Chapter 26:

The next day the cadets were exercising in the gym during their free period when suddenly Huda spoke up.

"Guys, we've forgotten something important! We're letting down a great tradition of KMA!"

"What the hell are you talking about, bro?" Yudi asked him, honestly not able to think of anything they'd forgotten."

"Ragging!" Huda said, rubbing his hands together in glee.

"Oh no, I did not just hear you say that, Huda." Yudi said, "I can't believe you!"

"Oh come on, guys! Weren't we ragged when we arrived at KMA? We can't let this tradition die."

"We?" Ali asked, "I don't remember you being ragged, I remember you helping to rag us. And after that ragging I ended up in the infirmary."

"And I ended up in solitary confinement." Alekh added.

"Look, ragging doesn't mean that we have to do something horrible to the new cadets, but at least they should have to pass through some rite of passage."

Pooja shrugged, "Huda has a point. As long as we don't do anything bad to them, I don't see that it could harm them."

Once Pooja had agreed, it wasn't too long before Ali changed his mind. Alekh soon agreed too, and while Naina and Yudi resisted for awhile, they eventually gave in.

"So what's the plan then?" Yudi asked, and they began whispering among themselves. Soon the plan was told to the rest of the second year cadets and that night the first year cadets all received notes that Brigadier Chandook wanted them to assemble at the parade ground at 10pm. Naina wondered whether they would all really be nave enough to fall for it, until Huda pointed out that both of them had fallen for a note like that.

One by one the new cadets all assembled, looking slightly confused and talking amongst themselves about why BC might have called them there.

"Hello everyone!" Huda said, stepping out of the shadows with the rest of the cadets, "We, your seniors called you here, not BC. So get ready for your ragging!"

There was some initial signs of alarm among the cadets until Naina stepped forward to reassure them, "Don't worry guys, this isn't going to be a bad ragging. Nobody is going to get hurt or humiliated."

"Well not unless they fail our tasks!" Huda added mischievously, and then suddenly spotting a girl in the crowd he had seen the day before… "Hey beautiful, do you remember me? You don't need to do these tasks, you can…"

"AHEM" Pooja said loudly, and kicked Huda in the leg.

"We will now tell you what your tasks are," Yudi said "First, you will be divided into teams of three and will all have to complete an obstacle course that we've set up. When you reach the other end, Alekh will be standing there with a jar and you will pull out a piece of paper which will have three items listed on it. You can find these three items somewhere in the academy. However you have only one hour to accomplish both these tasks. If your team fails to do so, then you'll have to serenade your seniors in front of everybody!"

Some of the cadets turned pale at the thought of this, but mainly they were thinking that this ragging wasn't turning out to be so bad after all, it might even turn out to be fun.

Pooja announced who was in each team, and the new cadets raced off to complete the obstacle course, some of the obstacles were easy but there others that required teamwork including one part where they all had to walk with their legs tied together. As the teams finished one by one, they came to collect their pieces of paper from Alekh. Each team would have to collect three items, two of them were easy, but one would have to be gotten from a faculty member. Naina really pitied the team who were supposed to get the item from Major Nair…

Finally all the cadets raced off, except for the team of the girl who Huda had been flirting with earlier. "Hey girl," he called out to her, "Which piece of paper did you get?" Deciding that she could use this to her advantage, she showed the paper to him.

"Hmmm, Captain Rajveer's watch?" Huda said thoughtfully, "Do one thing, just go and ask the Captain for it. Tell him that Naina wants him to give it to you."

The girls nodded and quickly ran off.

Raj was just about to go to bed when he heard a knock on the door. He wasn't expecting anybody but hoped that it might be Naina paying him a surprise visit. However when he opened the door he saw three girls that he didn't know standing there, obviously new cadets.

"Sir! Sir!" One of them said breathlessly, "Could we have your watch please?"

"My watch?" Raj asked, confused. "Who are you and what do you want my watch for?"

"Sir, we're first year cadets and we're being ragged! If you give us your watch then we can complete the scavengers hunt!"

Raj stared at them in disbelief, not able to believe that they were actually asking him to give up his watch.

"Sir please," the girl Huda liked suddenly said, "Naina wants you to give it to us!"

"She does?" Raj was getting confused, but decided that if Naina wanted him to give up his watch then he might as well. Taking it off his wrist he handed it over. "Just make sure it comes back to me in exactly the same condition."

The girls laughed, excited that they'd managed to complete their mission.

"Sir, who's Naina?" One of them asked.

"Well, Naina is my protg." Raj replied slightly flustered, "My best cadet." Then he suddenly realised what they had asked, "Hang on, didn't you say that Naina said she wanted me to give this to you?"

Realising their mistake, the girls ran away quickly, leaving Raj staring in their direction with an amused look on his face.

Finally the hour was over and while most teams had returned successful, some others hadn't. As expected, those who weren't successful hadn't managed to get the items from the staff members. There sitting in front of the senior cadets was Captain Rajveer's watch, a pair of Dr Shalini's shoes, a turban cloth from Suriji and a shirt from Lolita Ma'am among other items. The only two unsuccessful teams were those who had been sent to get Major Nair's cap and a pen from BC. Naina suspected that both teams may have actually been too scared to even try.

"Alright, time to sing!" Huda announced gleefully, looking forward to seeing the cadets embarrassing themselves. The first group wasn't too bad, in fact one of them even seemed to enjoy singing. However when the second group started to perform they were so terrible that everybody put their hands over their ears.

"Stop!" Pooja yelled, "You all need to change your ring tones. This is meant to be your punishment and you're punishing us instead!"

After this they sent all of the first years to bed, hoping that the ragging had at least helped them to make some friends and get used to life in the academy. After the ragging that they had all suffered last year, none of them had wanted to do anything too cruel.

The second years then gathered up all of the items that the first years had brought for them, intending to put them back where they belonged. Sensing a good opportunity, Naina quickly grabbed Raj's watch.

"I'll just return this to Captain Rajveer." She announced, running off quickly with it.

Pooja smirked, "Yes, he must be waiting very restlessly for it." She commented, giggling. Ali shook his head and gave her a look that clearly said he didn't think she should be gossiping like this. Pooja just made a face back at him.

Naina reached Raj's door breathless after running most of the way, she knocked quietly, not wanting to wake up any other faculty members such as Major Nair.

Raj opened the door quickly, and then leaned against the door frame with a lazy smile on his face.

Naina held out his watch, smiling back at him.

"So Cadet Naina 'Ah' Singh has come to return my watch," he told her teasingly, "What don't you come inside so that I can thank you properly?"

Checking the corridor to ensure that nobody was watching, Naina stepped into his room and Raj pushed the door shut.

"So did you really want me to give my watch to those cadets?" he asked her.

"What are you talking about?" Naina asked, confused "I just came to give it back to you."

"They said that you wanted me to give it to them" Raj informs her, moving to the bench to make her a cup of tea.

"But I never…" Naina thought about it, remembering that Huda had been flirting with one of the girls earlier. "Never mind Sir," she tells him, having figured it out "It was just Huda trying to win over one of those girls by making the task easier for her."

Raj smiled, thinking that Huda would never change, and handed a mug over to Naina which she began sipping.

"So you ragged the first years tonight?" he asked her, and sitting down on the chairs together, they talked about what had happened that night, comparing it to what had happened when Naina's batch first arrived in the academy.

When Naina had finished her tea, she reluctantly put the cup down on the table and got up to leave. "I think I'd better go, Raj. It's quite late already."

"Don't go yet," he told her, disappointed that they hadn't been able to spend much time together, "You can stay for awhile longer."

"Of course," Naina said mischievously, "I can even fall asleep here again and then tomorrow morning when Major Nair sees me coming out of your room, you can explain to him what I was doing there."

"Fine," Raj sighed, "I'd better let you go then. You've got to get up early tomorrow anyway and it's nearly midnight. But don't think that I'm going to let you go without paying for the tea."

"And how much is the tea?" Naina asked, pretending not to know what he was talking about "I'll just have to go to my room to get my wallet."

As she was pretending to walk towards the door, Raj's strong arms caught her from behind, pulling her to his chest.

"At least let me kiss you once, Naina." He said, resting his chin on her shoulder so that his mouth was right next to her ear. "Who knows when we'll get the chance to meet each other again like this, your training is going to get even harder now."

"Alright," Naina agreed, trying to sound as if she was slightly reluctant, "Just one kiss then."

"Just one?" Raj sounded disappointed.

Naina nodded, knowing that he couldn't see the way her eyes were sparkling.

"Well then I'll have to make it a good one." Raj told her seriously and quickly span her around in his arms so that she was facing towards him. Then dipping his head down toward her, he quickly captured her lips, kissing her until they were both breathless.

"Well," Naina said slyly when he was finished, "Maybe just one more wouldn't hurt too much."

Grinning, Raj bent down to kiss her again, then hugged her to him, swaying from side to side with her slightly as if they were dancing.

"Okay, you'd better go now before I really do decide to keep you here for the night." He told her, still hugging her.

"Raj, to do that you'll have to let go of me first." Naina informed him.

"Oh, right." Raj let go of her and walked her to the door.

"Good night, Raj." She told him as he opened it.

"I'll see you in class tomorrow, 'Cadet' Singh." He told her, trying to sound serious. "And don't think that just because you're my girlfriend you're going to get any special treatment. If I catch you day dreaming then you'll be given a detention."

"Then stop giving me things to day dream about." She told him and leaning up, pecked his lips quickly before running off.

Raj closed the door after her and leaned against it, unable to stop himself from smiling. The real challenge was going to be how he could stop himself from day dreaming in class the next day!