Putting his work aside, Prithvi sat up to see the proceedings with interest. The young children looked confident. Right then, one of the participating boys started to cry. On closer look, Prithvi realized that the string of his bow had broken. He saw Mriga and Abhirath have a quick discussion and then saw Mriga gathering the other kids together for a quick huddle.
Sitting up there, he could only guess what was happening. The kids nodded their heads and brought the crying boy into their fold. Sprinting to speak with the referee, Mriga and Abhirath had an animated discussion with him. Within ten minutes, the game restarted where the children, instead of shooting their arrows at the same time across different target boards, waited in the queue. One child at a time went and shot the arrow and passed the bow onto the next person.
Since this way was going to take longer to finish, they brought the ten-year old kids also and made them compete in the same manner, slightly farther away, to compensate for the time.
Prithvi smiled and made a mental note about adding quick thinking and negotiating qualities to Mriga's log sheet.
Down at the ground
The archery event finally finished and Mriga turned towards Abhirath with a mile-wide smile.
"We did it. You were brilliant. I wouldn't have been able to convince the referee had you not calmed me down and supported me. He is known to be a stickler for rules," she told him with gratitude evident in her words.
Abhirath patted her shoulder and said, "It was all you. It wasn't that big a deal, anyways."
She flashed him another smile and said, "Alright. I will see you in a bit. Are you participating in any of the board games today?"
He nodded and replied, "I play a mean game of Chausar which is happening tomorrow. Today, I will be registering for the quiz . What about you?"
Her eyes crinkled at his familiar show-off manner of speaking but this time he sounded like a normal guy bragging instead of being a pompous a**.
"I will be participating in the chess tournament and also quiz," she replied.
Abhirath's eyes lit up and he spoke what came to his mind without thinking, "Uh, would you like to team up for the quiz then?"
Mriga thought for a moment before saying, "Sure, I'll be happy to. But I have two teammates with me already. There is space for you but if you have someone else whom you want to participate with, please feel free to go ahead and make the team with them."
Abhirath frowned, wondering about the other players in her team. He could guess who the other two were but just the previous night, he had vowed to not stay in the shadows anymore. He told her that he will join in as the fourth member.
Yash was part of the track team and like Abhirath and Mriga, he was in charge of the junior wards. Running was the last category of games before the day 1 of Juniors' Sports was over. He walked upto where Mriga was packing up the bows and arrows.
"I heard that there was some issue during the archery competition," he enquired with a brow raised.
She shook her head proudly and said, "With me around, can there ever be any problem? Whatever it was, I solved it."
Yash grinned at her cocky look and teased her, "Aren't you feeling too confident about yourself these days? Maybe your boyfriend is too indulgent and is spoiling you."
She looked at him cross eyed and stuck her tongue out. In retaliation, he tugged at her braid.
"Can you stop this behavior? Have you forgotten that these are school hours and there are young impressionable children all around you? What will they learn from their mentors?" Ishani's chiding voice made them spring apart immediately.
"He did…"
"She was the one…"
Both of them tried to offer justification for their actions but Ishani raised her hand and said, "Does it look like that either of you will convince me? Just control these lovey doves antics in front of others. If nothing else, have some mercy on my virgin heart which hasn't found anyone remotely resembling its mate."
Mriga rolled her eyes at her friend's theatrics while an embarrassed Yash beat a hasty exit from there.
"Are you done with your duties?" Mriga asked her.
Ishani was part of the score keepers' team and was a stickler when it came to taking decisions in the closely contested matches. She had a measuring stick with her where she compared the last scuff marks of the contestants' shoes to adjudge the winner amongst them.
"Yes, it seems that they were all in awe of me. Some of them wanted me to teach them how to look for the footprints made in the ground and measure them," she told Mriga with a glee in her voice.
Right then the announcement happened declaring that all teams and their mentors needed to gather in the middle of the ground.
Mriga handed over her bags to Ishani and went searching for her team. When she arrived there, Abhirath was standing with the kids already.
"What is all this about?" she asked him.
He shrugged his shoulders in return and turned to listen to the sports teacher.
"There will be a friendly game of making human pyramid. All those who competed in a particular sport against each other, will now be working with one another as a team. So the entire archery group will be one team, so will be the track team and so on. The teams shall be aided by the seniors who had acted as their mentors during the meet," the sports teacher got off the podium after the announcement.
"Oh God! Does that mean we have to participate as well?" Mriga asked Abhirath.