The Black Coat *UNDER EDITING*

Chapter 2: Pankhuri Mehra

'I don't know why these CBSE servers crash so much, and that too on the result day' A young boy spoke with a pale face as he walked around nervously in a small yet beautiful house, wearing a short solid green Khaki kurta paired with black pants.

'Aryan, don't panic results are out, we will be able to see it soon' a girl who sat on the sofa with crossed leg spoke without looking at him as she continued reading a legal reasoning book, which she had been reading for last half an hour.

'Why I shouldn't panic Pankhuri, last time in class 11 I nearly failed, what if I indeed fail this time' Aryan replied as his heart continued to beat faster. His heart has been beating superfast since he got to know about the results being declared today.

Pankhuri clicked her tongue, spoke 'Stop panicking, everything is gonna be OK' and looked up at him. 'Come on buddy...you gave your best, and I know you will get the best'. Pankhuri smiled at him and tried to encourage him.

'Yeah, I will get the best' Aryan spoke as he looked at her exquisite features, her beautiful brown eyes, her soft and cute cheeks, and beautiful smile.

'Aryan...see the page opened' suddenly pankhuri screamed and showed him the screen of her phone.

Aryan ran towards the sofa and sat very close next to her and gawked at the phone as she filled in the form with her roll number, admit card number and etc. details.

Pankhuri looked at her phone, waited for the screen to load. Pankhuri's heart started to beat fast, she started to feel more and more anxious, her breathe fastened.

Next to her Aryan too followed the same process and continued to look into his phone while shaking his feet. The page took forever to open.

Then together both of their results loaded. On Aryan's, it displayed 89.4 percentage, which felt perfect for him. Whereas on Pankhuri's phone it showed a hefty 93.2 percentage.

They both screamed at the same time, looked at each other, and hugged. Pankhuri gave him a tight hug as she continued to squeal in happiness. He too hugged her with the same excitement.

They both celebrated and screamed again. Aryan overwhelmed by his score took a pillow from the sofa and tossed it into the air.

'What's going on' A man with a mustache asked in a stern voice as he stepped into the room as saw them screaming.

'Nothing Papa' Pankhuri replied as she got up from the sofa and adjusted her orange and golden short Kurti and looked at her father. 'Actually, we just checked our results' Pankhuri excitedly spoke wanting to tell her father.

'Oh! What are the results?' Her Father, Binay Mehra asked as he cleaned his spectacles and put in on back on his nose.

'Papa I scored 93.2 percentage, in biology, I got...' Pankhuri continued to speak and her father listened to her.

'Good Pankhuri' Her father spoke and gave her a little smile. 'Pankhuri your mother is not at home right now, bring me a cup of tea' he spoke or rather ordered her.

She heard her father speak and all the happiness from her face vanished. She saw Aryan looking at her, she gave him a smile and stepped out of the room, into the kitchen.

~•~

Pankhuri placed the kettle on the burner. She sighed as she leaned back on the counter and got lost in her thoughts.

In childhood, she had always wondered why her parents can't live with her, why they always have to go back to the city and leave her back here with her grandmother, and her older brother, Vedant.