vandyland3000

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The fine print in friendship

Chapter 2

Rishik

I love the school uniform. Controversial opening statement, I know. 

But something about the freshly pressed shirt and the school logo on the blazer gives me immense satisfaction. And that satisfaction has only grown since I became school captain.

Today is our first council meeting and I intend to show up looking on top of my game, to show Kritika she was wrong in labeling me as “laid back“. Not that I need to prove anything to her, but when she told me where the meeting was being held she said “Be on time, okay?” like I was incapable of punctuality. Yeah, well, screw her. I can be punctual.

***

I reached the meeting fifteen minutes late.

When I enter Kritika stops talking and looks at me she would rather I didn’t come at all. 

“Okay so if you have any questions about the forms call me over,” she gestures at me, “I have something to deal with.”

Some of them laugh as she walks to the front of the room.

I wave shamelessly because I'm cool like that, “I have an excellent reason-“

“Save it. for now, you can handle taking their forms once they’re done and type them out into the Excel sheet”

Clerical work. fair punishment I guess.

“I'll do it, as soon as you remind me which Excel sheet we’re talking about.“

She looks exasperated, “The one I sent you yesterday, email and all?” 

“I’m joking Kritika, I read it. You would know if you saw the edits I made in the document; you have horrendous punctuation.”

“It's not funny if it could mess with my tight-”

“-ten-week plan schedule, that is a bad title by the way. I edited that too”

She sighs in disbelief and rolls her eyes, walking towards the two chairs facing the council. I assume one of those chairs is mine. 

*****

The meeting goes well except for a few dumb questions from Nikhil which make me question his lQ level. For some reason Kritika seems more than happy to answer them which is great for me since I dont have to air my doubts about his intelligence openly.

“So the next meeting is on 4th August, we’ll see you then to discuss our school event. Please come up with suitable and creative event ideas by then. Do you want to add anything, Kritika?” 

“No that's all, thank you, everyone”

Once they all leave I turn to Kritika and hold up my hand but evidently, she’s never heard of high fives because she just raises an eyebrow and goes to get her planner

“What? you’re going to leave me hanging after a great first meeting?”

“Rishik, you were late”

“But I handled the rest-“

“Very very late”

“My bad”

she turns around from storming away “YES your bad. I had to be alone with the council and they kept looking at the clock and asking me when you would come to the meeting. You didn't set a very good example as co-captain.”

“That seems more like a me problem” this is the part where she’s supposed to laugh at my amazing sense of humor but she just keeps looking up at me blank faced.

I hold my hands up in surrender, “Okay I'm sorry princess you want me to touch your feet in apology or something”

She almost smiles at that “Just pinky promise me you won’t be late” She seems dead serious but pinky promise? even my younger sister stopped doing that a long time ago. I lock our little fingers together to humor her.

We’re walking back to our classes when out of nowhere Sahana jumps at Kritika and starts talking very fast and I can catch “project” and “I'm screwed”. She pauses when she realizes that I exist and says a breathless “Hi”. I smile and salute her then turn to Kritika 

“I'll go then?”. 

She nods at me and when I’m walking away I hear Sahana rambling again. I’ll ask her about it when I get home today. Unless she’s in the mood to talk about something else.

Now my only worry is getting to the ground for whatever is left of P.E.

For Chapter One:

[vandyland3000]

Tumblr users will see a post mentioning a day if the week and just fucking black out and reblog it

[vandyland3000]

[vandyland3000]

i was sick and i saw everyone dressing up and having fun T-T

Everyone met up for diwali and oh boy am I getting fomo

[vandyland3000]

literally hoping they know what they're doing atp

"you're the writer, you control how the story goes" no not really. i wrote the first sentence and then my characters said "WE WILL TAKE IT FROM HERE" and promptly swerved into an electrical fence.

[vandyland3000]

Why can't I send you images in ask?? :<

kinda scared so i wont take my chances

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is this a wolfstar fan I spy??

yesyesyes very much

i find it so hard to get good fics though so if you have recs pls spam

[vandyland3000]

ok, because i just saw a terrible take, i feel compelled to say that there is no "fic market" to "oversaturate" in fandom. good gravy.

[vandyland3000]

Margaret Atwood, “The Blind Assassin.”

[vandyland3000]

pause.

what?

[vandyland3000]

my brain decided to be inspired for once 😮😮

[vandyland3000]

The fine print in friendship

academic rivals to lovers, several part story, set in india feat. my idiots

kind of slow burn desi rom com

ty to my cutie beta reader, naybob

Chapter 1

Kritika

Maybe I have to fight Rishik Shetty. Maybe that’s what the teachers want, an archaic fight to the death for power, seeing as we’re both equally qualified for the position.

Rishik is my competition for the title of school captain, a post I've wanted for almost my whole school life, and in the past 5 years, I’ve worked hard to outperform him, memorize his every quirk, and scout out his weaknesses.

For 5 years I've studied hard, connected with hopefully the whole student council, and hoped the teachers would notice my work and how much I want to be school captain.

It's all led up to this day.

“Kritika Shah, please begin.”

Showtime.

 *****

As the candidates, we had to present our speeches to the teachers, allowing them to cross-question us till they’re convinced that we’re suitable for the post. They grilled me so hard and left no stone unturned.

When I step out of the room after what felt like hours, I can finally breathe. Now all I can do is keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best. 

The waiting room is dead silent as we sit across each other, the air thick with anticipation.

I look up at the clock every five minutes and the third time I do, I catch him looking at me. For a fleeting moment, I think he might say something. But the moment passes and he looks away.

The silence finally breaks when the door opens. The principal walks out followed by the other teachers and they all look too pleased with themselves.

The principal positively beams at both of us, “Those speeches were commendable, very well done both of you. You’ve both worked equally hard and to choose one person is an even harder task, I might say,” She chuckles and though it isn't funny we all laugh hollowly.

“So we’ve come up with an excellent solution, a brilliant idea that I had,” She spreads out her hands in a godlike gesture “We have decided to make the two of you co-captains of the school!”

It feels like someone has sucked the air out of my lungs and decided that shutting down my brain would be a good idea. This is not what I expected at all. 

The principal keeps talking and I can't hear a word she says but I keep a tight smile and nod at her.

��She finishes what I think is a congratulatory speech and Rishik and I profusely thank her and let her and the teachers guide us to the auditorium for the conferring of posts ceremony.

I fall a little behind the group while my mind is struggling to accept what just happened. 

“Your smile is not convincing at all; you look like Pennywise,”

Rishik is looking straight ahead, face relaxed and if I hadn't heard him I wouldn't have thought he said anything. How is he so calm, like he expected nothing more or less to happen?

“I think that’s the least of both of our concerns right now,”

“I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want my co-captain to be baring her teeth in the school council photograph”

Unbelievable.

“Rishik, how are we supposed to work together when you can’t even be serious?”

He stops walking which makes me stop as well.

“That's what you’re panicking about? I thought it was because you wouldn't have all the power.”

“No?! See this is why us being a team is like a disaster waiting to happen.”

“If you stop being such a control freak, we could get somewhere.”

“I just want to make sure things get done right. We can’t afford to screw this up because you’re going to be chill about this.”

Unsaid retaliations hung in the air as they looked at each other.

Rishik took a breath, “Look, there was a reason the teachers chose us both, and I know someone as smart as you should realize a balance of our strengths would be good for the school.”

He makes sense and I feel the tension slowly leaving my body “How are we supposed to balance when we don't even like each other?”

Rishik leans against the wall “I know you hate working with me, and I hate working with you, but… we have to try, at least for the sake of keeping our titles.”

I cross my arms, considering his words. “Fine. A temporary truce. But don’t think for a second that I’m going to make this easy for you.”

He rolls his eyes and stands up straight. “Deal. Just try to keep up, okay?” He puts his hand out for me to shake and I take it.

“You wish. Just don’t drag me down by being laid back.” He laughs and shakes his head.

“Aren’t we late for the program?”

“Shit.”

*****

When we enter the auditorium, the teachers reprimand us halfheartedly. They give up the pretense, smile, and wave us in, “They’re waiting for you.”

The principal’s speech begins, “We are gathered here today….”

Rishik and I look at each other and he gives me a nod toward the stage like he’s playing a gentleman. I take a deep breath and step forward. 

“Please welcome your school co-captains, Kritika Shah and Rishik Shetty!” 

I don’t have to fake a smile as the audience applauds and cheers. The stage lights shine down on us and I can feel the hope of new beginnings surrounding me.

****

for chapter two:

[vandyland3000]

platonic darhar, they will never make me forget you

[vandyland3000]

if i were to hypothetically write a several-part story, academic rivals to lovers, set in India feat. two idiots who I have grown very attached to, would anyone be interested to read

all hypothetical of course

update: its hereee

[vandyland3000]

reblog if you’ve read fanfictions that are more professional, better written than some actual novels. I’m trying to see something

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