The three Monkeys

This is the third time she has punished me this week, I don't have the faintest of ideas why she hates me so much. Was it my fault that I was feeling hungry and I ate away Fawas's lunch. I think it was, but still asking me to stand on the bench for one full hour tarnishes my reputation that too in front of all the girls who only enjoy seeing me humiliated. It was not Fawas who complained to Mrs. Basudra but his unnecessary and ghastly expression on his face to see an empty lunch box attracted attention from the head monstress, Mrs. Basudra who also happens to be our Chemistry teacher and I hate Chemistry not because I hate Mrs. Basudra but because I find it irrelevant for school kids like me to study about oxides and nitrites, unless I decide to become a chemist or a pharmacist of which the chances are bleak. Even though I dream about becoming an astronaut one day, a fire fighter the other and the list goes on and a chemist or a pharmacist is not in the list. I find it rather hard to concentrate on something that I think is not helpful for me in my practical life ahead. Well enough about myself. In case you haven't noticed Fawas, pronounced as Fa-VaaZ, is actually one of my best friends since I have been here in this boarding school.

It was arts class the teacher hadn't yet come to the class and the brief period of teacher's absence gave all the students energy to move and jump about as if they were molecules packed in a dense material. While everyone were doing what they pleased some of them screaming for no apparent reason in no particular human language others were chatting up with their bench mates. My friend Fawas took up this opportunity do what he does best - play a prank. He took out a dead lizard he was saving from the last ice age for when an opportunity like this comes up and he put it in between the pages of a fat girl's large sketch book. I was the only one witness to all of this as I sometimes like to play the observer, when I sit quietly and just look at people around me when they are in a world of their own making strange expressions. So this habit of mine gave me a chance to witness the whole performance of this great master prankster who like a magician set up the whole act with his finesse and flair and was just waiting for the 'prestige' - as he likes to call it, the final act or the climax. The teacher arrived everyone settled down in their seats and there was a quick dampening of all the cacophony of the students. It was all quiet when suddenly the plump girl shrieked everyone looked at her and like a snapshot of memory all we remember was a lizard flying out in front of the fat girl's face with both of her hands on the sketch book. Everyone just looked at her with awe and amazement as to how the teacher will react to what just happened. She like her usual self didn't even blink an eye and went on to continue the class. That is how I came to know who Fawas really was.

Wait a minute I didn't introduce you to my other best friend Rahil - the class clown....