When Friends Forfeit the Holiday

Oh -- why today of all days?

On any, literally ANY other day, I would've been cheering like the rest of my class, look at them yelling at the tops of their voices.

But you see, today happens to be my birthday.

What's that got to do with my not cheering? Well I'll tell you. See, today one of the seniors topped the state level list. So the school has announced an unexpected, on-the-spot half-holiday for us to celebrate.

So I should be celebrating, right? Wrong.

Because today is my birthday and I happen to have found out (don't ask how, that's another story) that Mom and Sis are giving me a surprise party. Now they didn't know about this half-holiday so they've planned it in the late afternoon, when everyone can get there from a normal school day. They also told me to come straight home from school. Well, Mom usually says that, but today she really meant it, I happen to know.

So now.

It's a half-holiday. They're going to find that out somehow. Lots of kids in the neighbourhood are schoolmates.

If I follow their instructions and go straight home, I'll walk in on them preparing for the party and ruin the surprise.

If, on the other hand, I mooch around somewhere for couple hours and get home at the usual time, they'll know I knew already about the party and that'll ruin the surprise.

What can I do, to NOT ruin the surprise?

"Hey, Ekta, what you standing staring there? We can GO, early, come on!"

"The thing is ...."

I told my friend Sneha what I've just told you. She frowned. The others in our gang, Ipsita and Waheeda, strode up to my desk, satchels aloft, ready to run out. Sneha brought them up to speed about my dilemma.

The four of us sat back down and stared at each other.

Finally, a small smile crept on to Waheeda's face.

"I think --" she said, "I think I have the glimmering of an idea."

Though the class was now empty, she leaned forward, as did the rest of us. She whispered her idea to us. We frowned, then grinned.

Yes.

Yes, we had always wanted to pull Mr. Divakar's toupee off, to let him know we knew he was bald, and to pay him back for his rotten teaching of Maths and his accusation that Sneha had cheated when she hadn't.

Yes, now would be the right time to do it.

You see, we'd then get detention.

That would mean we'd have to legit stay in school till the normal time, no questions asked. And we could pretend to Mom we did it because it was my birthday. She'd be exasperated about it, but we were sure her delight in the surprise of the party being intact would outweigh any annoyance.

*********

"Oh my goodness, that went off better than hoped!!"

"I even managed to get a picture, I'd smuggled my mobile into school today because of your party."

The four of us were in the detention room. It really had been worth the effort. Ipsita had dropped her books, as Mr. Divakar had walked down the corridor. She'd bent down to pick them as he was passing and -- and -- clutched his toupee to steady herself as he bent to see what had fallen.

The toupee had come off in her hand.

I've never seen a man go so pink in the face as Mr. Divakar did. To be honest, he looked cute -- much nicer than he did in class, frowning at us and hissing out Math problems. I didn't know then that Waheeda had captured the moment forever on her mobile camera, but there it was, large as life and twice as natural.

This would be a feat to tell our grandkids about.

Detention was a breeze, especially with the knowledge that there was pizza, cake and mango pudding waiting for us at home after.

And you know what? Turns out Mr. Divakar had taught Mom and Sis, too, in their respective times at school, though they'd never mentioned him (who would?) and they'd always longed to pull his toupee off, too. So there was no trouble at home, either, when, after a fantastic party, I'd explained about the detention.

Here's my diary entry for the day:
"Dear Diary, On my birthday, my friends gave me the best gift ever. They helped me get detention."