Chapter Twenty Four

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I and Kartik trudged towards the cafeteria, my stomach was rumbling with hunger yet I didn't feel like eating anything. 

Weirdo, I thought of myself.

I spotted Rehan sitting on our usual table scrolling his phone, he looked up to acknowledge us when we arrived at the table. As soon as we plopped in our seats our phones dinged simultaneously. We three caught each others eyes before opening the message.

Danish- Hola amigos! Varun, Amer and I won't be there for the lunch today. Don't miss me too much :-)

Before anyone of  us could reply another messaged popped up.

Kamya- Why? What's cooking up in the pea sized brain of yours? Don't do anything stupid, okay. No one will save your butt this time around. 

It was logical of Kamya to think that they were planning something because I was positive that they would never ditch lunch for school work.

Danish- Yes, Mom!!

Kamya- I am serious Danish.

Naina - God, Kamya will you let him breathe?

Kamya - Do I seem to be in a situation where I could strangle him? No; right,but I can surely do that to you so decide your side wisely.

I could literally see Kamya smiling smugly while Naina glaring at her. Wait, aren't they together right now; at home? 

Danish- Don't tell me that you both are sitting right beside each other while texting!

Danish voiced my confusion.

Kamya - What if we are?

Kamya challenged. 

Varun- CAN YOU JUST STOP THIS AND FOCUS ON THE WORK AT HAND!

He was frustrated and maybe so was I. But what were they working on? Were they planning a new prank and if they were ; why hadn't they included us or Kartik?

Danish- Oops! someone's cranky today. Gotta go ladies. Again, try not to miss me too much.

Kamya- You wish!!!

As soon as we knew that no new messages would appear now, I eyed Kartik thinking that he might know what they were up to.

"What?", he was confused by my scrutiny.

"Are they planning a massive prank or something?", even though I admitted that the gang's pranks were hilarious, I couldn't just stop worrying about the possibility of them being punished or worse; being expelled.

"No, I don't think so, because they would have informed me about it. They won't take risks with the cctv's", Kartik answered calculatively. 

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Don't worry Ananya. Come on let's get something to eat", Rehan smiled.

"Okay", I tried to put on a smile but I already had a lot on my plate; no pun intended.

I could feel Rehan's concerning  gaze scrutinizing my every move as Kartik started chatterring about the new program as he was the head of the computer club.

"You okay?", Rehan mouthed and I nodded in response, scratching my nose before sipping water.

As both of them bickered over god knows what, I remembered that I still had to face a nightmare in the Biology lecture. Somehow the curry and rice which I was having for lunch started tasting like ash and powder. I struggled to keep up with Rehan and Kartik though they made sure to include me in their conversation. I gulped down the spoonful of food and sipped water to make the acrid taste go away.

 Soon enough my friends gave up on including me and I slipped into my thoughts wondering that I certainly shouldn't stress so much about an assignment.There always is a first to all the experiences and this was going be my first instance of being humiliated by a teacher. Well, not first because technically I had received a detention and was thrown out of the class for not paying attention. Both in a mere span of just few days. That was quite out of my character but I didn't really regret it. Of course, I would do my best not to find myself in detention but what's the point of attending school and not being punished once.

Wow, I sighed internally at my unusually new thoughts. If I would have found myself in this situation a week prior to now, I would be freaking out like these were the last moments of my life. Though I was still  nervous about about it, I wasn't terrified like I would have been.

This isn't supposed to be a big deal Ananya, I told myself. Both of them had no idea about my 'oh so encouraging' pep talk.

"You didn't touch your food", I looked up to see that Kartik had already swung his bag on his shoulders while Rehan was eyeing my plate.

"I actually did touch my food", I replied while he chuckled.

"That's the only thing you did with it", he stated with amused eyes.

"Aren't we late for Physics?",I got up and passed Kartik a smile before beckoning Rehan to follow me.

"You look better", he smiled.

"I feel better",for now I had shoved my concern about Varun and his ability to go through my walls, aside. That made me feel good. 

Sometimes ignorance gifts you peace and time to figure out a way through your chaos.

The Physics class went in a haze as the teacher didn't give us time to breathe and lectured nonstop for one hour. I paid attention but I could see Rehan getting frustrated beside me just like the rest of the class. After Physics we retired into the Biology class and saw that people were already there , probably preparing for the presentation.We had to sit at the back and my stomach churned from nervousness. I was taking deep breaths, trying not to sweat out of anxiety, while waiting for my turn. Rehan seemed to be engrossed in his work to notice me. It felt like all the kids in the class were eyeing me like a hawk, just waiting for me to go in the front and give them the opportunity to laugh.

Just seconds before the class could start the door swung open and in strode my newest friend.

Varun

He wore a black t-shirt and black jeans with a denim jacket which was probably eliciting words like 'damn' and 'aah's and 'woah's' from the majority of the girls in the class. Danish and Amer followed after him. Their gazes went across the classroom as they were looking for someone and as soon as Varun locked his gazes with mine,the disturbed rumbling behind his eyes decided to calm down. He broke the gaze and went to the teacher to hand her a slip. 

While the teacher looked annoyed by whatever was written on the slip, Danish mouthed,"We have got you, Princess" and flashed me a Cheshire grin which confused me.

Why in the world were they here? What were they up to?

"You might take your seats now but the next time I would like to talk to your teacher in person before you decide to barge in my class", the teacher reprimanded sternly. Anyone could see that she was annoyed by their interruption and I had expected her to throw them out of the class but it looked like she was bound to let them be here. They surely had planned this precisely.

I eyed each one of them as they strolled through the class looking for vacant seats. My expressions turned from confused to frustrated and then settled on horrified when the reality dawned upon me.

Oh my God, they were here to procrastinate or call off this lecture so that I wouldn't have to go through the humiliation. Before I could react there was a loud squeal from the back of the classroom. I turned my head to find Mahira waving at Varun.

Well damn, did I live under a rock? Until today I had no idea that she was in this class. Maybe it had to do something with the fact that almost every student slept their hour through this class.

"Oh man!",Danish muttered with annoyance loud enough for the class to hear.

Mahira made her way to Varun, clung to his arm, whispered something in his ear and started dragging him towards her seat.

Everyone watched it with their mouths agape. Varun, Danish and Amer barging in a junior's classroom was already a shocker while Mahira's stunt of irritating Varun was an add on drama.

"You already have a bench partner, I will find myself a seat", Varun hissed, though his voice sounded annoyed his face was neutral, devoid of any emotions. Guess someone didn't fancy much of attention. Before she could whine, Varun freed himself from her clutches and made his way towards an empty seat; which was at the last bench, parallel to where I and Rehan were sitting.

Rehan closed his eyes and shook his head,"This isn't going to be pleasant", he muttered to no one in particular, ignored the obvious and went back to his work.

Should I be grateful that my friends had somehow found an idea to save my butt from being disgraced or be horrified by the fact that they were going to get themselves and me doomed by pulling out any stunt here. Kartik didn't have an idea about whatever they were going to do, so manipulating the cctv footage was out of the way. Or maybe, they were here just to fool around and had nothing to do with me. 

Before I could gather my thoughts, the teacher called my name.

What the heck, no one told me I was going to go first

Damn it! I was doomed!

"Ananya Deshpande, roll number-",

Before the teacher could finish the sentence, Danish got up from his seat and gave a thumbs up to Varun and Amer. The whole class watched on in silence and confusion while I was on dangling on the edge.

Suddenly, Danish pointed outside the window,"Look! Ranbir Kapoor!"

What the-

Almost all the students were out of their seats, the girls were squealing while boys were confused.

Did they all really fall for this? I mean did their dumbness knew no extent? I was shocked and irritated at the same time.

"Students!", the teacher yelled but no one listened, of course.

Then there were loud cries from the front benches. I saw their pale faces as they tried to cover their ...butts.

"What is wrong?", someone asked them.

"Someone had super glued us to the seat now our - our...",one of them replied.

Like seriously, Super glue on benches.

"What the hell is happening?", in the midst of the chaos, I yelled at Varun across the room who was already looking at me.

"Oh, nothing", he waved off with a smirk,"I am helping my friend "

Deciding to get out of here, I started packing my bag as I saw Rehan doing the same.

Then there was a loud screech from Mahira and I turned to see her holding her bag upside down which leaked of.....cow dung. Everyone got away from her, I couldn't help but scrunch my nose in disgust.

Danish and Amer were laughing their guts out at the scene while Varun's lips just twitched upwards a bit.

"Hey, where is Ranbir Kapoor", I girl shrieked.

"I think he is in disguise", another girl giggled. 

All were literally behaving like toddlers who hollered at the sight of candies. I grabbed my bag and bolted towards the door in an order to get out of there. As soon as I was out of the class, through the corner of eyes I saw Danish bolting in my direction. My reflexes surged a gush of adrenaline in me and I sprinted forward without knowing my destination. I had seen a dangerously mischievous glance in his eyes that told me, he was up to no good.

I lurched up the stairs, taking two steps at a time. But years of cricket practice and his endless legs being his perks, in a few seconds he was standing at the head of the staircase blocking my path. We stared at each other, stuck in a stance until I blinked and suddenly it was happening too fast.

Fast, he came. Faster that the speed of light, Okay I might be exaggerating but it was really fast. And I just stood there. It was like my head was submerged in water, some hurried footsteps faded in the background. When I blinked again I snapped out of the daze but it was too late.

Danish threw his arms out, bowed his head and lunged for me while I just stood there. All I could do was scream. Suddenly the floor vanished from beneath me, I spun and flailed my hands helplessly in air in an attempt to save my self from the fall. But to no avail I crashed down on the floor with a devastatingly heavy weight crushing me further down. My screams were muffled by strong pair of hands, while my eyes were wide like saucers. I expected to feel intense sickening pain to surge through my body but it did not. I could feel Danish's weight crushing me but the impact of falling didn't come. I turned my head to see the reason behind it. We were sprawled on a crash pad, which wouldn't be here on its own. So,they had planned this too.

Involuntarily peels of laughter burst from deep within me. This whole situation was stupid as anything but it was really hilarious. Not expecting this reaction Danish peeled himself from me and sat beside me, probably assessing my weird behavior. I should be angry because he tackled me to ground without any valid reason but I couldn't help laugh at their antics. Once, he knew that my laughter was genuine , he too burst into loud guffaws which were highly contagious.

"And here I thought, the world war three was on", I was startled by the voice and I toned my laughter down to see who had spoken. It was Amer who spoke and  his breathing was fast as if he had just ran for his life, Rehan too could be seen huffing and breathing in air. Varun stood there in all his glory looking down at us while a smile enveloped his face. I could tell it was a genuine smile and I found myself grinning at him. 

"Oh God, when I saw you both sprinting I thought we were going to find a dead body soon", Rehan spoke with seriousness and was still shocked that I wasn't furious.

"Trust me you will, soon", I grinned at him while Danish gulped beside me.

"This wasn't a part of the plan, it's all on Danish", Amer put his hands up in surrender.

"Liar! He is lying. You trust me Ananya don't you",he feigned his puppy dog look but before I could come up with a sassy retort Varun spoke.

"Come on, we need to go. The principal needs us in his office", he shot a bored look at Danish while I gulped.

Oh my God. I totally forgot about the consequences.

They were going to be expelled and all because they had to save me from humiliation, I groaned and covered my face with my hands.

I felt a set of hands curling around my wrists. It was a sense of deja vu  but this time around the air was engulfed in minty soothing odor. My hands were peeled from my face, which made me look up into the hazel eyes which now held minor flecks of lemon color. Trying not to drown myself in the hazel pool was a tough task, so I lowered my gaze.

"Angel, look at me", he murmured. His voice was so soft as first I thought I didn't hear him. Involuntarily my body betrayed my mind and I looked up to him who was gazing at me with a foreign expression. I didn't know what to make of it, so I focused on breathing steadily.

"You don't have to worry. We have been in this situation many a times and we were well aware of the consequences of our prank. It's not a big deal for any of us. Don't you dare fret yourselves over this", his voice was a bit stern. I could see he was upset about something as he tried to hold his frustration in. I decided not to take a lot of his time and nodded my head.

Without uttering another word he softly placed my hands in my lap, which I forgot he was still holding ,he got up from his crouching position and strode away. Danish and Amer followed him without daring to comment on what just happened. I knew they all were stunned to see Varun speak with so much care and softness. I too was shocked but it didn't take me much time to overcome it because I always knew this side of him existed. Rehan helped me to get up and we trudged towards the gym. He held expressions of disbelief, incredulity and annoyance, I tried my best to not start a conversation and he did the same.

****

"What! Suspended for two days! You said you would handle it, didn't you?", I accused him. We were in the gym right now, where he was supposed to give me fighting lessons. I had been pestering him non stop to tell me about his conversation with the principal. He had been putting this off and was making me go through a more strenuous workout, until now.

"I did my best. Isn't it better than been thrown out of the school?", he answered in an uninterested tone and gestured towards the treadmill.

"In the first place, you were not supposed to do anything which would put you in a situation where you might be thrown out of the school", I went up to him and spoke a little louder . I was just frustrated that they had planned this all for a petty reason.

"It was totally unnecessary Varun. That lecture wasn't going to be a big deal for me",I spit out.

"Why do you think that everything's revolving around you?", he fumed. Finally his resolve at being patient was broken.

"What do you mean by that?", I hardly voiced it out ,being intimidated by his anger. His anger wasn't instant today, it had been brewing since the prank. I just didn't happen to know the reason behind it. I somehow knew that expressing my frustration over their prank and punishment just fueled his anger but I couldn't stop it. 

"I didn't plan the prank to save you. We do this every now and then whenever we get bored and this was just one of those times. Stop considering yourself so important, okay. The least you can do is to thank us for saving your butt", he jibed and strode towards the parking.

 I felt moisture pool on the brim of my eyes. Why did he have be a such a big jerk? I knew whatever he said was a pretense but it still hurt. These few days had taught me that Varun's rude behavior was  an act which he put up so that he wouldn't have to let people in. I thought he wouldn't do that to me. Just a few hours ago he had been so patient and concerned when he told me that I didn't have to worry about anything. Why did he snap so quickly? What made him do that? Why does he want to drive people away from him?

Getting a grip on myself , I went to the parking. Like I predicted he hadn't driven off because however rude he might behave he would never risk leaving me or any of the gang members alone. He had a protective bone in himself. He drove in silence, tension was clearly visible in the air. As soon as we arrived at home, I got myself out of the car and slipped in my room.Luckily no one noticed me. I wasn't in a mood to chat right now and I was tired because of the workout.

I quickly changed into my pajamas but while doing  so a blue note fell from the pocket of my jeans. I quickly remembered that I had found it in my locker earlier this morning and had put it my pocket. I would have just thrown it in the dustbin if it would have been a piece of paper but I never used notes, not of this kind at least. I opened the note with curiosity and gasped when I read it.

"Revenge sounds so mean, doesn't it? That's why I call it 'returning the favor'. Your favor will be returned soon" ----NP


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