Srihari's POV
I was sitting in the classroom and noticed a group of nerds hitting Abhinay with their hardcover maths textbooks. I did feel bad for him but he betrayed me first. Speaking of betrayers I was thinking of a perfect revenge for Gopal. I found a great opportunity when I heard one of Sriram's friends had given him a collaboration opportunity, on opening a football coaching club. But he didn't want to take the job as he had got used to not working.
I persuaded him to agree to the job offer. It took me a long time though, I told him, He needed a job as he was getting married soon, and Anitha would not want an unemployed husband. He finally agreed to try the job. He got 15% profit share from the business, he looked disappointed and said, they haven't given him a fixed amount, but I said, "This is normal in business, your income will increase as the profits increase. Look what a great businessman my uncle Arjun is, he started his business from scratch." He looked satisfied by that.
Sriram's POV
I agreed to take the collaboration offer only because of Srihari bugging me, but I actually think it is a good decision. I started earning more than I had thought I would. A few months passed. Now the club we had started had a lot of good players. Srihari also joined that team, now that he was not a part of the school team. this seemed to upset my brother Gopal a bit.
The football season started in the month of May, I soon found out that our team had a match against Gopal's team. He told me we can request the matches to be shuffled, so that our teams do not have to play against each other. I was ok with the teams clashing, I said, "If both our teams go to the finals, there will be a competition right? Besides this is just a game."
On the day of the match, we had a early lunch, Anitha came over for lunch. I was planning to take a loan for our marriage, since I could now afford a loan as I had a stable income. Her family were not that well of, so they made it clear that they cannot give us a lavish wedding. I decided to carry out the wedding expenses myself, I felt it was worth it, as we only get married once (hopefully)
Shiva's POV
Anitha, Sriram's fiancée came over for lunch. They were getting married soon, Sriram said he was going to take a loan for the wedding, we all thought it was a bad idea, but as usual he didn't listen to us. His marriage, his wish. We were sitting at the table, when I asked Anitha to try the sweet. The sweet was near Akhila, and she was putting some on her plate, "Let her take it, I will take later." she said in a small voice. "Why? Are you afraid of her, it is natural for people to be scared of her. It is ok. You take the sweet." I said trying to make a joke. I then noticed Akhila was very upset by this remark.
Soon everybody left to watch the game. Krishnan and Pankaja had gone to visit a children's home, they were very serious about this adoption, they said, they will introduce us to the child, who I think is around 4 or something, after everything has been finalized. The house was quite empty for a Sunday. I saw Akhila was working in the kitchen, "Are you making a special dinner only for the both us, should I keep a romantic movie ready?" I asked with excitement. "No, I am making this for myself, do you think it was funny to talk ill of your wife, in front of a guest." she asked. "No, it was just a joke." I explained. "Such things are not jokes, now this girl may think we talk like this about each other in this house, what a bad image it creates about our family. Anyways I am done talking to you." I was disappointed but I got a better idea, I went to Sriram and told him , if his team won I will take them on a special treat, I told Gopal the same thing.
Narrator's POV
The match was quite predictable, Sriram's team had good players. Even though the team members had not known each other for a long time they played with cooperation. On the other hand, Gopal's team had rivalries, because the people were from different houses in school.
Sriram's team won by a landslide. They all went to a pizzeria for the treat, Sriram asked Gopal to come along as well, he agreed. Even though he was very upset by the results he didn't want to seem like a sour loser. When the waiter bought the bill, Sriram turned to Shiva who said "Your team won right? That is why we are celebrating here, so it makes sense that you pay." He then whispered, "Look, your fiancée is here, you have to pay the bill, if you want to create a good impression for yourself." Sriram ended up paying the bill.
When most people had gone home, Gopal told Srihari, "I guess we are even now right? Don't you think you should come back to the school team? You were our star player." Srihari replied, "It will be even, only if I stay in this team for the rest of the year, this is my final year in school, I don't want to waste any of it being in your team. I like my present team much better. By the way enjoy the Pizza while it is hot."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Author's Note
This book is coming towards its end. Thank you for all the reads. Feel free to comment and give suggestions.