Nikolai

10

Kiara POV

I pull my hair into a ponytail and tie a hairband as I look into the mirror.

There was a knock on the door before Xahria entered the room.

"You are coming?" She asked.

"Yes, is everyone came?" I ask her.

"Yeah, they are in the dining room. They are eating their breakfast," she replied.

Xahria and I had our breakfast in the morning with Xavier uncle and Elora aunty.

"Let's go." She nods her head. We two walk out of my room and go downstairs.

"So the room is on the ground floor?" I ask her. I didn't see the room yet as it is only used for Ganesh Chaturthi and locked for the rest of the months.

"It's a hall, don't be surprised after seeing it," she said.

"Is that big?" I ask.

"You will see."

We wander towards the hallway, I turn my head as I can hear sounds coming from the dining area.

I wore grey joggers and a white sweatshirt. Xahria wore capri pants and a t-shirt.

Xahria pulled keys out of her pocket and u unlocked the door.

"Here you go," she said opening the door wide open.

My eyes widen as the lights turned on automatically. We stepped inside, I looked around in surprise and a bit shock.

"Wow! Are we going to decorate all this place?" I asked Xahria.

It would take weeks if we decorated the whole place by ourselves. The ceiling of the room is like the hall are high.

It is a huge room, around seventy people can easily fit in.

"Yeah! Don't worry everyone will be joining us," she said.

"Do you hire other people to decorate the place?" I ask her.

"Not really, we usually decorate by ourselves. Sometimes our parents help us. We would be more than enough, the boys do a lot of work even when we leave," she explained.

Kenric, Ezarah, Aubree and Elwen walked in.

"The breakfast was good, you two missed it," Aubree said.

"I already had my breakfast and my tummy is full," I tell her.

"Same," Xahria said.

"No time wasting as we have a lot of work to do," Xahria said.

"Is division done?" Kenric asked.

"Yup."

"We are Eight members, divided by two: One boy and one girl. Four pairs will be doing different work," Xahria explained.

She pulled a paper out of her pocket. "I will call out the pairs."

"Elwen and Aubree, Kenric and Ezarah, Xaiden and Xahria, Kiara and Nico," Xahria readout.

"Kiara and Nico?" Aubree asked with a teasing smile on her face.

"Kreo isn't here to make Kiara his partner."

"But where is he?" Kenric asked. I look around to see everyone are here except Nico and Xaiden.

"He will here and Xaiden will be there in a minute. He went for a shower," Xahria said.

"Nice, do we have to divide work ourselves like every time?" Elwen asked.

"Yes," Xahria replied.

"Decide."

"I know how to do rangoli, Xaiden will fill the rangoli with flowers. Xaiden and I will take care of rangoli," Xahria said.

"You two every time does the rangoli work," Ezarah said.

"I'm okay with it, I don't know how to do rangoli," Elwen said and Kenric agreed.

"Are you okay with marigold flowers work?" Ezarah asked Kenric.

"I'm okay with it," Kenric replied.

"Kenric bhaiyya and I will make marigold garlands and strings," Ezarah said.

"Okay."

"Okay."

"We will help Kenric and Ezarah," Aubree said.

"Kiara Nico always decorates the mandap. Is it okay with you? Will you work on mandap?" Xahria asked.

"No forcing, you can always choose the work you are comfortable with," Kenric said.

"No... No... I will help Nico with the mandap decorations. I'm comfortable with the mandap work," I tell them.

"Sorted."

"Nico bhaiyya and you will decorate the mandap and room. We will help too," Xahria said.

"Okay."

"Everyone here," Nico said. He entered the room with a list in his hand.

"Yes, Xaiden isn't here yet," Elwen said.

"Why?" He asked wandering over to where we all stood.

"He will be hereafter he is done with his shower," Xahria replied.

"Okay."

"Who is my partner? I need to go to the store immediately to get these items," Nico said showing the list.

"Your partner is Kiara," Elwen said. Nico's gaze met mine.

"Kiara? haha, nice," he said. Nico gave a mischievous smile to me before telling me to come with him.

"Come on, we don't have much time."

"We will be done making the garlands by the time you two come back," Elwen said.

The festival is on Sunday, that is tomorrow. We only have a day left to prepare everything.

I follow Nico out of the room. I wear my slippers and he does the same.

The parents aren't here as they are on a vacation, they will be returning tonight.

"Hold this list," Nico said handing me the list. I hold the list before opening the car door.

I get inside, Nico does the same. I go through the list.

"Who made the list?" I ask him as he starts driving.

"Mum, she needs them for tomorrow. We need to stock the pantry so it would be easy for her," he replied.

"You choose to be my partner?" He asked in a teasing tone.

"Haha, I didn't. It was someone who made us partners," I reply.

"We are partners?"

"Yes?"

"How did we become partners when I didn't propose to you?" He teased.

I rolled my eyes, "not funny."

"Oh, are you the one who proposed?" He continued teasing.

"You wish."

"Oh I wish every night," he said glancing at me.

"Nikolai..."

"Yes, darling."

"Stop teasing me," I say.

"Where's the fun then?"

The drive to the super mall was with him teasing me. Thankfully we reached the mall.

I got out of the car, closed the door behind me. "Come on."

I followed Nico inside the mart after being checked.

"We will go to the dry fruits section first," Nico said.

"Okay, do you know the dry fruits section?" I asked him.

"Nope, we need to ask the helpers," he said. I nodded my head, looked here and there.

Nico saw the helper and asked her where the dry fruit section is.

Elora aunty made a list of things that she needs.

"I will get the milk and ghee," Nico said.

"Okay."

"Stay here even when you are done," he said.

"Okay." He nodded his head before going.

I found the dry fruits, I was waiting for Nico when someone bumped into my legs. I looked down to see a little boy. He looked up at me with wide eyes.

"Sorry miss," he said.

"It's okay," I replied with a smile on my face when another came running towards where we are.

"I got you," the other guy yelled looking at the boy in front of me.

"What's happening here?" I heard Nico's voice which made the new boy who yelled gaze at me. He looked at me in awe before pushing his hand out.

"Hi beautiful, I'm Marcus," he introduced himself. I chuckled while shaking his little hand. I looked at Nico who raised his brow at the little boy.

"Kiara," I said.

"You are beautiful," he complimented.

"That she is, now you have to leave her hand and search for your mom kiddo," Nico said. Marcus' eyes shifted to Nico who now stood beside me.

"Is he your brother?" he asked looking at Nico, I couldn't control myself from laughing.

"Nope little man, I'm her boyfriend." It's my turn to widen my eyes.

"What?!" I said.

"What a loss," Marcus grumbled looking at me and Nico.

"Wait, why is she surprised hearing you. Are you faking it?" Marcus asked.

"It's none of your business and I guess your mom is searching for you guys," Nico told.

"Marcus let us go before Mumma beats us," the little boy whose name I don't know said rushing towards the other side.

"Bye beautiful and break up with him. My elder brother is handsome than this man. We come to this mart every week," Marcus commented before running towards where his brother ran. I laughed looking at Nico's frowning face.

"Calm down nicely, he's just a kid."

"Dairy section now," Nico said pushing the cart. After one hour in the store, we returned home.

The cleaning staff have cleaned the steps and the whole house.

Nico and I left the groceries in the pantry. We wandered back to the room.

My eyes slightly widen in surprise looking at the rangoli that Xaiden is working on. Xaiden is decorating the rangoli with flowers.

"It is beautiful," I said.

"Thank you. We are doing the garlands it's your both duty to decorate them," Xahria said.

"Are you done?" Nico asked Xaiden.

"Yup."

"You two decorate this room, we will go out and decorate the staircase and outside walls," Xaiden said getting up.

"Yeah, Aubree and Elwen are decorating the backyard doors," Xahria said.

"We will go now, finish up the room and mandap," Kenric said.

Ezarah, Xaiden, Kenrick and Xahria left the room.

I looked around, I have no idea of how they decorate.

"You have any idea about it?" I ask Nico. He is standing near the rangoli and going through his phone.

"We need to decorate like this," he said showing me his phone.

We both went through the pictures and understood how to decorate them.

"We will start from this wall," he said.

"Okay."

We started working on the wall and after some time we are done with the wall. It looked pretty.

"We will decorate this wall in a criss-cross way, like this." I nodded my head and took the thread and scissors.

When we are done with the walls, I backed off and looked at the walls. They looked perfect with the additional things we added.

"What about mandap?" I ask. I looked at the mandap, they already have a high base with three steps. I guess they made this room for this festival and puja purpose.

"We will decorate with those mango leaves and flowers and add those silver hanging balls to the garlands," he explained taking those decorative items.

"Okay," I said. We attached the silver ball to every garland. I have difficulty in hanging the garland because the hanger is high.

"I can't hang this, it is high, bring a stool," I said to Nico trying to hang. I didn't hear any sound but I was startled when he lifted me off.

"Ugh!" I yelled in fear.

"Hang them," he said lifting me high as if I don't weigh.

I blinked my eyes before hanging the garlands strings. He just carried me like that till every string is hung. His face is pressed into my stomach. It is tickling.

"Put me down," I said. I put my hands on his shoulders while he slowly put me down. He didn't put me down, he held me to his eye level.

"I said put me down," I say looking at him while he gave me his stupid smile.

"I like it this way."

"Are you stupid, put me down now!" I tried to push him but he binds his hold. My body is pressed against his while my feet dangle in the air. This is not good, being this close to him is not good.

I glared at him while he smirked enjoying with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"You look cute," he said finally releasing me.

I glared at him walking away while he whistled.

"I brought you guys pizza!" Kreo said. He went out because of some work.

"Thank you Kreo! I need food," I say wandering over to him.

I'm damn hungry, I took a slice from him and started eating. I didn't care about washing my hands.

Everyone returned to the dining area for food.

"Order some more pizza. This won't be enough," Ezarah said.

Everyone started taking a slice, two pizzas are completed. I took my third slice when Nico walked out of the room.

"Where is mine?" he asked. Xahria opened another box and pushed it to him.

"When mom is coming back?" Xaiden asked.

"She said she will be back by Eight. They had some emergency kind at the organisation," Xahria said.

"Your teammates are coming?" Xahria asked.

"Most of them," Xaiden replied.

"What about you?" he asked.

"Aubree and I invited a few friends. They will be coming for sure," Xahria said.

"What about you Kiara, you invited anyone?" Xaiden asked.

"Nah, I don't have many friends here. Greg and Kreo are the only close ones in uni. Greg will be coming," I said.

"Greg is a good man. I met him through Kreo," Xaiden said.

"He is... He is a sweet and funny guy." I said smiling.

"Oh... oh..." Xahria said. I rolled my eyes finishing my last bite. My gaze went to Nico's who is looking at his phone blankly.