The Life Of Normal-Taro

After the mother-daughter pair exited the scene, the aliens and Thankappan turned their attention towards Taro. "So, the twelfth graders don't have any sorta extra classes these days, right?" Thankappan asked.

"That's right; they don't." Taro nodded his head in agreement.

"Then that would mean that Shivani lied to her mother." Thankappan spoke.

"Right again!"

"By saying that they have extra classes, you lied to her as well, right?" He asked.

"Yup! You're getting a whole lot of W's here!" Taro replied.

"Bruv, why would you lie to her like that.? You know teachers shouldn't lie to the parents about what their children do, right?" Thankappan asked.

Taro nodded his head. "Right, that way I could be a great teacher before the parent's eye. However, I'm trying to be a good teacher in both their eyes though. You see, I did say to my students that I don't care what they do unless they do something illegal. And the thing she's doing sure isn't any illegal stuff! So, I do have to keep that moniker, right?" Taro smiled.

"So, you're not gonna ask her why she lied then? Since you don't care and all…" Thankappan's face was filled with doubts.

"Well, I wouldn't have. However, she involved me into this, didn't she? So, she owes me one now. So, I'm gonna ask her the reason she lied as a reward for doing my part. Although, I did say about me not caring, how could I not when she looked troubled about something? That would make me a bad teacher, wouldn't it? Damn, this is what I get for having contradicting opinions! Look, I kinda wanna be the cool yet responsible teacher whom both the parents and their children could trust on. So, yea. There's that." He sighed after giving out that weird explanation.

"Damn, you do you, bruv! I hope it works out." Thankappan replied as he climbed up the stairs.

However, before he could reach the top, someone was out there, already waiting for them. "What took you so long? The girl next door arrived three minutes early." John scolded.

"Sheesh, we were just talking! Chill out, dude." Thankappan shrugged.

"But!" John was about to hit back with a counter argument, however he was stopped by Taro.

"He's right, you know? What's the problem with being just a few minutes late? Were you lonely or something?" He asked.

John stayed silent for a moment, before slightly blushing. "Well… yeah… Lonappan said he was busy today, so he couldn't make it. Therefore, I ended up staying here, waiting for you guys to come. So, sorry if I sounded petty about it. It's just that the television's kinda shitty on weekdays!" He replied.

"Oh, we apologize as well. We were inconsiderate about your situation as well." Thankappan bowed deeply. "You know what? I'm gonna ring up Lonappan and make him regret leaving you stranded!" He said, as he furiously dialed up Lonappan's number.

"Umm, you don't have to do that. He promised to compensate for it tomorrow. So, that's fine. Anyway, enough talking about me! Come in and let's talk about what happened in the school." John spoke as he walked in room #306.

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Next morning; knowing that Shivani would be walking out of her home early, the guys stepped out early as well, which ended up with them "coincidentally" meeting each other. And they decided to act as such. "Oh, hey Shivani! What a coincidence, eh?" Thankappan chuckled.

"Yea… Good to see that you aren't wearing those jackets. Although, now that I think about it, it did seem to work on you." She replied.

"Ah, thank you. However, it seemed like the male teachers in the school wore rather casual clothes. So, we decided to ditch the jacket and lean to the more informal side of things." He spoke.

"I see…" Shivani slowly nodded her head. Even if Thankappan said that, they looked more formal than anyone else in the school, even without the jacket.

"Shall we move then?" Kunjan asked as he moved forward. Soon enough, the others followed suit. However, Shivani noticed something strange. It was as if they were rushing to move away from her. With each step they took, they seemed to move farther away. In the end, she ended up alone with Taro.

"Ah… It's pretty weird that they left us here, eh?" Shivani laughed.

"I asked them to do that." Taro replied.

"You did? But, why?" She asked, with a shocked look on her face. Even though she did throw in that facade, deep down she knew why her class teacher made such a situation.

"You remember how I told you that you owed me one yesterday?" Taro asked.

"No?" Shivani tried to deny such a thing ever happened.

"Well, it doesn't matter if you don't remember. I'm just gonna tell you now. You owe me for the lie I told your mother about the extra classes." Taro spoke.

"That's… fair, I guess." She sighed.

"Cool, I'm gonna cash in my reward then. So, why did you lie?" He asked.

Shivani sighed yet again. "I knew you were gonna ask that!"

"Hmm, so if you did know, it would be easier to answer, right?" Taro waited for her reply.

"Fine! Okay, look. I was writing… stories. Mum doesn't like it. She wants me to become a doctor since she wants stable job opportunities for me. However, I like doing this. I tried talking to her about it, but she makes death threats that she'd die if I don't practice medicine. I love my mum, okay? Had she said that she'd kill me or something, I would've happily placed my life on the line for my dream job, because that's how little I care about my life. However, her life's a bit precious for me since she worked hard trying to get me into this school. So, tell me… What the hell am I supposed to do at this point. Do you think I can tell her that I'm writing novels and stories in the school because I'm afraid she'll learn of it? Wouldn't that make her even more distorted? I want my mum to be happy… However, there's still a small bit in me that wants to be happy, you know? Do the stuff I want, no matter if I'm lucky enough to get famous from it or not." By the time she completed explaining her reason behind lying, she was already on the verge of tears.

Taro honestly felt bad for the girl. It kinda felt like he was treading through a tightrope. So, he had to answer carefully or else the already little trust she had in him would crumble down even further. "It's your mother's joy to yours, huh? Truly a difficult choice. Before that, do you even like medicine? Like would you be okay if you are to go down that path?" Taro asked.

"Well, if you were to ask me this question a few years back, I probably would've said yes. However, recently my mum has been glorifying it as a holier than thou career, which is making me hate it. Like, I respect all the doctors who earned their way to it, but do you really think one would be happy or a good doctor at that, if they're to hate that stream? One has to have a minimum likeness to a job to stick to it, right?" She asked. She seemed hellbent about making her point before the class teacher, since she couldn't bring it up to her own mother.

"Hmm, you hate it, huh? Doesn't that make it simpler then? Just don't practice medicine. Even if you are forced to, don't leave your writing aside for it, since that's important to you as well. Just don't give up on your dreams though! Make it work somehow. If you can't exactly do what you originally hoped for, do something related to it. Just keep on trying until you succeed in that sector so that you can finally walk to your mum with your head held high and say that you did it." Taro replied with a bright smile on his face.

"Well… that's really what I'm planning to do for the most part. I'll someday try to convince her that I don't like it. If she doesn't agree with my decision, I'll go along the flow and work from the inside. That's the only way. Anyway, thank you for listening to me though! I desperately needed someone to speak about it." She spoke.

"Ah, glad to help! You know I'm planning to help the other kids in the class with whatever is in their mind too!" He replied.

"Good luck with that! You could do it with me because I like to talk to people about my bottled up feelings. The others are more tight lipped about it than me, you know? You're probably gonna have a harder time dealing with them than you had with me! So, yea… As I said, good luck!" She gave out a thumbs up.

"Well, we'll never know about it if you don't try, eh?" Taro replied as he looked towards the bright sky with hopeful eyes.

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