Diwali-Wali

Crackle!

1 hour later-

A chubby lad patted his belly and allowed a contented smirk to play across his face as he crossed a little pentat of scowling, whispering girls looking his way. It had been a successful afternoon of bursting crackers and scaring them and he was ready to go home and watch some films before heading back in the evening for more fun!

"Hi Vikas!" He heard a chorus from behind.
He turned around to face the very same pentat now giggling and squirming. He greeted them back, rather taken back and turned away when another group of girls greeted him from behind(or rather, in the front).
"Hi Vikas!" they managed between giggles.

"Curse these good looks!" He muttered in cocky despair as he tried to make a dash for it from the left, but alas! There stood another possé of girls, giggling and crooning. He quickly dashed away to the right, but the girls were after him like a pack of wolves after caribou.

The giggling females seemed to pop up like those punching gloves attached to springs almost everywhere he went.
"Listen ladies, I know you can't get enough of all of this" he said nervously, although unable to give up his vanity, "But shouldn't you hate me by now for what I've done."

"Oh, Vikas! Of course we do!" They exclaimed sarcastically.

It was then that he took in the square border he was in, brimming with rose coloured cigars and yet again, bordered by the platoon of girls (it seemed). Their eyes and smiles shone with glints of eagerness for revenge.....

He gulped. He wished his good looks could
save him now.
*. *. *. *. *. *.

Murali's POV

A smirk played across my face as I watched my little sister confidently light her first 10,000 Wallah and back away as though she had been doing it for many Diwalis.

And the sad kid stuck in the middle of the square shaped arrangement of the 10,000 wallahit unable to run away because of my genius kid sister's well devised plan.

One side of the square would explode whilst the other side's were guarded by the platoon of smirking, two-plaited, dwarf witches. In any case, it was impossible for the victim to escape until the cracker had ceased to explode. They even had Niagara torches to hold out in front of him so that they could prevent him from leaving without burning their own feet and shanks, while he stood there getting caught by the hot ones, yowling and squealing. He was such a pussy. But Kadugu had planned in such a way that he wouldn't get severely damaged.

But of course the fun had to be ruined when Vikas's mom, Valli Aunty came to rescue her sniffling son from the "shameless girls" that she began to admonish in her typical dragon fashion. A large quantity of the possé scattered towards their older siblings/cousins and even parents. From the distance, I scanned for my kid sister among the runaways and panic shot up my back like a bullet when I caught her and Raja's little sister Veena standing their ground with a small pentat. I tapped Raja and jerked my head towards the scene of the crime where the remains of the 10,000 wallah were still bursting to one side, seeming unimpressive and unimportant compared to the explosion between the squawking aunt and the unseemingly bold girls. We sprinted along with Girish and Radhika to our sisters' aid.

Raja and I were all for pouncing on Valli Aunty when Radhika and Girish suddenly stopped us a few feet away. "Wait. Look." She said.

"Why didn't you come to me if he was troubling you?" Valli Aunty asked, angrily.

"We did, Aunty." Veena stated dryly.

"Yeah, and you wouldn't do anything about it." Girish's sister, "So we decided to take matters into our own hands."

"How can you do that? You are girls! You have your own safety to think of!"

What a typical aunty tactic; distract with fault finding that's completely irrelevant to the topic!

"Oh we did!" Countered Parvati coolly. She didn't have an older sibling and I kinda felt bad that she had no older kid to support her.

But as her best friend Uma a.k.a, Radhika's younger sister explained the harmless prank, Radhika put her arms protectively around Parvati, to my relief.

"B-b-but you all are girls from cultured, well-to-do families. I didn't expect this from you." She stuttered trying to find something to say in the defence of her and her son(rather in offence of the girls to hide her son's shortcomings.)

"We didn't expect a boy from a well-to-do, cultured family, like Vikas, to come and trouble our baby sisters." I replied calmly, raising an eyebrow as I put my arms over Kadugu. Inside me was volcano of irritation but I bit it down as best as I could.

"Yeah, and you don't see us pounding your son for it." Raja added quickly in a loud tone that was in the decibell range before snapping.

Girish put an arm on Raja and another on his own sister, steering them into an about turn.

"Come on guys. Let's get out of here." he called and they obeyed.

"I'm going to tell your parents." She squawked hopelessly after us.

Kadugu turned to look at me in awe as we walked away.

I smirked at her and ruffled her hair.

"Not bad, Kadugu...Not bad".
Her little arms wound around my stomach and I hoisted her into the air and flipped her onto my back, as my smirk stretched into a smile. Carrying this little salt-sack would never get old.