Chapter 12: The Reason For The Tie

“It was a draw, in a way,” Aanya replied in their stead, shaking her head and grinning as she remembered what transpired.

“What happened?” Aarav asked filled with intense curiosity.

“We performed only once. That is, I sang once and danced once. Cabir too did the same.”

“Why?” Aarav questioned. “Wasn’t it supposed to be a Best of 3?”

“Yeah, well, your Aunt Janya made good on her promise and came back quickly.” Aakash gave a sigh.

“So, the Class Monitor was Aunt Janya. I thought the names being identical were a coincidence.”

“Yeah, it was her. Man, was she mad at us! For an entire week, she was very strict with HW and uniform checks for the five of us, especially Harshil! Plus, the number of stink-eyes we received from both Janya and her friends...if she had her way, we would be beaten to a pulp!”

Cabir added on, “Well, the number of punishments Harshil got that week was amazing. Well, more awesome was the fact that his parents did not get called. He hardly did his work! I took two days off so didn’t suffer too much. Jeet took a day off too. Jatin and your dad mostly completed their work so they got off a little lighter than Harshil.”

“Man, those two fought so much but still ended up together.” Aakash laughed.

“No kidding, dude! I was so shocked when that guy told me he was getting married to Janya. My first reaction was like, “Have you both gone crazy?!” He just told me to shut up and attend the ceremony.” Cabir threw his hands up in the air.

Aarav quickly tried to steer the conversation back to where his own interests lay.

“Umm...can we go back to how she got back so quickly? Didn’t you say that the teacher would suspect...?”

“That smart girl just ran to Veena Ma’am and told her that she would search the top two floors and Ma’am should search the bottom two. Ma’am liked it since she was old and also this would make the search faster.”

“And then, she checked the Multi-purpose Hall and asked the maid on the floor for help to carry it. Even worse, by the time they climbed down to the second floor, Veena Ma’am had somehow enlisted the P.E. Sir for help. He took over and quickly brought the instrument down.”

Aanya laughed, “Luckily, just as they reached the basement...our music room was in the basement, as were the other cultural activity rooms; we heard Veena Ma’am loudly criticizing 'naughty brats terrorizing the elderly'...these guys quickly pushed everything back in its place by the time they reached the door.”

“Yeah, we were so scared that Harshil and the others forgot to unbar the door! Ma’am literally rammed on it. Harshil ran over and opened it, apologizing all innocently, saying that a few students wanted to leave and thus, they had closed the door so that they couldn’t run off!”

“Janya and her buddies were all glaring at us!” Cabir laughed as he reclined on the sofa.

“Well, anyhow, we had a vote when we got back to class. Janya and her friends refused to participate but as per the vote, Aakash won the dance part and I, the song part. But, since it was only one round...we just called it a tie.”

“Wait, Dad won the dance round? Didn’t he say that the song you sang for him was challenging to dance on?! Plus, he can’t dance! I mean, he never agrees to dance at family functions and all! Oh, wait...did he win because you couldn’t dance well then? I mean, you were a little fat-”

“Hey, kid! A quarter of the voters said I danced better than him. It wasn’t because I was fat or anything-”

“Oh, stop making things up. There’s no way you remember how many voted for you. Stop exaggerating. But, yup, Cabir danced well, Surprising, but he did.” Aanya said.

“Excuse me? Surprising? Shut up!” Cabir laughed, “Anyway, your dad has some sweet dance moves. He probably doesn’t like dancing in those functions. You should see us in our reunions...well, okay, we all go crazy then, so...maybe not.”

Aakash scratched his head in embarrassment as his son stared at him with wide-eyes.

“Well, it was fun at the very least. Though, the only reason we could come up with such a plan was that Harshil had thought out most of it. We just sat down and made some additions on it...like where to hide the harmonium. And the idea of trapping the Class Monitor was all Harshil’s. He came up with it just as we were rushing to the music room, to act like we had seen the kids who stole the instrument.”

“Yeah, I didn’t understand one thing! Why did you all describe that one had Uncle Harshil’s spiky hair and one was-”

“That was my idea!” Aakash laughed. “We would have been spotted running away with the harmonium after we stole itfrom the music room. Even if we kept our heads down, people could still see our body shapes. So, just threw out some threw recognizable features if the teacher confirms from someone else!”

“Dad...you were cunning like-”

“It’s being naughty, not cunning. We were kids.” Aakash vigorously intervened with a righteous tone.

“Okay but...couldn’t your Ma’am just check the camera?”

“We were still in Class 3, son. We didn’t think of everything.”

“But they still got lucky. We had two buildings, one for the students till Class 5th and one for the students from Class 6th to 12th. CCTVs had been installed in the senior building but nobody thought students at our age would do something too wrong and thus were not installed. Funnily enough, it was this event that led to their installation.” Aanya supplied.

“We were trendsetters!” Cabir drew himself up with pride.

“You two and the other three uncles pulled off something so cool! How did you all become friends though? I mean, both of you were so against each other yet all five of you worked so well!”

“Jeet and Jatin were Harshil’s friends from Montessori. I became friends with Harshil in Class 3 and he introduced those two to us.”

“So, he was a mutual friend? Then, he was like a neutral party when you two fought?”

Aakash laughed at that, “No, it was way different from that.”

“What-”

“Enough. You can talk to them at breakfast tomorrow.” Anya interrupted as she put down her documents.

“But Mom-”

“No buts.” She pointed at the wall clock, which showed 12:05 am. “It’s late. Your Uncle Cabir arrived today only. He’s tired. See, he’s asleep already.”

Aarav looked over and was surprised. Cabir was reclining on the sofa, snoring gently. Neither Aakash nor he had seen him fall asleep.

“Just sleep. You can hear more stories tomorrow.”

Aakash stood up and shook Cabir, waking him. “Go to your room, idiot. Don’t sleep on the sofa.”

Cabir was too tired to reply. He simply flipped a middle finger up in Aakash’s direction and yawned a “ ’Night” in Aanya and Aarav’s direction. He ruffled the boy’s hair as he passed by.

“Could you control your actions in front of the kid?” Anaya snapped.

“Oh...uh...sorry.” He yawned again and went to his room leaving behind an irritated Aanya, a ruefully smiling Aakash and a grinning Aarav.

“What are you grinning at? Go to sleep.” Aanya ordered her son. “Good Night.”

“Good Night, Mom.” Aarav scurried away. But just as he entered his room, he leaned out and asked his father, “You will tell me?”

“Tomorrow.” Aakash promised.

“Good Night, Dad.”

“Good Night, Son.”