text: It was a regular day in my school. Everyone was playing with paper balls as usual. The goal was to hit everyone in the room in their face, especially the ones that were doing something productive. Our teachers used to ask,” Why?” when the sweepers complain that we are noisy. It was all to see the expression in their face when they were hit by a dirty paper ball right in their face. You couldn’t feel the fun until you see it and they start throwing back. And so they started throwing back. “Duck!” I screamed. It seemed as though Damian thought that I meant the other duck and got hit by a plastic pen cap in his face. “Why are you using pen caps?” I asked. “It’s an upgrade,” Friz said, “ Its aerodynamic design makes it faster than paper balls.” “And also dangerous.” Maeve said. “She is right,” I insisted ,” Let’s stick with paper balls.” After the talk I looked back and Damian’s face looked as though he was waiting for me to ask him if he was alright, but yeah I knew he would be so I didn’t care. “You should learn to react fast.” I advised Damian ,” You see what happens if you don’t.” The relation between me and Damian was considered to be the best example of friendship in the whole school. But for the past few weeks there were tensions in our friendship. He didn’t like me going and spending time with Maeve and her friends. He thought I was avoiding him, yeah I actually did avoid him by doing so because I thought that spending time with many people will be fun, that’s what our principal said on our last week morning speech. But still I can’t give up on him, I planned for a revenge on the person who hit the pen cap, Sean. It was the time when our teacher would come, so I couldn’t attack him now, so I quietly helped cleaning the mess we created. The teacher came and we all stood up like good students and exchanged good morning with him. After some time he started teaching and writing on board. Josh sitting in front of us asked me for a sharpener. The look I gave made him regret it and Damian gave him what he asked. When our teacher was busy writing, I took a rubber band in my hand and made it a deadly weapon. I took paper from my desk space and made it to bits. “What are you doing?” my partner Damian silently asked. “Wait and see,” I smiled. I quickly fired a mini paper ball onto Sean’s head. He noticed and examined the back of his head with his hand and looked back for a second and started writing again. “Wow! Perfect shot!” Damian exclaimed. “Shhhh” I whispered by keeping my index finger near my mouth in the way they keep while saying, “ Shhh.” Luckily there was a much louder noise that caught everyone’s attention. The sound was from the Loudspeaker of a truck selling vegetables. I sighed. I told Damian to whisper, and not to shout and not to look at my face after the object we throw hit someone. Damian nodded. “Ok, now your turn.” I gave him the rubber band. He quickly got ready and threw an eraser that almost hit Maeve. I stared at his eyes with anger. “Why did you throw on her?” “By mistake, I missed Sean,” he whispered with a broken voice. “Maeve is literally sitting in the other end,” I whispered back,“ Don’t make me angry again.” “I am sorry,” Damian apologised. “Don’t behave like you are still 7 years old, We are adolescents now.” “You are being rude to me nowadays.” “No, I am just being like a man.” Damian didn't say anything for that. “Here is your sharpener.” Josh turned back and kept on the desk. “Now, see and learn,” I said before I aimed and prepared to fire the broken sharpener on Sean’s head. But unfortunately it’s weird shape made it deviate from its path and gain a upward lift and misfired on our teacher’s head. He screamed in pain and turned back. We all stood up. Well, it was obvious that it should be the job of back benchers. “Who did it!!!” he shouted. Obviously there was no response. In our class there is an unwritten rule. We can hit each other or break somebody’s neck but nothing should reach the teacher’s ears. “Whoever did it come out themselves!!” he shouted again. Damian looked at me. I stamped his feet whispering him to look straight and so he did. “Fine, if the person that did this doesn’t come out, all of you will be punished!!” After shouting this he walked out of the class. Everyone sat down and started speaking, they all knew he was going to the principal room. It was deep trouble. “Someone threw something on my head too,” Sean was telling to Friz ,”And I think I know who it is,” he looked at the backbenchers. “What are we going to do now?” Damian asked me in a low voice. “I am going to lie ,” “What?” Before we could continue anything Principal madam came inside the class. Everyone stood up again. She was angry, her face told us. She asked us, “Who threw it on him?” This time we had to speak something, because we were prepared to speak and it was the principal that asked us. But nobody spoke, it was fear. “I know who did it, it would be decent for them to accept it themselves.” she said. We responded with silence. “Fine, I will give you half an hour time to think. But if you stand like this even then, you will see my other face.” She left the classroom taking all the anger with her. And we started speaking again. “Let’s go and tell her.” Damian insisted me on telling the truth. “Do you have the slightest idea what it will lead to?” “She knows is the backbenchers.” Yeah he was right. She knows. What I was planning was the only way to save us. Actually speaking Damian didn’t do it, but whenever he spoke, he spoke as though we both did it together. The eraser he threw did not even hit anybody, He couldn’t even be blamed for anything. But he still was in my side. “Well, I am happy that you are caring for me, but the truth alone can’t save us.” “What? So how is a lie going to save us?” “It can’t save us either.” Damian gave a confused look. “We need both of them to save us. I am going to lie and you are going to say the truth.” “Explain.” “Here’s how it works...” I whispered in his ears. “Well... you really have changed a lot.” Damian agreed to my plan and we both decided that Damian would tell the truth and I would lie. The half an hour time principal gave was over and she entered the class again. “Right. So have you decided yet?” she asked looking at everybody. “Mam,” I stood up,“ I have something to tell you.” “Proceed.” “Josh threw the sharpener. I saw it with my eyes.” “NO! MAM HE IS LYING!” Josh shouted at the top of his voice. “Sit down Josh. Let him speak first.” “Since he was my friend I hesitated to tell you mam when you asked first. But after thinking I understood this was the right thing.” Josh’s face was so angry and annoyed. He was as angry as an old woman with a broken window. “Also, I have eye witness mam. You can ask Damian about it.” “Yes mam, Josh borrowed the sharpener from me. I didn’t know what he did with it.” “I remember giving it back! Why are you lying?” Josh yelled at us. “Quiet. Josh did you borrow the sharpener?” principal mam asked. “Yes mam, but I gave it back!” “Mam, yesterday math’s teacher humiliated Josh in front of class for not completing home work.” Sid who was Josh’s partner said, “He told me that he will take revenge.” “Mam, I said it just to sound cool. I could never have the courage to do something like that.” Sid was a jackpot for us. He hated sitting with Josh because he thought he was stinky. Sid was very studious and got good marks and he never liked sitting with someone who failed often. Well we didn’t like Sid for that. But anyway we couldn’t avoid such a help. “Also Josh always disturbs me while studying mam. I couldn’t focus on what the teacher teaches.” Principal mam made her decision. 3 vs 1 was easy to decide. And so Josh was suspended from school for a week and was scolded heavily by Principal mam. “But what about his parents?” Damian asked me as we were waiting for our apple juice. “I heard that Josh often fights with his parents and lies to them too. So they won’t believe him.” I was confident. “Hmm. Parents can easily find out if their child is lying or not.” Damian said. “We will take care of it when they get to know,” I said , “But for now, we won!” “Yeah,” Damian replied and we both did a cheers when the apple juice came to our table. **********************