I
THE DARING SELFIE CHALLENGE
I am very nervous, hungry, sleep deprived, and frightened as I am about to enter my school, which probably will be my last time because today is the day I am finally going to be caught.
I have not been sleeping well for a few days, could not eat either since they announced that they have a video surveillance tape, actual evidence that contains images of the culprit which is me of course, if I get caught the school is going to send me away, after the school sends me away my father the tyrant is going to beat me to pulp and en roll me in some boarding school with no toilets. Just the thought of that makes me want to puke.
You might be wondering what the fuss is all about, I am dying to tell somebody, might as well be you, this secret has been burning inside my stomach for sometime now it's about time it got out.
It all started last month when one of the boys in my class vijay decided to start a challenge, "the most daring selfie challenge" he called it, he announced that the person with the most daring selfie wins.
Like always people got excited they get something different to do and started coming up with all sorts of crazy selfies, there was this one boy ajay with a snake (python) around his neck like lord Shiva, then this guy vineeth took a selfie of him jumping in to the pool (literally mid air),
One while driving his bike in traffic with a single hand, there were plenty of others with decent selfies, I was intrigued, "this is something that I could do?", all I to do needed was to come up with the most daring plan.
I was ready to take the challenge, it was my time to be the star, be a somebody and a chance to get noticed by Sandhya my long time crush,
'Sandhyaaa, just saying the name out loud feels like drinking hot coca in a cold winter morning.
I thought long and hard and finally came up with the most exciting plan, "the founder's statue". The founder's statue is a eight foot long statue on the edge and dead centre our roof, if I manage to get on his shoulder and get a selfie then it will actually look like I am flying over the school.
The best part of it all was no student is ever allowed on the roof, and the statue is our schools pride, and it's is the statue of the father of our current principal and director, he was the director before he tragically died and like I said the founder, so it has this large than world image to it, it's white washed every 2 months , a priest does some rituals over it everyday. So if I did manage the feat it would be the best selfi ever.
On a Thursday 20 days before today I sneaked out of my house, jumped over my school fence and ran in to roof, when I met a locked door, I had thought about this as the door is nearly always locked, I bought my mother's hairpin, and gave the keyhole a few twists with the pin, nothing happened, I tried pulling the lock, hitting it, begging it, it didn't bulge, I was heart broken and angry so I gave the door an kick in all fury and it just flung open with a huge thud.
The noice was so loud so I waited to see if anyone noticed, no one seemed to, as I got in to the roof it seemed like a victory, but I couldn't let it get to my head as I knew I had work to do, I got near the statue, jumped up and held his elbow with my hands, placed my feet over his knee and climbed over his shoulder, I turned towards the statue's back as I wanted me, the statue and the whole campus to be in the view when I took the picture, I clicked once, as I was about to take an other one the statue started shaking, I jumped down in to the roof reflexively, the founder came crumbling down. I agree I am bit on the heavier side but I did not expect that to happen.
Now you know why I am scared, after the incident, I got home, deleted the selfie, never spoke to a soul about it, feigned fever and didn't go to school for a few days. When I went back things were so different, there were flyers all around, it read "who ever did it surrender at once for minimal punishments or else they will be expelled and fined vigorously". Everyone in class was talking about it, teachers were talking about it, people forgot about the daring selfie challenge as they had something new to chew their mouths over, I felt sick everytime the topic came up.
Few days went by like this, no one had any idea who broke it, I was getting better, until a couple of days ago, when one of the teaches found that the mall opposite to the school had a security camera which pointed directly to the roof, and all they had to do is get the tape that recorded that day.
Principal requested for the tape and got it, but no one saw it yet, they were going to watch it together with the rest of the school, in the afternoon assembly, they wanted it to be a surprise for the culprit and for them too, atleast that is what the watchman told me.
With anxiety ripping my heart out I made a new plan, the only plan that could save me from absent toilets and roach rooms.
It is nine now this is the time everyone leaves, for the morning assembly, I skipped it, I went in to the principals office and there it was right on the middle of the table the tape, inside a brown envelope, I went in slowly closed the door behind me when I heared the door open, I swiftly hid behind the table.
It was the principal he was talking to someone else, he came in only for a second, kept talking to someone on his phone and went out, I observed him carefully as he walked to the door. I knew that time was running out but suppressed the urge to check my watch. I took a deep breath and started counting in reverse under my breath. "Ten, nine, eight, seven... zero". I got up and looked for the tape, it wasn't there, he must have taken it with him.
I came out of the office, i felt numb, when one of my classmates beckoned me and said "Naveen aren't you coming, they are going to watch the tape now, it going to be funny". At that very moment my heart stooped, my blood turned solid, I must have looked like a ghost to an outside observer, I was so pale.
I walked to the assembly with every step getting heavier, the video was running, my worst fears came true the images though extremely small (can be zoomed in) were clear my final hope vanished, video was now running at 10 am on Thursday, no one was on the roof during that time on the video, everyone knew it happned in the night but they wanted to build to the suspense so they were watching from the morning, they forwarded it to 12 pm still nothing, then to 3 pm still nothing, when they were about to forward it two people were visible (barely) on the screen, in a corner, at 3.10 pm it seemed like the principal and vice principal, they were talking something seriously when the principal tried to kiss her, the vice principal pushed him away, and she stormed down, everyone started laughing, the principal came running to the projector whisked out the tape and bludgeoned it with his foot, people were still laughing, and the funny part was both of them were married separately and the vice principal's husband worked there as the physical education teacher.
The topic of gossip turned from the broken statue to the kinky principal gets caught.
