An Upgraded Soul

As Aditya walked into Administrative Dean's office, he was asked to wait, so he sat on the comfortable black office sofa in the well-decorated waiting room. He saw the nameplate on the main office door which had the name 'Prakash Malhotra'. He wondered if that idiot's father was really busy or was this just a show of strength by making him wait for a long time. Whatever, as long as he could accomplish his task successfully.

After some time, Aditya was asked to enter. As Aditya entered, he immediately felt a different atmosphere, it was silent thanks to good soundproofing, there was a tree design on the left wall which was lit with LED lights. As Aditya walked on the wool carpet with some ethnic design, he could feel a dignified atmosphere, there was a gramophone which decorated the shelf of the right. Aditya wondered if it worked or was just for show. The school logo was painted on the wall behind the Dean's chair.

As Aditya saw the person, he saw some similarities between Karan and his father, both had the sinister looking hook noses, but this person had an icy demeanour which Karan lacked. As Aditya was observing, this middle-aged man with greying hair lifted his head and looked at Aditya with puzzling eyes as if he did not know him. He asked, "Who are you?"

Aditya turned his attention to the Dean as he replied, "Mr Dean, it was you who summoned me."

Prakash Malhotra frowned slightly as he tried to remember who Aditya was. After a few seconds, his brow relaxed as he asked with a cold face, "Are you the one named Aditya?"

"Yes, sir."

"Okay, I won't ask how you got into a fight with Karan, you have to write an apology letter to the school management for disturbing the school's peaceful environment, also you have to apologize to Karan publicly in the exact same place where you insulted him, also you will kneel down in the school ground for an entire session as a mild punishment to discipline you..."

cough cough...

Before the Dean could complete his ridiculous demands, Aditya stopped him. He smiled and said, "from when did the Administrative Dean start to handle student disciplinary duties and punishments? I had always thought it was the deputy superintendent's duty."

Prakash Malhotra was irritated when he saw that this student dared to interrupt his words but when he heard Aditya's words, he was infuriated, he didn't expect a 'scholarship' student would have the nerve to talk rules with him, who even the principal had to think twice before contradicting him.

He calmed himself as he said, "you will not care about these small issues if you want to remain in this school, you do know, right? A scholarship student is expected to have an impeccable conduct record, you need to remember that you are studying on this institution's charity."

Aditya's temper was rising as the Dean continued to mention the f**cking non-existent scholarship, he was studying because of his parent's hard-earned money, not someone's charity.

He calmed himself down as he posed a question, "Do you know what happened in the cafeteria yesterday? Have you called some eye-witnesses to inquire the truth? Your so... cough cough, Karan was bullying a junior girl student. Moreover, she is a foreigner, can this school bear the reputation of being intolerant to foreigners, I was the one who stepped forward and salvaged the situation. Even Mr Suresh who was in charge of the discipline in cafeteria did not stop Karan. If anything happened to the girl or if she sustained mental trauma from this incident, who is going to shoulder the responsibility when the foreign embassy officials come knocking the door. Is it the school management or Karan and his parents?"

Bang!

Prakash had slammed the table with his hand as he looked at Aditya with freezing eyes, "Are you going to write the apology letter or not?"

Aditya shouted 'success' in his heart as he shook his head. He didn't even bother replying.

Prakash Malhotra had not expected that the student who humiliated his son was so stubborn and headstrong. He looked at Aditya with a chilly gaze as he said, "Student Aditya Bose, as you are suspected to have disrupted the electrical circuitry near the visitors' pavilion and caused a blackout yesterday evening leading to disruption of the peaceful environment and causing panic among many of the visitors. You are being suspended until the investigation proves that you are not guilty."

Though Aditya had expected that he would be suspended, he did not think that the dean would push the blackout incident onto his head. He was clearly the victim but he was made the perpetrator instead. He shrugged inside as he stood, he stretched his body in all angles without the notion that the Dean was present, it could be considered rude but Aditya felt he needed to do it as if it was a symbolic breaking of chains that limited his movement. Now he felt that he was truly liberated which really caused his blood to boil.

Aditya smiled brightly and under the shocked countenance of the Dean, he escaped before the Dean could rethink his mistake. A natural smile formed on Aditya's face as he walked on the corridor, Anupama was right, he really didn't like studying, if it was not for his parents, mainly his father's insistence, he wouldn't be here. Now that his parents were missing, there was no one who could stop Aditya from skipping studies.

No, Aditya stopped as he thought of one terrifying figure who could probably make him continue studying, if not for her why did he have to wait until the school expelled him, he could have run away anytime in the past four months. It was because of her that Aditya bore for these many months.

She was Maahi, the daughter of his mother's best friend, she was four years elder to him. She was the most manipulative person he had ever seen. Aditya had found out that such a person was called 'Black-bellied' in Chinese. She was the horror of his childhood. Aditya only wanted to be as far as possible from her. She could always make him dance on the tip of her fingers. Aditya had formulated the best way of dealing with her i.e. run away whenever he saw her. She was the 'messenger of trouble' as far as Aditya was concerned.

She used to speak sweet words to him, make him feel that all his secrets were secure with her and slowly syphon all his secrets. It was her who had told his parents that he had been fooling around with girls in his 10th grade which stimulated his father to change his school. It was she who told his parents about his grand plan of becoming a car racer instead of studying, it was she who even found out that he was watching p.o.r.n and blackmailed him into subduing to her as her lifetime servant.

Aditya would always feel chills running down his spine when he thought of her. So, if she found out that he ran away from school now especially when Maahi designated herself as the guardian of Aditya since his parents went missing, Aditya was sure what kind of consequences he would face. So, now that the school had suspended him, he could use the school as a shield to bear her wrath, though Aditya somehow felt pity for the Dean who would definitely be targeted by Maahi elder sister. Good luck to him. Aditya was sure that not only the Dean but the business group behind this school did not have the capability to take on her.

That's why Aditya actually liked Saira elder sister, she was righteous, helpful, she kept his secrets as secrets and not as public news articles, she did not take advantage of his weaknesses. If Saira Elder sister was an Angel, Maahi was the devil, no doubt. As Aditya was comparing his elder sisters from father and mother's sides, he saw that Bhadra and others were waiting for him. Suddenly Aditya felt that the happiness he was feeling just now decrease, he felt sad when he knew that he would be leaving these two idiots.

To his surprise, even Anupama was waiting, but he thought maybe she was accompanying Kavya. When Aditya spoke of his suspension, just as he expected Bhadra and Jatin flared up, Aditya dragged them back into the cafeteria which was almost empty right now as he explained how this was what he wanted. He knew that if Bhadra called up his father, his suspension would be suspended. He also assured that they could meet up whenever they wanted, so, there was no need for him to stick around in this school anymore.

"How come you are going, why can't you get suspended and get lost?" Kavya muttered as she glared at Jatin. But Jatin was in no mood to rebut. Anupama felt her heart constrict when she knew that Aditya was leaving them. She knew she could not stay in touch with him like his friends as they did not have any reason to. What pained her more was that she did not see him look at her even once. It was as if she was not a concern to him, Aditya was only consoling his friends, he even spoke a word of comfort to Kavya but not to her. It was like the past year of him pursuing her never happened as if it was all her imagination.

When Aditya had successfully lightened the atmosphere and allayed the grief of himself and his friends, a school attendant came over and handed a letter envelope to Aditya. He said, "As you are registered as an orphan, there is no guardian to inform, so will you wait till someone comes or will you vacate your room?"

Aditya was relieved when he heard that there was no guardian to contact, he really feared if the school management would inform his uncle or worse Maahi elder sister. If it is so, he could forget about leaving this school. For the first time, he felt that the 'shadow organization' or whoever it is, had done a good job.

Aditya responded that he would leave today and asked the school attendant to go back. Bhadra and Jatin accompanied Aditya to pack his bag. He did not carry everything and left most of them for Bhadra to sort it out. He only grabbed his laptop, a few clothes and packed them in his military green rucksack. He grabbed his phone and earphones and off he went.

As Bhadra and Jatin sent him off, Bhadra grabbed Aditya as he asked, "Don't you have anything to say to Anupama?"

Aditya turned around and found that Anupama was still there, he was surprised that she would hang around, maybe she was doing this for the help he gave her in the past year. He smiled and went near her. He looked at her honey brown pupils for a few seconds before speaking, "Anupama, I hope you look after yourself, I also wish that you meet a right person who can make you feel safe and secure, whom you will have absolute surety that he wouldn't disappoint you and looks after you with care, affection and love."

Tremors spread across Anupama's heart when she heard Aditya's words as she looked at him with wide open eyes. How did he know? How could he know? Her eyes reddened as she quickly left so that Aditya could not see her tears. Kavya followed her while looking at Aditya as if he was an Alien.

Aditya looked at her disappearing figure and shrugged. He bade goodbye to his friends by giving them bear hugs and walked down the road to catch a taxi back to the city.