tales of friendship: cycles, crows and sweet corn on an abandoned highway

A Betrayal and the Importance of Commas

Motu whistled as he walked, though he wasn't very good at it he figured it would probably be a good start to what was most likely a bad day. Though it seemed quite the opposite seeing as Motu was early for the second time in his life and Jared's question paper would make him ace the test. He stopped whistling in horror as he realized he was having one of Krish's bad feelings.

Feelings? The concept was unfamiliar to him as he shoved the thought away and turns the next corner, coming face to face with a glaring dog.

See, Motu had no problem with dogs as long as they were at least 20 feet away from him and weren't dripping saliva like Balakrishnaji when he saw a girl's shoulders. The dog stares right at him before baring its teeth and snarling. Motu takes off with all the speed he can muster, proving to be the worst thing he could've decided to do because the dog was now chasing him.

He was rapidly running out of breath when he smacked right into Balakrishnaji at the next corner. He stares at him panting as he tries to explain his situation. "Rabies-" he huffs, "Dog-"

Said dog chooses to arrive and now glares at both of them as Motu cowers in fear behind Bala's short frame.

Bala faces the dog with a sort of courage Motu has never seen in him in 4 years of friendship and tells it to.........sit? Digging a Parle-G biscuit from his pocket (he would have to ask later if he had any other biscuit stock hidden down there) and tossed it to the dog who sniffs it suspiciously before gobbling it up happily. He reaches forward tentatively and pats the dog's head, who accepts it gratefully as Motu stares horrified. "Rabies, man?" he reminds because that seems to be the only thing that can come out of his mouth.

"Rabies man?" Rakesh says exiting from a nearby building. "Where are you coming from?" Motu questions confusedly as he notices Krish stepping out from behind a parked car. "Who is a Rabies man and why are you hiding behind Balakrishna?"

"There was a dog-" he exclaims turning to point at a dog that was no longer there, only a grinning Balakrishna wiping Parle- G crumbs from his mouth. Motu narrows his eyes, "Where is the dog?"

"Stop doing all this drama and tell me if you have the question paper ready for today," Krish glares, "And where is Fanta?"

"Probably at school where we're supposed to be too." Rakesh huffs and begins walking away from there, stomping on Motu's foot as he went. "Ow? Why are you acting like this is my fault? We're not even late."

"We are pretty late, actually." Balakrishna remarks.

"Shut up."

They hurry to catch up to Rakesh who is walking as though he is late for a train. "What were you doing in that building?" Bala pants.

"Was having chai and saw Jared," he says disgustedly, "Why does he have a mohawk?"

Balakrishna has the same disgusted look on his face when he turns to look at Motu, "What the-"

"Don't judge people based on their hairstyles, guys, it's not good," Motu defends, "And besides, Balakrishna is nearly bald and we're still friends with him."

"Excuse me?! I am not bald." Bala says, walking faster away from him. "The only other guy we know with a mohawk was the one who sold you glucose instead of drugs," Rakesh mentions, bumping into Bala to avoid a pile of cow shit as Krish suddenly comes into view, waving his hands violently.

"What?" Rakesh asks irritated by his near encounter with the pile of cow shit. "Listen, I have something to tell you-" Krish begins but is interrupted by a familiar voice. "Hi," says the dejected voice of Fanta, waving pathetically from the school gate with an unfamiliarly empty hand on which the boys were quite used to seeing that fat cat sit on by now.

"Are you ok-" Bala starts before Fanta talks over him, which would be considered rude in normal circumstances except he was wearing sunglasses which was not normal in the least. "Motilalji took Maria away," he sniffs. "Who....is Maria?" Motu questions warily so as to not be flung on to oncoming traffic because Fanta's fury knew no limits when he was this upset.

"His cat," Balakrishna mouths and nudges him, silently asking him to shut up before he made things worse. "You named your cat Maria?" he snorts, effectively making things worse. "Is there a problem with that?" Fanta removes his sunglasses and rolls up his sleeves, revealing eyes rimmed with tears and arms ready to fling Motu into oncoming traffic.

Rakesh observes all this with a quiet temperament before realizing something was off or rather, someone was missing. He looks away from the ruckus and notices Krish angrily balling up something in the corner, looking ready to throw it on someone. He was glaring at Motu and Rakesh wondered if he should be making the effort to warn him. Turns out, it wasn't really necessary, because Krish's aim is absolute trash and misses Motu by a longshot and lands the paper ball on a being unfortunate enough to walk through the gate at that exact moment. Rakesh's eyes widen as he realizes who exactly it is, and others seem to have realized as well because he can no longer hear them arguing. He wonders if it is too late to run as Motilalji angrily stomps towards them.

"Who threw this?" He demands furiously. "Sir, him," Balakrishnaji says, pointing towards Krish with no hesitation. Krish's mouth drops open in horror as he gives him an affronted look. "S-sir, it was a mistake, sir. I was not throwing it on you." he stammers fearfully. "You should not be throwing anything on anyone-" Motilalji starts, just as the bell rings, "you can go," he says, "but the bell won't be here next time to save you." And with that, he disappears. "What does that even mean?" Rakesh mutters to himself as he walks into school now with Krish and Balakrishna also yelling at each other.

"Can't believe you would do this to me," Krish shakes his head mournfully. "Believe it," Balakrishna huffs, "I'd never get into trouble for you," he says.

"Please get inside the classroom, boys," Motilalji smirks, "the test is about to begin in five minutes."

"All the best!" Balakrishnaji says, happily as he has probably revised 56 times.

"All the best," Motu responds with just as much happiness because he has the question paper in his sock.

"All the best," Fanta says dejectedly because his cat is gone.

"All the best." Krish huffs angrily.

"Just go to class," Rakesh sighs.