"I don't know why she's acting like this." Taro sighed suddenly, while he was having dinner. No one around him knew what he was talking about.

"Who are you talking about?" Kunjan asked.

"The vice principal, Miss Rita. I don't get why she's acting so nice with me. Like, if you ask me, I'm totally fine with people acting antagonistically towards me, because then you don't have to actually feel bad about it when you hate that person." He replied.

"Wait, you hate Miss Rita? That's surprising seeing that you two seemed to have some kinda friendship going on between you two." Kunjan spoke.

"Well, I don't know. I feel like she's acting overly nice to me. You know, if there's any kinda people whom I actually hate are those who acts like that, because that would mean that they've got something to hide. Like, no one behaves like that unless they need something from us, right?" He asked.

"Hmm, I don't like how I'm agreeing with your statement. But, yea. Most people who act too sweet are the true jerks of this society." Thankappan spoke in agreement towards Taro's statement.

"Well, that could certainly be the case. However, you should think about the other options before you jump into that conclusion. Like, what if she's acting that way since she bears the responsibility of the vice principal of the school and she hates to see a fellow teacher getting oppressed like this?" Kunjan asked.

"I would've considered it, however you should think about her position for a moment. She's the damn vice president. If someone's getting oppressed, she has the power to stop the oppression entirely. She doesn't have to jump in to help me like she's doing right now, because that's kinda stupid." Taro replied.

"Maybe, she loves you or something? You do know that situations like the one you get stuck in certainly gives her time to form a genuine relationship with you, right?" Gibli chimed in his thoughts while giving out a sly smile.

"Ha.. Just no. I don't even want that to be true." Taro quickly replied.

"Why? Are you interested in the same sex, maybe?" The one who asked the question was John, who kinda blushed while asking it; although no one seemed to notice it.

Taro thought for a while upon hearing the question. "Hmm.. I don't know how my sexual orientation is. Just didn't get the time to think about stuff like that. I feel like I'll think about it when time comes. Other than that, I'm not interested in having a romantic relationship with someone because I've heard that romance ruins stories. Many of the comics and stuff that I used to read back in Wados was ruined by some romance jumping into the fray for no reason. So, yea. I believe my life to be similar as a story as well. I just don't want some annoying counterpart to come in and ruin my entire story. So, yea. It's off the charts." He explained.

"Makes sense." Kunjan replied.

"So, what are you gonna do about her then?" Thankappan asked.

"Well, there's only one thing that I could do, which would be to avoid her whenever possible. It wouldn't be that difficult though. After all, we've got work to do from now on." Taro replied.

"That's right! We've got the sports day coming up, right?" Thankappan asked,

"Yea. Who would have thought that we would end up straight in the middle of the sports day and stuff? However, it's really exciting though. A bit sad that we ended up managing different houses." Kunjan jumped in.

"I heard that happened because every house needed a compulsory male teacher. Since the other male teachers didn't want to concern themselves with the sports events and stuff, we ended up getting the pick. I wonder what would've happened if we didn't join the school by now. They would've reluctantly did the job anyway, right?" Taro asked.

"Yea, most probably.. By the way, why is the sports day this early in this school? I heard that the other schools does this event by the time their annual day functions come around." Gibli posed his doubts.

"Well, I heard that we used to have a similar schedule as well. However, this time they wanted to do it early so that students can focus in their studies or something along the lines." Thankappan explained.

"Is that so? That explains it." Gibli replied.

"Anyway, it seems that many are trying to dump responsibilities on us. So, we'll end up riddled with work to do. And with that, I won't have time to have a conversation with Rita; so that's cool." Taro sighed.

"Hey, can I ask you guys something?" John jumped in and asked.

"Yea?"

"Can I come to watch the sports day event as well?" He asked.

The three around him looked at each other before giving out an answer. "Well, it's not like the school has barred the entry of outsiders as long as they have an invite. So, yea.. We'll set you up with an invite and then you can tag along with us for the sports day." Taro replied.

"Oh, cool! I would like to see what the sports day of this region looks like." John replied, looking all excited about the prospect of getting to see the sports day.

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It was as Taro said. The teachers ended up dumping all the responsibilities to the four of them, even though they were the least experienced with the school and its system. They were happy with it though. As Taro expected back then, he didn't had to hold a conversation with Rita because he was extremely busy.

The four of them had many things to do, including selecting the four members for the 4x100 meters relay. However, in their opinion, the worst thing to do was to manage the March past squad for each houses. They had to start from selecting the members to choosing what those members wore during the competition. They heard that it was the most competitive things on the sports day for some reason, even among stuff like a freaking race!

Anyway, the students enjoyed these kinda events because they got a whole lot of free time when they got involved actively in team competitions, taking time off to practice. The twelfth graders weren't that active in it though, other than Juan and Shivani; they were basically forced into participation, since they were good in what they do. However, that doesn't mean they weren't participating at all. Since they were seniors, even though they didn't took part in sports generally, they had to bear responsibility for various related matters. For example, people like Juan, Shivani, Sujatha and Abhirami and Anshuman are previous house leaders, so they impart their experience currently as well. And few other students used to advice the house leaders back then as well, like Aleena, another member of the twelfth grade. They were still busy this sports day as well.

Even though they were working in as well, since they seemed to have less work load than the others, although that wasn't true, the task of making the main placards with the house symbols were dumped to the twelfth graders as well. Although they were really competitive against each other, there weren't many who were actually talented in making those, so every house sought the help of Shivani and Juan, since they were pretty good in making those.

Everything seemingly went well until some asshole teacher had to act in. This time, it wasn't Mary but Joanne, the Math teacher and some teacher from the other block. Shivani heard a rumor about the other block teacher asking her house representatives to make some extra placards signifying the current affairs or something. Since it seemed like a hot rumor at the time, she actually said that to her house's in-charge, Mrs. Joanne about it. However, it wasn't taken in as a big deal because there wasn't any announcement from the school to make those placards.

In the end, the school did announce it and instead of thanking her for saying that beforehand, Joanne and the teacher from the other block ganged up and ended up blaming Shivani for inciting fight against different house and something of similar lines; which was stupid because she was the one doing the main placards of at least two of the houses. She tried defending herself, however the more she did, the more they retaliated for no reason. In the end, she felt it was stupid and left the premises. However, she started to hold a grudge against Joanne and the other teacher for the rest of her life. It seemed like a day couldn't go on unless someone from the twelfth grade ended up getting scolded from the teachers. It seemed the grudge the teachers had in their minds towards them was deep and they were unaware of the reason behind it. Anyway, Taro was unaware of this event or else he would've had another argument against Joanne. With that, the day ended and the day of sports festival dawned upon them.

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