Olivia spent the next few days at home. One day, when she was lying on her bed playing games, she received a call.
"Hello?" Olivia answered seeing that the call was from the Administrator General.
"I heard you're back." His stern yet gentle voice came from the earpiece.
"Hm," Olivia replied.
"How was your trip?" He asked.
"Fine." She said.
"Okay. I called you to tell you about your punishment." He said with a sigh.
Olivia frowned upon hearing the word punishment but she did not say anything. As far as she could recall, she did not do anything to get punished.
"You barely attend school. You never participate in school fests or interschool competitions. You always carry out your duties as the School Captain through your surrogate like you're the mind and she's the body. You even conduct council meetings through her." He listed her offences despite her not asking for it.
"School rules. We have substitutes for a reason." Olivia answered.
In Ketu, there were different Departments of education — Academics, Sports and Arts. Each Department had several Major Subjects under it like in the case of Academics there were Language, Science, Mathematics, Social Studies, etc. Under each Major Subject (Mj.S), there were Subjects and each of them were further divided into Minor Subjects (Mn.S). Like the Mj.S Language had hundreds of Subjects for students to choose from such as Bengali, English, Zulu, etc. These had Mn.S like debate, recitation, story writing, etc.
Education on all Mj.S was compulsory but students could choose the Subjects and Mn.S as they wished. Everyone had to choose a minimum of three Subjects and seven Mn.S for each. If a student excelled in an Mn.S, they received a Key. It granted special advantages regarding that Mn.S like allowance to skip lessons, recommendations for competitions and so on. The quality and quantity of advantage depended on the grade of Key, which was provided based on the level of excellence. The most desired grade-one Key allowed a student to choose the benefits they wanted but to receive it, they had to be the cream of the crop.
Since Ketu was already the field of the best students in the country, being the best among the very best of them was a next-to-impossible task. Thus, only a handful of students received the grade-one Key every yearly and rarely the same ones. That was, until the year Olivia joined Ketu for she started collecting grade-one Keys like pebbles on the road. And she only ever used them to skip class and any and all sorts of events. So much so, that she could be found in school only during an exam.
Mr Ghosh felt a headache coming. Olivia was technically right but letting her continue using school rules in advantage of her laziness and anti-social personality would ultimately be detrimental to her end goal.
So he tried to reason with her, "Alright, I get why your attendance is as scarce as water in desert but what about your duties? Yes, you've indeed been provided with substitutes for a reason but it's to ease the work load, both mental and physical. However, you're dumping the task of supervising the execution on your surrogate while just contributing to plannings."
"I do..." Olivia tried to protest something but Mr Ghosh interjected with a serious tone.
"Indirect supervision is still dumping the main task on your surrogate, Olivia. You can divide the task among yourselves but only when you're present at the scene physically not virtually."
"No need," Olivia said, hugging her bolster.
"What do you mean no need?" He asked, exasperated.
"Being physically present means I would also need to attend classes listening to things I already know. So rather than wasting that time I'd do something productive."
"Doing your own job by yourself is productive." Mr Ghosh smirked, finally catching her in her own words.
"Tsk." She clicked her tongue.
"Don't tsk me, literally not a single student aside from your group knows that you're the School Captain. I bet they believe your surrogate to be it." He said.
"Why do I need face value when I have place value? I'll do my work, let them think whatever they want." Olivia sounded righteous and nonchalant.
"So you agree to properly do your job from now on?" Mr Gosh asked in surprise.
"Only if you agree to a few of my conditions,"
The Administrator General felt hopeless. Of course, how could he forget? She would never let go of a loophole to slack off.
"Call the principal to know the details regarding your punishment." With that, he cut the call.
Olivia resumed her games. After completing several rounds, she thought of calling the principal. As she dialled the numbers, the Pleb on the wall lit up, showing a call screen.
Pleb was a light, portable, long, black, tube-like device that could be fixed on any flat surface and was used to view anything on a bigger screen. The size and orientation of the screen could be adjusted as needed.
After several rings, the call was picked up and the principal's face became visible on the Pleb.
They went straight to business, "Olivia Basu, as a punishment for neglecting your duties, you'd be demoted to class ten with a list of tasks to fulfil. Only after completing them all will you get back to your original class. Any contrariness will lead to further demotion and then you'd also have to complete the entire session."
Hearing the last part, Olivia's lips twitched. Attending school thrice a week felt unbearable enough. If she had to go seven days and that too for a whole year, she would probably run away.
After the call ended, she plopped on the bed and stared at the ceiling, thinking about her rotten fate. Just when she thought she would graduate officially and be on her way, fate just had to poke its nose in her business and ruin her plans.
While Olivia was dissing her fate, her earphones vibrated twice and a voice came, "Hello, mate."
It sounded slightly exhausted and irritated.
"...Oh. You too? Congo Nilu." Olivia said, teasingly.
"Yeah, congratulations to you too," Nilambori commented, rolling her eyes.
Olivia knew that Nilambori was returning in two days. So receiving her call minutes after her chat with the principal coupled with Nilambori's grumpy voice, made her certain that they were suffering the same fate. After all, they were two master slackers in a pod.
Nilambori was also certain that Olivia was in the same boat as hers, the moment she was told about the punishment. Given how they competed on who could slack off the most, there was no way only one would be punished.
"You know what sucks?" Nilambori said from the other side.
"Having to go on routine duty by yourself." Both of them said at the same time — slackers telepathy, as Nilambori called it.
"Anyways, I don't wanna discuss this right now." Olivia rolled over her tummy.
"What did you get?"
"Ah, that? I don't have to spend one paisa on the travelling and living expenses for my next five international tournaments." Nilambori grinned.
"Hehe. I'm gonna stay in the most luxurious hotel and travel on a private jet."
Olivia could picture her grinning slyly and rubbing her hands. It was nothing unexpected though. Given how much of a miser Nilambori was in these aspects, it was a wish come true for her to have a sponsor.
"Then we'll come along too. They did not say that it's only applicable to you right? Even if they did, it's not like we can't share a room for a day." Olivia said.
"Ooooh, nice idea," Nilambori said excitedly.