Chapter-1

A Chapter by Kaustubh Pandey

The story kicks off

After a lot of speculation,the refree decided to award a penalty-much to the delight of the away fans who cheered wildly. The opposition who were keen to pull out an upset,hung their heads in utter disappointment.The spectators waited for the conclusion and sat excitedly because this spot kick could've done it for them and their team. And the feeling was still sinking in...

The balding man, calmly placed the ball on the spot and breathed loudly,concentrating on where to place the spot kick.Between the sticks stood his friend who was today standing there to deny him .The balding man stepped back two or three steps determined to achieve what he ,the fellow teammates,the support staff and the fans had desired for.He could hear the crowd chanting loudly in expectation and going absolutely mental.His friend in front of him had his raised his two hands upwards in order to somehow confuse him.Placing his hands on his hips he readied himself .And very confidently began his run up.With expectations rising and his confidence on a high -he struck the ball sweetly...sweet enough to send compatriot Paul Robinson the wrong way.The ball very comfortably hit the bottom of the net. Seeing that his teammates stormed towards him,he- none other than Wayne Rooney sprinted towards the Manchester United fans as his teammates mobbed him.The United crowd who were suppressed to only some part of the stadium went mad,pumping their fists into the air and jumping wildly and waving the "KNOCKED YOU OFF THE PERCH- LIVERPOOL"flag. Ryan Giggs,Paul Scholes,Michael Carrick,Edwin van der Sar, Antonio Valencia,Javier Hernandez,Rio Ferdinand and all the other United team stormed onto the pitch to rejoice.The scoreline now read-

Manchester United 1-1 Blackburn Rovers

Wayne Rooney(pen) Emerton

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While elsewhere, four pairs of eyes where glued to the television.Only one pair of eyes registered joy and utter happiness while the other three pairs registered jealousy,hatred and embarrassment.

"Knocked you off the perch-Liver-fool"I said,my words ,I bet would be echoing in Srijan the Liverpool fan's head.I could very clearly see jealousy lurking in his eyes. "We will bounce back next season" he managed to speak

A Hypothetical situation

I thought because nobody in the world seemed to reckon that Liverpool will win the Premiership for some seasons.

"Hey,you Chelsea and Arsenal dumbsters-"I squaked. And as I spoke those unnerving words Raghav and Kunal's heads turned towards me. "You look exactly how van Persie and Drogba would look"I said again. "Will you switch off the damned television?" Raghav commanded in his hoarse voice . I turned towards the television again and watched the game continue.United ,now were just keeping the ball well enough, just not doing anything with it.They, it seemed were settling for a draw because Blackburn also needed a point to be pulled out of the relegation zone. I reconsidered what Raghav had said ,"I know that feeling"I said quietly. Chelsea had won the title last season and I knew how many creeps the title was giving me from the past 5 years.

Horrible

"Will you switch off the damned television?"Kunal said , nearly breaking into a shout. Well, considering the fact that we were friends then some sympathy was expected. So, I switched off the "damned" television.And all of a sudden we were engulfed into total silence. Although, I was the most happiest person present there but I had to hide it deep inside me. But somewhere inside , I was frantic to celebrate. We four were gathered at my house, not to watch the game but to "complete" our project. Actually, we were no way near to completing it . We were alone in the house, My parents and my impish brother weren't at home. We were normal students of standard 8th and huge soccer fans. And studying in Apeejay School we were taught that- "SOARING HIGH IS OUR NATURE" which was our school's motto we had to soar high not low.

"Lets get back to work" I heard Kunal say, his two molar teeth sticking out making him look like a Bunny. Sure. "Raghav,you cut out the pictures of the dinosaurs and those other extinct creatures." He commanded. Some kind of glint of jealousy was still in his eyes,considering the fact that Chelsea had succumbed the title race. " Srijan, you come and help me in sorting out the material" he told Srijan who joined him on the sofa glaring hard at the information as if glaring at Wayne Rooney or Paul Robinson. I saw Kunal shifting his gaze towards me, "Hey- United f-f-fan, you take the printouts....big printouts of pictures" he spoke, in a somewhat irritated tone and flipping the page to its other side nearly tearing it apart. His glare almost ripped apart the sheets into pieces. I made my way into the room in which my computer was kept,attached to the HP Deskjet F2230 Printer. I,still hiding my rejoicing emotions deep inside me opened the drawer and pulled out blank sheets and quietly put them inside the printer. Right now, we four were loving it the rivals way and in turn happy with our life. Being the best of mates we were fond of each other. But nobody actually knew what was inevitable...