Aaryan Khanna

“Yeah, man. I feel sorry for ya.”

Sooraj was sitting beside me. Both of us were beside a door in between the white colored corridor filled with a couple of employees walking here and there. On the metallic plate on the dark brown door said ‘Principal’s Office’. I stood beside the door, my head tilted down, like I was there for a fucking punishment. Sooraj stood in front of me, ya see, his hands inside his pockets and his head tilted down too.

A man in white and black shirt-pant pulled the door, walked out, and turned to his left, walking away from right in front of the two of us. Sooraj then turned his head up, moved his right hand out of his pocket, and patted my shoulder. “Everything will be fine, man. Legit fuck him up.”

I nodded, my head still tilted down, as I turned to my right and started to walk toward the door. I slowly pushed the door open and walked in.

Sooraj glared at me with his sorry eyes as he saw the door closing with a creak.

***

Kritvik Bhatt

“Now, first of all, let me ask you a question,” The sound of the teacher echoed. “Why do you think kids vape? Kids your age, I mean. Why do you think they vape?”

The auditorium was silently glaring at her for a couple of seconds. Then, one girl shouted, “To look cool?”

She nodded. “Yes. And?”

Everyone was silent again.

The teacher scanned the room from her front to left, accessing the faces of the children. “To look cool. Yeah. But, there’s one more reason. And that’s the biggest factor which drags the kids toward this addiction. Think about it.”

“Stress of studies?” A guy shouted.

She nodded. “Maybe yeah. Mental health can be a good reason. But that’s not what I’m looking for.”

She again turned to her left, and then at the front again.

“… Peer pressure.”

***

Aaryan Khanna

The principal sir, a man in fifties, sat in front of me. His hair was partly white, and some part of his forehead seemed bald. His mustache too was partly white. He sat on the other side of the table, on a fucking leather black big chair. On the table were some files on his right and left, a stand for pens and other shit, and on the middle was the metallic plate with the words in thick black ‘Mahesh Kumar’, with ‘Principal’ beneath it in a thinner font.

“So, Aaryan Khanna, why do you think we’ve called you here?”

I had my head tilted down as I sat on the seat in front of his table.

***

Kritvik Bhatt

“Sure, kids vape to look cool, but the thing that drags them into this addiction is peer pressure. It… spreads. Like COVID.” She smiles. “And it targets the youth of our country, as you all can see, kids.” She then turned to the left. “Now, all of you might think that it’s useless, but… let me tell you, kids. In a neighboring school, a case has spread in the city that a kid of class tenth was caught selling vapes inside the school.”

Everyone was silent… in awe.

“Unbelievable, right? All of this was going on right under the nose of the adults.” She turned to the front. “And they must have made friends, must have told them about vaping, and then, as friends, those innocent ones never disagreed, because they too think that it’s cool and it’s not so wrong.” She was smiling. She took a pause and turned to the front, and then continued, “Just like this, more and more kids are getting into vaping each passing day. And that’s why we are conducting this seminar. So that if you all meet someone like that, today or in the future, you know why you should not pay heed to their words.” She then turned to the projection behind her back. “So, first of all, let’s talk about what it’s made up of, and what substances it contains.”

***

Aaryan Khanna

“We’ll proceed with this case slowly, okay, Aaryan? So, as to begin, I’d like to meet your parents tomorrow at eight in the morning. Okay?”