Week 13 Story: RamChella

You can read this at my Portfolio Site

RAMCHELLA

"Girls, can you be a little more quiet up there, please?" Sita's mom yelled from the bottom of the stairs.
Sita and Draupadi immediately stop and look at one another. As if on cue they both break out into a fit of laughter. Sita, still laughing and now holding onto the side of her stomach, beams at Draupadi.

"How long have my parents been yelling at us from the bottom of the stairs?" Sita ask.

Draupadi, looking deep in thought with her index finger tapping her chin and her eyebrows raised responds, "Oh, only for about 18 years....not long at all!".

Both girls immediately start laughing again.

Sita knew they both felt giddy with excitement about all the changes that were about to take place in their lives. She and Draupadi have been best friends since they were six years old, when they met in kindergarten. She is still amazed how that day started. She had arrived into the classroom minutes before Draupadi and was looking at all the art supplies. Draupadi had stormed into the classroom with her eyes ablaze and hair haphazardly put into a ponytail. At least Sita thought it was supposed to be a ponytail because it looked like she had her head stuck out the window of a car going a hundred miles an hour. Either way, Sita was immediately enthralled with the little girl when she stormed into the classroom and yelled "All mine! This classroom is ALL mine!"

That can still explain Draupadi today too, Sita thought. Draupadi went after what she want and wither through determination or will, she usually got it.

In fact, one could say that it is because of Draupadi that they were about to go on an epic adventure. Both girls decided this was the best way to end their senior year of high school.

Draupadi had scored two VIP tickets to RamChella. Ramchella is the biggest concert of the year, with obscure and well known bands coming to play. They have been planning their last great adventure before leaving one another to go to different colleges. Ramchella, in a way, was their goodbye to high school and their hello to the future.

Breaking Sita out of her thoughts, Draupadi ask, "Ok, so are finished packing? Do we have everything we need for in the morning?"

Sita looks around the room, which was now a disaster zone and says, "Yep, we have everything, let's set our alarms now and get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be AMAZING," she squealed.

Day 1 RamChella

Both girls stood in wonder, looking everywhere, not saying anything. They were in awe. So many people flowing around them, dancing to the music of the band playing. Draupadi suddenly elbowed Sita in the ribs, hard!

Sita yelped and jumped back "Hey! Why did you do that?" she had been staring at a gorgeous guy standing not far away from them in the VIP section wondering how she could approach him.

Draupadi apologized and pointed, "Look at that God of a man! He is so cute!"

With dread, Sita looked. Draupadi had been looking at the same guy. Just great, she thought. Draupadi always goes for what she wants.

Which she was right now. Draupadi had grabbed her hand and was practically pulling her along towards the man.

"Hi! My name is Draupadi and this is my friend Sita. Can we join you?" Draupadi had to yell to be heard over the music. Sita was so embarrassed that she looked as if she were in physical pain.

He smiled at them both, "Ya, c'mon! My name is Ram."

And this was the beginning of the end.

Day 2- RamChella

“So, how crazy is it that your name is Ram and we are at RamChella!” she giggled.

Sita rolled her eyes. Draupadi was flirting with him…again! Sita explained to Draupadi last night how she had saw him first. Therefore, it was only fair she got the first shot with him. Apparently Draupadi forgot or did not care. They had never gone for the same guy before and this was new territory for them.

 Sita did not like the competition that seemed to be building between them. They had never been competitive with each other before. Rather, they were each other’s cheerleader. Always rooting for the success of each other like best friends are supposed to.

Ram looked at Sita, and their eyes locked for a moment, causing Sita’s heart to flutter.

Sita, realizing this was the moment to go in for the kill, asked “Would you mind walking me to the bathrooms?” It was never safe to walk alone at RamChella.

 A course before he could answer Draupadi cut in and annoyingly said, “I have to go too, let’s walk together!”

As they walked in a cloud of dust and glitter, both girls happened to glance at one another. 

They both started laughing hysterically. Draupadi fell on the ground holding her side, she was laughing so hard. They finally caught their breath and their laughter slowed.

“What is this all about, anyway? Why are competing for this guy’s attention? We have never been this way before!” Draupadi exclaimed. 

Sita nodded in agreement.

“I know, I was ready to push you when you put your hand on his arm and whispered in his ear! It kind of scared me, honestly” she whispered.

Both girls were now sitting on the ground, their hands smoothing down the dirt surrounding them. They were looking at everything going on around them. Listening to all the laughter spilling out from the different groups standing near them.

“Well there are only two ways to approach this” Draupadi suddenly said.

Sita looked at her intrigued, “Go on, what do you have in mind?”

Taking a deep breath Draupadi explained, “We can compete for him and may the best woman win.” Then she smiled and said “Or we can ditch him, and go have that epic adventure we talked about!”

Sita looked at her best friend and suddenly felt as if they were dodging a bullet.

“Ya! Let’s ditch him! Let’s go get our butts glittered!” She screamed, gleefully.

“Whoa, whoa! I said an adventure not a case of itchy butt” Draupadi said already doubled over with laughter.

This was the best part of their friendship. They always found a way to laugh together.  Now, because of this experience, they knew how not to let a boy get between them. 

Laughter always seemed to solve their problems.

Sunset best friends 

Author's Note: I decided to write about Sita and Draupadi together to wrap up my portfolio. I didn't want to focus on the whole story of their friendship. Instead, I wanted to focus on a moment in time. I was going to bring in Goblin City to tie in all 4 stories on my portfolio but I had already reached word count. I chose a music festival because I am being accosted with Coachella photos currently and figured that would be a good setting. I didn't want to make it obvious in the story but ultimately these two young girls are choosing friendship and each other over a man. This is very different from their stories in the Indian Epics. Both Sita's and Draupadi's stories in the Indian Epics were based on the men in their lives. In fact it would be safe to say that the men were more important than the women were in those stories. I wanted them to easily flick away that annoying gnat of a man. Who needs them?!

We all do. Ok, I am not a man-hater. It just disturbs me how the women in the Indian Epics are running in circles to please the men in their stories. My Sita and my Draupadi do not care, not even one iota, about the guy. They very easily saw what was happening and squashed it.