“Catch it! Don’t let it get away!”

My shout echoed across the battlefield between “bold, courageous red” and “cunning, serpentine green.” The feel of the soft, stormy wind cooling my face, the stands and sidelines cheering with an exhilaration that would never die, the band playing an arousing melody, and the whooshing of precious wooden sticks across the pitch to the Quidditch hoop were all that make a childhood complete.

My Gryffindor teammates and I were racing against Slytherin to protect the ball in Harry’s hands, paving the way for him to throw the ball into the ring and win the game of the wizarding century. Just as Harry was about to cross the goalkeeper, Draco flew out of nowhere and lit his broom on fire using the Incendio spell. Harry completely lost his balance and started falling toward the ground, and gravity made it worse. Just before he was about to crash, he threw the ball toward me and, due to an odd reflex, I caught it. Now I was in trouble.

Like a swarm of monsters, Slytherins came to attack me, and I ran, or rather flew, for my life. I was swirling in the air like a professional, which, even in my fantasies, I was not, but the loyal Gryffindors protected me as I spun around in the sky. After a few minutes of experiencing what a life-threatening situation feels like, the coast became clear. The clouds opened up and a single ray of sun shone on my face (so dramatic!), almost blinding me for a second. I heaved a sigh of relief and regained my focus; before I knew it, I was a couple of meters away from the hoop!! A little closer, just a bit closer, I could see the trophy for the “Best House” awaiting me…

TRING-TRING-TRING

“Wake up, Ananya. It’s time for school.”

I didn’t want to go today, like many days when it’s too cold or I’m simply sleepy. Don’t get me wrong, I like school, in fact I can even say I often look forward to it, but being a human, I feel ambivalent about waking up when I can just sleep in my soft and comfortable bed. However, today was one of the several times a year when I had to get up and board the bus; it was the Annual Sports Day.

The date was August 24, 2018. I was in fifth grade, which is the senior most grade in primary school, so being present today was crucial, to “set an example” for the young ones. Most of my classmates and friends were very ebullient in anticipation of the Sports Day, but I was just looking forward to the event’s end so I could go back home. You see, since childhood, sports activities were hardly thrilling for me. I used to find them quite unstimulating.

But that year’s Sports Day was absolutely worth it.

Every year, for this occasion, students from each grade need to prepare a routine to perform in front of their parents. For 10th grade, these activities involve yoga, for 7th grade, rope-skipping, but juniors had to do acrobatics while wearing the school uniform.

Another part of “setting an example” is to look prim and proper. All the kids would write down instructions for the special day; neat and ironed uniforms, clean hairstyle, and, last but not least, sparkling white shoes.

Touching upon the last three words of the above paragraph, you’d think the shoes should be well polished and white. However, when you are a fifth grader, this can be perceived in another way, which is considering “white shoes” as a singular noun. This leads to viewing the instruction as white shoes that should sparkle.

It is said that in every grade, every batch, there is one child whose mischief is more popular than their name. The story was the same with my class. Ayaan was what you would call the prankster extraordinaire! He was the most energetic and playful boy of the entire grade, who loved sports classes and would excel. His jokes and tricks were never short of amusing. Sometimes he would hide the white board eraser or put a fake spider inside the teacher’s drawer or pop a balloon during class. No matter what he did, his lighthearted jokes would always bring a good laugh to school. On events such as this one, he was reminded to behave and keep control over himself, and so he did, but discipline never stopped him from being hilarious.

As soon as I entered the class on Sports Day, the initial boredom vaporized when I saw my friends. Everyone was ready for the final performance after weeks of practice under the scorching sun, excited to give the best they have ever given. Little did I know, this day was about to be much more fun than I gave it credit for.

Everybody arrived on time, everybody except Ayaan, but it wasn’t surprising; he was almost always late.

However, today, of all days, I think he believed that he should be fashionably late. He arrived in class with the same uniform we had, the same hairstyle for all boys, the same props, but sparkling and shining shoes, completely covered in blue-green glitter.

On the day when you have a Chief Guest visiting with the Management Board to watch the performance, and you are at the very front with shoes that look like they were meant for Halloween, there can be just a tiny bit of trouble.

When the teachers came to give us last-minute touches and saw Ayaan, his iridescent shoes sparkling under the sunlight coming through the window, there was only one word to describe their expressions: mortified.

The next scenes witnessed by the whole grade were like the adaptations from the most amazingly written comic book story!

The teachers began frantically pacing around, trying to find a pair of shoes, running from classroom to classroom, panting and yelling since they were so terrified.

Ayaan was the Best Sports Student in junior school for four years in a row, and replacing him would be like benching Ronaldo or Messi in the FIFA World Cup. Somehow, the day and performance were salvaged by borrowing a pair of shoes from one of the children of the security guards who lived on campus, and Ayaan’s performance was good enough to continue his streak as the Best Sports Student.

What a day that was! No one, not even the headmistress, could hide their laughter. By sheer serendipity, the glitter shoes became the highlight of the day.

When we grow up, we don’t remember the chapters and lessons that scared us unless our friend was scared too; we don’t recall when we cried about our result unless a kind-hearted teacher consoled us; we don’t remember when we hurt ourselves unless we were able to leave school early because of it.

The ineffable joy of these fond, beautiful memories are what I will not only cherish forever, but also find comfort in when I face obstacles.

All the times I participated in events with my friends, the times I had a heartwarming laugh with the whole class, the moments when I struggled with carrying my projects up the stairs and a random senior helped me, when my best friend and I had a surprise test and miserably failed. These are the souvenirs I’ll carry with me.

Now I’m a high schooler in my junior year, and among the many memories, a framed picture of the blue-green glitter shoes hangs on my wall.