Olivia spent the next few days at home. One day when she was lying on her bed playing games, she received a call.
"Hello?" Olivia answered seeing that the call was from the Administrator General.
"I heard you're back." his stern yet gentle voice came from the earpiece.
"Hm," Olivia replied.
"How was your trip?" He asked.
"Fine." She said.
"Okay. I called you to tell you about your punishment." He said.
Olivia frowned upon hearing the word punishment but did not say anything. As far as she could recall she did not do anything to get punished.
"You barely attended school. The number of days you were present other than test days can be counted with two fingers. You never participated in any of the school festivals. You never took part in any of the interschool competitions. You've fulfilled your duty as the School Captain but carried out your duties either from home or sitting in your class through your surrogate. You never attended any of the council meetings." He listed her offence.
"School rules. We have substitutes for a reason." Olivia answered.
The first part meant that what she did was possible because of the rules set by the school.
In Ketu, there were different Departments of education: Academics, Sports and Arts. Each Department had several Major Subjects under it like in the case of Academics there were Language, Science, Mathematics, Social Studies, etc. For each Major Subject, there were other Subjects each of which further had Minor Subjects. Like Language had hundreds of languages from which students could choose from such as Bengali which was a Subject. This had Minor Subjects like debate, recitation, story or poem writing, etc.
Education on all Major Subjects (Mj.S) was compulsory but students could choose the Subjects and Minor Subjects (Mn.S) keeping a minimum of three and seven respectively. If a student excelled in a Minor Subject he or she received a key. It could grant special advantages like allowing that student to skip less important lessons on that Mn.S, getting recommendations during interschool competitions, less deduction of points if punished and so on. The number and quality of advantages depended on how outstanding the performance on that Mn.S was. The best key was that the student could choose how many and what benefits she or he wanted. But for that, the performance needed to be the best among the best of the best.
Since Ketu was already the field for the best students in the country being the best among the very best of them was a next to impossible task. So there had not been a student who received the number one key. At least until the year Olivia did not join Ketu. Because after that she started collecting keys like they were pebbles on the road.
Mr Ghosh recalled what a monster she was. The rules which were made to nurture the future of the country became loopholes she used to showcase her laziness and aloofness.
"But you still need to show your face sometimes." He tried to reason with her.
"No need," Olivia said hugging her bolster.
"What do you mean no need? You hold an important post in the school. So many students aspire to become like you. Of course, they need to see the face of their idol." He said, exasperated by her answer.
"Do I even need to go to school?" Olivia asked rhetorically.
"I told you it's a formality that you need to comply with." Mr Ghosh tried to reason with her.
"Tsk." She clicked her tongue.
Olivia knew what he was trying to say but it was just too boring to listen to something she already knew. She would rather sleep at home.
"Don't tsk me when literally not a single soul aside from your group knows you're the School Captain." He said.
"Why do I need face value when I have place value? It's fine as long as the work is done. The way doesn't matter." Olivia sounded righteous.
"It's still your job and not your surrogate's so you should be present from time to time. At this point, I think everyone thinks that your surrogate is the actual School Captain." Mr Gosh nagged.
"Let them," Olivia said nonchalantly.
The Administrator General felt his blood boil because of her nonchalance.
"Call the principal to know the details regarding your punishment." With that, the A.G. cut the call.
Mr Ghosh knew that to bring her out of her withdrawn mindset he had to resort to unreasonable ways.
Olivia resumed her games. After several rounds, she thought of calling the principal. As she dialled the numbers, the Pleb on the wall lit up showing a screen.
Pleb was a black pipe-like device fixed on the wall in her room horizontally. A holographic projection showed the call screen. It could be used to view anything on a bigger screen. It was portable and light with suction cups that allowed it to stick to any flat surface.
After several rings, the call was picked up. The principal's face was visible on the Pleb. Olivia greeted him.
The principal went straight to business "Olivia Basu, for your lack of attendance, participation in class activities and shirking responsibility you'll be demoted to class ten. You'll be given a list of tasks to fulfil. If you manage to complete all then only you'll get back to your original class. Any contrariness will lead to further demotion and you'll also have to complete the entire session."
Hearing the last part Olivia's lips twitched. It was already unbearable for her to attend school thrice a week in her current class if she had to go seven days and that also for a whole year she would probably run away.
After the call ended she plopped on the bed and stared at the ceiling thinking about her rotten fate. Just when she thought she would graduate officially and be on her way, fate just had to poke its nose in her business and ruin her plans.
While Olivia was dissing her fate her earphones vibrated twice and a voice came "Hello mate."
It sounded slightly exhausted and irritated.
"Oh. You too? Congo Nilu." Olivia said flatly.
"Yes, congratulations to you too," Nilambori commented sarcastically.
Olivia knew Nilambori was returning in two days and receiving her call minutes after her chat with the principal coupled with her grumpy voice she figured that they were suffering the same fate of demotion.
Nilambori was informed about the punishment by the principal after his call with Olivia and he told her about Olivia too. So she knew.
"You know what sucks?" Nilambori said from the other side.
"Having to go on routine duty by yourself." Both of them said at the same time.
"Anyways I don't want to discuss this right now. I'm annoyed enough already." Olivia rolled over her tummy and said, "What did you get?"
"Ah, that? I don't have to spend one paisa on the travelling and living expenses for my next five international tournaments." Nilambori said, "Hehe. I'm gonna stay in the most luxurious hotel and travel on a private jet."
Olivia could picture her grinning slyly and rubbing her hands. It was nothing unexpected though. Given how much of a miser Nilambori was in these aspects it was a wish come true for her to have a sponsor.
"Then we'll come along too. They did not say that it's only applicable to you right? Even if they did it's not like we can't share a room for a day." Olivia said.
"Ooooh nice idea," Nilambori said excitedly.