Chapter 262

Chapter 341: The Battle of Glares

The schoolmaster had let the children out for their lunch break, instructing them to return after an hour of play. While the girls sat in a circle on the grass outside and drank the milk and rotis with ghee that their mothers had packed for them, the boys took to the nearest woods to hunt berries and fruits that grew rich and abundantly that season.

Chandraki, the brightest among the girls, looked in the direction where the boys had vanished and mumbled, "How horrible a sight they'll return in, with juices dripping down their shirts! Why can't boys ever be CLEAN!"

"Boys can't be clean until they become fathers," reasoned a girl to her side.

"But even fathers are not always clean," said another, biting at her roti, "Mine comes home with his hands dirty and his neck sweaty."

"That's because they work hard," said Chandraki, her frown still directed at the woods, "But I don't think these lazy, wanton boys will work even if they become big and fatherly."

Just at that moment, who should stroll out of the woods but Raoul himself, biting into a red apple that he had possessed from among the treasures in the trees.

The cheek of every girl who was seated in the circle, looking in his direction, turned as red as the apple in his hand, except Chandraki's. She looked away disinterestedly and continued to indulge in her roti.

"How handsome he is!" mused a girl aloud, unable to contain her crush.

"And when he spares not a single look in our direction, his handsomeness only increases!" said another.

All the girls sighed in affirmation of this statement.

Chandraki rolled her eyes and munched on her roti.

Just then, as Raoul was heading in the direction of the schoolroom, his apple still in his hand, he turned his head slightly, his eyes skipping over the assembly in the distance and he looked away almost as instantly.

When he had vanished into the schoolroom, the girls turned to Chandraki who had been oblivious to what had happened.

"Did you see that! Did you!" exclaimed a girl, "I told you he fancies her!"

"What do you mean?" asked another, and Chandraki also looked up.

The first girl was looking at Chandraki, "I'll swear on my mother's wedding sari that Raoul Singh Malik has a crush on you."

"WHAT!" Chandraki shot up, springing furiously to her feet, "How ridiculous! And how dare you even think such a-!" She paused fumingly, unable to conjure in her mind an abominable enough word.

"You shouldn't swear on your mother's marriage sari," said a girl to the first one, "You can swear on her any sari but not the one of her marriage."

"It's true what she said about Raoul, though," said another, try to not let the topic of interest slide, "I've seen how he leans across his bench and looks at you when your head is bent over your slate and your math problems."

"I think he's in love," said a fifth girl.

"You are all MAD!!!" yelled Chandraki, throwing down her unfinished roti, "He is a Malik and I hate him so much that I wish I was a giant so I could crush him in my hands like a sponge and wring the blood out of him!"

The girls were suddenly silent, their eyes wide in shock at the gory image that Chandraki had just formed.

They didn't know hatred could be so compelling as to be made into a bloody scene.

Chandraki's raged eyes were looking in the direction of the forest again, "And here comes the one I hate the MOST!"

All the girls looked in the direction of the woods and saw Dev step out, his shirt contorted with colours of red, blue and yellow and, he was flanked by his faithful friend PrakashPrakash. It was the latter who spotted the girls first and he whispered into Dev's ears urgently which brought Dev's attention to the circle, his eyes fixedly catching Chandraki's angry ones.

Dev stopped and frowned in return.

The girls gulped, afraid what would become of the frowning contest for neither Chandraki nor Dev was moving or blinking. There was no defeating Chandraki for she was good at glaring long. Dev, knowing well that as restless as his nature was he was sure to blink, did the next best move his corrupted mind could think of.

He stuck his tongue out at her.

Chandraki gasped and so did the girls around her.

Dev didn't see Chandraki's hands fist. He simply put on his infamous smirk and strolled proudly for the schoolroom door, followed by PrakashPrakash.

"No, don't!" cried out a few girls from the distance and Dev, who had already opened the door and was about to step into the schoolroom, stopped and turned his head to see what it was about.

Almost immediately, something wet slapped on his face and he froze. As it slid down his face and flopped onto the grass, he blinked through the wetness on one side of his face and studied the offending object on the floor.

It was a roti, its ghee-spread surface facing upward.

Anger rose in him as he looked up and found Chandraki standing a few steps away from him, a victorious gleam in her eyes.

"You, filthy girl!" he stepped forward but he realized he couldn't move.

He looked over his shoulders and found his left hand being pulled by PrakashPrakash, (who feared a forthcoming conflict might hurt his friend), while his right hand was held by none other than the schoolmaster.

"Now, now, Devananda," counselled the aged schoolmaster and Dev grudgingly realized he would have to abandon the fight for now.

As the schoolmaster dragged Dev into the schoolroom, the boy drowned the elderly man's droning advice into the back of his mind as his eyes were coldly fastened on Chandraki who stood at the doorway sneering at him triumphantly. Well, if that Varma girl thought he would easily forget the incident, she would soon learn soon how wrong she was.