When life happens

The carefully worded refusal

Tani, Siri and Neha came back in high spirits, having squabbled amiably over which flavours to take, and with Neha leading, the three of them having tasted every single flavour in the counter under the pretext of 'choosing'.

There was a nice surprise for them when they came back-the lawn was crowded; the seniors had come back with Jinks.

Siri took one glance at Neha's wide eyes and whispered to Tani, "Now she yells 'Jinks bhaiya' and starts tearing down the lawn."

"JINKS BHAIYA!" yelled Neha and bolted.

"Now she asks for his autograph," continued Siri.

"She's Neha, Jinks," Rohit told Jinks. "And where are the other two?"

Neha ignored him and asked, "Can I have your autograph please?"

Tani rolled her eyes as Siri looked entirely too triumphant.

"You two could fool everyone with the amount you fight," she said, and ran towards Jinks herself, with a confused Siri following, trying to make sense of her words.

..........................................................................

That evening, Tani and Neha were, for some inexplicable reason, playing Plants vs Zombies, a ridiculous game in Siri's opinion.

Virat and Rohit joined in after a while, delighted with the funny graphics, and soon almost the entire team including Hardik and Jaddu were bent over Tani's laptop.

"Why don't you come and blow up a zombie, Siri?" said Jaddu, who, with his brains and strategy, was already the best at the game.

"Why would anyone want to blow up a zombie?" demanded Siri.

"Because it's fun," said Tani.

"Yes, it's fun," said Rishabh at once.

"And Plants vs Zombies is an emotion," said Neha solemnly, who had apparently spent all her childhood playing that game. "And you cannot be better than me at this, Jaddu bhaiya," she added warningly.

"Can't help my brains, child," said Jaddu charmingly.

"You remember how challenging Jaddu always goes wrong?" said Rohit, and Tani groaned.

"You should not have set that snowpea there," shouted Neha, making Virat reel back in shock. "The torchwood neutralizes it!"

"Sorry," said Virat sheepishly.

"Is that a newspaper zombie?" asked Jassi mildly, who hadn't got a chance to play owing to his friends being hooligans fighting over the laptop.

Siri sighed and slipped out of the room, because if she heard another word about a newspaper zombie or a snowpea, she'd go mad.

She suddenly realised that Kuldeep and Yuzi had been the only ones not present in their room, so she went straight to their room.

"What's going on?" asked Siri, barging into their quiet room noisily, having started to pick up several of Neha's traits.

"We're thinking about how Kuldeep should turn Ahona down," said Yuzi.

"Tell her parents first," said Siri promptly. "It's the parents who decided it in the first place."

"But...but what reason can I give?" asked Kuldeep.

"You're not going to chicken out now," said Siri sternly, sitting down on Kuldeep's other side. "You can just tell them you don't think it's feasible anymore."

"I think it'll be best if he says he loves someone else," said Yuzi.

"Yes, he can," said Siri.

"Ahona might get revengeful on her," said Kuldeep.