Chapter 37: It’s Eight

“Well, sir. Here’s the dare…” The grin on Harshil’s face widened.

Even the economics teacher narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

“Treat our group to the Week’s Special!”

“…huh?”

“What?”

“…a treat?”

“Is he serious?”

“That idiotic…”

Comments tinged with shock, surprise, annoyance and exasperation flitted around the classroom.

“Is he crazy?!” Janya face-palmed. “He could ask for anything! Even trap Kamal sir into asking the vice princi for the trip to Goa himself! And he asks for food?! That glutton!”

“But he was smirking…he’s probably plotting something.” Aanya opined.

“His ‘plot’ is all regarding his stomach, I bet!” Janya fumed.

“Why are you angry? It’s not something that needs our opinions, hmm?”

“He is wasting a chance to throw that braggart of a teacher into trouble. Why can’t I be angry?!” Janya huffed.

Aanya let out a sigh, smiling helplessly at her friend’s antics. As she looked over in the boys’ direction, her eyes caught Cabir’s.

Motioning with her gaze, she drew his attention towards Harshil, at which the boy just shrugged. He had no idea what the guy was planning either.

“You…want a treat?” The teacher drawled, his brows creasing.

“Well, you can just consider it as fulfilling your promise. Well, not exactly but still.” Harshil shrugged smirking.

“Now what do you mean by that?” Kamal sir’s frown deepened.

“Why does it feel like sir is more pissed at his smirk than the dare?” Jeet whispered.

“Well, everyone whom he confronts with that grinning face wants to punch him, so why not in this case?” Jatin replied as he kept his book in his bag.

“Valid point.” Cabir murmured.

“It isn’t that bad.” Aakash countered softly.

“Please tell me that you have never had the urge to punch him in the face when he grins like that. That fake smile combined with that mockery in his eyes…” Jatin raised an eyebrow.

“Well…”

“Harshil’s already been punched by Aakash so many times cuz of that. So, Aakash’s probably become numb to that look now.” Cabir snorted from the side.

All the three burst into light laughter.

Harshil could hear every word and his eyebrow twitched, he hurled streams of abuse at them mentally.

“You know what sir? I wanna change the dare. Don’t treat my group…just treat m-”

“Hey, you can’t change the dare! That’s against the rules!” Cabir snapped at him.

“Oh, what happened to punching me?” The spiky-haired boy retorted softly, grinding his teeth.

“I will punch you if you change your dare.” Cabir imitated Harshil’s smile.

“Same.”

“Me too.”

“Count me in.”

“Tch.” Harshil clicked his tongue, his eyes glowering at them. “Fine. And Cabir,” He looked at the boy, “Stop copying me. You fail spectacularly. Zero points.”

“Oh, good for me. I don’t want to have a face people like to punch.” Cabir shrugged.

“…are you done?” An annoyed voice came from the front of the classroom.

“Ah, yes sir! So, treat today! Let’s go! The lunch break’s begun!”

“Before that…what do you mean by promise?” The man squinted.

“Oh, you forgot this too, sir?” Harshil put special emphasis on “too” making the man go blue in the face.

“Just speak.” He growled.

“Don’t you remember sir? You said that you’d treat all those who got full marks in the half-yearly exams to a week’s special? The special’s pretty pricey so how can I let go of a treat?” Harshil shrugged. “Now, I know that not everybody in our group got that many marks but you didn’t treat those of us who got full marks either, sir. So, just consider it another way of keeping your promise, sir.”

The next moment, his grin widened, “Of course, if you want to treat everyone else who got full marks too, that’s fine! What do you think, guys?” He asked his classmates, whose jaws had dropped open.

“Yeah!”

“We want the treat too, sir!”

“Treat! Treat! Treat Tre-”

“SHUT UP!” Kamal sir roared.

The class quietened in an instant. He gave Harshil a scathing glare but didn’t say anything.

Scowling at everyone, he smiled tightly, “I was planning to treat you all next week…”

Most of the class rolled their eyes at his words; a few even groaned under her breath.

Pretending not to notice, he carried on, “But after your behaviour today, the way you addressed me, your teacher, I’m not planning on keeping my ‘promise’ as you call it.”

“Slippery b-” Harshil began under his breath when Kamal sir turned to him.

“As for what you said, Harshil, fine. I’ll ‘treat’ your group. But remember your own dare. And you better do it by tomorrow. There are hardly any suggestions from the students so whenever there are any, Ma’am always calls the student to discuss. If she doesn’t call you, I’ll know.”

“But what if she doesn’t want to discuss a co-ed trip and directly cancels it?” Harshil asked, pretending to be worried.

“Oh, no, she won’t. The last time someone suggested it…well, haha.” Kamal sir didn’t bother to elucidate. He walked out of the class.

Within half-a-minute he was back; just as Harshil took his seat, “Be quick about it. There aren’t that many specials available. It's first come, first serve, after all. So, meet me in the cafeteria, you five. Don’t blame me later on.”

Just as he began to stride out, the spiky-haired boy called, “Our group isn’t just us boys, sir. Aanya, Janya and Farzeen are part of our group too. So, it’s eight.”

Kamal sir froze.