Manik Nandini FF | The Makeover|Ch14 Pg104 - Page 6

Manik and his gang of back benchers settled down in their seats as the bus started to move out of the school gate. Their gang of five guys occupied the seats of atleast fifteen people easily, and what was worse was that most of them dint even bother sitting on those seats, they were usually standing around each other or playing practical jokes on randomly selected people in the bus.

Once Cabir, Manik's best friend, emptied an ice cream cone on a fourth grade kid. Why you ask? Because that kid was apparently ugly. And what followed was delirious laughter from nearly the entire bus, uncomfortable shifting in their seats by a few of the other kids who had been bullied by them before and of course the mindless pleasure felt by the back bencher gang at another autonomous victory over a helpless imbecile.

And today, Manik found himself dying to annoy someone, anyone! He looked around the bus, at all the tiny, annoying, creepy kids who were sitting and laughing with each other, making his blood boil in the blazing afternoon sun.

He felt his gaze linger for a moment longer than usual on the ugly, unibrow-ed, half boy and half girl, Nandini Murthy as she stood near the back door of the bus, thanks to Manik, she had not been able to find herself a seat.

Nandini was busy reading some random article in the school newspaper, behind which tucked was the times of india of that day, looking ratty and grumpy as always.

Manik sat on a three seater, alone on a seat behind the spot where she stood.

Careful to not alert her of his attention, he quietly opened the bag of the kid sitting in front of him, took out what seemed to be a new notebook and tore out a few pages out of it before he passed the notebook behind to his other friends, who each tore out a few pages from the notebook themselves.

They all looked at him questioningly, one question on each person's mind. Who was going to be unfortunate target today?

Manik took a pencil from his pocket and slyly pointed at Nandini as a triumphish laugh passed through the entire group.

Manik, who was a good at drawing, started sketching something on the page in front of him. For five minutes, that pursuit kept him busy. When he was done, he felt a proud feeling in his gut. This was one of his better pieces.

He took out the gum that he was chewing, placed it on the flat surface near the window, and stuck the sketch over it. It took only a few minutes before people from all over the bus started crowding around the drawing, laughing like maniacs at what they had just seen.

Nandini, who was so busy reading the paper, did not even notice the crowd, up until the point when she heard someone say her name and laugh hysterically. She quickly looked up, disoriented for a moment by the bus crossing a speed breaker.

She walked towards the crowded area where everyone was laughing and found herself rendered speechless.

The sketch that she saw in front of her showed her face to resemble that of a one eyed pirate, with a unibrow and an ugly moustache. If this seemed hideous, the rest of it was even worse. The sketch was only till slightly below her neck, thankfully, but it still caused her mind a lot of damage. It showed her to be naked till whatever part of it was sketched. Alongside, the sketch depicted the lizard she had played with today, resting on her neck, and what seemed to her a depiction of it biting her neck, and the worst part of it all, the sketch showed her moaning in a cheap, grotesque way.

Furious at what she had seen, Nandini ripped the paper away from the window, crumpled it and threw it outside the window and then turned to the back benchers.

"Who drew that?" Nandini asked, her voice at the dangerous verge of tears. The back bencher gang slyly looked at each other and giggled.

A moment later, someone threw a spoonful of rice at her face. It wasn't the back benchers, but it was someone who they had bullied to do it, obviously. Nothing in this bus happened without their consent.

Nandini felt the rajma stain her face and her shirt, causing brown patches to appear all over her shirt.

She had just finished cleaning her face and her shirt with her hands when someone screamed in the bus, "Moaning myrtle"

There was a moment of hushed silence and then a riot of laughter passed through the bus. Even the back benchers were laughing and high fiving each other.

I should have just punched him when I had the chance, he's anyways made me his dumping bag now!

Nandini felt the unpleasantness of her day slowly creep onto her as she turned away from everyone and went back to reading the newspaper in her hand.

But her moment of soltitude was short lived as she felt someone nudge her on her elbow from beside her. She lowered her newspaper to see Manik standing next to her near the backdoor of the bus.

"Nandu?" He almost screamed. Of course, the entire bus must hear every word of humiliation that he threw at her.

"Go away Manik." Nandini hated herself for sounding so weak, but right now, what with losing Lily first, then the suspension she had received for arguing with the headmistress and then finding herself being the ugly target of the absolutely ridiculous tradition of the cheap minded sick guys who travelled in her bus, she knew she was very close to tears.

"Oh but, I can't. Teri unibrow mujhe pukar rahi hai Nandu." Manik was nudging her constantly, while the entire bus was erupting in uncontrollable laughter.

"Nandu. Please, ek baar, ek baar, Lily ka naam moan karke dikha. Just once!" Another round of laughter erupted in the bus.

"Manik, please, I'm not in the mood for this. Yeh kisi aur din-"

"Nandu, I have a doubt. I know ki lizards turn you on and shit. But Lily mein aisa kya dekha tune?"

Another voice answered this question before Nandini could respond.

"Probably it was appealing to her that her spouse is much less hairy than her. I mean, of course, with that moustache, she obviously is the male in the relationship right?" Cabir said.

"Wait wait wait. So I depicted it wrong! She should have been the one giving the hickey to Lily baby!" Manik responded, causing another uproar of laughter.

Nandini couldn't take it any longer, she knew if she stayed in the bus any longer, she would end up bawling like a little baby. So she picked up her bag, pushed Manik out of the way, and walked towards the front door of the bus and got off, uncaring of where she was getting down or how she might get home from here.

All she cared about was getting out of that damn bus.

***

Suggestions and comments are welcome.

Love

Cindy