The Rules Of Pursuit

16. Follow the rules

4. Look out for the signs.
If he leans towards you, it means he is mildly interested. If he compliments you or notices small changes in you, he is interested. If he tries to impress you, he is definitely into you. See whether he gives you attention even if he is surrounded by other. If he is asking you about yourself, it means he wants to know the person you are. See how many times his hands brush against yours. It may be creepy if the guy doing it, is not the guy you are crushing on. Absentmindedly our bodies tend to be drawn towards the person our hearts wish to jump to. Even if your crush accidentally touches you, it means he has feelings for you, which even he has not realized yet.

I memorized all the hints Danielle spoke about in her article. For a change, I had discarded my lousy large pajamas and donned the tight blue leggings. Yesterday evening I had made Mia pluck my eyebrows and clean the growth above my upper lips. The difference was notable. I somehow looked cleaner.

My fear, of Mia and Junaid being paired with fourth years was well-founded. I felt a little disappointed that I wouldn't be able to have them in my class. On the brighter side, Damini too was paired with a fourth year.

However six of our batchmates, including Mandy, still sat in the first year classroom with their respective partners from the second year. Danish too was paired with a first year boy Vishnu Iyer. The classroom looked less crowded today since only twelve students occupied it, instead of the usual eighteen.

Avinash had some issues sitting in the front, so I was forced to leave my regular spot and sit with him on the very last row.

"You did something to your face?" Avinash murmured covering his lips with his hand so that Jeevan Rathore, who was as usual boring us, wouldn't notice.

"Yeah..just threading." I muttered back, taking notes from the lecture on my exercise book.

"Looks nice," he whispered back, instantly making my face feel warm. Did Avi just compliment me?

"Thank you," I whispered unable to hide the exhilaration "now let me concentrate if you want to pass this trimester," I smiled to myself. According to Danielle this was a sign.

"So time for the points," Jeevan Rathore announced. "Let's see how many of you were paying attention."

I forgot to mention, we were allotted twenty marks for class quizzes in each subject. After the pairing, it was now forty for each pair. Unlike the rest of the Mentors, Jeevan Rathore didn't always ask the raised-hands to answer. He usually picked up those who didn't raise their hands, specially the back benchers.

"Listen, just raise your hand to whatever he asks." I hissed to Avinash.

"That is not going to make any difference." Avinash muttered.

"Just do as I tell you," I begged. We needed minimum four points today if we wanted atleast thirty points in total for the trimester.

"Imagine you get to know that the man, who is the apex head of R&AW is hand in gloves with an enemy nation trying to bring down our country." Jeevan Rathore said as he scanned the room, "what will you do?"

Immediately Natasha's and Mandy's hands shot up. Avinash also hesitantly followed suit. For the first time I didn't raise my hand, praying that Rathore would take the bait and ignore Avinash, asking me instead.

"That is a first Mr. Chauhan." Jeevan Rathore was surprised, "please go ahead." Damn! The old hag didn't take the bait!

Avinash glared at me as he placed his hands on the desk and pushed himself up grudgingly.

"I would speak to him and try to reason." I crouched down to hide myself behind the guy sitting in front of me, whispering the answer to Avinash."There is always the chances of him trying to get me killed to prevent me from talking, so before I go and reason, I would inform one of our agents, whom I can trust not to divulge any of the information to a third person, and hand over to the agent a copy of all the evidences I had gathered against the boss. "