Chapter 35: The Intention

Even as Aakash almost jumped in surprise, the hand on his shoulder kept him pressed to his chair. Turning his face to the side, his eyes met the familiar rounded bald face of his economics teacher.

“So, you ‘like’ someone in this class, do you? Who is it, hmm?” The smile Kamal sir was sporting seemed more of a sneer than a smile.

It took Aakash a lot of willpower to not shrug off the hand around his shoulder.

“Um…that…” He was at a loss about what to say.

Harshil came to his rescue, “Haha, sir, the question was only whether he had someone he liked or not. He answered that; we can only wait until the next time he chooses ‘truth’ to ask him the name.”

Directing a grateful look at the spiky-haired boy, Aakash added while laughing weakly, “No way am I choosing truth ever again!”

Everybody on the table joined in to cover up their irritation at being interrupted…everybody except the teacher.

Just as Harshil was about to spin the bottle again, Kamal sir scoffed, “You are still going to play? Didn’t what I say before leaving the class go through your thick skulls? You still have time to play games with your hopeless academic scores?!”

His arm tightened around Aakash and his voice rose with every word he spoke, drawing heads. While many were looking at the group of boys with annoyed expressions, some directed fuming gazes at the teacher.

Among them, three faces especially, while casting exasperated looks at the rounded figure of their economics teacher, were full of concern for the boys.

“Will they be fine?” The brown-haired girl clasped a sketchbook to her chest as she bit her lips, gazing with wide eyes at the boys.

“I hope so, Farzeen.” Janya patted her best friend’s shoulder as she tapped her tapped her pencil head on her own sketchbook. “Harshil really detests Kamal sir…I hope he doesn’t blow his top.”

“There’s a higher chance of him being sarcastic than exploding.” Aanya brushed back a lock of her black hair after she bookmarked and placed down the novel she had been reading. “I’m more worried about Cabir. He really doesn’t keep his temper in check when his friends are in a jam. Remember last year?”

“Well, that was with seniors…not teachers.” Janya too bit her lips.

“It’s Cabir…who knows what will happen?” Aanya sighed.

“That’s true.” Farzeen nodded her head vehemently.

“But what is he doing with Aakash? He doesn’t really look that angrily at teachers…this is the first time I’ve seen him look so irritated.”

“Well, Kamal sir has an arm around him while shouting. Must be something related to him.”

“Hmm…” Aanya furrowed her brows.

Aakash was barely resisting the urge to throw off the teacher’s hand because the man was still continuing-

“…it’s always Goa this and Goa that when you see me. Or it’s wasting time playing games. Or…” He pointed at a few students who had their heads down on their desks, sleeping…or at least pretending to sleep in order to ignore the teacher, “Just sleeping.”

He tightly grabbed Aakash’s shoulder as he leered at the whole group, “Now there’s also romance floating around in the air. These are the things that go around in your head, right? No wonder your scores are…” He shook Aakash roughly.

Even as the boy’s face flushed red in embarrassment, he glared daggers at the teacher, which went unnoticed.

“25 out of 25 in the UT and 85 out of 90 in the Half-Yearly. Aakash’s scores, I mean.” Harshil smiled at Mr. Kamal, though the smile never reached his eyes.

Hot wind blew in from windows and Harshil’s hair fluttered as he locked gazes with the stunned teacher.

“…As I feared.” Janya shook her head.

“Well, I don’t mind it.” Aanya smiled coldly. “He’s been talking so much…but he’s never taught us seriously. If we wanted to, the whole class could submit a written report against him. As long as Harshil doesn’t say something excessive…” The black-haired girl shrugged, “It’s all good.”

“You just don’t like Kamal sir. And you want to see what Harshil pulls off.” Janya nudged her.

“I won’t deny it.” The black-haired girl cracked a smile.

As the girls spoke, Kamal sir had let go of Aakash as he glared at the boy who had had just spoken to him. But before he could speak up, Harshil reached for the bottle and continued speaking-

“I won’t speak for the whole class…though a few of my classmates got exceptional marks and a few messed up but for our group…well, most of us got good marks, sir. It’s really unfair if you say we didn’t score well.”

He pouted, acting as if he had been wronged.

“Jeet scored in the 20s and 80s too, while Jatin…well, he’s the topper of the class; you said so yourself, sir! Cabir got…” He trailed off as he cast an imploring look at Cabir who shrugged.

“I got 23.5 during the UT and 87 in the mid-terms.”

“Yeah, and I,” Harshil’s pout turned into a frigid smile as he aggressively spun the bottle, “Got 22 in the UTs but! I got 86 in the Half-Yearlies…ah, sorry!”

His smile turned colder and colder while his voice dripped with sarcasm, “That’s just what you gave me sir! I had to talk with Shahana Ma’am and you then corrected the marks to make them 90. What was the correction…?”

He stroked his chin and suddenly snapped his fingers, “Ah, yes! One was a calculation error of two marks but you said that it was a zero…not two that you had given me. When Ma’am said that it was the correct answer, you corrected it and there was that policy question too…Ma’am and the others convinced you that it was correct. I still don’t get why you didn’t listen to me when I tried to ask you, sir.”

The bottle, which had been spinning slower...and slower…finally came to a stop.

The class’s expressions had changed while the spiky-haired boy spoke, from shock…to grins…to finally awe.

Kamal sir’s face had changed colours; red…blue…and finally, pitch-black; a looming, brooding thundercloud. But he spoke not a word.

The only thing which hadn’t changed was Harshil’s frigid smile.

The sarcastic undertone in his voice gave the impression that he was sporting a mocking smile…though that was probably the intention.