I Kissed A Girl In My Class by Abhilash Gaur

unlikely.
    All the new parts
of the cycle had been run in nicely before race day arrived and
Manu took the cycle back to to the mechanic for some final fixes.
The chain needed just a bit of tightening—not too much, for that
would slow down his pedalling, but just enough to ensure that it
didn’t come off on the track. The brakes were tweaked and a final
round of oiling and greasing was done. All that remained was to
fill up the tubes extra hard to competition level, but that was a
rite to be performed on the morning of Race Day.
    ***

12. Sports Day
Arrives
    Thursday
arrived, and the students came to school in their white uniforms.
There were no books or bags, only tiffin boxes and water bottles
which they deposited in their classroom desks. For many of the
students, Manu included, it was a day to while away with chatting,
walking around the grounds, cheering friends, and getting a
mouthful from Jacob Sir every time they strayed onto the track or
the field in the middle of an event.
    Manu had to run
the heats of the 100m race, and he clowned his way down the track
to last place, much to the merriment of his classmates. When Jacob
Sir asked him why he had put up the silly show, he replied with
mock-seriousness: “Sir, I was trying to keep my fleet shoes clean
for tomorrow’s prize distribution ceremony”. You could take a few
liberties with Jacob Sir, he was like an elder brother to every
student.
    On Thursday night,
Manu ate an extra chapati for the race. He slept early and was up
first, but Papa told him to conserve all his strength, so they did
not go out to practise that morning. After a hearty breakfast and a
final inspection of the cycle, Manu left for school with many hugs
and blessings. On the way, both he and Sharad stopped at the cycle
repair shop to inflate their tyres hard. They first checked them by
pressing between thumb and forefinger, and then dropped the cycles
from a few inches high to see how well they bounced. Satisfied, the
boys rode to school without any rush.
    The second day of
the sports meet was always a long one. All the events had to be
wrapped up, and afterwards there was the prize distribution
ceremony. Even those who hadn’t won a prize had to stay back till
the end to sit and clap below the stage. The cycle race final was
the last track event of the day, after which there only remained
the tug-of-war, which was more of a friendly fight to ease the
tension of fierce contests over two days.
    With dozens of
participants in the two age categories—for both boys and girls—the
cycle race heats had to be started in the early afternoon. They
interspersed the other races and lifted the mood on the field. For
every race the partisans of the contestants crowded around the
track and shouted off their lungs. There were six heats in the
junior boys group, and Manu’s name was called in the third one.
    The cyclists lined
up on the track, with those in the outer lanes placed ahead to
compensate for their longer track length. Manu was in the third
lane, and the only one on a small bike. His red Hero Jet looked out
of place amid the Atlas Concordes and BSA Machs. He saw that boys
who didn’t own sports bikes had borrowed them for the race from
their seniors.
    “On your marks,”
Jacob Sir shouted.
    Manu grit his
teeth, his heart was pounding like a hammer.
    “Set.”
    The cyclists
leaned forward on their handlebars, coiling their arm and leg
muscles.
    “Go!”
    Manu rode like a
man possessed. He was slower than the field in the first lap but he
didn’t give up. Those who had shot ahead in the first lap started
slowing down in the second, and he saw that Papa had been right
about the importance of practising. He was still very much in the
race. In the third lap, Manu moved up to fourth place, and going
into the fourth he was tailing Rajiv in second place. Rajiv was
from the other section and realizing he could not keep up the lead
much longer, he started cutting into Manu’s path. It was a
dangerous