A Sew Through Time [Banbudh And Budbak]

16: When September ends

When she felt the courage to meet them face to face again, Khushi returned back to school after two days of staying absent, promising herself to not meet her younger self again.

Badri and Budh grew overjoyed when seeing her standing near the school cycle parking, casually leaning against the mango tree.

"Smugface is back!" Badri pranced around her childishly, "What happened to you?!"

"Bukhar" Khushi replied.

"So Mega Robot made you lose your hp!" Budh spoke while grinning widely, "I thought you left our school"

"Never, I'm lallantap!"

"When you were gone, soooooo much stuff happened!" Badri spoke in glee and started narrating about the various incidents that had occurred. Khushi felt that exciting stuff only happened on days she was absent.

On their way to the assembly, the boys decided to share their plan.

"Hey" Budh bent down a few inches and whispered, "Wanna play 'hunger games' today?"

She pondered, "As in the show?"

"You'll get it" Badri winked, "Just act as we do"

"Act? You mean acting?" she chuckled, "Kyu bhai, is some director coming to our school today?"

"Ah I wish that was true, but nope" he winked, "But this one audition will get us one week's worth of lunch"

When the assembly commenced, the duo signalled Khushi to start first. Winking back, she covered her stomach with her hands and hunched down on the ground, shrieking and grunting.

"Arre! What happened?" Dubey sir noticed her.

The other students raised their hands and did their pledge.

"Sir, I think she ate something rotten in breakfast!" Badri remarked on her behalf, crouching down on the grass, "And I'm sick since morning sir!"

"Do you two share the same breakfast in one place?" He clenched his teeth and muttered.

"Saaaarrrrrrr!" Budh yelled from behind, putting the same act wittingly, "Stomach paining very much sir!"

"You too Budhdeb?! He felt annoyed, "Is this some new prank you three are pulling?"

"No sir actually na" Badri tried to explain, "Last Sunday, we ate a buffet in a birthday party. I think something was rotten in the fried rice"

"And that is affecting you three now? That too in school?"

"Sir..." Khushi grumbled, "I think I got it, it's coming!"

"Sir I, I-" Budh followed.

The teacher felt terrified, "No no not here! You three, go to the toilet!"

Excitement stirred up in their hearts. They strode their way towards their classroom, celebrating the joyful escape from the inexorable assembly.

Everything felt quiet, the voices from outside echoed in the empty classroom. Hurriedly, they began searching for their classmate's bags, taking out the plastic tiffin boxes and peeking inside.

"Guys, come here! Jeeva brought fried rice!" Budh scooped some in his hand and devoured it, few grains fell on the floor.

"Karan has pizza, and Gyan, ugh, Roti ki sabzi..." Badri retorted in disappointment. He handed the pizza slices to his friends.

Khushi opened a random tiffin box containing a hard-boiled egg. Biting half of it, she kept it back in the box and the bag.

In the front bench, Myra's bag was open. Giggling, she let her hand dig deep for the tiffin box which contained schezwan noodles. At her first bite, the savory food turned into a tingling sensation which spread like wildfire in her mouth. Her ears steamed and eyes teared up.