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The speaker on the ceiling crackled to life. "Welcome back to FITE, Dream Team!" Vardhan sir's voice filled the room. "However, not all of you will be welcomed back into the Dream Team. This is your first task for the year. Reach my room in five minutes."

"Seriously?" Vidushi was pissed. "How did he even know we were back in the room. Does he have a hidden camera?"

She turned around and ran, cursing herself for giving her bag to Rajesh. Sanyukta and Kaustuki followed, hot at her heels.

The boys met them outside the room. Annoyingly, only Jignesh looked out of breath. "Someone stole everything from the room, even the dhoklas my mother packed," he said. "I wanted to share that with you."

"That's so nice Jiggy," Kaustuki replied. "My mom gave me some Dal Bhaat too but that's stolen."

Vidushi rolled her eyes. "If things are missing from both our rooms, it's probably related to the Dream Team."

"And anyway Kaustuki, I can't eat your non veg Khana," Jiggy pointed out.

"I know that - Dal Bhaat is veg. Will you ever bother to learn more about me?" Kaustuki huffed.

Before he could reply, Vardhan sir's voice thundered from within the room. "Have you finished wasting my time? Get in!"

The six Dream Team members shuffled into the room, jostling for positions in the back. Sanyukta, Randhir and Parth ended up in front of Vardhan's desk.

"Good night - I mean good evening sir." Sanyukta started off. "Hope you had a good summer break."

"Good summer? Tell me Sanyukta Agarwal, with the kind of pathetic performance you and your seniors put up in BAE's Techfest, how could my summer have been good?"

"Sir -" Sanyukta began, but a light tap on the back of her hand warned her to stop. Vardhan was now in the middle of a full blown rant.

"Do you know how embarrassed I was in front of my peers? I couldn't show my face at the alum meet at IISc. The student batch gets more pathetic by the year."

"Sir but we won the junior contest."

"And what about the senior contest, Kaustuki Sherpa?"

"Sir there were Master's students in the - "

"Enough of your excuses, Sanyukta Agarwal! Your seniors were a useless bunch and I made sure they can't get a job at an internet cafe. Unless you all want the same fate, I want you to stop talking and start listening."

"Yes sir, yes sir," Parth spoke for the group.

"The reason your seniors failed is because they were too intelligent."

"Sir?" Jignesh was confused.

"Too intelligent and not at all smart. They spent two months building a model that's 100% accurate and their competitors made 10 models to 95% accuracy in the same time. Tell me, who will the industry hire?"

There was dead silence as the Dream Team students avoided Vardhan's eyes.

"What's the matter? Speak up. Tell me Randhir, what would the industry want? After all, your mother runs a massive company."

"They would prefer the second group sir."

Vardhan slapped his desk as a pile of papers floated to the ground. "Exactly. All companies are looking for street smart employees. They even design their competitions like that. And you guys - your parents have given you everything on a silver platter. You have zero street smarts and zero idea what to do if things aren't handed to you."

Maybe she was sleepy, but Vidushi thought that made a lot of sense. She wished sir didn't lump her in with the rest of the Dream Team though. She had sweated for hours on end to earn every rupee of her college money, unlike the others who just produced a cheque signed by daddy. Or mummy, in Randhir's case.

"Okay sir, we'll learn street smarts. How should we learn it?" Sanyukta asked.

"This is exactly the wrong way. You can't learn it except by actually going out in the real world - no book or research paper will show you how to do it. But we don't have that kind of time, do we?"

When no one answered, he continued, "I'm sure you noticed that everything from your room is missing."

"Yes actually sir I wanted to complain about that. How to raise?"

Vidushi resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Vardhan continued as though Jignesh had not spoken, "I have taken the liberty of hiding it around the college. Everything you own is somewhere here, and your task is to find it and get it back to your room by 8 AM."

"Any other rules sir?"

"If there were, they would destroy the aim of this exercise. Now get started!"

The Dream Team didn't need to be told twice. As soon as they left the room, Randhir took off towards the boys' hostel.

"Hey wait!" Sanyukta called out behind him. "Don't you want to discuss?"

"The problem with you is you waste time talking and not doing. What is there to discuss? I want to find everything and catch a few hours of sleep before classes tomorrow."

"Yeah but won't it be easier if we divide the work?"

"Come on Sanyukta, how far can they have moved everything? I bet the bed and cupboards are in the hostel."

"Yeah but how will you carry it by yourself even in the hostel? "

"I can manage on my own, but I suppose a weakling like you can ask the security for help."

"So childish Randhir."

"Whatever, I'm not wasting any more time. Anyone coming?"

Vidushi got up to follow him.

"Jiggy, what about you?"

"I'll need some help to move things Randhirbhai," Jiggy was apologetic. "It's better if I work in a team."

"Your loss," Randhir said as he walked out of their sight.

"Guess it's just the four of us," Sanyukta turned to the others. "Where should we start?"

"Randhir had a good point. They could not have moved the beds and cupboards far, so we should look for them around the hostels."

"That...makes some sense I guess," Sanyukta reluctantly agreed with Parth. "What else can we eliminate?"

"Students have moved into the hostel, and I doubt sir would disturb them by putting stuff into their rooms. So we should just check the empty rooms - the fourth years haven't moved in yet." Kaustuki said.

"That means the top two floors for the girls hostel. We should also check the common rooms and the mess. Jiggy what about boys side?"

"We need to check five floors, but we should start by checking with Rajesh bhaiya's friends first."

"Sounds like a plan. Just drag what you find to the lift and we can take one trip to our floor."

"Cool, let's go Jiggy," Parth said.

"Oh! I just remembered we took a photo of the room," Kaustuki said. "I'll WhatsApp it so you can check with the picture if you find anything."

"Great, we have a solid plan. Just keep texting on the group chat if you need help," Parth said.

The four of them raced towards the elevator, eager to finish the task soon.