Chapter 8: That One Time...

As the trio settled down comfortably into the sofa, Aanya walked in, a sheaf of papers in her hand.

“Well, well, here’s our busy and bossy CEO!” Cabir announced.

“Well, well, here’s a jobless lawyer who’s making himself so much at home here while he’s just a guest!” Aanya shot back sarcastically.

Cabir jumped from his languid position, “How am I jobless?! I’m in Mumbai on behalf of my client! He-”

“Poor guy. Your client, I mean. How bad could his luck have been that your law firm assigned you to handle his case?”

“Hey, he specifically requested for me! And he’s a CEO like you!”

“Um...” Aarav tried to say but was interrupted by Anaya.

“Well, then he must be an idiot CEO. I mean, he hired you. No wonder he got dragged to court for fraud. What a shady guy. And you’re working for him voluntarily. So…you must be a crappy person too!”

“Hey! Don’t declare him guilty until it’s proven in court! Anyway, as far as I’ve seen, he is clean.” Suddenly, Cabir jolted, “Wait! How do you know so much about my case?!”

“Oh, that’s because he’s one of my future business partners. I’ve had him investigated.”

“Um...” Aarav tried again but nobody paid him any attention.

“So...you knew he was clean.” Cabir’s jaw dropped.

“Yeah. I was just messing with you.” Aanya replied offhandedly.

“Dafu-”

‘There’s a kid here! Mind your language!” She threw a pillow at his face.

Aakash threw back his head and laughed aloud. The banters between the two were always the same...Cabir never got the better of Aanya...but they were still entertaining to witness.

“Hello!” Aarav spoke louder. Three faces swivelled in his direction.

“Uh...Umm...when are you going to tell me? About what you two did after that fight?”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s get right to it.” Aakash tilted his head, recalling those long-gone days.

“Hmm...there were obviously a few fights. We never got caught again though! But most of the times there were just glares or mocking the other party within our own groups. Well, I preferred to read rather than socialize a lot, so I guess I just insulted him whenever anyone asked what I thought of him. I had a small group back in those early days in the school.”

“But mostly, our fights were done with answers and mocking.” Cabir laughed.

“Yeah, your Uncle Cabir here didn’t like to study-”

“Still don’t!” Cabir chimed in helpfully.

“...Yeah...well, anyway. He hated studying, but if he read something seriously once, he hardly forgot it. He purposefully used to read and complete whatever work our teacher had assigned us just so he could answer whenever I couldn’t. Just to prove he knew more than me. And half the time, he had just copied the work from somebody! But he had read it while completing so he easily remembered it.”

“I was a very smart boy.” Cabir declared proudly.

“Fortunately, that smartness didn’t seem to last for long. Or he would have been an insufferable pain in the butt.” Aanya remarked from the cosy cushion chair she was sitting in.

“Well, all in all, I think I was a positive influence on him. At least he began to study, if only a little, to best me. Though, every time he didn’t and I could answer in his stead; that was very pleasing too!”

While the three adults talked about those times, facing glowing, Aarav’s mood fell a bit. “Is that all? Nothing interesting? What about the fights? At least those seemed interesting!”

Aanya frowned at him. “Don’t be so engrossed in their violent inclinations!”

“Hey!” Aakash and Cabir both protested.

“...But if you want something interesting, I remember an incident. It wasn’t a fight but it was quite the stunt. It happened in Class 3 though. Since in Class 2 they mostly had those fights or glaring contests.”

“That’s true. But which event are you...?” Aakash asked, curious. He couldn’t recall.

“That one time...which ended in the ‘Song&Dance’ battle between you two!”

As Aarav looked up excited, both the men sat stock still for a few moments before their mouths fell open. Within moments they were falling over each other guffawing so loudly that they had tears in their eyes.

“Ah, yes, that time. How did we forget?”

Aanya shook her head at them and then looked over at Aarav, “It happened like this...”

****

“So, what is the capital of Manipur?” The teacher asked.

A boy in the middle row pushed up his specs with one hand while raising the other in anticipation.

“Ok, Aakash. Answer.”