Operation Catch-A-Prince: Day 1 (still)

Dear Diary,

Arnav is not just a prince. He is a gentleman prince. A knight in shining armour, a … a - he's like Prem from Hum Saath-Saath Hain, if Prem was sarcastic and kind of mean. He's quiet just like Prem is, but he doesn't smile as much. That's okay, one day when we're married I'll tease him about what a snob he was and he'll laugh and say that I taught him what true love and happiness is. Then I will say that I already knew this cause I am good and virtuous. It's full-proof.

"You mean fool-proof," Jiji sighed, having reverted back to her ways of sneakiness and reading over my shoulder.

"Arnav's not a fool, Jiji," I said sternly, ready to defend my would-be husband to the death.

"No, Khushi," she groaned, looking like she wanted to smack me, "the word is foolproof."

To be honest, I don't completely understand how a word could be defended against fools, but I didn't argue. That's another reason mine and Arnav's marriage will be so exemplary one day. I will never fight with him. Ever. For anything. He's so beautiful, why would I even want to? We'll agree on everything and even if we don't, I'll probably be so attractive one day that he'll agree with me anyways, just to keep me happy.

One day, after he finishes fighting Salman Khan for my hand in marriage, he'll tell me how beautiful I am and that he'd fight Salmanji a million times if it meant getting me - ugh, Jiji is back. And with more silly and cruel remarks.

"Pagli," she says, laughing callously as if she isn't about to break my heart, "by the time you're old enough to be married, Salman Khan will have kids of his own."

I don't know who Jiji thinks she is exactly, but her negativity is not welcome in my bubble of good wishes and happiness.

Speaking of good wishes and happiness! Why focus on negativity like Jiji's when I had Arnav, the personification of goodness and happiness, to talk about. I guess you could say that our love story officially began at 2:30 pm today when I walked out of class and saw him in the courtyard again. He was standing under a tree, and I knew from watching him before that he was waiting for the arrival of the big white car that would pick him up from school and take him back home. I stared at him for a while, trying to find the courage to follow through with my idea. What if it hit him and he got angry? Nonsense, Arnav didn't have an angry bone in his body, he is an angel. What if it hit him and he got hurt? Nonsense, yet again. Something as small as a pencil case couldn't hurt a man. And Arnav… well he was definitely a man. Besides, I told myself resolutely, even if it did hurt slightly now, it would be made up for in the happiness he'd feel realizing it was me, the love of his life, here to retrieve him at last. Once I had him, I'd keep him close so girls like Shreya Khanna couldn't get too close. That girl was already on my last nerve. Always staring at Arnav, whispering to her friends about him, she probably even wrote about him in her diary. What a creep!

"Khushi," Jiji's voice sounded again, undoubtedly to spout some more negative nonsense. "Don't you do the exact same thing?"

"Excuse me?!" I had gasped, appalled that Jiji would suggest that I would ever do such a thing to my beautiful Arnav.

"You stare at him, whisper about him and his mental math skills, and write about him in that diary of yours. Aren't you just as bad as she is?"

How. Dare. She.

"It is completely different." I sniffed haughtily. "I am going to marry him one day so that makes it cute."

She didn't seem to agree with me but then again who cared what she thought. One day when I was the Princess of Sheesh Mahal on the hill and Jiji was married to creepy Brij's older brother Rohit, then we'd see what she thought. Back to what was really important, Arnav.

I stared at him from a few feet away. He looked like he was thinking again, staring up at the leaves of the tree. He was probably thinking about photosynthesis or something equally impressive. I knew from prior… observations… that the fancy white car from Sheesh Mahal would be arriving soon, so if I wanted to act, I had to do it now. I raised my arm, pencil case in hand and poised to throw, when I began to second guess my plan. Maybe I could just by him and drop it instead? Was throwing it necessary? I had almost convinced myself to rethink my idea when Arnav turned away from the tree and made eye contact with me. The sunlight was filtering through the canopy of leaves, lighting up the different shades of golden brown in his eyes. Before I was really conscious of what was happening, my arm let go, and I could only watch in horror as my pencil case went sailing through the air. Arnav saw it too, and looked confused as he calmly took a step backwards, effectively removing himself from the path of the object. It hit the ground between us, and I felt like the entire courtyard had gone silent suddenly, despite the fact that I could hear Shreya Khanna trying to get Arnav's attention by talking too loudly about how much she loves math. He looked up at me then, and raised one eyebrow in a perfect, questioning arch.

"What the hell was that?"

His voice! In my head, I'd imagined all sorts of voices for him, thinking of what he would sound like when he told me was in love with me when I would finally speak to him. Nothing could measure up to what it really was. None of the boys in my year sounded like that. I kept my eyes trained on him and in my head I looked just like Madhuri Dixit, a worldly beauty speaking volumes from my eyes.

"Are you okay? Your eye is… doing something..?"

… Or maybe I didn't look as alluring (another fancy word!) as I thought I did. He asked me if I was okay! He cared! Of course he cared about me, he's older and smarter, he probably immediately recognized that I'm his soulmate. He is a man and I am a mature woman about to blossom -

"Do you need help finding your mom?" Devi Maiya, he's beautiful and so kind. But I'd have to talk to him about this. He couldn't make a habit out of being so nice to every girl he came across, offering to escort her to her mother and all. What if they just kept him!? Someone so perfect needed to be more careful.

"No!" I finally burst out, not wanting him to go find a teacher to deal with who he probably thought was some kind of nut. "No, thank you."

I tried to keep my voice softer that time, wispy and feminine, a woman never raised her voice after all -

"Pardon? I can't hear you." Arnav took a step closer to me, and my heart lurched in answer.

"NO. I'M OKAY, THANK YOU."

I want to die. How could I have yelled in his presence?!

He blinked in surprise before his features settled back into a mask of indifference and he nodded, turning away from me again to face the road and watch for his car. A few more minutes passed and I tried not to squeal every time he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. He would frown everytime he noticed I was still standing there. Probably because he can't control his heartbeat when I'm around.

Duh.

Any second now, he'd pick up my pencil case and hand it back to me, take my hand in his and pretend to kiss the back of it (not the real thing - not without marriage). I'd swoon and he'd catch me in his strong arms. We wouldn't get married though, that was for when we were much older, like 16 or something. More minutes passed. He still didn't seem to have taken the hint. Wow. This was really something we'd have to discuss. He, of course, would be repentant and plead for my forgiveness. I would forgive him because I was so kind and he'd notice that and say I was the most amazing girl he'd ever known (and I wouldn't even need to make him say it, like I had to force Buaji to, he'd say it cause he wanted to).

Eventually, he sighed harshly and looked at me again. I knew he would understand soon enough.

"Are you gonna get that, kid?"

Kid. I was expecting more along the lines of jaaneman, meri jaan, or beautiful but I could take 'kid,' as a starting point, I suppose.

More silence. Something in his jaw flexed in irritation and I felt a swoop where my stomach should be. He's so pretty.

"Fine." He snarled, stalking the few steps over to where my pencil case had fallen and stooping to retrieve it. Arnav looked at me again and I wanted to swoon for real when he started to walk towards me now, my glittery pencil case clutched in his manly hands.

"Here."

I took it from his hands, taking care not to brush my fingers against his. That kind of stuff was only allowed once we were married.

"Thank you." I replied, and for once I didn't have to act to make my voice as soft as it came out. To his credit, he didn't mention my lack of earlier responses and simply nodded in answer. A car horn sounded from behind us and he turned around to face the big white car from Sheesh Mahal

Panic gripped me, I couldn't let this interaction end, not when I finally had his attention! He started to walk away from me, and I shouted the first thing that came to mind.

"Khushi!"

His steps faltered and he glanced back at me over his shoulder, pausing for a moment in confusion.

"My name -" I said sheepishly, staring at the floor now, scuffing my shoe against the dirt. "My name is Khushi."

I thought he must've left when he finally answered.

"Nice name. Suits you."

My eyes flashed up to his to find him still looking at me, an awkward half-smile on his face. My heart was suddenly racing like Basanti on her horse-cart and I beamed back at him.

"I'm Arnav."

I barely managed to resist the urge to say that I already knew and instead settled for,

"Nice name. Suits you."

He smiled, a real full smile and gave me a small wave before he climbed into his big white car and took off towards his palatial home. He'd be back though, I knew he would. After all, he'd left his princess behind.

Signed,

Khushi Kumari Gupta