“Hurry up! Syon! We shall ask for the room that has a lot of snacks, otherwise someone else might take it.” 

We rushed to our Ma’am and pleaded. “Can we please have the room full of snacks Ma’am?”. 

“Well, ok. But just don’t keep munching on snacks because you have got to prepare for the debate”, Ma’am answered smiling. 

We were shown the way to our room by the hotel bellboy. Once there, we showered after which Syon helped me with my preparation. We were really having fun. Later, when we stepped out of the room, we were surprised to see our teacher outside. She was walking towards our room and we freaked out thinking about the reason. “Have we done something wrong?”, we wondered.  

We heaved a sigh of relief when we realised she had come to inform us about the final date of our debate. We had time in hand, hence we thought of heading out. While we were exiting the place of stay, we saw Rahul who was my opponent for the debate. 

He said, “Hey guys! Ask me any question and I will answer it” 

“His talks are flimflam!”, I muttered to Syon and nudged him to ignore and leave. We saw Rahul going to his room when I noticed something in his hand. 

“Syon, what do you think is he holding?”

“I don’t know but it seems fishy. Let us go to his room and check when he is out”, Syon responded. 

We waited for the moment. Once Rahul was away, we tiptoed into his room. We searched all around and found a single shoe on the table under the TV. I turned it over and a potion dropped to the floor. Out of curiosity, I tossed the cap open and gulped it down. We were really hoping that it was a potion that makes you smart. Syon asked me a question and I answered it right away. The potion from the shoe worked like magic!

I knew that it was easy for me to win because I would be able to answer any question that came my way during the debate because of the potion. But, I had also worked really hard to perform well. I pondered. No, this was not what I wanted to do! I broke the bottle and the potion spilled all over the floor. 

We cleaned it all up and quietly went back to our room. The next day was the debate and we noticed Rahul frantically searching for his potion. I won the debate with honesty. 

Syon and I did a happy jig. After the event, we confessed to Rahul that we were the ones who broke his potion bottle and made him promise that he would never cheat again. He agreed and we hugged. I just wish each day was as perfect. 

// This story has been penned by our 10-year-old student Vivann Bajoria and has been selected for publishing on our platform from the weekly submissions //