"That's his name," I said to my father as I cradled the bathed and cleaned kitten. "Mr. Fluffernutter."

"What does flutter-nutter mean?"

The air around me felt thick as Dad peered down at my kitten and me. Heavier was the burden of his unspoken accusation – You'd not be able to manage this additional responsibility.

I placed the kitten over the pristine marble floor. The flurry creature coiled himself into a ball, his ears standing at attention to our conversation.

"Dad, it's Mr. Fluffernutter. He's our new pet who'll stay with us."

My dad was a simple man who loved simple things. Since our move to the new city, he had come to terms with newer concepts like Friday pizza night and Thursday movie rituals.

But I had yet to convince him on the 'pet for Vedica' topic, which according to my mother would have been a cakewalk if I'd secured good grades.

"No, Vedi." Dad waved his arms around. "We talked about this. I don't like animals in the house. They shed-"

"I shed."

Dad rolled his eyes, scratching his stubbly French beard which made him look more of a goon than a professor.

"They make a mess."

"I make a mess."

"They poop everywhere."

"I po..." I bit my tongue. "I used to poop everywhere as a child but you didn't throw me out."

"Because you are my child," he said, his intonated voice carrying a hint of annoyance. "People don't throw away their children."

"In that case, Mr. Fluffernutter is my child." I dragged the sleeping ball of fur close to my chest, adoring his pink cat beanies. "He was so scared, Dad. The kids at school were throwing rocks at him. His mother died, defending him. It was almost like a Batman bloodbath scene. You won't believe what I saw."

Trust me, exaggeration worked.

"Really!" Dad crossed his arms across his chest. His small potbelly jutted out while he inhaled deeply. "Where did all this happen?"

"There was a garbage thingy." I drew a square in the air. "Dumpster, I think that's what it's called. And Fluffernutter was hiding there. He ran to me and fell at my fee. Begging for mercy from those kids with stones who killed his ailing mother."

"Vedi, when did this happen?" Dad moved closer, towering over me. "Was it before you left the school premise or after?"

Crap.

I forgot an important part.

Dad dropped me at school and picked me up. As soon as I entered the car after my classes ended, he met the kitten. There was no time in that duration to fit the dumpster scene.

"Fine, I lied."

My head hung into my chest. My only option was to confess the truth.

"I miss home, Dad. I miss Mom and Mumbai. I have no friends here. Nobody to talk to. After school, I stare at a wall because the TV doesn't have cable and my laptop is acting weird again."

I placed the furball on a couch cushion and patted the top of his head. His small body rumbled like an overpowered generator.

When I looked up at my father, a hazed vision engulfed my sight.

"If you want to take him away too, fine. Be my guest," I said, wiping the corners of my eyes. "But please take him to some adoption center. Don't just abandon him on some road."

Dad's arms coiled around my body. He patted the crown of my head and tucked his chin over, sighing.

"I think we both can do some adjustments here. So, how about we take your Flutter-Nutter for his shots tomorrow and we can get him his cat stuff."

I chuckled, falling back into his embrace and tightening my hold around him.

"Thanks, Dad."

My chest heaved for air. Sure, exaggerations had a ninety-percentile success ratio but emotion always hit the bullseye.

Call me a manipulator but I won't refrain from using the tactic again if it meant giving a stray animal a comfortable home.

"By the way, his name is Fluffer-Nutter."

"Like he'd know the difference."

~

I hated everyone in the class who paid attention to Ms. Jones and her nasal tone but most of all, I hated those who raised their hands to answer the math problems.

I sucked at math. That realization hit harder since my mother is a physicist and my father is an economist.

I presumed their brainy legacy skipped my generation.

As I tried solving an equation, peering at my notebook page that appeared as if someone drew doodles. The center of the page bore the inky aftermath of the Math War.

"Did you get the answer?" Kate, the girl who sat next to me whispered. She leaned over my notebook to check the answer. "Wow, that's some Picasso-level art you've got going on there."

I turned to a fresh page, scribbling. Even drawing random lines on the white sheet felt better than racking my brains for the answer.

"I wish I would just check the answer sheet and then reverse calculate the equation."

Kate grinned, tightening the band that clutched her amber-colored hair. Her eyes widened as she necked herself like a giraffe, peering into the notebook of the boy who sat in front of us.

"I think he will solve it before us," she whispered, leaning back. "Then we'll know the answer."

"Great," I said. "Till then, we can relax."

Kate pulled my notebook towards her, her slender fingers designing straight lines for a game of tic-tac-toe.

Mirth danced in her hazel-toned eyes, her pointed face tilted to my side and her fair cheeks dusted pink when she played her move.

"Your turn," she whispered, slanting forward to check the boy's notebook. "Luke is slow but he is getting there."

I tossed my thumbs up, dragging the book to my side.

Every possible calculation ran in my head, apprehending Kate's next move. I may suck at math but I was great at gaming. A little too competitive, if you'd ask me.

Marking my box, I slid the book back and leaned to check Luke's equation.

I could see he had underlined the answer twice, with two dots.

Kicking Kate to pay attention, I continued checking if his derivation was right.

Kate raised her hand before I could finish my inspection.

"We have the answer." Kate stood up. "I mean, Vedica has the answer."

My mouth dried up. I plopped back in my seat but the deafening announcement Kate made caught Ms. Jones's attention.

"Tell me, Vedica." she looked up from her book, a soft smile emerging at the corner of her perfectly symmetrical lips. "What's the value?"

Rising from my seat, I tugged at my coat's lapel, running a finger over the school's crest embroidered on its pocket.

Luke turned around, smiling.

His eyes shone with a spectacular blaze like an ocean lit from underneath. Running his hand through his straight, smooth locks, he danced his eyebrows.

"Go on, Vedica," he whispered. "Answer Miss. Jones."

His thumb ran over the angular corners of his jaws and settled over his plump lips.

"The value of x is 47," I said, feeling the pride of a mighty lion soar in my chest.

Never before did I get a math answer right.

Luke continued glancing at me even while everyone else turned around to evaluate Ms. Jones's confirmation.

He picked up his notebook with the answer and slid it towards us.

Kate and I scanned the page where he'd underlined the calculation.

Then, like a sly reptile, he flipped the page.

The real answer danced in front of us.

"The actual answer is 58." Luke rose from his chair, straightening his blazer. His honeyed tone floated across the classroom, echoing. "Vedica was 9 short of the answer."

The class rolled up a series of muffled laughter.

"Correct answer, Luke," the teacher said. "Show me how have you derived the number 47, Vedica."

She moved across the room towards me.

Before Luke could grab his notebook, I pulled it away and lent it to Ms. Jones.

Ms. Jones, a tall and slender woman with glass skin had all the features to become a Victoria's Secret model. I couldn't wrap my head around the reason for her teaching.

Maybe she liked scolding children.

Or maybe, she liked torturing adult minions.

When Ms. Jones reeled up her head, her softened features vanished.

What remained was sheer frustration leaking from her flaring nostrils and her pursed lips. She leaned closer, so much so that I could hear her heartbeats and pulse.

"You are new to the school, Vedica, so I'm letting you off easy. But in my class, I expect students to act better and not behave like cavemen."

Thud

She walked away, dropping the book at our table.

Kate and I glanced at each other before turning it open.

The page that carried the wrong answer 47, had on its parallel side, Luke's depiction of what could be called classy nudes of Ms. Jones. Slender and curvy figures were drawn everywhere in his notebook.

I slammed my head on it, cursing the day.

"I could have warned you but you didn't let me," Luke said just as the bell rang for lunch.

While my blood boiled for revenge, he stood towering over me as if what he did was fine. When I peered at him, he tossed his hands in the air.

"I was not the one who tried cheating, Vedica. So, don't go plotting my murder with that stare."

"Hey, Luke." Kate intervened, while I cradled my head between my palms. "You could have asked nicely, not to cheat."

"But what fun would that be?"

Luke winked, tossing his bag over his shoulder. His voice echoed as he walked away.

Half the class was empty and the ones who remained seated glared at me as if they could visualize what Ms. Jones saw in those pages.

Shoving our books into our backpacks, Kate and I walked outside for lunch.

Since my talk with the counselor, I planned on making good on her assignment.

Kate seemed to be an interesting candidate for the acquaintance task. Since our little misadventure when she stood up for me, I liked her even better.

"I am sorry about the answer," Kate said, turning to me with her frowned face. "I should have checked first."

"Don't worry about it. Things like these happen to me all the time."

After a silent nod, her greenish eyes sparkled when she tried smiling but gave up.

"I know...I'm just sad that it has happened to you twice in a row today."

"What do you mean, twice?"

In an otherwise crowded cafeteria, I stood still, watching her as she looked around the place.

The cussing incident was from a few days ago.

Since then, I'd been walking on eggshells, carefully trotting around volatile matters of how people pronounced my name or idiots who kept asking me if I spoke Arabic.

What was the second incident Kate referred to?

"You don't know!"

Kate slid the bag off her shoulder and shoved her hand into the deepest dungeons inside. She fished out our school's online editorial section, Observer and placed it gently on a vacant table.

"Seems like you are the topic of interest," she said, tapping her finger over the cover.

In a monochrome color, and on the front page of the editorial was my photo.

It was from the day I met Mr. Fluffernutter.

The photo was clicked when I'd extended my index finger to touch the kitten's nose. My chestnut-colored hair had fallen over my shoulder, covering the sides of my face. My knees remained bent, and on all three, I resembled an extra-terrestrial.

The headline was the worst - ET plans another abduction.

I scanned the page for information.

Find your photography muse contest.

Amongst the hundreds of submissions, my unconsented photograph won.

The photographer had a pseudo name - Wandering Camera.

"I thought you knew," Kate said, tapping the tabletop with her purple-painted fingernails. "Most of us thought you knew."

"Us?" My head snapped up from the abhorrent photo and the blood-boiling headline. "Who else thought?"

"James," she said, pointing towards the boy who stood across the cafeteria with his identical twin, Luke. "He's Luke's twin and a whole year senior to us. And my boyfriend, George."

Luke, the devil's minion who landed me in trouble, seemed to have noticed Kate pointing at them. He elbowed James, who turned and waved at Kate, slowly turning his attention towards me.

I looked away, not knowing how to react in a normal way.

"We all thought you've subscribed to the editorial," Kate said, standing up and slyly waving at George who responded with a wink. "Everyone in school has that app on their phone."

"I didn't."

I picked up my lunch tray, feeling the heat from my mind churning a plan. "But now, I think I'll subscribe."

After all, revenge was a dish best served cold. And a week later.