Forty-five minutes had passed since the start of literature class, and already, Sachen was itching herself to execute the plan. She fidgeted her feet and hands, and she started to scratch her stomach—it almost tipped Sachen into a burst of laughter. Out of such irritation, Sachen tried to maintain her composure, but the sensations were too much to handle. At this rate she could spring off her chair and reveal her plan before she knew it. In the end, the girl knew that this was important. Indeed, the materials that she and Neha had acquired from the school supplies room, and they kept them well in good hands so as to not lose them.

Sachen looked at Neha, who was trembling both of her legs. Neha’s eyes dulled like faint stars, and she could see again the lifelessness within her pupils; it might have been that she had been sleeping too late at night. Her friend tried to retain focus on the lecture, but the monotonous voice of Ms. Laozina curbed Neha into ennui. The teacher grated the chalk on the surface, and it bled the ears of the students. Neha’s eyelids curtained her vision, and her cheeks turned white. Throughout the whole day, she had not utter a single word—as a matter of fact, since a few days ago, she had kept quiet most of the time, not willing to say much. It was probably due to her disagreement with Sachen back at the shed.

Sachen leaned over to her, and she gave a wink.

“Are you ready for it? Oh, I can’t contain myself, I’m so excited! At the same time, it feels so terrifying for us to do this. I can’t imagine what the mayhem would be like, you know? Golly, I am about to laugh.”

Neha glimpsed at Sachen, and she nodded. “Yeah, but we shouldn’t give ourselves away too much,” she replied. She tapped something inside her dress. It thumped like a board.

“You’re right. Our plan will spoil otherwise. Well, I don’t want to wait any longer. This is now or never.” Sachen sketched a smile. She then had a desire to ask her friend about she was feeling right now, but it would have been quite sudden and rude. She was still worried for her, more so in the concern that Neha would mess up in the plan. Sachen had confidence for the both of them however, since they looked forward to their victory.

On the clock above the chalkboard, the minute and second hand ticked and clicked as they journeyed through the numbers. Sachen licked her lips, and shook her right leg so hard that it could fall off. As she followed the minute hand, her eyes swirled. “Tick-tock,” she repeated. It was repetitive, but enough to keep her attention, preventing herself from falling astray.

When the time reached the fiftieth minute, Sachen zeroed in towards her teacher. As of now, Ms. Laozina was passing out exam reviews. She walked along the first row, and when she finished that side, she went to the second, then the third. The fourth and fifth rows, to which now the teacher was in, were the places that Neha and Sachen sat at, respectively.

Ms. Laozina marched to Neha’s side. With a lick of her finger, she handed the review to the girl. Sachen twinged her face, and under her breath she grumbled. Growing pale in a matter of seconds, her eyeballs rolled back and her tongue stuck itself out. Sachen raised her right arm. Her vocal cords became thin.

“Teacher, excuse me,” Sachen said in a raspy, sick voice. “I need to go to the nurse.”

“Why is that?” Ms. Laozina slammed the papers onto Sachen’s desk. She scowled.

“I think I caught the stomach flu...”

“Huh? You were just fine since the morning.”

“No, no, I tried my best to hide my illness, but I can’t hold it in! Please, can I go?”

“I’m sorry Sachen, but you’ll have to wait until class is over.” Finishing the last row, the teacher strutted to the chalkboard. She folded her hands, glared at the students, and opened her nostrils. Sachen was about to jump on her desk and holler at the woman for disregarding her so-called sickness—for this day was the only opportunity to execute the plan only once, it would be a disaster if Sachen were to do this at the end of the week. She, also Neha, had no time any longer to wait, and the moment to present the truth lied within this hour. There could be no days other than this.

While Sachen maintained her grumbles and affliction, she nudged Neha. Her friend immediately trembled more than before. Neha gripped her hands at the edge of the desk, she couldn’t lift her eyes at first. It looked as though she was about to fall apart and collapse under pressure. From the side, Sachen moved her mouth and said airless words. Understand what the long-hair girl was doing, Neha shook her head. She breathed deeply, and she raised her hand and daggered her eyes to the teacher.

“Um, Ms. Laozina.”

“Yes? What is it my dear?” the teacher inquired, curving her lips upwards.

Neha smiled in a nervous manner. “My friend is in great pain. I saw her like this in the morning, and she almost collapsed on the way to school. I beg for her parents to keep her at home, but they refused. I feel so bad for her, and I don’t want her to be in pain for the rest of her day. I think it would best if she goes to the nurse, so that the problem will be over. That way, she will attend class with a healthy stomach.” Neha shrugged, she jerked her head to the side, hiding her blush.

Sachen bolted from her chair. She held herself tightly. Her eyes glanced back and forth throughout the classroom, her breath came to a slowdown. The majority of the students whispered to one another in the midst of the silence, probably taking the girls as hilarious fools that had nothing to do but to waste time. By then, the silence withdrew.

Ms. Laozina mumbled incoherent words. Then she showed a smile.

“It’s okay Neha, there’s no way that you would tell lies. I trust you. You can take Sachen to the nurse, since I can tell that Sachen would ditch the last class of the day. But as you should know by now, leave your bags here. I don’t want to be snooping around if you are carrying them to the nurse or even the bathroom.”

Neha’s face reddened more and more. She said her thanks; the classmates around her then snickered and pointed fingers at the duo. As soon as the teacher accepted the excuse, Neha stood up and went first to the door, with Sachen taking her lead. Only six minutes to spare, Sachen could barely wait anymore for the plan—it was pulling her heart so much that she wanted to explode in joy. She could infect the same sentiment to Neha, but the latter might get herself embarrassed.

They left the classroom and hurried to the hallways. Sachen surveyed the area and confirmed that nobody else was present but themselves. The both of them sighed. They took their steps, walking limp—by immediate notice they passed along an endless row of posters from the walls. Within the posters, there was a sketch that depicted people raising their fists and guns in the air, and their cheeks and mouths were bloated as though they were caricatures. On top of the people, words congested the sky, the sky being the background. The message told something like this: “Let Us Fight for the Motherland! Let Us Defend the Village with All Our Lives!”

Sachen clicked her teeth upon such a message. Lately, the Holy Army had been putting these posters in almost every corner and road of the village. She and Neha encountered them from their front door the first thing in the morning—they later found out that they were everywhere in the neighborhood. Not much to her surprise, the villagers took an adoration to the message, to the point that they were at the moment, hosting an informal rally in support of the Lama. Sachen scoffed at such a gathering like that. Would the people continue to exhaust themselves for him? She doubted of their capability to change since they were so into the figure, although she held a sliver of hope that their plan would somehow make wave for dissent.

The girls arrived at the middle of the hallway. Before them, a bulletin board was hanging on the wall. The posters covered the cork surface, but they would not be here for long, for the girls were about to bring them down.

Sachen curled her right leg and hopped in one place. She nudged at her friend. “Do it.”

“All right.” With no hesitation, Neha teared off the posters from the board. No mercy. The girl scattered the remains to the trash can near her. Promptly she rolled upwards the bottom of her dress, revealing her short pants and her bare stomach. A coil of paper was wrapped around her abdomen and sides. Neha shrunk her belly, and the paper sank to the ground, unveiling itself; it was the same size as the bulletin board. From the side of her pants, Neha took a red-colored pencil, and in a hurry did she write large letters on the paper.

“Whoa Neha, that’s kind of neat!” Sachen said.

“Thanks. It says, ‘Urgent Information!!!’ To be honest, I thought of this phrase at the last minute.” Neha flipped the paper to the back, where smudges and black ink covered the whiteness of the space.

“Now it’s my turn. Here we go!” Gazing her surroundings once more, Sachen relaxed her right leg, and something slid through her limb. Upon reaching Sachen’s toes, a roll of duct tape clattered the tiles. She pulled out a load of tape, and bit by bit, she cut it into chunks, and afterwards she created eight in total. She folded the portions only once. When she was done with that, she planted six chunks on the corners of the paper—with effort, she had finished her part.

“Done. Help me now!”

Sachen snatched the right side of the paper, while Neha got the left. With time running out, they made haste. They hoisted the paper and adhered it to the bulletin board. One minute remained. Sachen lifted her dress, and on her stomach contained the documents that she had kept in security. Lucky for her, no one in her family noticed at all about them, and things might have turned out differently if Monkhuba chanced upon them. Using the last two pieces of tape, Sachen stamped them onto the documents, and she then posted the valuable items to the board. Now they were finished with this phase. Sachen exhaled all her breath and massaged her own arms. In a brief flash Neha smiled.

“Thank goodness. We made it!” Sachen said, turning to her friend and holding her hands. “Come on, let’s go back to the classroom. This will sure to cause an uproar!”

“This is good timing, since the soldiers from the northern gate will do a military inspection here at the end of the day.”

“Darn straight! We must remain secretive however.” They then returned to their classrooms, their classmates waned in scrutiny. Sachen had a feeling that their plan would work without any mishaps, and that most likely, the students might be able to stop the Holy Army from committing to their atrocity. She could imagine the looks on the soldiers’ faces if they were going to take a gander at the bulletin board—shock, anger, disappointment—and she could say the same for students’ reactions. Just the thought of this ramped up her excitement. Just what would happen next?