Essel came home after his 1st day at College, which was as amazing as he wanted it to be. He waited for long for Kuru But He didn't came.

Essel - Where the Hell is He now? He promised me he would come.

Essel kept on waiting for him but he got no answers for his Questions.

Essel - Hey, I should talk to Amanda. Is she fine? Oh God, help her.

He picks up the phone to call Amanda. Suddenly the phone starts ringing. Essel Answers the phone.

Essel - Hello.
Voice - Hey Essel, How are you?
Essel - Who's this?
Voice - You forgot me silly. It's me Amanda.
Essel - Ahh, Amanda. How are you? Is everything fine.
Amanda - Yeah, I am fine. But it's just that i was not feeling good about something, So thought to call you. How are You?
Essel - Yeah I am fine, was just attacked by a ninja today, tryin to kill me n stuff.
Amanda - Oh my god, Are you fine? should I come to meet you.
Essel - Naah dont worry, someone saved me at the right time.
Amanda - Who's that?
Essel - A guy named Kuru, he is the one who was following me from a few days.
Amanda - Who's he?
Essel - Dont know, he was going to tell me today, but he hasn't come to meet me yet. God knows were he is.
Amanda - Oh, Okay. You just take care of yourself. Be in touch.
Essel - Yeah and you also take care of yourself. Call me whenever you need help.
Amanda - Yeah i would. Bye
Essel - Bye.

Essel disconnects.

He then waited for kuru till late night. But it was of no use.

Essel - It's of no use. He would come, one day or the other. And the questions were not of any importance, only if I m not attacked again by some-one.

The next day he went to college as usual. Nothing unusual happened. Everything was normal yet again. Everything was different in college as compared to school. Everything around him changed, and so did Essel. Essel was changing, growing up, learning new things, making new friends. He along with Tony, participated in each n every activity they were interested in. They both made many new friends in the process And in about 1 month, they became an integral part of college and it's activities. Another thing that was developing in the students his age was the attraction towards the opposite sex. He and his friends had developed a crush on someone or the other girl. It was a whole new world for Essel and Tony, trying to reach their crush to talk to them or merely say 'Hi', a task they regularly failed in. It was fun. Soon their was a party organised by the seniors to welcome the first years, it was called ' The Fresher's Nite'

This was goin to happen in about a week, and it was expected to be good. Essel was late as usual. Tony was there since afternoon. The function began at about 7 pm, much late than the scheduled time. Muck, a common friend of Tony and Essel was accompanying Tony till then; Essel came ten minutes before the actual start.

Before the show had begun, their eyes googled the stage of the Open Air Theatre (OAT). Their Common friend anchored the show.

The first event was the Mr Fresher finals. The first guy, failed to create an impression with his guitar. The second one did mimicry, this one became humourous and more special as he continued. He wished to convey that girls' outside-hostel time-limit should be revised from 8.30 pm. There were some dance performances, then a hilarious hasya-kavita (funny poetry), some boring singing and more dance. In between these came technical snags, during which the anchors had a tough time controlling the audience; to keep the audience entertained they tried to talk all sort of general stuff, which resulted in people booing in dissatisfaction.
This was it at the Party for the group of friends of Essel. Lying ahead was the adventurous scandal.


Muck had told Essel and friends long before. that his latest crush in his class was The Girl. But the problem was that after the first semester, she was leaving for the other college. So he could not obviously take it any further, but Muck had this urge to at least tell her about his feelings before the time came when nothing could be done. Since this was a grand night with a partying mood, and since he had nothing to lose, Essel suggested him to do it tonight if he did so want it.

The college band was battling some serious technical errors that had crept in on the stage. The anchors were bored with making the audience happy. And dismayed, some people had started getting up. The main Canteen was just about 20 metres from the OAT and probably it offered them better. Essel had a phone call and so he went at the back to talk. then he called others there since it provided a better view of what was going on.
As Muck and Tony started their journey to that spot, they noticed a girl. And a boy. At a lonely spot on the OAT. The girl looked tense. She was not looking at that boy but the distress on her face showed as if she was trying to avoid the guy's look. The boy was staring at her as if to expect her to speak. They had obviously just talked on something that looked strictly not of our business.

In her hands she held a jacket. The jacket was not at all puzzling for Tony at this stage.

The girl looked familiar.

She was The Girl. Muck was shocked and destroyed. She was a girl who he knew could not be his as she was going away after exams, still the sight had brought his mind and heart to a virtual standstill.

"Whats this misfortune with me, that whichever girl I like has got other intentions..."

Muck was close to crying. Tony told him that just a boy and girl standing like that does not mean much; he can still do what he wanted . But Muck was shaken. Five minutes of looking into nowhere in distress, and then he wanted to go to the canteen for a cold drink.
Essel and Tony waited and waited, but he didn't seem to be coming back. The function had reached an anarchical scenario, and many people were getting up.

Essel and Tony went to see whats up.

There he was... outside the canteen, sipping the cold drink and sitting in disappointment.
They went inside the canteen to get a bottle of water.

Muck - I just saw that boy again, he had that jacket in his hand now. What was she doing with HIS jacket in her hand there? There's something fishy with this...

Fishy or octopussy or froggy, all they needed was to forget this. Just because he had no future with the girl, and he had seen her with a boy, not in a compromising situation obviously, but with a jacket that troubled him so much. But that part was interesting indeed, the boy's jacket in the girl's hand, and the situation they saw them in.

That done, Essel and friends once again came to the OAT. On the way, The Girl was coming towards them, alone this time. The boy had gone somewhere else, Muck had seen him alone with that jacket.
Not only The Girl, half the audience seemed to be marching towards the canteen; things in the much-hyped Freshers' Nite had obviously gone all wrong, looking from the audience's point of view. It was a big farce as it turned out.
In the OAT, however the process to recover from the technical problems was still on. Those guys believed in "All's well that ends well", and they had decided to finish on a good note so that everyone would forget the stuff that went on in the midst.

Then all hell broke loose.

Muck - I want to go to her now, and say to her that I like her.

Trouble began. Since they had seen her going towards the canteen on their way back to the OAT, they headed there. The canteen was getting jam-packed as the evening progressed, and they all were looking for her, then he spotted her sitting in a corner. Eating. The ruddy girl was eating food without anyone to accompany her, at such a strange time, even when she is not a hosteller, and when party refreshments were still due.
Muck was too tense to think sensible. He wanted to go away now.Ideas and energy had dried up and the chaos in Muck's mind for reasons so insane were visible. Lying ahead was the second part of the adventure.

He decided that he was not courageous enough to say it to her directly, even if he saw her stationary at one place. And he said it was to be done through a sheet of paper, with a message written on it.

Sounds filmy style. Even if not filmy, this was desperation at its best.

So then began a search of a small piece of paper. The ideal candidate came out of Essel's wallet. The spot for writing the message stood right in front; the language for the message came from each of them, and the words came from Muck and Tony. Essel's not good at writing.


--------------------------------------------

(Her name),
Before you leave for NSIT, I wish to tell you that I liked you a lot for your innocence and simple nature. Please do not mind this; and I don't expect or want any reply from you.
Muck.

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This speeded up activities. Now that no tension remained just to hand over the sheet to the girl, they just had to look for her and inform Muck. At his orders, they went in different directions, looking for her, and with instructions to give him a call as soon as one of them spotted her.

The biggest difficulty during the course of the entire episode was tackling friends who were roaming here and there and expected Essel to talk to them on seeing them. But there was no scope of explaining to them what was going on my side. One such friend told him that refreshment packets were now available in the Civil Engineering Convocation Hall, and guessing she might be present there, he went there with Tony.

There he saw her, and informed Muck of this. As he came in the hall, he saw her. While trying to come towards her, a pillar separated the two of them, and as he came to the other side of the pillar, lo and behold! she had disappeared in that one second in which he was behind the pillar!
Yes, she was at the exit gate of the hall now, and once again the search had to begin anew.

Once again the search began, in similar fashion as before. She was spotted with her friend, standing and watching the dance floor come to life. Surprisingly, during their absence from the OAT, things had started happening here again, and everyone was dancing to the music out there on the ground-level stage.

Now the trouble was obviously that nothing could be done until the friend was removed from the scene. According to Essel and Muck, (who are classmates of those two girls), that other girl is a big gossip, and a small act of carelessness here from one of us, and Muck would have to be prepared to get as embarrassed in class the next day as he would be without his pants in front of everyone.
The opportunity was provided by The Girl herself. Or probably the person who chose to make a call to her at that very moment. She took out her cellphone and marched towards a solitary corner to talk.
With the key moments so close, Muck gave Tony the message and told him to give it to her, saying it was from him.
It was getting so very funny. With the hero himself reluctant to walk out to the battlefield, it was decided that Essel would go to her, and tell her that Muck wanted to say something to her.

Essel and Tony wandered off to the place where she was chatting on the phone, and stood some way behind her. As she was coming back, Essel told her that Muck wanted to say something to her, and when she asked where he was, he pointed to him sitting at a lone spot. She looked at that place, and there he was, looking back at her.
Essel had done a task as big as climbing the Mount Everest; it takes nerves to propose to a girl, and even more if you have to be the messenger between the boy and the girl like this.
She sort of ignored! No response at all; she moved back to her friend and continued with what she was doing before the phone call.

Muck was devastated….. when they went back to him, he was lying on the grass really frustrated. He still hoped Essel to tell him she was coming, but she wasn’t.

Freshers’ Nite was the place where half the boys come to get a girl, as the saying goes. The boy with the jacket was most probably trying to talk to her about this only, and that had made her tense, and she felt the same about Muck’s attempt, (it was obvious by the way Essel gave her the message), and that’s why probably she got more distressed.)

That's how the Fresher's nite went for Essel and his friends. Essel learned alot about the relationship between a girl and a boy, and decided to not to fall for another girl, untill and unless she is that special someone.

Everything Else was normal. Essel and Tony reached their respective homes.
Essel layed on his bed thinking about what all happened today.

Essel (thinking) - Overall a learning experience for me. Enjoyed it. Hard Luck for Muck. He will get some-one soon for sure.

Mom Calls Essel.

Mom - Hey Essel. There's a letter for you.
Essel - For me !!! Who has sent that?
Mom - It's someone named Kuru. Mentions you as Essel, the Xenith holder. What does that mean?

Hearing this Essel jumps off his bed. He runs towards his mom to get the letter.

Essel - Oh, he's my friend. Just joking with me by writing that.
Mom - Okay fine.

Essel takes it from his mom and runs back to his room.

Essel - Ok bye Mom, Good Night.
Mom - Good Night......These kids are always in a hurry.

Essel sits on his study table with letter in his hand. It says

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To Essel,
The Xenith Holder.

---------------------------


Essel is staring at the letter, thinking to open it or not.





Who is this stranger Kuru? Who is the one, who had sent a Ninja to kill Essel? What Next?




Keep visiting to know the Answers. The answers will be unfolded in the following Chapters