A Flight of Love

Chapter 18 - The Toss

It was bright and early next morning as the warm embrace of the sun's golden rays meshed in perfect harmony with the inkling of the fall wind. The fresh fall breeze perfectly supported the pack of determined girls as they walked into the resort garden in unison with Akshara taking the lead.

The resort staff had turned the large garden area of the resort into a makeshift cricket pitch. Team Girls came to a halt in the middle of the pitch, wearing white sports pants and baby pink tops. Everyone from Swarna to Nishtha were dressed for the win.

Abhimanyu watched from the comfort of his chair as Akshara adjusted the cap she was wearing on her head before she turned to give him a challenging smile. This ought to be fun.

"Boys." He called out, and gathered his troops who were busy lazing around on the lawn chairs drinking juice and chit chatting amongst themselves. He had not expected the Girls Team to show up ready to go to war. It was time that he got his men in order. The Girls Team had come with a game plan. They had come to win. And he couldn't let that happen.

The men stepped up to the pitch facing the girls, with Abhi leading his pack.

"Abhi bhi time hai, soch lo." He challenged, banding both his hands together to stretch his arms above him in an exaggerated move to show off his strength.  "Jeetenge toh hum boys. Kyun boys?"

He turned around to face his rally of boys and was met with a loud boom of cheers and fist pumps. From the corner of his eyes, he could see Kairav trying to hide his face behind the palm of his head, but he didn't think too much of it. Probably a bit nervous, that's all.

"Absolutely right, bhaiya." Neil agreed, enthusiastically.

"Soch liya." Akshara flung her arm out, stopping just short of hitting Abhimanyu on the chest before taking it behind her back as an act of stretching. "This is the first time I'm seeing so many men excited to lose. So warning hai, tum log soch lo. Humse haar kar phir rona maat. Koi sympathy dene nahin aayega."

"Haar? Aur hum? Just for your information, the word loss or lose does not even exist in our dictionary." Abhimanyu replied, mockingly.

"Is that so? I think you better throw away your useless dictionary. Don't worry, we will buy you a new one where when you search up the word "losers" you will find a list of all your names."

Ouch. Harsh. "Say whatever you want, asli faisla toh pitch pe hoga." Abhimanyu said, raising his chin up in a smirk.

"Absolutely. Right Mimi?" Akshara said, turning to look at her great-grandmother.

Abhimanyu's smirk suddenly turned into a frown. "Mimi aap cheating nahin kar sakte! You have to be fair!"

"Lo ji, pehele se hi inka rona shuru." Akshara snickered, resting her chin on her hand in a sarcastic pout.

Abhimanyu glared at Akshara before turning his attention back towards Mimi. "The thing is, we want this match to be fair. No cheating. And since you are a lady too, Mimi, we just want to make sure you will remain impartial throughout the game." He explained, turning his stare back at Akshara.

"Haan, haan. Hum promise karte hai ki hum toh fair umpiring hi karenge."

"Thank you, Mimi." Abhimanyu replied softly to Akahra's great-grandmother.

"May the best team win."  Neil said from behind Abhimanyu.

"And the best team is our team." Saanj exclaimed back, earning a round of cheers and claps from the Girls and boos from the Boys.

"Should do the toss now?" Manish Goenka asked, getting tired of standing for so long.

Mimi came to the center and stood in between Akshara and Abhimanyu. Akshara ushered towards Abhimanyu to make the call.