Safar...A Journey of First Love

Chapter 29 - Work Experience

...Two weeks passed by quickly; during that time the gang had reunited and spent their time together. It was the final week of the holidays; the gang had gone into school at nine o'clock that morning to collect their exam results and sort out their lessons for the next year. Riddhima had passed all her exams with flying colours; Muskaan and Nikita had passed all their exams but photography; Armaan had passed by one mark in his English test and Rahul and Abhi had failed business which they decided to drop for next year. The gang had just passed I.T by a few marks luckily but what had surprised everyone was Abhi's I.T marks; he had topped the class with a highest grade.

The gang went home just in time for lunch; on their way they whispered to each other behind one of the gang member's back not making it obvious. Rahul; Muskaan; Nikita and Abhi went to their own homes while Armaan came to the Gupta's place with Riddhima as the Maliks were spending the day there.

They walked in and went into the kitchen to see Anjali looking very busy; she turned to them with an eager expression.

"So...how are your results?" Anjali asked looking at both of them.

"Dii...I passed!" Riddhima grinned hugging her and spinning her around.

Armaan laughed at her; "It's not that big of a deal!"

"Armaan...you know how much this means to her...congrats Ridzi..." Anjali said.

"Thanks dii..." she smiled at her then turned to Armaan and stuck her tongue out; "...just because you failed..."

Tannu walked into the kitchen at that exact moment; "You failed?"

Armaan made a face; "I didn't fail...I passed actually!"

"By one mark..." Riddhima grinned.

"It's still a pass..." he slapped her playfully across her head.

This was their usual behaviour at home, they didn't put on an act purposely but by now they had got into the habit of acting normal when the family was around. Riddhima was not yet ready to tell anyone; she felt that if they made their relationship public Anjali would be hurt; as she had promised her sister that she would only concentrate on her studies and not mess around. She made herself a promise never to lie to her sister but also she couldn't tell anyone about their relationship until their studies were over.

The rest of the day was normal; they were joined by the Shergill family for lunch which they had lunch in the garden like a picnic.

Later on in the evening; Riddhima, Armaan, Tannu, Radha and Aagam were chilling upstairs in Riddhima's room when the gang had arrived; they settled around the room chatting nonsense and the guys were being immature. Riddhima was now annoyed at the guys and decided to leave them alone as they were in a crazy mood; the girls came downstairs leaving the three guys on their own.

It was now early evening and downstairs was a bit crowded as Shashank and the men had come home and started up the barbeque. The Gupta's had invited a few friends and neighbours for a barbeque at their home; the gang's parents were all invited. The garden was looking and smelling great as the girls walked out to see a few plastic chairs set out on the patio and the tables were being laid with salad bowls and drinks.

The guests were arriving and dinner was being cooked; the girls settled down on the grass enjoying the evening sunshine when the guys came down and moved directly to the table laid with food. Sometime later the food was ready and everyone was helping themselves; it was a beautiful evening and everyone had enjoyed themselves. It was getting dark and the neighbours had left, it was a warm night and Shashank had decided to put up his new artificial camp fire; it was cosy as everyone sat around it on mats and chatted away into the night.