Bab 8: Nervous
Yash was now growing impatient. It had been a long time since the blood scent. It didn't appear again. They couldn't trace its scent. How can the scent of such sweet blood disappear into thin air. They would have easily been able to follow it if it wasn't hidden. But he cannot afford to waste anymore time.
"Vir" he called out. After a few moments Vir opened the door and bowed to greet him.
Yash shrugged his shoulders and continued, "I am getting bored of waiting. If that scent doesn't appear in a few more days, then we'll leave." Vir nodded and happily left the room. Finally he could return. He was growing impatient too but couldn't say a word. The scent of this blood had already caused enough damage. He hated it here and just wanted to be done with it. He was glad and started preparing to leave. But he had no idea he was going to be disappointed.
***
Visha had practiced all night, she memorised a few but couldn't perform any. None of them worked. Even though she didn't believe in witches and spells, she was disappointed. She couldn't help but imagine if it was real when she first heard Dhira talk about it. She was still sulking on her broken fantasy when Priya called out to her she turned around and saw her heading towards her. Visha stopped and wited for her to catch up. She looked really worried.
"Are you ready?" Priya asked.
Visha was a little confused, "What for?"
"The quiz. Don't tell me you didn't prepare."
Visha did forget. With everything that was going on how could she not. Among all this, fixing her image seemed like a trivial matter.
"I did not forget, and I am prepared." Visha let out a long sigh. This needed to be handled before she saw Dhira. She followed Priya to the backstage. Everyone was reading some or the other book. Visha glanced around, she had already read and memorised most of them. She was confident about the quiz but nervous about rejecting Dhira. She knew Dhira was not a bad person but who knew what she was capable of when angry. Priya saw this and came to talk to her, "Nervous?" she asked.
"A little" replied Visha. She was pinching the palm of her hand. She did that when she was nervous. It was a habit of hers.
Priya went off to get something. That's when a group of four girls approached Visha. They too looked like freshmen too and if they were here they must have registered as well. Visha recognized one of them, it was Divya. She was one of the girls badmouthing her in the cafeteria, when someone photoshopped her picture.
"Who knew sluts can compete to be Ms Fresher too?" one of her subordinates taunted. Divya looked pleased by this and looked at another one. She nodded and then turned to Visha, "You do know that stripping on the stage and screaming you're lonely won't work, right?" at this Divya let out a small laugh and turned to Visha with a sinister smile. Priya had came back right in time holding a glass of water to see this. She looked at them ridiculing Visha and sneered. The more Visha feels miserable, more likely she is to transfer. But she was soon disappointed as Visha smiled back and this shocked all of them. "My bad, I did plan to strip and seduce the judges. Guess I will have to win it by giving the right answers then." Visha lifted up her arms to show she had no other choice. Divya grunted and stomped her foot on the ground in rage. She grit her teeth and left with her fists clenched as well. Priya had a similar reaction to her. She then went up to Visha with a smile and handed her the glass. "Just relax. Don't mind them. It can't be that bad anyway." and smiled at Visha.
Visha smiled back and took the glass. She was drinking nervously. As soon as the quiz ended she will have to go to Dhira. Shivam was a nice guy, maybe he would help her. But right now she should concentrate on the quiz. She needs to win it. Her reputation may not be of as much precedence anymore but it was still a matter that had to resolved. Some people then came in with boxes of refreshment for participants. They came in different groups. One of the groups came to Visha and handed her a sandwich. She thanked them with a smile and ate it. Once she was done, she saw them all practicing. She thought that she should do it too. And then headed to the washroom to prepare for her introduction alone. Backstage was too crowded and distracting. She needed solemn and quite to concentrate. Her memory was intact but she was worried she might stutter due to her nervousness to face Dhira. She went inside and took long breaths to calm herself, then started practicing. She paced back and forth while orating her speech. Visha turned around and felt light and heavy at the same time. She looked at herself in the mirror and saw her image was spinning. She started to breathe heavy and rustled inside her bag to find her phone. She dialled the first number that appeared on her screen. After just two rings someone picked up.
"Hello" said the voice from the other side.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone