The Notorious Five — A short story (Part 3)
It was the last class of the day. Bell was about to ring. Yash would have to attend the meeting after this. The DREADED meeting. He didn’t want the class to end for the first time.
Soon the bell rang. Yash found himself climbing towards the second-floor teachers’ lounge. Yash was climbing up with a limbered pace when everyone was rushing down. Nervous about the upcoming meeting.
He had to get out of this.
He saw Nima sitting quietly on the stairs. Narendra, sliding down the railing, abusing all the juniors running around. “Babe” was just a few steps behind. They reached outside the meeting room.
An exodus of teachers was leaving the room, rushing to catch the school bus. They all looked happy and cheerful, very unlike how they were during the classes.
On the other hand, these four were prepping for a rough conversation with the school’s VP, who would be in no hurry to catch her school bus.
As they stood waiting in the lobby, a freshly pinned notice on the board caught their eye.
“School Outing planned”
For Class 10 Students
Friday, 24-June
Venue — Science Museum
Planned and managed by class 10th volunteers, the trip is aimed to enlighten the students with the wonders of science. The trip includes a visit to the new astronomy display and a planetarium session.
For volunteering please contact the students below. Kindly submit the parent permission note no later than Friday,17-June.
For more information, please contact
Yash Saxena, Nima Chaudhary, Narendra Pathak, Rishabh Pant, Bharath Oberoi
Yash skipped a heartbeat. The earth ceased to move beneath his feet. He could feel his heart throbbing outside his body as the time stood still. It was a complete disaster. In no circumstances should hundreds of students know that he was involved in planning such a lame trip to the science museum. They would hate him for even trying to plan such a silly trip or, worse, be called a weasel for trying to suck up to teachers. There was no turning back after this.
Both Yash and Nima glanced at each other. Speechless at the betrayal of their Vice Principal.
They were distracted only by a barrage of foul words leaving Narendra’s mouth.
“@#)^, s**t, @%^*$, %@$*, f**k….” Narendra blasted. “We are doomed,” he said with a very serious face. This was very unlike him; not the abuses but the serious face.
He must have just finished reading it now, Yash thought.
“Where is Rishabh”, said a husky voice from behind. It was Bharath (a.k.a Babe). Things must have gotten dire for the big man to start showing interest.
Both Yash and Nima shrugged their shoulders. They were unsure if Rishabh would even show up after their last meeting.
The teacher’s lounge was empty by now. They all entered the lounge, livid and wounded with the recent betrayal. They stood outside the VP’s room, confused, thinking how to respond. Suddenly they heard the sound of running shoes. Somebody was pacing the stairs fast. They turned to see Rishabh waving a bunch of papers in his hands.
Furious, he said, “Did you see this? They put my name on this sh**ty outing. How dare they do this?”.
“Are those the trip notices?” Yash enquired, hoping that there was still some hope left.
“Yes…I saw the peon pasting it on the first floor. I had to pay him to give me the rest….
Have they gone mad?…”, Rishabh replied, hysterical with rage.“They can’t do this.”
Mad in anger, he rushed into the room—the other four behind him.
To their surprise, the room was empty—no one was sitting on the big chair.
“Click,” they heard a sound. Mrs. Menon stood in a corner, close to the printer, stapling pages.
“Good afternoon, Ma’am”, said Yash, Nima, and the others. An auto-response that was tuned in their brains.
“Ma’am, do you know where Mrs. Dhingra is? We just saw these….” Rishabh started sharing his anguish but was abruptly cut by Mrs. Menon.
Looking at Yash and Nima, Mrs. Menon said, “These are the lists of students in class 10. This page has the details of bus drivers and the admin team. The coordinator from the Science museum is listed here too. Please call them and inform them that we are confirming”.
Yash and Nima stood there, listening to things getting very REAL, very FAST.
But Yash was not ready. With Mrs. Menon, his favorite teacher, he might have a chance. She was the only one who knew how talented he was. She wouldn’t want Yash to lose his grades, wasting time on some random outing. So he took a shot.
“Ma’am, Math olympiad is coming up next month. Maybe I should not spend my time on this trip and focus on the test.”
An olympiad was still better than this, he thought.
But soon, he realized that this was a traitor’s move. He could feel the cold stare from his batchmates. He had just tried to weasel out of this situation, leaving his new group alone. What a di*k move, he thought.
Mrs. Menon just ignored him. Abandoned the “favorite” student and turned to Nima to continue giving instructions.
“You must call the admin team and tell them to coordinate with the museum for timings and parking. You must also arrange packed lunch for the students. I have added a few suggestions and numbers if you want. Just share the bills with the admin team, and they will make the payments. “ she explained.
And then, just like that, she picked her bag and got ready to leave.
“I have spoken to your parents. They are delighted with your contribution and proud to know that you all are getting an A+ in extracurricular class.”, she continued in a happy, mischievous tone.
“Oh, and by the way, …I am on leave next week. Please close all the arrangements this week before I leave,” she spoke to Nima just before leaving the room.
She closed the door on her way out, leaving the room filled with a silent awkwardness.
“You know Yash, just being smart doesn’t make you a nice person.”, Nima said with a cold stare, looking straight at Yash. Yash stood, frozen.
She was right.
Nima waited in silence for just the right time. Long enough for Yash to feel completely humiliated and short enough, not to expect a response, and then she continued.
“Nandu, I want you to take these restaurant numbers and ask them about packed lunches for 80–100 students. Get the list of food items and costing per package”.
Nandu nodded.
“Bharath, can you coordinate with the admin team? For starters, find out who they are—no need to tell them about the outing yet. Speak to the driver, if possible. Check how many buses would 100 students need?”
“Sure,” confirmed Bharath.
“Rishabh, you will have to speak to the museum coordinator. We are gonna talk about the notices too.”
“And Yash, you and I are gonna think about how we are gonna tell this to the students.”
“We will meet tomorrow after school, near the ground benches.”. She spoke like a leader and marched out of the room. The other four followed.
As Bharath and Narendra took the numbers and left, Nima asked Rishabh.
“Rishabh, did anyone else read the notice?”
“I saw few junior girls read it. I took it off the board, but I think they had a glance……”, Rishabh replied.
“Will they talk about it?”, Nima enquired.
“Well they seemed to my fans and I did tell them not to tell anyone, so OFCOURSE Nima, OFCOURSE THEY ARE GOING TO TALK ABOUT IT. They are girls. They talk about EVERYTHING.”, Rishabh responded angrily.
“Calm down….Can you tell me their name?”, Nima replied with cold confidence.
“What are you gonna do, abduct them?”, Rishabh asked sarcastically.
“Leave it to me”, Nima said calmly.
“Tomorrow we will meet again after school”, Nima announced as she took the names from Rishabh. “Yash, you will have to skip the last period tomorrow. We need to talk about how to tell the students.”
“Let’s see if you are as smart as we think you are”, she remarked while leaving. Yash stood speechless, absorbing the snide remark.
Only 10 days left for the trip.
To be continued…
