Page 119 of Aru Shah and the End of Time

Aru laughed, remembering it. But the laugh quickly died in her throat when she saw who was walking just a few feet in front of her on the sidewalk.

The new boy at school.

Aiden Acharya had enrolled just last week, which seemed really impractical, considering that winter break was just about to start. But according to the school’s best gossip (Poppy), his family had been very convincing (read: they were superrich). He was having a pretty easy time adjusting at school, which made sense considering he looked like…that.

Until recently, Aru hadn’t given much thought to what made a boy good-looking. Just the basic standards of not sounding like a braying donkey and not smelling like a pair of cursed sneakers ruled out half the guys in her class. Aiden, on the other hand, had dimples and curly black hair. And he smelled nice. Not like soap or deodorant, but like clean laundry. Plus, his eyes were really dark and framed by even darker lashes.

She hadn’t spoken to him yet. What would she say? All she knew was that he and his mom had moved into the large house right across from the museum. Yesterday, his mom and her mom had started talking on the street. Indian people did that all the time. (Oh, you’re Indian? Me too! How ’bout that?)

Aiden had been standing with his mom. At one point, it looked like he had seen Aru watching them from the museum window. Aru had flashed her most attractive smile (she even sucked in her nose) before remembering that she was wearing a pair of metal horns. Boo had insisted that she wear them whenever she was at home. (What if you need to wear a helmet while fighting demons? Your neck needs to be strong!)

Aru had panicked, walked straight into the fridge, and fallen flat on her face. She’d then continued to lie on the kitchen floor for another hour.

She still wanted to strangle Boo.

Now Aru was squeezing her eyes shut in embarrassment over Aiden possibly having seen her in horns when she banged her nose into something. His backpack. She looked up. Aiden looked down. He was at least a foot taller than her. In the afternoon light, his skin looked golden.

“Hi,” he said.

Aru opened her mouth. Closed it.Come on, Aru. You walked through the Kingdom of Death. You can talk to a—

He smiled. “Don’t I know you?”

“I…” She choked.

Why did her voice suddenly seem so deep, out ofnowhere? She sounded like the weatherman. She made a fist and hit her throat. Which only made her cough.Say something!But the only thing her brain could come up with was:Howyoudoin’? No!thought Aru.Definitelydo notsay that. This was what she got for marathoningFriends.Aru smiled. And then she opened her mouth. “I know where you live!”

Aiden stared at her. She stared at him.

“Youwhat?”

“I…um…demons. Good-bye.”

She had never run home so fast in her life.

Why, Why, Why? Stupid Words

“You didn’t…” said Mini.

This was the fifth time Mini had said this.

“Mini, if you say that again—”

A cackle from Urvashi made Aru shut up.

On Fridays, their first class was traditional dance (specifically,bharatnatyam) and etiquette with Urvashi. But Aru had arrived looking so shaken after her encounter with Aiden that Urvashi had demanded to know what happened.

When Aru had told her, Urvashi had laughed hard enough to cause a lightning storm. Several merchants from the Night Bazaar had come to complain that she’d ruined their stock of raincoats (actual coats that shed rain). But the minute Urvashi had smiled at them and cooed, “What’s the problem again?” they’d forgotten what they were going to say, and they went away dreamy-eyed.

Now Urvashi had called in Hanuman and Boo and forced Aru to tell the story again. Hanuman hadn’t laughed, but his mouth had twitched. Boo was still trying to pull himself together.

“I remember Arjuna being a lot more…” started Urvashi.

“Suave?” offered Boo.

“Charming?” chimed Hanuman.

“Good-looking?” suggested Mini.