily there was no one to be seen. Just outside the canteen, there was another folded paper. "Thank Heavens I didn't have to sneak inside".

He opened the second clue and it read 'Now that you're fed, go and look for the next clue where you lay your head'

"WHAT? MY bed? I just came from there! Nainaaa!"he whined and walked back to his room.

There was no paper on the bed and so he lifted his pillow to find it staring back at him.

"Oh here you are! What have you got to tell me now?"he asked while opening the paper.