The world is where your smile is

Chapter 6

Gauti bhai and Chandu sir let them slack off that session seeing they'd travelled the whole day (actually it had been a little over five hours only, but they called it the whole day).

Hence Shreyas did not have a good enough excuse to drag Nitish and Venky away from each other--they'd been lazing on the grass, drinking coconut water (oh, correction: Venky feeding Nitish coconut water)--while Rinku practiced high catches on the opposite end, determinedly not looking over at those two.

They should have been trying to make it up to Rinku--and they were drinking coconut water.

Everyone else exchanged looks like 'please ignore, this is just another day in our camp.'

Shreyas frowned.

It wasn't just another day. By now, he'd got the whole story of what had happened with Nitish and Rinku, and then Venky and Rinku, from all three of them in bits and pieces. And those two had better be planning how to make it up to Rinku and not just drinking.

It was the worst having this version of Rinku. Shreyas hadn't realized when he'd started banking upon Rinku's perennial smile and unobtrusive love for everyone in the team to maintain the kind of environment they had in their camp. When Rinku was not smiling, there were a lot lesser smiles around.

And of course, Shreyas did know Nitish felt it the hardest, and Venky was probably only trying to make him feel better.

Which was why he'd refrain from going and accusing them of the insensitivity of drinking coconut water when there was Rinku to be comforted.

"What's up, skipper?" VC asked as he passed by.

"I have a good mind to throw those two out of the grounds," said Shreyas in his standard tone.

"They'll sit on the steps outside and drink then," said Narine.

"You're pissed, right?" asked VC.

"Why would I be pissed?" said Shreyas. "It's Rinku who should be. Why isn't he more pissed? Dre, what do you think?"

"Er, what?" asked Russ distractedly (he'd been busy tying his shoelaces).

"He asked you what you think," said Narine to Russell.

"I don't think, um..."

"He said he doesn't think," said Narine to Shreyas.

Shreyas hurled a glove at Narine's head. The timing wasn't fortunate, however, because the LSG team had just walked into the field.

"Shreyas, you're captain," came Rahul's shocked voice. "You can't go around throwing gloves at people!"

"Oh, thank you," said Shreyas. "Did Rohit bhaiya and Virat bhaiya send you specifically to keep an eye on me?"

"Whatever helps you sleep," said Rahul.

"Oh, is this your one, skipper?" asked VC loudly.

Rahul was baffled.

"Your Rahul?" added Russ.

Rahul choked on air.

"Coconut water?" offered Narine serenely.

Rahul took several steps back. You'd think he'd be used to this by then, having spent ten years with the Indian team, but it turned out you never really got used to some stuff.

Shreyas, trying not to laugh at his expression, caught his arm firmly. "Yes, he's mine. C'mon, I'll introduce you to everyone."

And he had a very smug smile on his face, too, because he had finally got a good excuse to separate Nitish and Venky.