The Rules Of Pursuit

58. The Champions

The classes were suspended for the match on Monday. The soccer face off was supposed to take place at the Engineering college's stadium.

The stadium wasn't huge, yet accommodated every visitor. All of us from the college of Espionage were wearing blue, sporting our team's Jersey colour.

"Finally an all girl's outing." Natasha sighed as we sat down on the cemented rows.

The medical college soccer team was horrible, losing to us by seven to zero. Junaid and Stephen managed to score the initial goals but the rest was an out and out Avinash Chauhan show. He surely was the best Center Forward, scoring FIVE freaking goals!

Our next match with the Engineering College, was a one. Obviously, they had the home ground advantage going in their favor. However, Stephen managed to score the winning goal with two minutes remaining, making us win three to two.

We were to face the management college for the final face match.

"Shit! They are playing out there but I am sweating with tension here." Natasha whined.

"Welcome to the club." Olivia chuckled, patting Natasha on her back.

"The management team plays it pretty rough." Mia said thoughtfully. "Hope none of our players end up getting injured."

"Couldn't you let your tongue wag out some positivity instead," Natasha grimaced. Mia answered with snicker.

By the time the final match started, it was already dusk. The management team players were way better than the rest of the teams. It was nearly impossible to get past through their goalkeeper. Nevertheless, Danish too managed to block all their attempts to send the goal through our goalpost.

We entered half time 0-0.

The second half seemed more difficult, since the Management team managed to keep the ball in their possession. Danish jumped right and left, defending their continuous attack on our goalpost.

The game rolled into extra time preparing, us for a penalty shoot out when suddenly Akshay managed to tackle the ball from the opposite team's forward and sent it flying to our forwards. Junaid was already in position and head butted it towards Avinash. Avinash dribbled it, before passing it to Stephen.

Avinash, Junaid and Stephen followed their routine passing the ball between themselves while the opposite team struggled to get hold of the ball.

The entire stadium went quiet as our forward and striker edged closer to the goal, with Avinash still dribbling the ball.

"Naid," Avinash screamed, kicking the ball to Junaid who caught it with his foot, and dribbled further.

He kicked it with all his might making the ball fly towards the goal post. We thought it had found the gap between the Goalie watching it fly above him, but their Goalkeeper was pretty good too. Throwing both his arm up, he punched the ball back. Avinash who was the standing mere feet away from the goal jumped up and head butted it back to the goal, and this time it was too fast. The goalie arched to his right, but the ball flew into the goal, grazing the tip of his gloves.

The entire stadium erupted with thunderous applause. I myself was jumping up and down on my seat, clutching Mia's arms, cheering at the top of my voice. The electronic scoreboard flashed the final score. 'College of Journalism-1, College of Management- 0', which was soon replaced with 'Congratulations College of Journalism, Four time Champions'.

Our team did a victory lap waving at the gallery, with the crowd cheering for them. We hooted when Akshay finally lifted the trophy and the rest of his team joined him. This was Akshay's last match, since he would be graduating. Fourth year running and the College of Espionage (though the scoreboard said College of Journalism) was still invincible in soccer.

I followed the girls towards the players' changing rooms, waiting outside for our team to come out. It was then that I came face to face with the person I least wanted to meet. Her heels clicked on the floor as she swayed her hips, walking towards the changing room.

"What is she doing here?" Mia growled.

"She is officially dating Akshay now." Olivia muttered.

"Hi girls!" That nauseating squeal of Damini Sreenivasan rang in my ears. Brute snarled baring his teeth.

"Hi Damini." Natasha sneered. "Looking for a cup of coffee?"

"Actually I am looking for my man." She squeaked, unfazed by Natasha's jibe.

Even though I saw her in all of our classes, this was the first time she had the audacity to speak to us. The doors of the changing room opened and the boys filed out, chatting happily, but immediately stopped in their tracks sensing the tension outside.

"Hi babe!" Akshay called out, trying to ease the tension, "See you boys later." He called to his team before walking upto Damini and steering her away.

"That was awkward." Zoravar chortled. "Now don't let that slut spoil our mood."

"Absolutely," Danish agreed circling his arms around Olivia's shoulders.

"Because this is our night of celebration," Mandy said dramatically. I allowed Avinash to hold my waist and navigate me outside.

"So how and where are we celebrating?" Danish called out as we walked along the grass field towards our college.

"How about the paradise?" Olivia chirped.

"The what?" Danish asked perplexed. He and Zoravar were the only two who hadn't seen the paradise. I noticed a frown on Junaid's face. He was too possessive about the paradise.

"Ummm why don't we try the outdoor poolside," I suggested, washing some of Junaid's disappointment.

"Puuurrfect," Mandy seemed to have noticed Naid's discomfort too. "You guys carry on, while Zoro and I go fetch the bottles."

"You already have bought the booze?" Danish asked incredulously. "How were you so sure, that we were going to win?"

"I wasn't," Mandy replied widening his eyes, "the booze was just to drown our pain if we lost."

"Asshole." Natasha slapped her boyfriend playfully on the back of his head.

Mandy kissed her on her head, before bouncing off towards the hostel, with Zoravar on his heels, singing 'We are the Champions' at the top of their voice. The rest of us slowly strolled towards the outdoor swimming pool.

I absentmindedly hummed the song Mandy left singing. I guess we had redeemed the loss of the dance face off. Most of the students had nearly forgiven us for the dance face-off blunder, when Avinash and I jointly won the Subhash Chakra. Nevertheless, today, Avinash had probably earned back his lost respect, for quitting the dance team.

I realized how indispensable my boyfriend was, to the rest of the college. Given the splendid all-rounder he was, no doubt Avinash was the most popular boy of the college. May be next year I would be able to convince him to join back the dance team, so that we could win both the titles. Moreover I knew he loved dancing, and I didn't want him to make anymore sacrifices for me.

I smiled when Mia, Danish, Avinash and Olivia too started to sing 'We are the Champions' making Natasha roll her eyes and Junaid chuckle.

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