Crossing The i's And Dotting The t's

(XXVI) Aspirations

Ma was waiting for me when our train arrived at the New Delhi Railway Station. Engulfing her in a hug, I relaxed once the familiar smell of her flowery perfume hit my nostrils. I hadn't realised I'd missed her until I saw her again.

Releasing me, she started firing questions like a quiz master, making me roll my eyes. "Later mumma."

"I missed you so much! I don't know what I'll do once you're off to college." She hugged me again. "Oh and tell Kian and Aryan they're coming with us, their mothers must have texted them."

"She did, thanks for the lift auntie." Aryan emerged from the crowd, followed by a sleepy-looking Kian.

Together, the four of us managed to load the car's trunk with three suitcases and headed home. My mother insisted that I sit behind with the two of them, out of a strange notion of politeness.

"So...did you guys have fun?"

"Very!" Aryan launched into an excited, one-sided conversation about all the things we had seen and done in the past week, down to every last, irrelevant detail. His animated voice was easy to tune out, since that was pretty much all I had heard whenever we had visited a monument in these past few days. It didn't help that I was stuck between them.

Yawning in my fist, I glanced in the direction of Kian, who was completely engrossed in his phone.

That's unlike him.

"What're you looking at?"

He jumped as if skinned alive, dropping his phone in the process, which landed near my foot. Not giving me a chance to help, he bent at an awkward angle to retrieve it, bumping our heads in the process.

"Ouch sorry! You just surprised me." He chuckled weakly, moving back in his seat again.

"Are you both okay?" Ma asked, her concerned eyes meeting mine in the rear-view mirror.

"Fine," we said simultaneously.

"So...what were you looking at?" I quietly questioned Kian for the second time as ma resumed chatting with Aryan.

"Nothing, just going through my marks again." He hastily locked his phone, averting his eyes.

Our class twelfth board results had been released two days before, one of the many reasons we decided to stay in our hotels on that day, to be close to a good wifi. Though I had been fairly satisfied with my ninety three percent, I knew it would mean nothing if I didn't clear my medical entrance. That made it hard to be happy over it, especially since my NEET results could be announced any day now.

Kian had also scored somewhere in the nineties, which was why I found it hard to believe that he was re-checking his result. No, I could tell that he was lying but I didn't get the chance to interrogate him further.

{[]}

"So you won't change your mind about leaving the country then?"

"Nope." Alia smiled, leaning against the pile of clothes on her bed that resembled the aftermath of a volcano-like wardrobe eruption. "I told you there aren't good enough courses for archaeology available in India."

"I didn't think you were serious!" I spluttered, "what's wrong with a normal history major? You could easily land in a good DU college with your grades."

Alia's total percentage was ninety six point two, with a hundred in history. It came as a pleasant surprise because she had always pegged me as a seventy five – eighty sort of girl.

She huffed out a breath, moving a loose strand of hair in the process. "It's not the same."

"But why? Isn't history perfect for a core subject in IAS? Or am I missing something?"