I Kissed A Girl In My Class by Abhilash Gaur

coronations, this freedom movement
and that, he learnt them all by heart. The three of them continued
with the division of subjects like before, but Manu never passed
over any interesting fact that he felt could be turned into a
question. He read both English newspapers—The Tribune and The
Indian Express—diligently in school for current affairs, and
although he did not say this to anyone, he believed that victory
was his in the next round also.
    The day for the
inter-school quiz arrived. It rained that morning like Manu had
never seen before. The road leading to his school was knee-deep in
water. He wore rubber slippers and brought his shoes to school in a
bag. Nothing in the uniform could be out of place on such an
important day. The school had an old white Matador van of the type
that hospitals used as ambulances long ago. It wasn’t very reliable
but since only a small group was going with just two teachers, the
school decided to send it instead of a bus.
    The van reversed
till the school porch, the group hopped in from behind, and it made
its way uneventfully towards Tagore Theatre in Sector 18. Arriving
at the theatre, the three participants from Sunrays gasped when
they saw the number of teams waiting to go inside. There must have
been a dozen at least.
    They were all
packed together on the theatre’s small stage and when Manu looked
down at the seats he could not see his school’s teachers and
students in the dim light. All three felt very lonely then, but the
feeling passed as soon as the questions started.
    The questions this
time were tougher than the ones they had faced in the preliminary
round at school. And a team got a direct question after a long
time. After each wrong answer, a question passed around the
horseshoe till someone nailed it, otherwise it went to the
audience. Altogether it was a slow quiz and Manu, Neha and Sana had
enough time to collect their nerves. They were slow off the block,
because they did not answer passed questions in the beginning, but
they got their direct questions right and so didn’t lose any of
their own points.
    There were all
sorts of questions, the usual ones about countries and currencies
and capitals without which no school quiz is complete, and more
difficult ones with abbreviations and mathematical puzzles. There
were also unexpected questions about cuisines and culture. The
Sunrayers did better and better till they tied with the leading
team from St John’s. They were super thrilled because they had
really felt like underdogs at the start of the day. But going into
the tie-breaker they felt they would win again. Unlike the quiz at
school, this inter-school round had negative points for a wrong
answer in the tie. Sunrays and St John’s got two questions each,
and as the last question came round they were level still.
    The last question
was: which is the smelliest animal in the world?
    Manu did not know
it, and he kept his hand down. The St John’s team seemed to be at a
loss too. Neha said she had no clue, Sana guessed the right answer
could be ‘pig’. Manu thought pig was too easy an answer, but maybe
it had been kept for the last to throw them into doubt. He
hesitated, and the St John’s boys hesitated. But neither team could
go through to the next round without a lead of 10 points.
    Sana nudged Manu
again. “I am sure it is pig,” she said. Manu looked at Neha and she
shrugged. Slowly, he raised his hand. “Pig” he said into the
mic.
    “Wrong answer,”
said the quizmaster. “It’s skunk”.
    Sunrays had lost
points and handed victory to St John’s.
    The three
Sunrayers walked down the stage to their waiting teammates with
their heads hung in shame. Manu was angry, because he had answered
most of the questions and brought the team within an inch of
victory, but he did not say anything to Sana. It was all over.
    When they had all
sat down inside their school van, its old engine refused to fire.
It sputtered and died, again and again. Manu, a couple