Chapter 62: A Black Sheep

Owing to the loud noise, all the three children could see was Harshil’s lips moving; nobody heard a word he said.

Deciding that it would just be an annoyance to deal with more of Harshil’s clowning, Cabir simply turned his attention to Aakash who had on a crestfallen expression.

“We have an arrangement now; we can play a few rounds.”

“Arrangement?”

“You didn’t see the chart?” Harshil interrupted. “I’m so happy! She told us to read that chapter on chemical bonding. I totally forgot!”

Aakash’s eye twitched, “Shivina Ma’am has been saying that for the last three classes.”

“I’ve been consecutively forgetting!” Harshil patted his chest with pride.

“Well anyway, Shivina Ma’am is absent. So, some Pamela Ma’am will be supervising the class in the science period.”

“Oh, that’s cool. A free period!” Aakash exclaimed, his hand unconsciously shuffling the deck.

“Yeah. You can take a gamble on whether this teacher will confiscate your cards.” Cabir grinned.

“Pamela Ma’am is a very strict teacher. She’s the class teacher of one of my friends. You’ll lose the bet if you take it.” Aanya advised.

“Don’t worry about that, Aanya.” Harshil swung an arm around both Cabir and Aanya. He whispered, “It’s pure entertainment watching him try to negotiate about getting his cards back. Encourage him.”

Before the other two replied in affirmative or otherwise, the boy in question sighed morosely, “I can’t. We have the Social Science period after this. I forgot to finish marking the maps that sir told us to do. It’s lucky we have a free period; I’ll finish up the homework now.”

“Oh, c’mon. What a boring guy.” Harshil groaned.

“Marking the rivers?” Aanya asked.

“No, I did that. It’s the forest one I’m left with.”

“Oh, I was working on that quiz competition I’ve have to go to tomorrow so I didn’t get the time to complete both maps. I’m done with the forests, I’ve to finish the river one.”

As Aanya sighed, Aakash kept his cards back into the bag and drew out his pencil case before fumbling around.

“Oh, shit! I must have forgotten to put the geography book back in after marking the map! Tch. Hey, Cabir, lend me yours.”

“I have to finish my own maps; I haven’t done either one.” Cabir shrugged.

“Harshi-”

“I don’t carry books with me.” The boy nodded in pride.

“Just give me your maps then.”

“I already submitted the copy in the morning.”

“…why is it that you submit Deepak Sir’s homework so quickly?” Aakash looked perplexed.

“Well, he is a friend of my uncle’s. I’ll get a personal complaint or something if I slack off.” Harshil scoffed.

Aakash just gave him the stink-eye when Aanya waved at him.

“Shaili came for a half-day. So, I don’t have a deskmate. You can just come over to my seat to finish the maps. I can’t lend you mine since I’ve pasted both before marking them but I’ve the book.”

“You’re a lifesaver, Aanya!” Aakash gave her a thumbs up just as the teacher walked in.

“Good afternoon, students!”

“Good afternoon, Ma’am.” All the sitting children stood up while the ones loafing around turned in her direction.

“Okay, sit down. Be silent and do what you are supposed to study or finish.” With that, she sat down and took out some exam papers which she began to mark with minute attention.

*****

“Too embarrassing…” Aakash covered his face with a hand as Aanya shared as many of the details as she remembered and his own memory filled in some of the gaps.

“I really was a black sheep!” He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“Ah, hahahaha, hahahahaha.” Aanya’s body shook as she thumped her pillow. “I only remembered the ‘fuck off’ part. I totally forgot what followed. Seriously, you asked you mom what porn was? And even told her the names of your friends who watched it? This is just too immature…hahahahaha.” She couldn’t seem to stop laughing.

“Oh, stop it. It isn’t all that funny.” Aakash grumbled.

“Maybe not to you. It definitely is for me.” Still shaking, she turned over to look at Aakash, “I have to remind Cabir about this tomorrow.”

“Childish.” He threw a pillow at her as he got up to leave.

“On the contrary, I was mature when you were a complete idiot. Who advised you so well back then, hmm?” Aanya grabbed the pillow and hugged it like a plushie.

“Then your mental growth has clearly been in the backward direction.”

“How petty.” The woman laying on the bed kicked out, catching her husband squarely on the knee. Aakash who was getting off the bed lost his balance and half-crashed onto the covers leading another fit of laughter to rise from his wife.