It was the middle of summer, Sanvi and I were scorching in the heat. We'd just finished our drama class. We had enacted an army scene, one which required us to run. "What part of 'zero exercises in the summer' are you incapable of understanding? Honestly, I look like I just jumped into a lake. I'm drenched in sweat!" I smiled sheepishly at my friend. I had a bad habit of wanting to participate in everything in school and I habitually tended to drag my friends into the activities as well. Last week I enrolled my friend Khushboo in an art competition with me. "You don't even like art Maria!" was her reaction to the news. "In my defence, I didn't know we would be running so much," I replied to Sanvi's outburst. She glared at me. "Not funny." I chuckled. "Come on, let's go to the washroom, maybe on our way you'll realise that I've done you a favour. You know what they say 'No matter how hard you work, someone else is working harder!'" "If I ever meet a person who does more activities than you, I'll run away," Sanvi muttered. I giggled and dragged her along.
She did not see things my way on the way to the washroom. "Seriously, your fear of missing out is getting way out of hand. You need to figure out how to keep this trait of yours at bay. Please don't add my name into any more extras," Sanvi sighed. The worst part about this inquiry of hers was that I had already agreed to assist our music teacher, Miss Manju, in her acapella competition. Sanvi's name may have come up in the process. "Well, don't be mad but-" I stiffened. "Oh my god," she replied. I gulped. "What more could have possibly agreed on doing? Wait, no, why would you tell me this if I wasn't involved in it? Did you agree that I'd help out too?"
I smiled weekly, scared of the fury before me. "Well, you see-" "I knew it!" Sanvi cut me off, and glared at me, not realising that she had left the tap open. She yelped and jumped back when she saw the water overflowing the basin and wetting her sneakers. "Stop this instant!" a sharp voice commanded. I'd have been grateful to the speaker had I not recognised the voice instantaneously. Slowly turning around I confirmed my fear.
"Hello, Manjli didi…"
Manjli was the school's head girl. She wasn't the type to let people misbehave.
"What are the two of you doing? Today is the annual day and the last thing I need is for the bathroom to be wet. Really I expected better from you-'' Yeah, it reached the ground. Manjli slipped and stumbled. "Manjli! Manjli, are you okay?" Sanvi rushed to her side. "You two will clean this mess. You will not leave until this washroom is spotless. Is that understood?" It really wasn't a question. The head girl looked livid as she walked out of the washroom.
It took a long time to clean the whole bathroom. On our way back to class, our friend Priya came running towards us. "Where have you two been? Miss Maya was really upset and thought that you two were absent. Sanvi looked at me expectantly. I sighed.
"We did something we shouldn't have. I learned that some things are not supposed to be done and that we should be responsible.”
We may have caused a ruckus in the washroom, not paying heed to our surroundings and that wasn’t good. I realised that even if we ever have fun in school, it should be while keeping in mind that there are other people we should be considerate of. I also realised that it is not okay to cause such incidents in school as it is an institution of education.
At the end of the day, I understood what Sanvi meant. It was alright to play around and have fun with friends, but not to the extent where some get harmed, or in this case, something. While I did gain Sanvi's forgiveness for the bathroom incident she has never trusted me to enrol us in activities again. She always checks and double-checks before accepting. Oh well, I suppose now onwards I'll be more careful.
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