Jai stopped in his tracks and looked over his shoulder. Walking behind them were Ansh and his three cronies, who had just finished football practice and were on their way to the bus stop too.

‘Rusty’s such a handsome fellow. How can you not be interested? You’ll break his heart,’ said Ansh.

Dev touched Rustom’s face and pretended to swoon. The foursome fell about howling with mirth. Rustom clenched his fists and would have taken a swing at them if Jai hadn’t done what he did first.

‘You obviously haven’t received the memo, have you, Ansh?’ said Jai.

Ansh was momentarily taken aback. ‘What memo?’

‘The memo from Mr Lobo.’

Ansh and his sidekicks looked at each other in confusion.

‘The memo to our parents,’ said Jai. ‘About how there’s going to be an anonymous Anti-Bullying Squad chosen from the senior batch. They will be Lobo’s eyes and ears. And any bullying reported by them will result in expulsion.’

There was pin-drop silence.

‘There was no such memo. I’m pretty sure,’ said Dev finally.

‘Well, why don’t you go and ask Lobo if you don’t believe me?’ suggested Jai.

That seemed to stump Dev. Just then, a bus arrived at the stop.

‘Come on, guys,’ said Ansh. ‘Let’s not waste any more time here.’

Ansh and his cronies gathered their bruised egos and clambered on to the bus, with considerably less swagger than before.

Rustom, who had been watching intently as this whole scene played out, turned to Jai, ‘I had no clue about this, Jai. When was this memo sent out?’

‘There was no memo.’

Rustom’s eyes popped.

‘What? They’ll make chutney out of us when they find out!’

‘Find out from whom, Rusty? They’re hardly likely to check with Lobo.’

‘But what if they check with their parents about the memo?’

‘That’s even less likely, Rusty. They’d be opening a can of worms. What are they going to say? “Hey mom, dad. By the way, did you get a memo from Lobo that said it was wrong to bully? Just asking randomly, you know. Not that we’re actually bullying anyone or anything.”’

Rustom took a long, hard look at his friend.

‘You are an evil genius, Jai,’ he said. ‘Good stuff . . . thanks!’

‘Don’t thank me. Thank Tarlok,’ said Jai mysteriously.

‘Dude, you’re so not making sense today.’

The Unspoken Code

Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Inaya, Zain and Saba were perched on the sprawling branches of the huge mango tree in Inaya’s garden, eating raw mangoes. Saba had brought a bowl containing a mix of salt and red chilli powder and the three of them were taking turns, dipping the mangoes in it.

‘I can’t believe that you’re actually going, Inaya,’ said Saba.

‘To be honest, I can’t either,’ said Inaya, biting into the mango and winking involuntarily as the tangy sourness assaulted her taste buds.

‘Sorry, but Curry Cruisers sounds like a really dumb name for a cricket team, even by tape-ball standards,’ said Zain.

‘Oh, stop being such a snobbish party pooper, Zain,’ said Saba. ‘How does it matter what the team is called? What’s important is that our Inaya will be playing in an international league match.’