Spells

Chapter 16: Follow

Abhimanyu

The principal's office was compact and organized. His desk had a calendar, a big diary and a couple of file folders neatly arranged on it. The walls were bare and cracked except for a large window, which alongside two bulbs on the ceiling gave the room a yellowish glow. The principal, Mr. Ghosh, sat behind his desk, with a stern but tired expression. Opposite to him Abhimanyu’s face was impassive.

"How did you get the cut here?" Mr.Ghosh asked, pointing to his lower lip.

"I fell."

"After being pushed down by Yuvraj, you mean? " he asked casually. Abhimanyu remained silent.

"In the couple of days you have been here, you have been involved in some serious fights." The principal leaned back before continuing, "I didn't expect this from you.- A city boy, with the grades at the top of your school and accomplishments pages long, getting into violent and dangerous fights repeatedly."

"They started it. I just defended myself.," Abhimanyu murmured.

"And yet there are some students who swore that it was you who initiated. Doesn't matter anyway, a fight is a fight. And to make sure you don't have another rumble, you are hereby assigned to the school cleanup duty an hour every morning before the school starts and two hours in the evening for a month"

"What!?" Abhimanyu asked in loud disbelief.

"This school used to be peaceful and disciplined, and I intend it stays that way. If I let you go easy, it's like giving a green light to every other student. Kids learn from example, and your punishment shall be a lesson to showcase the severe repercussions to those who break the rules."

Abhimanyu remained shocked, and before he could protest, Mr.Ghosh raised his hand to stop him."Yuvraj and Varun will get their punishment too, and it will be equally harsh. And if I see you skipping the punishment, I would be more than happy to call your father and discuss the long suspension that you would get. Now hurry to class, I don't want you to miss out on studies. And don't forget to bring your lunch with you tomorrow, you will be staying late after all."

...

Inaya

The mathematics teacher was absent from the school, so a substitute teacher Mrs. Archana was sent to the class 11-B. The teacher ordered the class to keep practicing the problems of the book in silence while she sat down working on her register. The silence broke down almost instantly and the loud chatter filled the room. Mrs. Archana periodically glanced away from the register, grunted with a frown on her face, and then went back to her beloved register. Inaya chuckled at this before turning her gaze to her front.

“I don’t think that’s how it works,” said Juhi, staring at the solution written in her friend Maya's notebook. “This identity won’t get applied here, the roots aren’t real. And you certainly cannot ignore the negative sign inside the root.”

Maya looked at the solution for some time, then started scribbling something in her notebook with her unusually tiny hands clutching the pen tightly. She gave up soon and said in exasperation “Then I can’t figure it out.”

She looked at Juhi for help, who stared back with the same defeated look. They were both oblivious to Inaya's gaze at them.

One of the very few things Inaya liked to do was observe. She loved looking at people's reactions in different situations. Among them, the look of confusion was her absolute favorite. The expressions when they tried to grasp a situation, the look of realization or the embarrassment when they fail to do so, all were hilarious to her. That’s why she liked to hang with what society would label as 'morons'. Children, by default, also fell in this category. She would ask these people a puzzling question and when they fumbled or stared at her blankly, she would feel giddy inside. She didn’t think for once that she was doing anything wrong. After all, what’s wrong with hanging out with stupid people that the general crowd mostly ignores. She was doing a nice thing and getting a little fun out of it.