CHAPTER 5
Ice Cream Treat
Shivaay and Annika were facing each other on either side of the board, Shivaay was smirking but soon lost that expression when he looked down at the board, the girls were on 75 and the boys were back at the start, the girls had no more wheels to land on, their win was practically guaranteed, Shivvay had obviously chosen a wrong time to start playing. Not wanting to be a party pooper, he went ahead. The game had gotten a little quiet now, the girls were slowly inching towards a 100 and boys were huffing and puffing their way through the board. Soon enough, Jhanvi rolled the dice for a 5, which meant they won, as they were currently on 96. Tej noticed the distracted ladies and loudly sneeze-coughed, hard and close enough for the dice to slightly roll over and land at three. Smirking internally he feigned complete innocence and blamed the dusty cushion in his hand.
The girls concentrated back on to moving their counter when they realized, they had landed on 98 and it had the biggest snake, the tip of which landed them straight on a wheel, it was a red wheel, the range was difficult to extreme no matter where the turn stopped. Dismayed at the loss of a close victory they just prayed to at least land on difficult and therefore soften their blow. Meanwhile, Shivaay passed on a look to his Bade Papa, he had seen what had transpired. It had not escaped his notice. With shared sly grins and empathetic faces they turned to their crestfallen opponents and waited before they spun the wheel that would ultimately bring both the teams to a level playing ground. Since his Bade Papa was the cause for this major turnaround, Shivaay insisted he be the one to turn the wheel. Maliciously rubbing both his hands together, Tej looked over at a sulky Jhanvi and spun the wheel. The girls were muttering under their breaths for an easy task. The wheel had stopped at difficult - shrieking out a little scream of Joy, they proceeded to see what their task was "opponent team has to roll a number of the assignee's choice twice consecutively, failure to do so; will provide the assignee's team a bonus of 5 spaces." They collectively groaned at that, it was not a skill based task, it was based on their luck and each time they failed to roll number twice in a row, the boys team moved ahead 5 spaces.
Rudra and Om were ecstatic as the silly task, the girls team had to be really really lucky for them to come unscathed out of this, finally after almost two hours of play - the boys team had a giant advantage. The girls were huddled thinking about something, they had nominated Pinky and Soumya for the task. Pinky cause she aced Ludo earlier and Soumya because she volunteered. The game had continued and the boys were racing ahead as usual. The girls were losing their streak very quickly, the boys had chosen 3, it was such a strange number. They would roll it once in while but it looked impossible. Shivaay had gotten up to get some water and snacks for the players, he was reaching over a cabinet in the kitchen when he heard a scream, the girls had rolled a 3, they was a groan soon after it was not consecutive. Shaking his head at their dramatic antics, he reached over to grab the tin of cookies they received from a client in Belgium. He was about to turn and leave when he felt a body near him, Annika quickly whispered, can you get that other box as well. Puzzled at her weird request, he had leaned over and handover the container she requested. Simultaneously, he heard a deafening scream, one near his ear and one from the living room.
Annika was getting bored at the lack of their progress in the game, she was stretching her neck and glanced over to the kitchen, looked like Shivaay was bringing them some food to restore all their energy. Then she noticed something. She quickly went over. Annika was quite superstitious when it came to a few things, everytime Shivaay grabbed something from the cabinet her team had scored. She quickly ran over and asked him to grab something for her. Pinky aunty had finally rolled a 3 again. She told him her theory on the way back, he gave her the strangest look. Annika didn't care, they had finally moved before causing more damage than they could recover. Shivaay did not understand what to make of this girl, she was as strange as they got. He could not believe she would believe in such silly things. Another frustrating hour passed by and there still was not a winner declared. They had all conceded to pause it for now and continue later as Soumya had quickly prompted, that there was a cricket match that was on for today.
Being well known cricket fanatics the troop shifted their base to watch Cricket, upon turning the TV on they realized it was India V South Africa and South Africa had already posted a grand total of 325. India were down 2 wickets at 157. Kohli and Rahane were on the crease. After quickly assessing the score, Om and Annika let out a sigh, Kohli was still batting, they had hope. The match was progressing slowly just like their game, South Africa were tight with their fielding and the team was surviving mostly on singles and an occasional 2. They needed some boundaries! Rudra was tired of sitting down quietly for so long and got up to stretch mid way the girls screamed, Kohli had finally found a gap and hit a 4. A quick succession of 4's later, the game was getting intense. Rudra sat back down, prepared for an upcoming tight match. Looked like the fielders had gathered their wits again, as there was an influx of no runs and singles. Rudra groaned, this is why he preferred 20 - 20. Suddenly he heard a shriek from Annika, "Rudra stand up!" He looked over at her to see if he heard right, Annika well immersed into the screen was actually asking him stand up. So he stood, there was silence for a few minutes and a defeated Annika said sit down its not working with you. Jhanvi had asked Rudra to reach over and grab a cookie from Tej who was completely hogging the Belgian goodness all for himself. Rudra obeyed and stood up and reached over to grab the tin, which was easy as his daddy dearest had his hands off it to clap for a boundary that was apparently hit. He gave the tin to his mom and grabbed a macadamia for himself, slopped down to munch on his cheat treat when he heard Annika again. "Rudra, stand up again but slowly. Not at once, bit by bit." Everyone was looking at Annika strangely except Om who seemed understand the concept. Shivaay was trying to control his hysterics,, she was trying her theories on his poor brother. Rudra being the sweetheart he is complied. He was hearng weird instructions "go up a bit more". Finally at an uncomfortable reverse squat position they seemed satisfied. Without sparing a glance at his poor halat, they collectively yelled out "Yupp, stay like this!" apparently boundaries were being hit only when he was in a kangaroo look alike position.
Shivaay was rolling on the floor now, Rudra's mid air squat was hilarious, what was more funny was the indifference Om and Annika showed at his plight, maybe would've if they paid any attention in the first place. They were way too involved in the match to notice ordinary, unnecessary things like a family member doing a kangaroo squat, if only Rudra would hop!! This was great. At some stage, everyone noticed Rudra's plight, he had become more entertaining than the match, for everyone except Om, Annika and Soumya. They were oblivious and were on the edge of the seat for the last over. Dhoni hit a 4 and they had WON! Enthusiatic hi fi's later they looked over to Rudra. "Rudra why are you standing like that?" Om asked puzzled. Rudra was livid! " You don't know? You and Annika didi used your stupid theory and made me stand like this" looking over at Annika he said " stop praising them didi, I did it, I made them win, be grateful, Im physically fit otherwise they would've lost" with that he walked always albeit with a weird limp. Annika and Om looked at each other and burst out in a peal of laughter. They really hadn't realized. Meanwhile Soumya yelled out "Hop Rudra Hop!". Rudra turned around to see her and Shivaay hi fi each other. He huffed and went over to his room.
Shakti finally got up. "What a day! I don't remember having this much fun in one day, the last time was probably during my wedding, when we went to that farm with sugarcane and her.." he stopped midway looking at Tej's alarmed 'don't say it' expression. "Ahh, you those days!" he lamely finished. "Ha ha yeah! Those days indeed, Ok kids, bedtime for us. See you all tomorrow morning" With that they hurriedly left before letting their wives catch on to what Shakthi was about to say. Everyone else said their goodbyes and headed to their rooms.
After tossing and turning for a while, Annika woke up. She was craving some ice cream, she checked the time to see it was past midnight. It was one of her midnight cravings again. She got out of bed to see if the kitchen might have some. She went down and opened to see some lime sorbet but no ice cream. Annika hated sorbet. Pouting she was heading back upstairs, when she bumped into a hard figure. Adjusting her eyes "Shivaay? What are you doing here?" looking properly she realized he was dressed go out. "Are you going out at this time? Do you have a late night date or something?" Shivaay shook his head "Not a date, I have to drop by the office and grab a file, I was going to compile a report for a teleconference tomorrow but I left that file at home, I should have done it earlier, but I completely lost track of time today." "Are you sure you can't get it tomorrow? It's so late, you should be sleeping not working still." Shivaay chuckled, " I could ask you the same thing, jetlagged still?"
"Actually no! I was craving ice cream." Shivaay was surprised "Ice cream at this hour? Why are you empty handed then? Nothing in the fridge or did you eat already?". "Stop it, I have midnight cravings sometimes, I looked in the fridge and only found sorbet, I hate sorbet!"
"WHAT?! That's special organic Romanian lime sorbet with Gin. It's beautiful." Annika made a disgusted face "That's gross, I still hate it, anyway looks like an unfinished craving today. Im going to head up. You go have fun picking up your file." and she headed for her room. Shivaay was about to leave, something struck him. "Annika wait! Why don't you come with me, I can pick up my file and we can find a place to get you some ice cream." Annika brightened up, "Really? Ok lets go!" Shivaay raised an eyebrow at her polka dot pajamas and plain grey top. "You don't want to change?" "Oh come on Shivaay! Its past midnight, I'm not bothered. Now move, let's go get some icecream!" With that they headed out into the chilly air.
That's it for now, midnight adventures with ice cream next!!!
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Vinu
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon
