“Akhil, Rajesh, Mukhi and Sanjay.”
Sanjay titled his head slightly and asked with an indifferent expression.
“What do you want, class leader?”
His question was rude and his tone was full of hostility.
Raj, who wore a smile, faltered slightly and forced himself to smile.
He said,
“You four have been selected to participate in hackathon.”
When he said this, he noticed the four of them had darkened expressions.
He inwardly felt happy seeing the four of them wore an angry face.
Outwardly, he maintained a friendly expression and said with a hint of concern.
“I know that the four of you don’t want to participate but there were no volunteers.
So, I gave your names.”
He paused and said with feigned sincerity.
“I believe you are capable and talented.
Good luck, my friends!”
With that, he left them with a gleeful expression.
Sanjay was the first to speak, “That bastard!
I swear when I graduate, the first thing I’ll do is punch that hypocritical face of his.”
Mukhi chimed in, “If he weren’t teacher’s pet, then I want to punch his face until I’m satisfied.”
Akhil comforted them, “Don’t worry about it.
We can just try what we can.
It’s not like they wanted us to win the competition.”
Rajesh spoke with a puzzled expression.
“Hey guys.
Just leave this matter.
What I’m more interested in is why the police visited our college.”
Sanjay spoke, his expression grave and serious.
“I think it’s about the murder case.”
Rajesh asked, his heart skipped a beat.
“What murder?”
Sanjay sighed, and spoke.
“It’s about a student from our college.
I heard she studied in the ECE department.
After college, someone raped and killed her while she was on her way home.”
Akhil sucked a cold breath, spoke with contempt.
“Those bastards!
How dare they commit such a vile act?”
Mukhi and Rajesh also expressed their disgust.
“Seriously,” Rajesh added, shaking his head.
“There are way too many murder and rape cases in our country these days.
It’s reached a point where it isn’t safe for anyone – women or men.”
Sanjay calmed them.
“It’s not like we can do anything about it.
It’s just that the laws are lenient toward rapists.”
“Even if they get caught, they just pay a fine.”
Hearing this, Akhil sighed with resignation.
“Yeah.
The court doesn’t care as long as they pay the fine.”
The atmosphere around them suddenly turned heavy.
Rajesh quickly changed the topic, trying to ease the atmosphere.
“Right now.
The most we should be worried about is the competition.”
Sanjay, as if catching Rajesh’s cue to change the topic, played along with him.
“Yes.
We should worry about the competition.
First, we check online what is hackathon?”
“Right.
We should do that.”
Akhil immediately cut them off,
“You guys, don’t you even know what a hackathon is?”
“How ignorant.”
Only after he finished speaking did Akhil realize that he hadn’t told his friends about how he had studied for placements during the holidays with his cousin.
Before, when he had complained with his friends about not knowing anything, he had been lying.
If his friends found out that he had studied behind their backs, they would never let the matter slide.
Sanjay asked with face of full disbelief.
“What?
You know what hackathon means?”
“You traitor!”
“How could you learn something without us?”
Others chimed in one after another.
Their faces were full of incredulity and resentment.
Normally, they study together for exams.
So, their score almost same.
But one of them from their gang had started studying secretly.
This is unforgivable.
They won’t let Akhil off the hook.
Rajesh spoke this time, his face showing anger for the first time.
He always wore happy or nonchalant face.
“Akhil.
You better start explaining how you know about that.”
His tone was cold, with barely concealed rage.
Akhil started to sweat.
His back was trenched in sweat.
“What should I say?”
“That I studied like a madman during the holidays for placements?”
He chuckled nervously and fabricated a lie on the spot.
“You know, I have a cousin.
I heard from him.
He used to participate.”
Rajesh face softened slightly; he reached out and squeezed Akhil’s shoulder.
His voice still carried a chill.
“That explanation seemed plausible.
I let you go this time.
Don’t try to learn stuff behind our backs.”
“Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
Akhil inwardly breathed a sigh of relief, having just escaped a catastrophe.
Mukhi asked with a confused expression.
“So, what is hackathon?”
“What do we do there?”
“Is there anything we should learn before that?”
Mukhi asked a series of questions.
Akhil answered him.
” Well, the hackathon competition is about creating a software or hardware project within a fixed amount of time.”
Akhil continued,
“I think we can participate as an induvial or as a team.”
Hearing this, Sanjay frowned and asked Akhil.
“I think we are screwed.
I don’t even know how to create a project.
In the first year, we just bought a project from the academic project center.”
Akhil answered him, his face calm and patience of someone who educating illiterate children.
“We can use AI.
Using AI, we just have to write a prompt about the topic given to us.
It will give us the code we need.
Just copy the code and paste it into Visual Studio.”
“I can download the software today after college.
So, don’t worry.
We will be fine.
It’s not like we are aiming for the first prize.”
As he spoke, he did not notice his friends staring at him with dumbfounded expressions.
Their jaw dropped open.
Their eyes filled with disbelief and resentment.
Then, they exchanged glances with each other, their glances carrying a silent meaning.
They all understood now, the traitor must be punished.
Sanjay and Mukhi both stepped toward him and simultaneously lifted one of his arm and one of his legs.
Akhil who had been smugly explaining his knowledge, startled to find himself lifted off the ground by his friend.
Rajesh stepped forward, his face carrying a cruel and indignant expression.
“Even if you learned it from your cousin.
You shouldn’t have learned so much.”
“Now, time for punishment.”
He tickled his arms and abdomen.
Akhil laughed, his voice carrying across the room.
Other student who had been doing their own thing, turned their heads toward the sound and saw the scene of Akhil lifted off the ground and being tickled by his friends.
Some sneered, thinking they were attention seekers; some watched with amusement and others did not even glance at them.
The bell rang indicating the end of break.
Mukhi and Rajesh finally released Akhil, who collapsed onto the floor, panted after laughing too much.
The next two hours went by without anything significant happening.
During the lunch period, four of them stepped outside the classroom and sat on the lush grass beside the pathway.
They sat in a circle and ate together.
“Akhil, what did you bring for lunch today?”
Asked Mukhi with anticipation.
“Roti.”
Akhil replied.
Soon, the four exchanged food and chatted among themselves.