049 To School

I stood in front of the mirror and stared at the big boy on the other side.

I couldn't believe it.

It felt like just yesterday that I returned. I still clearly remember how I struggled with pooping and breastfeeding.

In the blink of an eye, I grew up. I was three years old and was preparing to go to school.

To be clear, it was a playschool. Still, it was my first time being away from family or friends.

"Achu, don't fight with anyone. But if anyone comes to trouble you, push them down and sit on their back till they admit defeat. Absolutely, don't pour water on their head." Anu shared her wisdom. She was seven years old and matured a bit. She also developed a feeling that she had become the 'big sister'.

"Yes." I nodded while wondering whether she actually poured water on someone's head.

"Also, if you meet me outside the home, call me Anu-chechi. If you call me Anuchi in front of others, I will kick your ass so hard that you will have to poop with one butt for a week." She didn't forget to threaten me.

I nodded and agreed. But I had no plans to follow that instruction.

Recently, she realized that 'Anuchi' can also be heard as 'Anu farted'. So she didn't want me to call her that in public. She was like this previous life as well.

"Achu..." Priya tugged on my shirt. She was sobbing.

"Don't cry. Why crying?" I tried to console her.

"Achu doantaa..." She said something illegible and started crying again. She was an intelligent girl. She clearly understood that I was also going to school like Anuchi.

Pripri had turned two years old. They could run around and play. Ever since the babies started walking, we played together every day. I was their big brother. They followed me around all day calling me 'Achu'. It was even sweeter than when mom calls it.

Prince also started crying. He was simply following Priya. This nature of him hadn't changed a bit. I was actually getting a bit worried for him.

"Wuwooo wuwuwu..." Doodu was even more emotional.

Anuchi was his favourite. But we were pretty close too.  Whenever Anuchi was at school, we used to play together. I always tried to steal his food and we wrestled every day. Now that I was also starting to go to school, he had only Pripri to play with.

"Doodu... Don't worry. I will be back before lunch. Be a good boy and keep an eye on the kids."

"Listen here, if someone tells you that you can drink through the nose, don't believe them. If someone invites you to sacrifice your teacher for rain Gods, don't join them." Anu continued sharing her wisdom.

I wondered what kind of life she had in Kinder garden.

"Anu, stop worrying, he will be fine." Mom silenced Anu. She clearly didn't want Anu to give me any more of her advice.

Mom was busy getting ready. When Anu went to school for the first time, mom was crying and emotional. She was like that for more than a week. But when I was going to school for the first time, she wasn't a bit emotional. As for dad, he was not even home. He had something important to take care of and left in the morning.

"Yes. I will be fine. Don't worry about me." I assured Anu and ignored mom.

"Ohh... And stay away from that Meera. Especially, don't let her hug you. I heard that she picks nose." Anu wasn't really happy with Meera. I think Anu is getting a bit possessive. At the same time, she wasn't lying. Meera is indeed a kid and had all the bad habits of babies.

"Achu, I will leave you at the playschool and go to the bakery. I have to take care of some cakes. I have asked Lakshmi aunty to pick you up. Just don't make any trouble and come home with her. Okay?" Mom tried to explain her situation to me.

I was angry.

As if not being emotional wasn't enough, she was going to take care of some cake!

I ignored her and got in the car. I had no intention of talking to her.

"Achootti, stop sulking. This is really important that iyamma go to the bakery. Two people are getting married within an hour. But someone dropped their cake. Now they have no cake and all the cakes we have are small. So iyamma will go and combine the small cakes to make a big cake. This way, they will have a wedding without any hiccups." Mom explained as she tied me to my seat.

I didn't reply. I continued staring outside.

She tried to talk to me multiple times on the way. But I ignored her.

We reached the playschool in five minutes.

"Quick quick..." Mom continued rushing me.

"Be a good boy. Don't make any trouble. Iyamma will try to come back as soon as possible." Mom tried to ease things up.

"Ok." I ignored her and walked to the class while inspecting the surroundings. Many mothers were waiting outside after they dropped their children. Some of them had teary eyes. I found Lakshmi aunty and Beena aunty among the moms. They waved at me. My mood improved a bit.

"Achootty, give me a kiss before going." Mom pleaded.

"Kiss your cake," I replied aloud to make sure that everyone would hear.

Everyone around us heard me. Some started laughing. Mom felt embarrassed.

"You must be Anu's little brother." The teacher faced me with a smile.

I was surprised to see the teacher. Because I knew this lady. She was someone who worked for dad in my previous life.

"Yes. Who are you?" I asked her.

"I am your teacher."

"Ohh... So we will be sacrificing you for the rain?" I asked innocently.

"Alex... Behave." Mom was annoyed.

"Hahaha... You are really her brother." The teacher lead me inside. She seemed used to the weird comments from kids.

"Achutti..." Mom called me again. I looked at her.

She blew a kiss at me.

I caught the kiss, dropped it on the floor and kicked it away before stomping off to the classroom.

There were many kids running around inside. Some were crying. Some kids looked too young to be there. Two caretakers were working busily to handle crying kids. The room was well lit and colourful. There were too many toys scattered around. It looked pretty great. Except for the two black cameras on the roof looking at us all.

As expected, I found Anita. She was standing in a corner watching other kids. Meera was hiding behind her. She was a bit shy.

Our eyes met.

I smiled widely.

Meera smiled back. Ani ignored me.

I wasn't discouraged. I was used to her cold personality. I moved towards them to greet her.

Meera wasn't comfortable with the strangers and she was hiding behind Anita.

"Meera, hug..." I demanded a hug.

In the past two years, she had grown up a lot. She was behaving more and more like Lakshmi aunty. She stopped hugging everyone. Instead, only those who were close to her got the hugs.

Meera shook her head. Clearly, she was shy.

"Ani, do you want a hug?" I asked Anita.

"Go hug some tree." She rejected me mercilessly.

I was pretty happy to hear it. She was exactly like this in her previous life as well. Since both my girls were not in a mood to play with me, I decided to take a look around.

Most of the kids in this playschool would end up in the same school as mine in the future. So there was an extremely high chance that my best friends from my previous life would be here.

"Hi... What is your name?" I asked the first kid I met. He was trying to make a King Kong doll kiss a Barbie. I wondered whether he had watched the movie.

"Vaava..." He replied.

I was speechless. 'Vaava' means 'kid' in our language. That's a pet name most of the mother's call their babies.

I went around trying to talk to more kids.

Unfortunately, the results weren't any better. Kids rarely knew their own names. Most of them thought their name was 'Vaava' or 'molu'.

"By any chance, do you happen to know your name?" I asked another kid. He looked a lot like one of my close friends from my previous life.

"Yes." He replied right away. Then without replying, he took off his clothes.

"How many times did I tell you not to take off your clothes?" The caretaker complained as she tried to dress him up again.

I moved away from the kid who was trying his best to resist.

There was a high chance that this one was my friend from my previous life. But I decided to stay away and come back once he has matured enough.

"Girl, what's your... forget it." I started talking to another kid and gave up instantly. She was crying just before. Her face was dirty and she was currently licking the snot that oozed out from her nose.

Although I failed to get her name, I knew who she was. She was the beauty queen in our class. Almost every boy in our class had a crush on her in my previous life.

I couldn't help snickering. The future beauty queen was licking her own snot in playschool. Only if I could record this for the future.

I went around investigating for some more time.

Soon, I was bored.

The kids were disgusting.

Some of them were crying and some were busy taking off their clothes. One of them even pooped. Compared to them, my girls were the best.

I returned and sat down near Meera. She was playing with a doll. It looked like babyface from Toy story. I decided not to disturb her as it would be a headache if she starts crying.

I wondered what mom and dad would be doing.

There was some marriage somewhere and they wanted a large multilayer cake. Mom didn't have the base to make it. Also, we didn't have time to make a new one. So mom was planning to remove the cream of multiple normal cakes they had and combine them to make one large cake. I wondered whether she was successful.

Suddenly, a thought came to me.

Could she be watching me?

After the security at our house was increased, mom had a new hobby. She would watch us through the camera feed. After the latest update, she could watch the feed from all the cameras on her phone.

There were multiple cameras inside and around the playschool. Considering how dad increased the security around us recently and the fact that the teacher was someone who used to work for dad, there was a high chance that this was done by dad. If my assumption was right, then there was an even higher possibility that mom or dad would be watching me right now.

I looked around.

No one was paying attention to me.

I smiled at the camera and gave a flying kiss.

If no one was watching, then it wouldn't be an issue. If mom or dad sees it, it would be sweet.

Just to be clear, this doesn't mean I have forgiven them. I am still mad at them. But that doesn't mean I would give up on an opportunity to be their sweet son.

Since it was the first day, the class ended in an hour.

I walked out with Anita and Meera.

"Lechu..." Meera happily ran to her mom.

Lakshmi aunty glared at me. I was struggling to control my laughter.

A few weeks ago, when I was playing with Meera, I convinced her to call her mom 'Lechu'. It was a simple prank. As expected, Lakshmi aunty was angry at me and scolded me a lot. But unexpectedly, she didn't scold Meera. So Meera continued calling her 'Lechu'.

"Achootti, I'm here." Unexpectedly, mom arrived to pick me up.

"No need. I will go with Lechu." I walked to Lakshmi aunty.

Lakshmi aunty grabbed me like a kitten and handed me over to mom.

She used to be extremely careful when handling me. But after she got a kid of her own, she realized that kids are not a fragile as she thought. Obviously, I hated it.

Mom went and thanked Lakshmi aunty and Beena aunty.  Apparently, she managed to finish the cake ahead of time and returned to pick me up.

I got in the car. Mom locked me on the baby seat. I decided not to talk to her until she apologize at least ten times. If I don't teach her a lesson now, she might repeat it in the future.

"Achu... I'm really sorry for leaving you. How about we go and have some ice cream?"

"Yes." I accepted. I was mad at my parents. Not at ice cream.

"Let's go to our bakery." Mom started the car.

"No. no..." I rejected the idea.

"Why?"

"There everyone talks to iyamma," I explained the issue.

About a year ago, Jeemma passed half her wealth to dad. She was trying to do it for a long time. But dad didn't want to accept it as he believed that she had already done more than enough for us. But when mom was diagnosed with cancer, dad's attitude changed. He finally accepted his share from Jeemma.

This bakery was something dad bought for mom later. Mom was staying at home and doing nothing. Dad was feeling guilty about it and mom was feeling that she was losing her identity. So mom decided to manage the bakery and dad was fully supportive.

"Ok. We will go somewhere else." Mom agreed. She understood my issue. At our bakery, we had no privacy and many would come to talk to mom. I hated it when outsiders came to talk to mom or dad when I was with them.

We reached a bakery. We went to the family section. The family section has more privacy and no one would bother us.

There were multiple couples inside the family section. There were also some with only girls. We found a table in the corner and sat side by side.

"I want chocolate ice cream." I placed my order.

"Coffee and meat roll for me." Mom placed her order.

"No no. Chicken puffs for mom." I corrected her.

"Coffee and chicken puffs for me." Mom corrected her order.

The waiter went to get our order and he returned within a minute with our order.

"How was my little Achootti's day?" Mom asked playfully.

I wanted to be mad at her. I even had an entire scenario in my mind where I get back at her. But you see, I simply couldn't. She would call me 'my baby' or 'little Achootti' and I would forget everything. It was always like this. I gave up on my idea of punishing mom. But I will punish dad.

"It was good."

"Did you make new friends?"

"No."

"Why?"

"They have no maturity."

".... Don't talk like your sister. Make new friends." Mom wasn't happy that I didn't make new friends. But in my defence, the kids were simply disgusting.

"They are bad. Some kids were taking off their clothes. A girl was licking her nose-poop. There was a boy who pooped under the teacher's chair..." I complained about the kids in my class. Just to be clear, 'nose-poop' is the word I use to describe snot. After all, I am only a three-year-old kid. I shouldn't be using complicated words.

Mom laughed and continued asking questions. I replied while eating my ice cream. No one bothered us. If we had gone to our bakery, we won't have this kind of privacy.

I ate nearly half of the ice cream before I lost interest in it. The ice cream had also started melting.

"Exchange..." I requested mom to exchange.

"If you can't eat it, why did you order it?" Mom scolded me.

I smiled and ignored it. Because she knew it was going to happen. That's why she changed from meat roll to puffs when I said. I was sure that she was waiting for me to ask for an exchange. Because she ate the puffs pretty slow and she ate only the sides.

We exchanged our plates.

In my opinion, there is an ideal way to eat puffs. First, you should open it. Then neatly apply a layer of tomato sauce inside the puffs. Then close it. After that, dip it in tomato sauce and bite. If you have cheese, then add some cheese to the stuffing and heat it again before eating.

I checked the puffs. Mom had already added sauce inside the puffs. She knows that I like the stuffing inside. So she ate only the edges. She was saving it for me. But when I asked her for an exchange, she was acting annoyed. Who is she trying to fool!

I decided not to expose her.

"How did you know I was watching?" She asked out of nowhere.

"You always watch," I answered without thinking.

Only after answering did I realize what I said. Just like I guessed, the cameras were indeed installed by dad and mom was watching. I decided to keep quiet so that I won't say anything suspicious.

I was expecting more questions from mom. But she was oddly silent.

So, I stole a peek at her.

She was repeatedly blinking while looking outside.

That's what she does when she's trying to hide her tears.

I felt happy. My flying kiss to the camera did the trick. Probably that's why she came to pick me up.

I slowly enjoyed the puffs. There were many customers in the bakery. But I was absolutely sure that we were having the best time.

Now that I think about it, this is only our second time together like this. The first time was when mom resigned. That day, I and mom waited at the bus stop for dad. We talked a lot and laughed. Today was even better. Unlike before, I could talk to her and share food.

I should make this happen again.

I didn't want it to end. But there was nothing I could do. We returned home after paying.

When we reached home, Anu was waiting for us at the gate.

She was stomping her foot and her eyes were red. Smoke was coming out of her nose. I was pretty sure that she was mad.

"How... how... how dare you eat ice cream without me!"

We are in trouble.

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