"Be your what?!" Christopher and Shika both shrilled in unison while Anuradha stared at Karthik showing no reaction on the façade.

"I can't!" she said sternly.

"Anu, he needs your help" Cameron spoke breaking her intense gaze away from Karthik.

"She can help even without being his girlfriend" Christopher wasn't happy at all.

"Help in the sense be his girlfriend? How does that even help him?" Anuradha fumed. 

"I know it sound ridiculous but by you being, I mean acting as my girlfriend would help the girls stay away from me." Karthik tried to explain his stand, almost looking pitiful.

"How sure are you?" she stood up and  slowly walked to Karthik.

"Sure enough to know that they will not cross my path again."

"Isn't convincing me" she clucked her tongue, taking another step forward. "You know what,... I hear someone wants you to wear a helmet. Do you have one?" Anuradha looked more intimidating than anyone in the room have seen as she fetched the water bottle on the table. 

Karthik nodded sideways.

"Tch, too bad because YOUR HEAD IS ABOUT TO BREAK" before Anuradha could finish saying it, Karthik started running towards the other end of the lecture room.

"I... would... have... done... myself... if..." Karthik shouted in the midst of running to end of the room and stopped. "Where is the door that was here?" he asked rubbing the wall as though the door would appear magically.

"Wrong room" Anuradha said in ever calm tone standing about fifteen feet away from him.

He sighed, "Fine, I know I shouldn't have asked you that but I don't see any other option" Karthik looked over Anuradha aiming for the door to exit as quick as he can.

If she could hurt her high school friend without a second thought, Anuradha wouldn't even think for Karthik, she barely knows him.

Noticing Karthik aiming for the door, Shika ran to the door and stood behind it.

She took a deep breath, this wasn't easy at all she thought. Helping is her nature but helping someone by going out of her way wasn't what she does normally.

"What do you mean there is no other option?" Christopher asked, curiously as he stood next to her, blocking his way to run.

"Those girls aren't the ones that would listen, they are those who would just knock you down if you don't go their way. I tried" Karthik knew that this isn't going to help him.

"They knocked you down?" Anuradha's concern look replaced the emotionless expression.

"they didn't,"

"Anu, why don't you just help him for once" Cameron requested, walking towards them.

"Why don't you, Cameron?" Anuradha said in frustration and walked out of the room.

*-*-*-*-*

A day after discussing about the script for the play, they finally had their set of scripts ready to rehearse.

Mrs. Gracie was much glad that the selection of script ended faster than she thought. "Anuradha, I have randomly picked a couple of names from list of our club members, we will try to get them an appropriate character for this script." Anuradha nodded.

As Anuradha wrote down the names Mrs. Gracie called out, one name in particular had her stop writing. "Karthik Manohar Chauhan" she pronounced his name in thick British accent.

She looked up to see Karthik walking to the front joining the rest of the team.

Shika who was sitting next to Anuradha was equally shocked, Shika shrugged as she asked how his name got in the list when he wasn't even there during the registration. Anuradha then searched for Christopher in the class and asked him the same.

Christopher nodded a yes, he was enrolled to this club.

"Liar! Aren't you supposed to be in the music club?" Anuradha questioned him as soon as Mrs. Gracie dismissed the class.

"Yes, I was before I took a break due to my accident but not anymore. I have been signed up to this club long back." Karthik said with a confident smile.

"Who keyed-in the names of the recruits?" Anuradha asked Shika as she looked at the name list for the umpteenth time.

"Sara" Shika replied

"I can help you in winning your competition, Radha. One help. That's all I need." Karthik pleaded.

"It's not about me not helping you Manohar. It's about the way I'm going to help you. It doesn't make sense they will know we aren't in relationship. You will end up in trouble again. "

Soon Cameron and Manoj joined them as they talked about 'Mission Rescue The Golden Dragon'.

"Anuradha, I know it isn't a small thing but if you refuse to help now then Karthik is going to spend his remaining campus life hiding and not being active at all." Manoj spoke for the first time about this matter ever since they started talking about it.

"Try once, Anuradha. You know I will not asked you to do something that will cause more problems, right?" Cameron tried to convince her.

"I can't Cameron, I have a lot of other stuffs to concentrate too......, why don't Shika help him" Anuradha pointed at Shika who was least interested in their conversation.

"What me?" she jumped hearing her name.

"No, Shika is too soft. They can easily outdo her." Karthik disagreed to have Shika help him.

Karthik himself have seen the girls handled a couple of girls a little rough than they should and he dare not allow Shika to face them.

"Too soft?" she scoffed, "Are they manhandling? If they are do I look strong enough to?" She questioned.

"I don't know about physically but you are mentally a strong person and you can easily intimidate them just like how you did to me. And they won't dare to hurt you too because you are well-known in the college."

Though it was quite convincing, Anuradha wasn't ready to accept his request. Keeping in mind the amount of concentration she needs for both the competition and her studies, this will definitely affect her concentration on both.

"Cameron, I don't think this will work" Anuradha turn to walk out of the room.

"Radha! For once, please." Karthik almost pleaded.

"I wish to help you but I have something called intuition that says this isn't going to be a one day show. They look...uhm... fierce" Anuradha was trying hard to describe them. "I don't think i can help you Manohar, they can easily outweigh me too." 

"Manohar, I think you should give yourself another week, see if they are still after you. Try to avoid them as much as you can, I'm sure they will not disturb you again if you aren't showing any interest" suggesting a possible way for Karthik to get rid of them, she grabbed her things and left the room.

Leaving Karthik in even more devastating state, 'will that even help' he thought.

"We will work things out." Manoj said with Cameron agreeing to him.

***************

No 'yes' from Anuradha yet. Poor Karthik :(