The Fight With The Boys.

Mina, Lilia, Pooja, Tanya and Christie were five best friends. They liked to eat lunch together in Lilia’s classroom. ‘So, as I was saying,’ said Tanya, through a mouthful of chicken burger. ‘Rahul is the best boyfriend anyone could have.’ ‘Tanya, I can’t understand why you like him,’ muttered Mina. ‘He is such an egomaniac.’ Mina, Christie, Pooja and Lilia hated popular Rahul and his gang of idiots (according to them) because they were so mean to them (the girls) despite their “Nice Guys” image. So, when Tanya began going out with Rahul, they were stunned and horrified. But because she was their friend, they didn’t complain (much).

‘Y’know,’ said Pooja, twirling a forkful of noodles. ‘I’d love to pay a prank or two on them.’ Mina and Lilia giggled, and they spent their break pleasantly, brainstorming ideas for tricking the boys.

The next day, during break, Mina stayed in her class, eating her cheese omelets while reading J.K Rowling’s Quidditch through the Ages. But she could not enjoy the fascinating book peacefully for long. ‘Mina, Mina!’ cried Christie, bursting into the room. Mina put her book down, astonished, for Christie was usually calm and composed, even under dire circumstances. ‘What’s up?’

‘Well, Pooja and Tanya put whoopee cushions filled with water on Rahul’s and Anush’s chairs. So, when the boys sat down, you can imagine what happened. Anush suspected our gang, so Rahul asked Tanya. And Tanya was so afraid that if she told the truth, Rahul would break up with her that she blamed the whole thing on Lilia and now, Lilia’s crying because Rahul, Anush, Mithun and Varun went and yelled their heads off at her!!’ Christie paused for breath. Mina quickly got up and followed her to Lilia’s class.

Lilia was clearly trying hard not to cry, but tears streamed down her cheeks regardless. Mina hugged her tightly and then turned angrily to Pooja and Tanya. ‘Why didn’t you own up?’ she asked, glaring. Pooja’s face was abashed but Tanya’s chin jutted out defiantly. ‘If I’d told him the truth, he would’ve dumped me!’

‘So you’d rather put your best friend into trouble than not having a buffoon like Rahul for a boyfriend, right?!?’ yelled Christie. That stopped Tanya in her tracks. ‘But I love him,’ she mumbled feebly.

Mina groaned. Tanya would not be persuaded. ‘Let’s go sort this mess out,’ she muttered to Christie. They left the culprits behind, who were apologizing fervently to Lilia.

Mina and Christie marched furiously to the classroom where the boys had their rendezvous. ‘Guys, you’re going to have to apologize to Lilia,’ said Mina. ‘It wasn’t her fault.’ The boys laughed. ‘Well, Miss Mina, do you know who it was?’ sneered Mithun. Mina hesitated. She wanted to clear Lilia’s name, but she couldn’t very well put Pooja and Tanya into trouble. And Rahul was Tanya’s boyfriend. What would she do?

It was Christie who spoke up. ‘We know who they are, but we can’t tell you their names.’ ‘Oh really?’ asked Anush coldly ‘So there are two of them, huh? Well we know one of them is Pooja ‘cause she’s in our class, but who’s the other one?’ ‘Can’t say,’ said Mina. ‘But say you’re sorry to Lilia because she didn’t do it.’

‘No way!’ said Rahul. ‘Tell us the second person’s name. We’ll give them a very hard time and then we’ll apologize.’ The girls couldn’t agree to his conditions and they left sadly, for they knew Tanya. She would never own up.

The result of this chaos was that the girls hated the boys all the more and they couldn’t speak properly to Tanya. However, after a few weeks, the affair was forgotten as exams and revision conquered their minds.

One cold evening, Lilia, Tanya and Mina were walking home from the cinema hall after seeing Avatar. ‘Man, it’s good to be free after those horrible papers,’ said Mina stretching luxuriously. Lilia and Tanya agreed. They walked into an empty alley, discussing the movie and its characters, when they heard an almighty crash. ‘It came from that dead end!’ yelled Lilia and they ran in that direction. There they spotted the wreckage of a once magnificent

Toyota Camry. Mina screwed her eyes up and suddenly recognized the people in the car. It was Rahul and Anush.

The girls ran to the car. ‘What happened?!?!’ cried Tanya. Rahul moved, cried in pain and whispered ‘Car slipped on ice… was driving too fast. Help.’ Mina and Tanya bent and managed to lift Rahul out. His arm looked horrible; it was mangled and covered in blood. Meanwhile, Lilia kept sniffing the air as though she’d had a cold. Suddenly, she screamed. ‘Guys, the gas is leaking! The car’s going to blow up!!!’

Rahul gasped. ‘Tanya…Anush is stuck inside! He can’t get out; I think he broke his leg!’ Tanya and Mina stood frozen with horror and fear, unable to speak or act. It was Lilia who spoke up. ‘I’m going in.’ Mina turned, her eyes widening. ‘Lil…it might be too late.’ Lilia was pale but determined. ‘I’m the slimmest here. I can do it.’

Tanya dragged Rahul out of harm’s way and watched as Mina and Lilia lifted a heavy part of the car. Then, Lilia bent and crawled quickly towards Anush. ‘C’mon, man, you can do it.’ Anush moved a little and whimpered. Lilia worked hard. Slowly, painstakingly, she managed to drag him out without hurting him much. A sharp piece of glass scratched her arm and cheek but she didn’t even cry out. As Mina helped her move him, their time ran out and the car exploded, in a blinding, fiery blaze that sent sparks everywhere. 

Tanya, who was standing with Rahul in a safer area, screamed. She could see nothing in the resulting, thick grey smoke. For one sickening, scary second, she thought it was too late. Then, through the haze, she saw three figures (one half-sobbing and wobbling) rise, all blackened with the soot. At that moment, it was the most wonderful sight in the world for her.

Mina whipped her cell phone out and called an ambulance and the police. The paramedics came and helped bind Rahul’s arm with bandage. Then, escorted by Mina, Anush was taken away to the hospital.

Tanya, Rahul and Lilia watched the ambulance drive away. Then, they were bundled into a police car, to be taken home. In the car, Rahul turned to Lilia. ‘Lilia,’ he said sincerely. ‘Thanks. You saved my best friend’s life. For that, I’m really grateful. And…I’m sorry I yelled at you like that. I now believe that you didn’t play the prank. Sorry.’ He offered his hand to her. Lilia looked at it and grinned. ‘That’s OK, dude.’ They shook hands.

Tanya looked at this exchange and sighed. ‘Rahul, I’ve got a confession to make. I was the one who put the whoopee cushion.

I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier. And Lil… please please forgive me. I’m a horrible friend. I should have never blamed you.’ Saying this, she burst into tears. Lilia didn’t say anything. Instead, she simply hugged Tanya (which made the girl cry even harder).

And Rahul looked tenderly at his blubbering girlfriend. ‘Hey, I’m just glad you told me the truth.’ ‘Really?’ gasped Tanya. ‘You won’t break up with me?’ Rahul looked shocked. ‘Why would I do that?’ He winked at her and she threw her arms around him. Then the three friends held hands and went home together. And from that day onwards, the snooty, popular boys and the five girls became the best of companions.

Hehe, this is kinda based on a true event. Hope you like it! =)
                                                         - Kai Goldstein

That's Our Everyday

My life as a teen is tangled as my messy hair my mom has to comb knots out of every day. I’ve got schoolwork, which I’d not care about all given the choice, but which I’ve got to do anyway because my parents and my stupid whiner of a guilty conscience won’t let me slack off.  Then there’s the problem of fitting in and making friends. Did you know that all though people say that the class and caste system has been abolished, it still exists in a very sophisticated form in schools? They ignore this, because they don’t want to be reminded of their own school days, leaving us to be tortured within its walls. If you’re lucky and have really cool looks, money, or have good connections with those at the top, you could be the most popular kid in school, and it won’t matter if you’re the biggest jerk or witch either, because on the popularity brigade, people look at the surface first and your personality later. Otherwise, you’re stuck with the so-called ‘losers’ of the school, and no one even bothers to know your name. You’ll be given a label, like ‘Guy with Ugly Face Who’s also a Big Geek’. Or something shorter, like ‘Weird Freak’. Descriptive, isn’t it? That’s high school.

This is also the time when your body decides that it’s time it freaks you out completely and begins crazy, horrible changes within itself, whether you like it or not. Guys get facial hair, grow disconcertingly tall and develop voices that make them sound like foghorns. Girls face worse problems which we’d rather keep to ourselves. Unfortunately, with mums and teachers and counselors advising us at every corner, how’s that even possible? We teens also find that Mum and Dad seem to have become much stricter about rules and regulations and our future. The same old discussion about all this drives us mad, and we find ourselves spending less time away from home or at the computer. Hence, adults form the stereotype about us- teens are sullen, wrapped in their own life, complain all the time, don’t have enough ‘family bonding time,’ etc.etc.

That’s the summary of my life and the lives of about a million other kids around the world. We are teenagers. We fight a battle everyday without knowing its cause. We do get warnings, disclaimers, notices, etc. about how it’s going to be. But when it actually hits, and it hits us hard, we see that these notices don’t help much. We try to find our identity, or some of us lose ours. But, despite all this, we do see a light at the end of this, long, pitch-black tunnel. No matter how much we say we suffer, we always, ALWAYS end up having fun, anywhere, anytime. We make fun of the silliest, and sometimes the dirtiest things. I guess that’s why everybody says that the teenage years are the best of your life. Because I’m learning that right now.

This is my very first post here! Lol, hope you guys liked it :)