Mission

I gulped audibly as I made my way through the corridor. Everywhere I turned, there were guys.

Well, what did you expect, genius? It's an all boys school after all.

Shut up.

Yeah, whatever.

Okay, so it's not like I haven't been in the company of boys before. But I've been in a prestigious all-girls school since the beginning of high school, and that I haven’t been around older boys much since then. It makes it that much harder to fit in. Yeah, I can make my voice go deep, but I don't think I can imitate their... slang, or whatever you call it.

I noticed that some of the guys in the corridor looked at me when I passed them. But to me, it felt like every single one of them had their hawklike eyes plastered on my back. Maybe it was true, or maybe I was overreacting. But it felt like they had excess interest on me.

Maybe I looked girlish. Wait. Scratch that. I always looked girlish. Maybe I look way too girlish to be here.

I corrected my necktie and nervously ran a hand through my hair as I sped to the school's office.

I was five foot five, which is normal for a girl. But for a guy, it’s short. Like, very short. And all the boys around me in the corridor looked very tall. The minimum height I saw was something like five foot eight. Or something like that, I’m not great at guessing people’s heights. What really mattered was this: I was short, they were tall. Screw the measurements.

After walking through all the corridors I could find, I was a little annoyed.

This is a school. Why isn't the head office somewhere easy to find? And Uncle could've at least sent someone to pick me up. This place is just humongous.

And then it struck me.

The plan was to lay low, befriend this so-called moody guy, make him into a social butterfly, and then get the hell out of this ridiculous place. If I was escorted to the office by an official, the students would certainly notice, which would be the exact opposite of laying low.

I sighed.

At last I ended up in front of a big room with a sign reading OFFICE above the door. And when I saw where this room was, I wanted to slap myself. The office was near another entrance to the school. The east wing or something. I had been simply walking in circles, so I’d missed it.

Inside the office, I was at once showed to the school's Secretary's--Uncle’s--room.

It was a well-furnished room and when I entered, I found Vimal-uncle behind a huge mahogany desk. His reading glasses were sitting on the top of his nose. There were numerous trophies, shields, and other things proudly displayed in a glass case which occupied one side of the room. The room seemed to scream power and wealth. Which made sense, since this was one of the most prestigious boys school in the area.

Vimal-uncle looked up from the files he was looking into when I cleared my throat. At once his face broke down into a goofy grin that seemed so out of place in the fancy room. "Uthra," he said as his eyes ran up and down over my body. "Not bad. You actually look like a boy!"

I smiled. That kind of compliment shouldn't make a girl happy. But it made me feel proud. At least I look manly. Okay, I went overboard there. I look boyish.

But Uncle's face turned grave eventually, all the playfulness completely swept off his wrinkled face. "Uthra, it's not too late to change your mind. Your father has signed a two-year contract saying that he'd render his service as the chief of the marketing department. So even if you withdraw now, I can... force him to work for me using the contract." Uncle gave a sheepish grin and I couldn't help but grin back. Good to have friends like this. "So you can quit even now dearie," Vimal-uncle said. But the more he talked about quitting, the more this crazy plan sounded appealing.

Oh my god.

Did I just say appealing?

Stupid brain, stupid brain. Thinking mad things. For a moment it gave me a heart attack.

I smiled as confidently as I could at Uncle. "I know this plan is plainly crazy, impractical, and has many difficult aspects. But what really could happen? You are this school's owner and even if it's hard for me, I can come out of this. Simple."

Uncle simply nodded, giving me a weak smile. After about fifteen minutes, I was walking out of Uncle's room. He told me about how things worked at the school, about the dorm,but mainly… he told me about my roommate.

Now there's no turning back.