TIT FOR TAT IS NOT ALWAYS RIGHT!!

Friends and Enemies

The first tear trickled down my right cheek. It fell on the script of my play, wetting and smudging the letters, printed in black ink. My vision became blurry due to the successive tears my eyes were trying to retain from falling, in vain. I put my head down on my desk and sobbed silently.

"Hey, Ira, don't cry! It isn't your fault that our play has become a disaster. Don't blame yourself, come on! You know who's spoiling it, don't you?" Richa tried to console me, without success. She always spoke her mind, and mostly what she said was completely true. But this time, I wasn't entirely convinced.

"She's right, Ira. I'm pretty sure it's Parul who's jinxed our play. She is leaving no stone unturned to damage your reputation, to see you fall down in front of the whole school, so that she can regain the popularity and fame she had enjoyed when you weren't here." This was Mansi, my other best friend--who was always reasonable, logical, and the whiz kid of our class. Not to mention teacher's pet.

"I know. But I didn't know she could go to such an extent just to humiliate me. I mean, what have I done to her, that she hates my guts so much??!" I sighed, and continued,"Anyway, the good part is, nothing could be possibly more wrong and bad now for my play and me, I guess. She's already whipped all the good actors in our house to her side, by saying cruel things about me, behind my back, and then probably it was she only who told her nasty followers to ruin our props. To top it all off, now even our teacher has come and reprimanded us for those mistakes in the script, which we never made! i seriously don't have a clue what's going on and exactly who is playing these tricks on us, but I'm completely fed up of this play, and the competition!!"

All the anger and frustration--mixed with confusion over who was trying to spoil my preparations for the Inter-house Drama Competition and why--I had been harboring for the past two weeks, now burst forth in a fierce torrent of words.

Both Richa and Mansi looked at me in shock...and I guess they had every right to do so, since I was ready to quit participating. They knew I wasn't so weak, but my confidence on myself was slowly evaporating as the situation became tougher to handle.

"Don't even think of giving up now, Ira! Not when we're so close to the day of the competition. Why, it's just four days away now!! And believe me, this is actually what she wants to do--to make you step down at the last moment by your own consent, and then ridicule your leadership skills." Mansi said.

"And I, not for a moment doubt, who is behind all our troubles. I can clearly see the name etched on all of her pranks, really--'PARUL'." Richa added, a bit dramatically, too.