A Sew Through Time [Banbudh And Budbak]

2: The devil trio

The new girl was the new gossip topic of school. A week passed by, nobody had succeeded to find out who her parents were, or in which school she used to study before. She seemed to enjoy the company of the two mischievous boys, growing greatly accustomed to them, unlike the others who found them to be a nuisance. And for them, the awkwardness made it difficult at first, when they slowly discovered that she found great relief in ridiculing the world. Just like them.

Budh had predicted she was in the library. He was right. Sneaking in, he tried to keep himself away from the musty smell of books, noticing the new girl reading quitely,

"You're here? Me and Badri were searching for you in the entire school!"

She glanced up.

He grabbed a chair to sit, which made a shrill screech.

"Oh my bad, I'll wrap up right now, where's Badri?"

"Outside, waiting for you"

It was a cool day. The breeze blew on their faces and made them yawn. The grass and trees in the campus danced softly around them.

Badri stood with a red bicycle near him and asked her to ride it.

"Me?"

"If you ride a bicycle" Budh said," Maybe that park inside the sun will go away"

She looked at the taller boy.

"Don't hide it, we have seen how many times you lost balance and fell down terribly" Badri spoke, remembering the number of times she had slipped in the school corridors, fell down while climbing the monkey bars in the playground and made everyone laugh. It was pitiful and pathetic to him.

"But I already know how to ride a cycle" she replied.

"Then why don't you give it a try?"

She mounted on it, with Badri holding it for her. Her foot slipped off the pedal. Struggling while holding the handles, she held the handlebars and pedalled.

"DON'T pedal backwards! Else the chain will break!" Budh warned.

"What?!" She kept on pedaling backwards.

"Arre not this way baba!" Badri slapped his head. He directed her to push her feet forward.

She followed his instructions but kept on repeating the same mistake.

"That's enough for today!" Budh held the handles and helped her get down.

"See? You dont know how to ride a cycle!" Badri sneered.

She looked at her knees quietly, leaving the duo confused.

Back in class, they noticed her sitting idle in her seat, talking to nobody.

"Partner, she looks sad" Budh remarked, "What do we do?"

Badri stretched his hand out and poked her shoulder.

She turned at them.

"You did a great job on the cycle today" He tried to smile.

"You think so?"

He opened his mouth to reply when a piece of chalk hit his head from the back. Scratching his head, he turned around to find out who dared to do so.

The fat bully continued laughing at him, followed by the laughter of the boys beside. Khushi noticed they were identical.

"Jeeva!" Badri grew aggressive and began approaching him.

"Don't you dare!" The other yelled with a lisp. The students, anticipating a physical fight, cheered and howled at them. But the buzz soon disappeared when the teacher entered.