An Upgraded Soul

Stone Mountain International School, (the school that Aditya studied previously)

Administrative Dean's office (the one who suspended Aditya)

Prakash Malhotra, the one with the evil hook nose and icy demeanour, was startled by the appearances of the visitors who had waited for him when he entered his office. He did not remember when was the last time he saw two top-notch beauties in one place. Though he was not as much a player as his son, he did have his moments when he was young. Even with his 'wide' experience, the Administrative Dean found it hard to maintain his usual calm.

Both of them were about 165 cm height, though they had similar heights, their statures and beauty were very diverse. He nodded towards them trying to act as dignified as possible as he sat down in his chair. The office had not changed since he suspended Aditya a week ago, the tree design on the left wall which was lit with LED lights, the wool carpet with ethnic design or the gramophone.

A woman whose age seemed to be around early twenties smiled gently as she spoke in a delicate voice, "Good Morning Mr Prakash Malhotra, I am Maahi Kapoor, How do you do?" this woman had dark brown eyes and pitch black hair which long, wavy styled as a side ponytail. The white creamy tone of her skin reminded people of whipped milk, her charm was so captivating that it was hard for even Mr Prakash who always prided himself in his way of dealing with a beautiful woman found himself wavering.

She wore a white solid woven shirt on the top which had a round neck exposing her flawless thin neck, long sleeves and button closure. It was well matched with blue mid-rise regular fit jeans and black ankle length boots. There only a few pieces of jewellery on her and a little makeup which brought out her real beauty.

"Hello, Ms Kapoor, how can I help you?" Prakash tried hard to calm himself down as he questioned.

"I am here as a guardian of a student who has been suspended recently, Is there any way that this suspension can be revoked?" Maahi spoke in the same tender voice which coupled with her petite and fragile looking frame caused anyone who saw her sprout feelings of safeguarding her from all harm.

Prakash Malhotra's eyebrows furrowed as he asked, "Who are you talking about?" he had long since forgotten about the student he had thoughtlessly suspended a week ago.

"I am the guardian of Aditya Bose, he was suspended from this school last week on the grounds of causing disruption of peace and creating panic among visitors," Maahi stated while fiddling with her thin exquisite fingers.

"Could you please wait a moment," Prakash typed in Aditya's name in his PC, though he remembered that kid, he did not remember the exact context.

"Yes, Aditya Bose was a scholarship student, he caused an electric circuit to disrupt causing panic in the visitor's pavilion a week ago for which we suspended him." Prakash Malhotra disclosed while putting on a grave face. He knew that it was a false accusation but no one, not even the student himself tried to defend so this suspension did not gain much traction. But he did not expect that the guardian of this poor scholarship student would be this beautiful. If he knew there were always alternative 'solutions' for managing their grudges. It might not be too late yet.

"Does the school possess any evidence that the disruption was caused by Mr Aditya Bose." the other woman who had not made a sound till now spoke with an interrogative tone. Her temperament seemed just the opposite of Maahi. She exuded a stern, mighty, steady aura which presented the image of a capable woman. Spectacles covered her big black eyes which looked sharp as she sat in a straight posture.

"And this is?" Mr Prakash Malhotra turned towards this woman as he wondered. This dame was like a hot pepper which catered to his taste very much. She had medium length dark brown hair which was styled into light waves. This hairstyle perfectly suited her slightly rectangular face. She wore trendy office wear, white tight t-shirt inside covered by a navy blue striped coat with long relaxed sleeves, light brown woven trouser which fit impeccably with her long legs. She wore matching ankle strap heels. While Maahi's dress looked casual, this woman looked like she worked in the corporate sector.

"She is Qaima, my friend, she accompanied me for support," Maahi explained while patting the hands of Qaima.

"See, Ms Qaima, Ms Maahi, though no evidence has been obtained ill.u.s.trating Aditya committing the crime, all the circ.u.mstances point towards him, so we are helpless," Prakash spoke in a saintly voice while shaking his head.

Qaima looked unconvinced and was about to speak again but was stopped by Maahi. Maahi turned towards Mr Malhotra, "Is there any chance for revoking this suspension, also don't you think that this punishment is a little too much as no one was harmed in the incident."

A glint passed through Prakash's eyes as he sternly said, "this is the most prestigious international school in the whole of Bangalore and ranks among the top 20 in India, we take our profession very seriously and no mischief is tolerated. I am sorry Ms Maahi"

"Is there really no other way we could revoke Aditya's suspension?" Maahi implored as she looked at Mr Prakash with watery eyes.

'Excellent' Mr Prakash thought as he smiled gently and said, "Why don't you come to meet me after school, if you could express enough 'sincerity' that Mr Aditya Bose would change for the better, maybe something could be done."

"No problem Mr Prakash, I will wait for….", Maahi agreed readily with a relieved expression but before she could continue, Qaima's face frosted over as she shot up to her feet, pulled Maahi and stormed out of the administrative dean's cabin leaving Prakash's mouth wide open in shock.

While Qaima c.h.e.s.t heaved with anger and indignation, the innocent look on Maahi had long disappeared and was replaced with a triumphant expression as she looked at Qaima with a smug look on her face. If someone could see the transformation of her from a weak and fragile miss into her present self which radiated confidence from every inch of her self, they would be flabbergasted.

"Elder sister Qaima, what do you have to say now?" Maahi asked teasingly as she pulled Qaima's hand while walking towards their car.

"Miss, that bastard deserves to be damned, he does not have a little bit of remorse for deliberately spoiling an innocent kid's future because of a small scuffle, and also he has the gall to ask you to come in the evening." Qaima burst out in cold fury. Who was Ms Maahi? How dare he have crooked thoughts on her?

Qaima was the personal secretary to Maahi who was also as close to her as a blood-related sister. Maahi always treated her as an elder sister and during these years Qaima had also accepted Maahi as a younger sibling but she never crossed her moral bottom line when dealing with professional matters. Maahi was her boss and she treated her like one and never took any liberties with her. She knew Maahi's family conditions, she wanted to be there for her as moral support.

She knew that Maahi had a younger brother who was not blood-related, she also knew that this person was the only one Maahi truly cared about among all her relations. Qaima sometimes even felt jealous of this fact. She had not met this person but knew all about him through Maahi as her boss loved very much to talk about this person. Maahi had also told her that due to some previous incidents, this person avoided her for which she felt depressed.

Maahi had already applied for the guardianship of Aditya since his parents went missing, she had also planned to take over the responsibility of looking after Aditya while he completed his education. She had already brought so many properties and real estate in Bangalore so that she could move her office headquarters and home from Mumbai to here.

But by the time Maahi was done with her preparations, she received news that Aditya had been suspended and that he left school without her being informed by either the school management or Aditya himself. She could forgive Aditya for this as she knew about his thoughts but the administrative dean who abused his power or the school management which left this person unchecked had to suffer. It only took a week for Maahi to prepare for her revenge.

When Qaima had heard of this matter and seen the material, she was shell shocked. So, she pleaded Maahi to give the school management and that dean a chance to rectify themselves. Maahi agreed and played along with Qaima.

When Qaima and Maahi walked towards their car, they saw two boys and a girl standing near that car as they talked among themselves.

"Bhadra, are you sure it is this car?" Jatin asked as he smoked while in his school uniform.

"Yup"

" White Jaguar XJ, 1 crore rupees (around 140,000 USD), nice sleek design, a dramatic combination of beauty, luxury and power." Jatin sighed as he ran his hand across the surface of the car, "I need to get this car from my father when I join graduation."

He turned to see that Bhadra had not even paid attention to his words. Jatin looked at Bhadra as he questioned, "Why are you getting so rattled, I have never seen you like this before, its just Adi's elder sister, right?"

"Shut up, what do you know? I am even better, if Adi was here he would have already run away long ago, at least I am standing here." Bhadra spoke as he wiped sweat from his forehead, "You are so peaceful because you don't know the legends of the 'white snake in a unicorn's clothing'."

"What!" Jatin coughed out smoke as he patted his own head, "white snake in a unicorn's clothing? isn't it supposed to be 'wolf in a sheep's clothing'?"

Bhadra laughed awkwardly as he said, "It was coined by Adi, so go ask him, also he said that the wolf would feel flattered if he equated it to his elder sister."

"We call such people as being a black belly." Yu Yan who heard the conversation piped in.

"Oh, by the way, how did this girl tag along with you," Bhadra asked looking at Yu Yan who was standing there showing no hints of leaving.

"She heard me talking to you on the phone while in the cafeteria, she also wanted to know the whereabouts of Adi, so she wanted to meet his elder sister and apologize, she still thinks it was her mistake that Adi was suspended."

"Quickly take her away from here, don't we know that idiot is relaxing by working in a garage, we can take her with us when we meet him. If she got caught by Maahi elder sister, her world view might get destroyed. Maahi elder sister would eat her without even leaving out her bones." Bhadra said as he looked at that cute, innocent girl and did not have the heart to see her enter the mouth of the tiger.

"Who will eat her without even leaving out her bones?" a sweet voice asked from behind Bhadra. Bhadra's hair stood up as he turned and backed away as if he saw a ghost. He hit the car and could not move any further as he gave a smile which was uglier than crying, "Maahi elder sister, we were just talking about you, you will definitely live for a hundred years". (In India, if a person comes unintentionally when someone is talking about him, it is believed that this person would have a long life)

"What did you say?" Maahi had the same sweet, innocent smile on her as she asked while playing with her curls.

Cold sweat started pouring in streams as Bhadra gulped and stuttered, "Ma… Maahi elder sister, I was just saying that it was Adi's great fortune that he has an elder sister like you who cares about him so much. I also wish that I could have such an elder sister, can you also be my elder sister." he did not even know how ridiculous his words sounded.

Jatin looked on at this spectacle with a keen interest in his eyes. Yu Yan was closely observing both Maahi and Qaima with stars in her eyes. She was shocked at their beauty and also of their fashion sense. She could not wait to ask them where they bought those boots.

Maahi gave a wide smile as she said, "Sure, younger brother Bhadra, of course, I will look after you well."

Bhadra did not know whether these words of her meant that she was letting him off or marking him for execution. He had a strong feeling that it was the latter as he smiled bitterly. Was it what they called, 'from the frying pan to fire'.