Free I Kissed A Girl In My Class by Abhilash Gaur

and the weight dragged his shoulders. “After you,” Manu
told the girls with his best grin and started walking behind them.
The can was overfull and at every step it shook and spilled a
little water on Manu’s left trouser leg. It slowly soaked his left
sock right down to the toes, and when he stepped into the ground
from the concrete path, mud stuck to his wet left shoe, caking it.
Yet, Manu smiled and walked after the girls.
    He wanted to empty
the whole can into Neha’s sapling, but Priya’s was nearer so he
stopped and showered the soil quickly, reminding her that the mali
had told them not to flood the soil. His own sapling stood next,
but he walked past it to Neha’s that was at the end of the row. She
protested loudly, but he brushed aside her arguments with a wave of
his free hand. This time, he was royally generous. He walked around
the sapling, raining water on the soil, and then through the gun
slits in the protective cage, he poured water on the leaves to wash
them. The splashing water muddied both his shoes and the hems of
his trouser legs, but Manu didn’t care. He stepped back to admire
his work and then searched for a look of admiration in Neha’s eyes.
However, she only seemed alarmed at the puddle he had made around
her charge. He saw it too and realized he had overdone the favour.
“Er, don’t worry, Neha, the soil will soak the water in minutes.
It’s going to be a hot and dry day,” he said.
    For his own
sapling, Manu had precious little water left and he quickly emptied
the can around it. The buses had arrived and through the school
gates a flood of students was pouring in. The other nine came and
stopped to look at Manu’s work and the mess he was in. “Will you
water our saplings, too, Manu?” girls who were in charge of the
three other saplings pleaded? But Manu said he needed to clean up
and nudged Samar and Deepak to make themselves useful. It is good
to be helpful, but not without a purpose, he thought. He would have
to spend six hours in class wearing clammy socks, and that was too
severe and undeserved a punishment for a Good Samaritan.
    Manu sat on the
merry-go-round and scraped mud off his trouser legs and shoes with
mango leaves. He had decided his strategy for the next morning. He
would come well before Neha and Priya, and water his and Neha’s
saplings. She would be surprised, and know without guessing too far
that he had done it for her. And, he would not fill the can so much
again. Half of it would have been enough for two saplings. There
would be no repeat of this mess.
    From his perch, he
saw the other students carrying the watering can in teams of two.
They were having a nice time, all together, laughing and chatting.
And they were also making a fine mess. Two girls had dropped the
can near a sapling and wet their shoes. And then the wet mud from
the rim of the can had rubbed off on Samar’s white shirt. He had
spread the stain trying to rub it off, and was laughing with the
others. While Anisha was around, Neha had gone back to the class
arm-in-arm with her friend Ginny. Manu didn’t know whether he had
made a favourable impression upon her. He checked his watch, it was
time for the assembly bell and he walked towards the classroom,
calling out to the others to hurry up.
    ***

18. Too Much
Of A Good Thing
    Wednesday
morning Manu came in really early. The cycle stand was empty and he
was tempted to park his cycle at the end of the stand under a mango
tree—a space that the class 10 boys had reserved for themselves. A
couple of them even came to school on motorcycles, a Kawasaki Bajaj
KB100 and a Yamaha RX100. But then he thought the better of it
because they would certainly deflate his cycle’s tyres, or even
puncture them. Leaving about 20 slots for them, he parked his cycle
as close to the tree as he dared to.
    The classrooms
were empty, and even the corridors were empty but for the sweepers
who were hurriedly mopping the floor and pushing their noisy pails
along.