Salman's POV

The next day

This was the last day we are going to spend at Nuwara Eliya. I woke up early in the morning and had breakfast at the cafeteria in the hotel which we stayed and started loading our baggage back to my dad's car with the help of a staff at the hotel. Just after I was done with it I turned to head back to the room to inform my family that I've finished loading the luggage, my eyes met with the hijabi (a Muslim girl who covers her head with a hijab) whom I've met last night. I took a step back in surprise to meet Aliza again to which she giggled.

"You little woman! What are you doing here?" I asked smiling.

"I just came to my vehicle and sighted you" she said pointing to a grey car which is parked next to ours.

"Which means you too were in this hotel?"

"Yep. We were in a room in the last building"

"Great! but I'm disappointed that I didn't know about this before and we had met when it's time to depart"

"Neither did I know you were here"

Just as she finished her sentence, the rest of my trip mates came down heading towards the car. I quickly bid my farewell to Aliza before my cousins see me talking to her all alone as she went back to her car, but my snoopy cousins caught me red handed and gave me uncanny glares. I was thankful that our parents were there which made them shut their mouths without teasing me.

We got into our vehicles bidding farewell to the hotel we stayed and to the town as well, as we went to a dairy farm a little away from the town. We observed different types of animals like cattle, hens etc., how they produce milk and manufacture curd, yogurt and so on.  Later we had fresh milk and yogurt in the factory there.

On our way, we visited so many other beautiful places and halted in a calm area to have the lunch. After lunch we headed to my dad's elder sister's place which was at Kandy. She had invited us to have dinner. By the time we reached there after visiting a lot of places, it was almost night, so we had dinner. She offered her house for us to spend the night and pleaded us to stay at her place tonight.

I happily spent the night here because I had cousin brothers of my age and elder. My aunt has three sons and a daughter. I met them after quite a long time and we have a lot to speak. The parents took the rooms at the house to sleep and the young crowd did not like being separated. Since all of us wanted to sleep together, we chose the hall and laid mattresses there for us to sleep. But most of the time we spent speaking, cracking jokes and playing which made us sleep only after dawn. It's a huge hall, so we moved the sofas forming a small partition in the middle wherein the girls slept in one side and we guys took the other side. We moved all the kids to a corner and they slept immediately because they were tired. Myself, three of the cousin brothers and five of the cousin sisters enjoyed the night staying awake.

Waking up in the morning was one of the difficult things to do after staying up all night. We wanted to sleep more but we weren't allowed because we had to go back home which was a long journey for around eight hours. So many times our parents woke us but we turned away and slept again. Finally my younger aunt came with a jar of water and splashed on our faces which made us jolt up sitting.

I hate when someone does that and I hate to sleep afterwards so I went to the washroom, brushed my teeth, had bath and came out when I found some of the cousins still sleeping as if though water didn't splash on then, but when I went close to them I found them sleeping on wet pillows. I wonder how can they do that. I shook them hardly hoping they would wake up and went downstairs to have breakfast.

After breakfast we started our journey back, had lunch on the way and reached home in the evening. I was sad that the journey ended so quickly and all the fun came to an end too. We were very much tired specially dad because he drove the vehicle for us all through the journey. I could help dad drive but I am too young to have a driving license, so dad did it all by himself. We lost our appetite at dinner because of the weariness, we only had a milk and went to bed very early.

...............

April holidays flew fast and soon it was time for school to reopen. School's reopening today which is a Monday. Everything is odd and we need some time to get back to normal, to get use to the routine. It's awkward to hold a pen and write too since we've been away from school for almost a month. But meeting our friends was one of the most awaited thing for all of us throughout the holidays. Glad to see them again.

After breakfast we didn't play today rather had a chat about how we spent our holidays.

"I met someone at Nuwara Eliya and saw so many girls around him. I never expected him to date so many girls at the same time" Aliza winked and looked at me from the side of her eyes.

I was surprised at her impression on me "Hey! They are my cousins' dude.. I.. was just having a chat with them until our parents come" I said smiling.

Juliet interrupted us "I never saw you guys. I was expecting to see you people" in a sad tone.

I don't know if she was sad because she didn't meet her bestie Aliza or because she couldn't see me, but I knew of course its because of her buddy and not me. Why should she bother about me? I don't think she has the same feeling towards me like how I have towards her.

"Which means you too went there?" I questioned.

"Yeah" I felt sadder because she has gone and I couldn't meet her. I faked a smile hiding my sad expression.

"Aliza and Juliet, I didn't see you girls" said Omar in a sad tone "But I was glad that I at least met Salman"

So it was only the four of us who had tripped to Nuwara Eliya and rest had gone to some other places in Sri Lanka.

Juliet didn't show much of a reaction when Aliza told she met me, but Olivia seemed to be jealous I guess, I don't know, I can't suspect, but she acted weird. I don't know if that was natural and if that was her character. I still don't understand her well. I feel like she's hiding something in her, but she's normal with the others and acts weird with me. She looks curious.

She's a nice girl with a bubbly character but annoying at times. She has a round and a wide countenance with thick eyebrows and short hair which reaches till her shoulders, just above it. Whenever she smiles, she smiles wide and most of the time her laugh is funnier than the joke, she makes us laugh even more. She too is kind and friendly, hyperactive as well and I noticed her always receiving glares from Juliet for some reason which I don't know.

Juliet's POV

After a day or two, things settled and we got used to the normal routine. We, the ten of us are bad students who never get caught. I don't say we are bad and have a bad character and like those who don't study, rather we are just naughty but have a good personality and excelled in studies as well. Rarely do we get caught being mischievous. We always wanted to enjoy our school life with friends and did anything for it. Our friendship grew stronger and stronger day by day. We started caring for our friends more than how we cared ourselves. We preferred each other over us.

..........

All of us hated our Sinhala teacher since she was very strict and whack us for no reason. Usually she wears flip flops or high heels, but today she wore a covered casual shoe. Whoever enters the dancing hall should remove the shoes at the door was a rule of our school. She removed her shoe at the entrance and entered as we happened to gather a little away from the hall with a chat.

"Oooopppssss... A scorpion.." screeched Olivia running away.

Myself and Anna too ran screaming and sat up the swing which was close by gathering our legs up as I found Salman smirking at me while the rest were laughing too. I smiled in embarrassment. Aliza too was with the guys and she isn't afraid of this creature.

The guys took a broomstick and played with it like small kids. They tried chasing it away because its poisonous. The scorpion too wasn't going away from that place as it remained crawling here and there. Finally it stepped in a shoe which was left at the entrance of the dancing hall and hid itself inside. We tried driving it out once but it didn't come.

Later we remembered that it was our Sinhala teacher's shoe and left it inside as a recompense for her for all what she did to us all these days, for punishing us for crimes what we didn't do. We had a little bit of pity in our hearts towards her but still we didn't bother to try to take it out because we didn't purposely put it inside the shoe. It's not our fault, the scorpion itself went inside the shoe.

We pretended like we never saw a scorpion there and continued our conversation, waiting for the teacher to come out and wear her shoes. When the final bell rang to indicate that its time for us to go home and the school's over, the teacher came out and wore her shoe as we expected. After wearing the shoe and taking a step or two she looked like she was uncomfortable and removed it to see what was inside. She dusted her shoe and wore it again as she felt the same as before and removed it the second time.

We enjoyed looking at her struggling as we knew what was inside, but we went close to her pretending to help her out. Those of us who couldn't hide our laughter went away and the rest who were good at acting went to her and pretended to help her. I was from the first category so I stayed back whereas Aliza and a few others went. I could see them trying to drive it out after so many attempts it made its way out and one of the maids at school killed the poor creature. Unfortunately it hadn't bit her. If it had, she wouldn't have come to school for a few weeks and we could've enjoyed Sinhala classes without her.

After everything was done, unexpectedly she happened to pass our way and saw us smiling as she glared at us cruelly. Maybe she thought it was us who did it but since few of us helped her she might've realized that we aren't the culprit. Anyways who knows what's crossing her mind about us and who cares, we know we are innocent and we'd prove it if it was needed the next day. But she looked very angry as she went.

Hiii.... A long chapter, yeah? How's it though? Did Salman enjoy his trip? Was Juliet sad that she didn't meet Salman? What does Olivia think about Salman?

How was the Scorpion? Who else had done something like this in your school life? Share some interesting incidents which took place in your school life.

Do plz VOTE, COMMENT and SHARE

Love You Guys,

Blessed Muslimah