We all did great in our freshman year and I became the Salutatorian.

(of course our so-called official doctor Sanya became the Valedictorian).

I was pretty fine with that. Something I was not with was Aditi, Abhinav, Urvi and Shruti always being here with us from now on.

Someone told me I was not the topper anymore, and now by becoming the Valedictorian I proved them wrong. Because my actions speak louder than my words. But now we were in sophomore year with more trouble due to more people. Although Aditi, Urvi, Shruti and Abhinav were not living with us as they were new here, they were allotted different apartment but that's just technically, otherwise we were at each other's all the time. And as we were in sophomore year, we had a freshers' party to plan for the freshmen. Dhruv being the party animal he is, took the responsibility along with Sambhav and Nishi.

I was so happy, all my friends were here, together again, as we used to be, as we should be. Shaurya was alright now, Sanya got her first stipend, everything was so good. I couldn't have asked for anything more. I was going to Sambhav and Nishi, when Aditi knocked at my room's door.

"Come in" I said.

"Dhruv, I need to tell you something" she said

"What happened Aditi? Is everything alright?" I asked in shock

"Yeah, everything is fine, it's just that I thought I should ask from you how do you keep yourself so calm, seeing the girl you love with someone else." She said hesitantly.

"Aditi, I think you are just over reacting here, we all here are the best gang of school, and you and I are a part of it, and we should know the importance of this friendship more than anyone to stop are partners from enjoying it, right?" I kept my calm when I wanted to yell at her to let that Deeksha still have an influence on her.

"I am not stopping anyone from doing so, Dhruv. It's just that, we all know Sanya and Shaurya have some history they refuse to tell us", she asked sitting on my bed.

I for once thought she was about to cry when I placed my hand on her shoulder and said " I know they have a history and because of that they hate each other, they don't show that but I know they can't bear to even see each other, you don't have to be insecure with Sanya"

"It's not that I am insecure of her, even she is my best friend, what I can't bear is even if they hate each other they should share their feelings with us, at least as their best friends, right?" she turned to me and said

" That's something that bothers me to, two most important people to me in this friend group hating each other and I don't even know the reason, and then their fate is so twisted they always end up in front of each other and no one is able to help" I said shaking my head.

"Dhruv, I have a plan" Aditi said jumping from the bed.

Nishi and I were waiting for Dhruv and Sanya approached us and asked

"Have you seen Dhruv?"

"We should be asking that to you Sanya, we have been waiting here for him since forever" Nishi replied.

Before I could say something, I saw someone approaching and froze.

"What's that reaction for Sambhav?" Sanya asked turning to look at what I was looking

"DEEKSHA!!" she shouted in shock.

"Who's her?" Nishi asked

"Why is she with that engineering senior Karan and that boy from our engineering batch Rohan" Nishi continued after we didn't reply to her.

"Two Liars together, Perfect" Sanya said dropping her hands in disbelieve

"What is Deeksha doing here, and wasn't Karan suspended for that lie he said about you?" I replied.

But before Sanya could say something, Deeksha approached and said

"Hi Sanya, Hi Sambhav and hi to who so ever this girl is"

"Nishi" Sanya said looking her straight in her eyes putting a fake smile while tilting her head.

"Oh Sanya, you haven't changed a bit, still on that fierce mode, huh?" Deeksha said.

When Sanya didn't reply, Deeksha continued, "I thought of joining here for my sophomore year in medical field, so I came here, when I caught up with new friends, but I won't forget my school friends so just wanted to meet you all"

"Don't try to be around us Deeksha" I almost yelled at her.

She lifted her hands up as if saying truce and said "As you wish" and left.

I felt like I will beat Rohan when he'll come in class but I don't know how Aditi, Dhruv, Abhinav and Sanya are going to handle Deeksha in their class.

Before I could say anything to Sanya, Kunal and Divya approached us

"Wasn't that Karan of my class who you were talking to, he didn't get enough from annoying you the first time he still dares to talk to you" Kunal said

"And I know the other guy was Rohan, but who was the girl with them?" Divya asked

"A new student in the Medical Stream" Nishi replied

"I didn't know about an addition in my class" she asked shocked

"Not in yours, in our batch" Nishi continued

"What happened Sanya?" I asked her, as she was awfully silent since Deeksha left.

"Nothing, I just need to find everyone and tell them this" she replied and we all went to the hallway we all meet in between classes, taking Divya and Kunal along with us. On our way I messaged everyone to come there.

Aditi, Urvi, Shruti, Abhinav, Kabir, Dhruv and I were urgently called to the hallway we used to hangout in by Sambhav and no one had a clue what was it all about, when Sambhav came with Sanya, Nishi and I don't know why but, also Kunal and Divya.

We went to tell everyone about Deeksha joining in. I expected everyone to get tensed but no one seemed to. When Sambhav announced Deeksha's arrival and Dhruv saw me tensed, he came and gave me a side hug, and said we all know how Deeksha is, and we are up against her together.

I was pretty upset when I was moving for class while everyone was still in the hallway, not because of Deeksha but because now Sanya was bringing in Kunal and Divya in our group like why? I was just thinking this when I saw a guy asking a girl

"Hey, I am new here. Can you show me around?" touching on her shoulder and I could sense the girl was uncomfortable so I came in between

"Hey, what do you think you are doing?"

"Just trying to be friendly and asking this girl to show me around, because I am new here"

"Which year you are in again?"

"Freshman year"

"And you are asking your 2-year senior girl to show you around?"

"I didn't know she was two-year senior, she just looked familiar to the place, so I asked her, but since that's a problem, I'll leave you two to your business" he said and left.

These Freshman think they can just come and walk around like, you should have seen what our seniors did on first day. I was just thinking about this while walking to my class when I bumped into a girl and spilled her drink.

"I am so sorry I was zoned out" I said nervously

"No, even I should have seen where am I going" She replied

"By the way, aren't you Shaurya, who won Mr. Fresher 2021 and sang that beautiful song?" she continued

"Yes, I am" I said shyly

"You have great vocals man" she said giving an encouraging smile

"I didn't recognize you, your name again?" I asked her but before she could reply a guy called out

"Riddha" and she turned around

"Come on, we are getting late for the class" he said walking to us

"And why are you talking to Aashi's friends?" he asked her pointing towards me

"Who's Aashi?" I asked hesitantly

"the girl you were helping some time back" he said towering over me

"I don't even know her let alone be friends with her, I was just trying to help because some random guy was making her uncomfortable" I replied

"Oh come on, like anyone can make her uncomfortable, she is just an attention seeker and she is really selfish that's why has no friends, stay away as much as you can" he said explaining me

"Thanks man , will keep that in mind" I said

"By the way what's your name?" I asked as they turned to go to their class

"Oh, I am Chinmay and this is Riddha" the guy said

"And he is Shaurya" Riddha said before I could reply

"Which batch you are in?" I asked

"I am in junior year engineering and he is in junior year medical" Riddha replied

"Oh, nice to meet both of you" I said

"The pleasure is mutual" Chinmay replied as we walked to our respective classes.

I was still upset with Deeksha joining and was mindlessly walking to my class, when I bumped into Shaurya and he almost dropped his phone and I went to catch it tripping over the hallway step and he caught me and pulled me closer to him. I came back to my feet and said

"Always in a hurry?"

"Always being materialistic?" he replied.

I couldn't stand there and argue with him so I handed him his phone and left for the class. After the classes were over, I didn't have much work so I went to Dhruv to help him and Sambhav with prepping the Fresher's Party.

"Hey, Sanya, right? The Valedictorian of last Fresher's batch?"a guy came up to me and said

"Yup, you are?" I asked in confusion

"Tanmay, Fresher!!, I look up to you ma'am" he said playing with his hair

"Oh, Don't call me ma'am Sanya is good" I replied trying to look for Dhruv

"I haven't seen such cool seniors" he replied

"Then you must meet him" I said asking Dhruv to come over

"Dhruv, this is Tanmay, our junior" I said pointed at Tanmay

"And Tanmay, this is Dhruv, your senior, one of the coolest" I said

"Seriously guys, you are so cool, after what happened this morning, I thought I have the worst seniors" Tanmay said laughingly

"Why? What happened?" Dhruv asked him

"Nothing, now days everyone wants to be that hero and thinks that is cool dude thing" Tanmay replied with mimicking it

"Who was that?" I asked giggling

"Definitely Kabir" Dhruv said laughing out loud

"No, it was I guess someone named Shaurya, from your engineering batch? These days everyone wants to be cool dude let it be freshers or seniors" he said smiling.

"I guess medical batch is always cooler than engineering one" he continued proudly.

"Careful how you speak about him, you are speaking about my best friend" Dhruv said firmly

"I am sorry I didn't knew, it's just that....." Tanmay hesitated

"Relax Tanmay" I said

"And Dhruv, we know how Shaurya is, he must have been his introverted self"

I was passing by the multi-purpose hall after classes to meet Sambhav when I saw Dhruv and Sanya talking to the guy I scolded this morning and laughing when I snooped they were making fun of me when another fresher came and challenged him for an arm-wrestling fight saying

"Come on , I have practised enough to make the champion lose", The other fresher said, before he could reply I entered and said

"Hey, do you mind if today I fight an arm wrestling round with the Champion?"

"No, not at all" he said backing off

"But you are a Senior" the guy, maybe Tanmay, replied

"And you are the champion?" I taunted

"Ok" he said egoistically,

people gathered and everyone started cheering for me, even Dhruv (like of course he was my best friend, he would) but Sanya was standing there blank.

I lessened my force to look like I am losing to see Sanya cheering but it didn't happen so I angrily banged Tanmay's hand on the table winning the arm wrestling and I managed to get a tint of happiness of me winning on Sanya's Face.

I stood up and said "Try to be cool, but be in your limits, especially around girls. And don't think just because my friends are talking to you I will spare you " I said and left.

When someone is actually wrong, there Shaurya does not want to fight them and says it's inviting unnecessary trouble but here he had to show power and dominate over the juniors how stupid.

Sanya and Shaurya just continue to prove they are opposite of each other, not just in behaviour but also in choices, how will they deal with new surroundings?