Jivika~

Squirming in my seat, I lightly grazed the graphite tip on the corner of the page, trying to make the eye look realistic.

Angling the book in all directions possible, I tried to have an overall look of my sketch.

Quite good for a quick five minute portrait.

Two more hours to go. And then a fifty days break from this hellhole. Summer vacations, here I come!

Satisfied with my artwork, I turned around to join their talks.

There goes Kiara, searching for something in the deep ends of her schoolbag. Funny how things we want are never there at the time of our needs. The trio of Laysa, Amaya and Rhea were content watching her struggles. Even that was a show as well. Giving up, she ran her hands through her hair.

"What are you searching for?"

"My diabetes tablets, I swear I put them in this tiny bag-pocket!"

And as usual, tube-light moments always occur at unexpected times. Breaking her silence, Laysa muttered.

"So basically...Kiara is carrying drugs?"

And the series of laughter continued even after Kiara found her apparent 'drugs'.

Why?

Because Rhea somehow caught on to the word loose stools as a side-effect of the medication. And that's it. With our immaturity at its peak, we went beserk. Well, except for Lavanya. The queens of these kind of jokes not laughing caught me by surprise as I checked what the little vixen was up to.

Crushing the glue stick tube against the piece paper, I watch her clumsily paste the picture onto the pastel sheet, banging her hand on the picture thrice, ensuring it stuck to the page. Hastily noting down the name of the scientist below printed black and white picture, she closed the journal abruptly, slamming it on the table, which resulted in the other stationary items sliding off from the surface.

"At last! I thought it will not finish on time!" Lavanya let out a sigh of relief, but soon enough her eyes widened, observing the mess she had created.

Scraps of waste paper all around accompanied by the colourful clutter of crayons, sketch pens, markers and scissors, strewn on the ground.

Deciding she needed help, Kiara, Maahi and I kneeled on the ground, picking up the things and arranging them accordingly.

"You had to wait till the last day to submit the journal, right?" Kiara asked amusingly.

"Who gives a project few days before the holidays?! I had not even planned to do it, she's a temporary teacher after all, few days and she'll be out! And the only purpose of her giving that project was cause of the mass bunk the class did!" she ranted, her hands dancing in the air, trying to catch up with the change of her facial expressions.

"Then why did you d—"

"Why?! Cause my mother is a teacher in this damned school! And this lady came to know that particular bit when she saw me taking the house keys from mom yesterday, after school. You should have seen that ugly smirk of hers!"

"But what do you people have against Soumya ma'am?" came the meek question from Krish.

"Yes! Why?"

Just before Kiara was about the smash off Parth's head, Amaan came to his rescue.

"Exactly! Why don't you guys like that lady? She's so sweet!"

"Yes Kiara! Why don't you like Ms. Soumya?" Shreyansh snickered, not bothering to cover his laugh.

I glanced at my best friend. Face red with blinding rage, she was breathing fire. I could envision the smoke pouring out of her ears. She was a ticking bomb, seconds left before the explosion.

"WHY?! YOU ARE ASKING ME WHY?!"

Scaring the boys, she spoke with a dangerous glint in her eyes, "When we were in eighth grade, she was frigging flirting with Pratik! My boyfriend, right in front of my eyes! How she used to glare at me when we used to speak in the corridors!"

"I'm sure it's a misunde—"

"No, it was NOT! Remember the day when he was absent? You know what she said? I quote, 'Since Pratik is not here today, we'll just do the reading', have you ever heard a teacher say that?!"

Eyes wide as saucers, the four boys tried to form an accurate reply but kept mum, while Lavanya and I calmed her down.

That's when I saw Maahi glaring at the printed picture of the scientist stuck minutes before. Studying Lavanya's assignment intently, she let out her worry, oblivious to the tense atmosphere.

"Doesn't he have an enormously large nose?"

Just when I was about to brush it off, I heard Kiara rumble with laughter.

Maahi, trying to bring seriousness to the question, continued, "No, I mean, his nose has enough space to accommodate a nose ring!".

Elated with the change in the environment, Lavanya agreed to her best friend's observation. However she was a step ahead.

Grabbing the nearest writing instrument, she drew a perfect flower on the tip of the scientist's nose. Had she once glanced at the label of the marker pen, a grumpy Benjamin Franklin whose nose was adorned with a pretty purple flower shaped nose ring, wouldn't have been staring back at us.

Why Lavanya? Why?

"Dude, that was not a suggestion!" Maahi shrieked, slamming her palm against her forehead, repeatedly.

"NOW, what should I do?!" whined Lavanya, shifting her eyes to the clock.

Great! We barely had an hour before the school closed.

Scrubbing the sheet with our erasers, we tried to remove it. However, we were unsuccessful. And our final hope rested with Krish.

"Krish! Can you please let me borrow your Dettol sanitizer?" Lavanya pleaded, as sweetly as she could muster.

"Sure! But why?" he asked, raising his eyebrows in suspicion, frowning at the sweet tone used, remembering Kiara's verbal assault at them few minutes ago.

He peeked over my shoulder, shell shocked at the sight of Franklin.

"He- he- he is one of the FOUNDING FATHERS of my country! How can you insult him like that?!"

In case you didn't know. He was born in the States. And that's something he flaunts at every breath of his.

"Bloody pig-headed NRI!" Lavanya mumbled under her breath, her smile unwavering, probably keeping the sanitizer in mind.

"I bet, you didn't know that before this project!" accused Kiara, pointing her index at the boy. He reluctantly handed her the sanitizer, not wanting to unleash the dragon's fury again. Scratching the photograph with the sanitizer, we managed to remove the nose ring but unfortunately, Franklin's nose wanted to come along with the accessory.

Staring at the man without a nose, we knew it was a lost case.

Not knowing how that lady might react, we paced along the length of the classroom, trying to come up with a solution.

"Maahi! Why did you suggest the nose ring?!" whined Lavanya.

"My nose ring meant a small dot, I wasn't planning to make Benjamin Franklin an Indian bride with a large nose ring!" she hissed back.

"Guys! Uh, lets go to Dipali ma'am? Maybe she can tell that Soumya lady to look over it?"

What! Kiara wanted the strictest teacher in the school to preach that newbie lady? That newbie already detested us more than enough! But at the same time, we were the favourites of the former. So what could go wrong?

Once the decision was made, we marched to the English department to meet her.

Facing the waist length hair tied neatly into a braid, we watched Mrs. Dipali pour out the simmering tea from her flask which bounced in ripples into the disposable cup, while she waited for us to approach the matter of our concern.

Kiara started right off.

"Ma'am, uh, we have this situation," she explained our dilemma while Mrs. Dipali almost spit out her tea, listening to our antics.

"What? Why? How?" she managed to spurt out, unable to control her laughter.

"Poor fellow, this Franklin guy! You kids! At least spare the dead please?!"

We ducked our heads not knowing how to respond to that.

"Also, just talk to Soumya ma'am politely, explain it and don't fret over it! Enjoy your holidays!"

Wishing her back, we ran out of the department, just in time to submit the project.

As Lavanya explained how her Franklin lost his nose, that lady, Ms.Soumya, herself could not stop laughing.

Ten minutes. And we'll be out of this place for fifty days.

Gulping down the last drops of water in my bottle, I listened to Lavanya's chivalrous tale which she recited to the whole class, sitting on top of the table, her feet up in the air.

"After all, a nose ring was his only necessity, right?" I heard someone taunt from behind.

If I'm not mistaken, it can only be one person.

"Yes! A bare necessity!" I replied, smiling at him.

I looked.

He looked.

We looked away.

And we looked back again.

~

Glossary:-

NRI: Non-Resident Indians.