chapter three
First day at a new school was like the first day of hell, well at least to Ridhima it seemed that way. she liked the idea of a small town but she did not like the idea of the whole school knowing who she was with out actually knowing her, if that made sense.
She could have sworn that the guy from the morning at the coffee shoop, the guy named John was either stocking her or really trying hard to impress her, either way the kid was a dork. every time she saw him he would come up to her and tell her all about the school, the people, the teachers, and the stuff she really didnt gaive a flip about.
"Hey Ridhima you wanna sit with us" Alison, one of the girls from her math class called out to her. it was lunch time and school just seemed to be a plain old bad day. her teachers were teaching everything that she already knew. the students seemed overly happy and preppy and a little over excited to be her friend. Ridhima wasnt a type of person that hated happiness, but old town springs was like disney land except a little bit of more prep. it seemed like every one was always happy and it was a bit creepy. back in her old school teachers never introduced new students, but here all the teachers wanted her to come up in front of the class and talk a little about her self. what made it more werid was the fact that students actually listened to her with curiosity, it was as if no one from old town springs had ever been in a city before.
Ridhima sat down besides Alison. she noticed that John was also at the table along with Windchester from her Calculas class, Mera from her French calss, and Jessica from her english class. "Hey" Ridhima said sitting down with her new group of friends.
"So Ridhima you applied for a job at the cafe right" John brought up the subject so Ridhima could be inculded in to the conversation.
"Yeah, i was hoping to make some extra cash since my mother and i are always in a tight spot with money." It wasnt a complete lie but nor was it a complete truth, yeah her mom and her always had money problems but it wasnt exactly why Ridhima had applied for the job in the first place.
Ridhima sometime felt like she was losing her mind, she had only been in town for a week and up until she had met Armaan three days ago she had not given squat about the town. who would have ever thought that a man like Armaan Malik was alive, let alone in a small town like this.
"Well you know Anvil and John are pretty good friends, your gonna have quite a bit of compition on your hands" Alison butt into the conversation with a little more prepieness then what Ridhima wanted.
"I'll keep that in mind" Ridhima said with a little smile even though she was feeling no where near happy. she knew that Armaan was probably not going to hire her, from what she could tell the man seemed to strongly dislike her. maybe she hadnt gone all that well with her first impression with the man. she had been so exicted that her hero, idol, lord, everthing she was obssesed with was right infront of her she did not bother to think that just maybe the guy wanted to be alone and away from people like her. she really should have just gone into that coffee shop the first day and just pretended like she did not know who he was.
the only thing that seemed good about the day and about Armaan Mailk was that he was going to admit to her that he was Armaan Malik, all she had to do was agree to never tell anyone who he was, how diffic*** could that be?
After lunch it seemed like the day had flown by quite quickly. Ridhima did not bother to stop by her house first. she walked strait from school to the coffee shop.
*****
Just like a roller coaster there are moments when everything around can be see crystal clear, and other times when the thrill and speed of the rid blurs the visionary path that life is riding towards, but in the end of the ride holding on tight to the understanding of success and failure, knowledge and wisdom, and art and beauty self philosophy of life will bring a sense of peace.
Armaan shut his laptop when he saw Ridhima enter his cafe. she was with a few other students from the high school as far as he could see there was Mera, Jessica, Windchester, John naturally that kid would be after the first pretty face he saw.
Dispite the fact that Armaan was afraid that Ridhima could completely ruin his life with just a call to the national inquirer, he had a good enough feeling that she wouldnt do such a thing. he actually liked Ridhima not because of her looks, truth was there was nothing extrodanary about her looks. she was an average girl, but she was very smart. he did not have to be good friends with the girl to know that she was someone understanding and knew more then she let on to be. Armaan was a good judg of charater and tallent probably because he himself was someone of the same standers. All he knew was that he has an opportunity to share his lonelyness with a friend, someone who really knows his identity and someone who he could trust not to tell the world about him. then again Armaan didnt have much of a choose but to tell Ridhima the truth mostly because she already knew all he had to do was conferm it.
"Hey Anvil, so who got the job" Jessica said coming strait up to the counter. she was quite the preppy girl and if old town springs had funds for cheerleaders she would probably be captin. "Actually, turns out i need more help around this place then i had thought before, so im going to be hireing John and Ridhima" Armaan was lieing through his teeth but he had no choice but to hire both the two school kids.
origially he was just going to hire John but then as he thought about it Armaan realized that if he didnt hire Ridhima she could hold i aginst him and tell on him to the world. even though that sounded childish, his paranoia got to him.
"Did you hear that Ridhima we gonna be working buddies" John said putting an arm around Ridhima which from the look on her face was a smile but on the inside she was frowning, for some reason Armaan was able to see that she was no way into John which caused Armaan to laugh out loud. he started to walk away from the group of kids as he yelled back to John and Ridhima "you two see me in my office, ya'll will be starting today" Armaan actually didnt have an office, his office was the back storage room. he could have made his own aparment right upstairs the office but he really didnt like the idea of high school kids in a room where he kept all his writtings and books, it would be too much of a give away that he was hidding something.
Johan and Riddhima followed behind Armaan to his office and John shut the door behind them. "Well John you know how my coffee shop runs so there shouldnt be any trouble for you to know your way around here, your pay is going to be the same as Ridhima witch will be ten dollars an hour and i expect both of you here full time during weekends" Armaan said looking up at John and Ridhima. even though he had sat down both of them were still standing. "That seems cool" John said "Well, John get to work, i need to talk to Ridhima to let her know how things run around the coffee shop" After Armaan said that John left Armaan and Ridhima alone.
Armaan let out a sigh before he began again. "Have a seat, little lady" When Armaan said that a clear frown approched Ridhima's face. "Whats with the frown" He asked because this time he really did not know what he said to offend Ridhima.
"I dont like being called little, when im not"
Armaan let out a rore of a laugh. to him she was little, not only was she young in age her body fram was quite small also. He noticed how she was in such a hurry to grow up. "gives me more of a reason to call you little" Armaan said with a smile after his laughter was gone. "I'v got my terms out in writting, all you got to do is read it and sign" Armaan said taking out a doument a good ten pages long. Ridhima just looked at the paper, and which out even reading it signed it. When she did that Armaan had a grin to his face "you aint gonna read it to know the concequences if you tadle tale?" Armaan asked amused at her blind faith in him.
"Dont need to, because i know i'm not going to tell a sole."
"not even if i provoke you to do so?" When Armaan said that Ridhima became confused
"Why would you provoke me to tell the world that Armaan Malik is alive?"
Armaan just gave a shrug, and before Ridhima could turn the page in the document to see what he had written as her condition, he snatched the document away from Ridhima. "Its not that important anyway" Armaan said with a devilish grin. "So, are you going to admit now that your real name is Armaan Mailk?" Ridhima asked dieing to hear the words "Fine, I'am Armaan Malik" Armaan admited and for some odd reason it brought another glowlish look to Ridhima's eyes that had Armaan in complete aw.
"Have you written anything since your last publication" Armaan should have known that, that was going to be the next thing out of Ridhima's mouth. Gosh this girl could talk, but he was suprised that a girl like her with such a big mouth that never shut up could keep a secret so big as his.
"I have" Armaan said with a short answer.
"Well..." Ridhima said with a pause, expecting Armaan to know what she ment by the phrase 'what'
"What do you mean by 'well'?" Armaan asked
"Do i get to read you stuff or not?" Ridhima asked with such excitement, no one could ever say no to such a face. Although Armaan was going to let Ridhima read his work anyway it brought a feeling of joy inside him to have someone so enthuisatic as her to want to actually read what he had written after such a long time.
"Sure you can, but only after you work, and you dont get paid reading my writtings, and you can not take any of my writtings outside of this coffee shop, is that understood?" Armaan asked with athority and all he got in reply was a good load of sarcasm from Ridhima "Sure thing Mr. Armaan Malik sir, by the way what am i exactly to do?"
"You bus tables and clean them up after people leave" Armaan said as he and Riddhima stood up. Armaan opened the door for Ridhima as she walked out. for some reason he had a feeling that she was going to end up becoming a close friend of his for the few months she was to be in town till her graduation in the summer.