The Notorious Five — a short story (Part 1)
It was a typical Tuesday morning in the school. Started with English, Geography, Physics and ended with Maths before the Lunch break. Tuesdays were always Yash’s favourite day. His favourite classes came back to back. Physics and maths. He enjoyed both, mainly because he scored well in the subjects.
Today’s math class was a little extra special. Mrs Menon, the Math teacher, had distributed the unit test results. Although it had been only 3 months for Yash and his peers in the 10th class, they had already given three unit tests. It was, after all, the year of the board exams.
But this unit test was special. This time, Yash had received a perfect score. It wasn’t anything new for Yash, but what made it unique this time was that he was the only one who got it. Divya, the class topper had apparently made a silly mistake causing her to lose 1 mark.
Yash should have been happy, but he was not.
According to him, this was not the best scenario. He had learned that any kind of spotlight in the class brought too much pressure. Either the teachers would want him to enrol in school competitive exams or the bully’s would take note and vent out their frustration on him. Things were different for Divya. Bullies won’t touch her. They were too shy to speak to any girl.
Teachers loved to nominate Divya in inter-school competitions and she loved it too. Yash, on the other hand, desired to remain hidden. Coming in second place was a far easier option than fighting bullies, complaining to teachers, or taking many competitive tests.
However, this exam result drew attention back to him. He could feel the cold long stare of Bhupi, on his shoulder. Same Bhupi that Yash had refused to mentor last year due to his ill-tempered and rude attitude. Not only did Yash had to argue with his class teacher but also fight Bhupi and his hooligan friends to avoid getting bullied. After a long stressful month of war tactics and arguments, Yash had settled the differences with a win-win deal with Bhupi, hoping that Bhupi would honour the deal. Yash didn’t want to repeat the same battle again this year.
By the time Mrs Menon gave the last test paper, the bell had rung. Yash packed his bag and took the lunch box. He must leave class and find a quiet place to eat lunch to avoid any confrontation. Be it from bully Bhupi or Divya, who would pester him on how he got full marks.
As most kids were leaving, the school head girl popped in.
“Excuse me guys, please settle down. I have an announcement to make”, she spoke in a tired voice. Not her first class, Yash thought.
She opened a small chit in her hand and announced.
“Nima Chaudhary and Yash Saxena please come to the teacher’s lounge on the second floor”, she announced.
CRAP. Yash thought to himself. It has already started.
Headgirl announced again, “Nima Chaudhary and Yash Saxena please come with me.”
Yash got up. “I am here”. He held on to his lunchbox. He was not skipping his meal for a teacher meeting, which was probably going to be a request to participate in some club or competitive exam, which he had no intention of doing.
Headgirl waited for some time for Nima, but no one answered. Yash wasn’t even sure if there was any Nima in the class. He didn’t know many girls and neither did they know him. Just the way he preferred.
Yash reached the teachers’ lounge on the second floor. This was the place where senior teachers met. Mostly those, who taught 11th and 12th class. Yash had only visited here once before. He knew a couple of teachers already who had taught him in class 9th too.
He saw a few kids waiting outside the vice principal’s room. “Was it a group activity?”, Yash thought to himself. He was politely going to question a teacher sitting in the room when the lady sitting outside Vice-principal’s room called to him. “Mr Saxena, could you please join us?”, she announced with a polite and happy tone.
Yash was surprised, she knew his name. He had no idea who she was. Maybe assistant to the Vice-principal? He quietly walked towards the VP room.
Yash had never spoken to the school VP before. She was known to be strict and scary. No one in the school would mess with her. No one had seen her shouting as such, but they all knew that she was not to be trifled with.
This group activity must be a serious thing since she herself was involved. Getting out of it would be a challenge for Yash.
Yash sat down along with the other kids. It was an odd group. Leave alone working with them, Yash had never even spoken to these kids. But he knew of them for their notoriety that had been accumulated over the years in the school.
First Rishab Pant, the school flirt. A wannabe rich brat, known for his charm and over-enthusiastic pursuit of pretty girls. He would chase senior girls prancing around them with his wavy hair and sultry smile. He always stayed in the popular group and rarely spoke to normal kids like Yash. Although he had spoken to Yash once. Only to show off to a nerdy girl who was studying with Yash for the school Math Olympiad. Yash wasn’t even sure if Rishab knew his name.
The second was Narendra. The kid who could not speak even a proper sentence in English. He was foul-mouthed and unhygienic. School kids would call him by many names, some that Yash would not utter publicly, but nothing brought any improvement in him. Narendra was most popular for the number of times he had been beaten by the school bullies. He was the most common punching bag, who would do nothing to avoid them.
Yash had always avoided Narendra, because even a small altercation with him would result in a stream of foul-mouthed words that Yash would have no way to respond to.
Third was “Babe”. At least that was the name that most students referred to him as. Yash had only heard about him from other kids and that was the only name he knew. A 6foot 1-inch tall boy whose facial hair matched an uncle in his mid-twenties. “Babe” earned his title from the popular movie with the same name. The movie was about a pig who felt he was too ugly and to make him feel better, his parents named him Babe.
Someone in the school must have played a cruel joke on the boy, Yash thought. Babe was new to the school and always stayed quiet. He often came late and left early. No one knew where he disappeared during most classes but no one wanted to ask. Not even the teachers.
And the last kid was the only girl in the group. She had just arrived. Yash had seen her in his math class. He wasn’t sure if she was smart or not but he knew that she was known to take on big fights. He remembered the time when she slapped Bhupi. Even teachers wouldn't dare take a fight with that 50kg gorilla, but this girl went all guns blazing. She was often quiet in classes but surprisingly active during the extracurricular classes, especially PT. She must be the Nima Chaudhary that the head girl was looking for.
Yash noticed that she was out of breath and sweating as if she came running from the field, probably her favourite spot in the school.
As Yash was staring at her, Nima turned to Yash. Disgusted by his constant stare, she gasp “WHAT??”
Embarrassed for being caught, Yash made a subtle head gesture and turned his head toward the door. Luckily before Nima could say anything else, Mrs Dhingra, the Vice Principal appeared out of her room.
She was big. Well dressed with a serious facial expression. Her big red bindi on the forehead was popularly called the red light. It made every kid, running in the corridor, stop. Everyone knew that she meant business. No one messed around with her. Now Yash knew why.
“Everyone in”, she said firmly.
All kids quietly got up and entered her chamber. Standing in a single line.
She settled in her big chair and looked at the kids.
“You guys have been specially invited to help the teachers with an important task,” she said with a subtle smile and crisp enunciation.
“We are looking for suggestions where we can take the class 10th for outing this year, and we want you to help coordinate it.”
Rishab was about to open his dumb brain and suggest something stupid, but before he could, Mrs Dhingra continued, “Either Science Museum or Art Museum”.
“We feel that you kids have worked hard last year and deserve a break, especially you all, who have shown great potential”, she continued.
WHAT? Yash thought in his head.
Mrs Dhingra continued, “We are sure that you can discuss among yourselves and make a plan for the trip. After all, you deserve it.”
“Can’t we go to Splash waterpark? I went there last summer, it has the best rides”, Rishab uttered without any thought.
“Let's go movies”, blurted Narendra in his crooked English. “New Akshay Kumar movie is out”.
“Chee”, Rishabh responded in disgust.
“When do we have to go Ma’am”, Nima questioned.
“You guys decide, you are in charge”, Mrs Dhingra replied with a smile.
The discussion continued for some time with all three debating about the trip. Rishabh, Nima and Narendra continued the battle among themselves as Mrs Dhingra sat silently. Smiling.
Babe was lost in his thoughts, waiting for all of this to be over. Yash stood speechless, trying to understand all this.
This was not right. Something was wrong. Was this a bad joke? Clearly, they didn’t deserve this. Watching his batchmates being stupid and even discussing this made him angry. Why don’t they understand that this is a trap? This was a set up. The anger in him was building up at the stupidity of the other three.
Finally, he lost it.
“What are you guys talking about? How can you actually think we deserve it”, Yash spoke to his batchmates angrily.
Turning to Mrs Dhingra he blasted, “Ma’am, last week students in English class made the substitute teacher cry. She left the room running not to come back. The boys’ toilet was literally destroyed on our floor just because a few students thought it was a perfect way to celebrate passing 9th grade. During every recess, science club students gather in bio class and give a 20mins lecture on the reproduction process. How can you even believe that we deserve it?”.
Mrs Dhingra passed a long smile looking at Yash.
He continued “These three are not even close to being smart enough or popular enough to plan the student trip for our class, so clearly, this is not a gift. You are trying to teach them a lesson or maybe punish them.”
All three looked at Yash, pissed. Mrs Dhingra continued smiling.
Yash continued, “What I don’t understand is why am I here? I have done nothing wrong.”
Mrs Dhingra said nothing.
There was silence for a while, but then Yash realised.
“You want to punish me for not taking part in school competitions?” Yash enquired. He has been guilty of not participating in anything. He had made sure to avoid all the activities that included extra work or inter-class discussions. Now he was being punished for it.
His eyes now widened and filled with dismay. He was now stuck.
Mrs Dhingra did not comment anything on Yash’s speech. She ignored all of it. With a mischievous smile, she said, “Why don’t you guys think about the plan and meet me again at 3. Same room.”
She picked up her file preparing to leave. The School bell rings as if it followed the command of the school leader.
All students dispersed back to classes.
To be continued..
