#14 He is angry at me
2383 Words
Michael.
As soon as I stepped to the canteen, I saw someone waving at me enthusiastically.
So Cinderella is finally back at college?
She didn't come to the college the day after dinner or the day after it. It took her a whole week to come back.
"Michael, I saved you a seat," she said while smiling widely at me.
As if there are not enough seats here in the cafeteria, half the cafeteria was free.
I didn't look at her direction and moved to the other side. I could almost picture her smile dropping, but I didn't turn around to look.
"Hey man, why are you sulking?"
That, of course, was Sam, who has just dropped to the seat beside me.
"I am simply having my food,"
"Mm...Somebody might think that your girlfriend didn't contact you for the past week," he joked.
I looked up at that.
"What do you mean?"
"It looks like you are annoyed because Ella didn't come to college for the past week,"
"I am just irritated because after all the trouble she caused to get inside the project group; she is not attending the classes regularly,"
"Really?" Sam raised his eyebrows.
"What else should I be angry about, Sam?"
"You should ask that to yourself, Mike,"
We stared at each other.
"Only you talk to me like this, Sam, everyone keeps their distance from me," I shrugged. "I still don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing,"
"Well...you would have been really an outcast if it was not for me," he laughed at his own joke. "But coming back to our topic, why do you feel angry at Ella, Mike? You already know that she won't be much of help even if she comes to the project class,"
"If she signed for it, she should be responsible," I said.
"But why do I feel like you are more involved in her matters?"
"Are you crazy, Sam?"
"I have never seen you getting involved with others like her,"
"That's just coincidence!"
"Too much coincidence will not be a coincidence, Michael," Sam said. "Maybe you are attracted to her? After all, it's hard to resist a beautiful, bubbly, cheerful person like her,"
"With Zero-IQ," I reminded him. "And why can't you date her if you think so highly about her?"
I don't want Sam to think that I am concerned about her.
"Hey come on, Mike, I like her best friend, so hitting on her is a big No-No, besides, who thinks of the IQ while dating? You can just think of other aspects," He wagged his eyebrows suggestively.
"Hey!" I shouted at that.
He laughed.
"I mean...you can think about her positive attitude and cheerful nature, looks like you misunderstood me, what did you think about, Mike?" Sam started to chuckle.
"Go to hell!"
"You even cursed! Wow, that means I am right, she is getting under that thick skin of yours, Michael! Just admit it!"
"Very funny, Sam," I said darkly. "I am just angry at her because she is the most irresponsible person I have ever seen in my life! I will not tolerate that as long as she is under me," I got up and left the table.
Ella.
"What a Jerk," Nisha said while we watched Michael walking out of the cafeteria without giving me a second look.
"Don't be upset with him. He is angry because I couldn't attend the classes the last week,"
"Coming to that, how did your health check-up go?"
"The same thing, I just have to be careful," I said.
I had stayed back and undergone the usual medical checkups. My Mama is overprotective and she didn't leave me until I went through it.
"I am glad that you are okay though,"
"It's just Asthma, it is common now,"
"You have a slightly worse type of it, plus, you are very careless,"
"Um...I will be careful in the future," I said. "It's not actually a pretty sight to see someone wheezing; Michael saw me in that state,"
"Are you worried about that?" Nisha looked angry. "Is there something wrong with your brain?"
"I am not good at studies, Nisha," I said slowly. "I have to be perfect on other aspects to match with him," I said. "Angela is right, Other than having a lot of money; I don't have anything else,"
"I am going to kill that b***h the next time she messes with you, Ella," Nisha looked murderous. "You never used to listen to her words, why bother now?"
"She knows me too well; it makes me scared sometimes,"
"Don't forget that she stabbed you in the back!" Nisha said. "She is a b***h,"
It is hard to think that Angela was our friend once upon a time. During high school, the three of us were a group.
Angela's family didn't do well financially and Mama helped them.
During one of the Essay competition in school, Mama wanted me to participate so that I can make up for my poor performance in the test paper.
I was an average student; I knew that I couldn't win the competition, so I told Mama exactly that. I never thought she would try to contact the teacher in charge to get the "important topics" for me.
I was too naive to realise that my Mama had influenced my teachers for me. I shared "the important topics" with my best friends.
Angela offered me the essays she collected on the topics and I was so touched at her gesture. I never suspected anything until I was called to the teacher's office after the competition.
Angela had reported me for stealing her Essay paper collection. That was my first taste of bitter betrayal. I never bothered about other people's opinion of me because they didn't matter to me. But Angela's betrayal was a blow to me and I was pretty much shaken up.
When we were alone after the incident, when I looked at her, she had looked at me with so much hatred. Her eyes were blazing with fire.
"Don't look at me like that, Ella, when other people works their ass off to achieve something, you get everything handed to you." She had said angrily. "I tried to hold it in, honestly, but your mother even went as far as bribing the teacher to get you that essay paper. That's not fair," she had looked at me with disgust. "I won't let you get away with this."
Even though she had betrayed me that day, I was ashamed of myself and what my Mama had done for me. I had realised then that the things Mama gets me belong to some other person.
"I deserved it, I don't blame her,"
"Just because your mom got involved doesn't mean that you are responsible for what happened! Did Angela ever show any regret after that? No! Then why should you feel guilty when it was not even your fault!?"
"Let's drop it," I said. "I don't want to think about what happened in the past.
Luckily Nisha dropped it at that. I was slightly down when I walked to the project room.
As I got inside the room, there was a crowd standing around Alex and Vipin.
"This is really cool," I heard people saying while everyone around nodded.
"How did you manage to make a glitch-free app within this short time?"
"Ours is still having trouble," Shweta said.
Oh my God!
Alex and Vipin made the web-app!?
I can see that ours is the best one among the group; it was looking even more advanced than Angela's.
"Ella, come on, you need to get familiarised with the app, you know how Senior Michael is," Vipin said.
"Looks like somebody got a free ride without any efforts," Angela said dryly.
"It's not her fault, she was sick, so we couldn't ask her to help," Alex said.
"Well...it wouldn't have made any difference even if she was with you," Angela said.
But nothing she said was tampering my mood. I was excited to see our work and was happy that I am also a part of the team.
"Go over it," Vipin told me. "So that you will be more familiarised with it by tomorrow," he said. "Senior Michael may probably conduct a viva while we present it tomorrow,"
"I will do that," I promised him. "I won't let you guys down,"
And I will not let Michael down too...
Michael didn't come to the class and messaged us to prepare for the presentation. Even though I was disappointed, I was excited about my very first group work. Alex and Vipin tried their best to simplify and explain it to me and I was grateful for that.
I skipped visiting the twins and reached home directly after college as I wanted to prepare for the mini-project presentation.
So what if I couldn't see Michael today in class, I can see him tomorrow and I will perform well.
I took out my diary and started to write.
I am really a part of the group now. Alex and Vipin are genuine to me, we are a team and I am so excited about our project. I am going to work hard and learn everything so that I can impress Michael tomorrow when we present it.
*****
Michael.
When I went to the class the next day, everyone was nervous, they were all still preparing for the presentation.
It's common knowledge that I will select my two partners today to assist me with the presentation during tech-fest.
My eyes stopped on the front row first seat- Ella, and next to her were Alex and Vipin.
Yes, I went through their submissions yesterday and had a very nasty and unpleasant surprise.
Everyone settled down as soon as they saw me. I turned to the class.
I don't have the habit of beating around the bush or prolonging the matters, so I turned to the first raw.
"Alex, Vipin, and Cinderella," I said sternly.
The three of them took their laptops and got up to do the presentation, but I took a step forward to them.
"Disqualified," I said. The three of them looked at me in shock. "Do you think I cannot find out what you did with the project?" I asked them dangerously. "Do you think I am stupid?"
Realisation flashed through Alex and Vipin's eyes while Cinderella looked confused.
The whole lecture hall had gone silent.
"You three are taken out of this project group, you can get out of here," I said.
"Why?"
"What happened?"
"Theirs were the best one among us,"
Whispering started around.
"What...what happened?" Cinderella looked at her two project mates.
That got me angrier. I knew that Cinderella is not very aware of what her team members have done, but the fact that she didn't even know that just infuriated me.
"I don't care how crappy your works were, all I asked you was to create your own web-app using the very basic things," I looked at them. "Did you create this one?" I looked straight at Alex.
"Yes! They spent the last week making that-"
"How much did you pay for it?" I cut across Cinderella and looked at Vipin.
"What do you mean!?" Cinderella looked at them in shock and denial.
The whole hall fell to silence.
"You can get out of this class," I looked at them. "Now," I added.
Cinderella bit her lips and looked down. Alex looked at me.
"This is just a workshop, a mini-project, I don't see why we should waste our time making a dummy web-app," he said.
"It was difficult for us to find the time," Vipin said. "I had to work for my part-time job too," he added.
"You would have spent a lot to make this web-app," I said. "Maybe more than what you get from your job, does it make any sense that you could pay for the project while you cannot skip the work?" I asked him sternly.
They were silent now.
"It's obvious, Isn't it?" Angela said from behind. "They have someone in their group who will never be short of money," she said. "I was wondering why they accepted her to their group, looks like she bought her way inside," she added.
I looked at Cinderella.
"Is that true?" I asked her. "Did you pay for the project?"
She looked down, refusing to answer the question.
Ella.
I had never felt this humiliating before. I want to dig a hole and crawl myself inside and hide forever.
Michael was still asking me, but I closed my mouth and just stayed there.
Even though I had no idea that Alex and Vipin asked me the money to buy the work from outside, I know that I cannot stay out of this issue.
"Do you three have anything else to say?" Michael asked me again.
I just kept silent.
"Cinderella!?" He shouted and I was startled. I nearly jumped at his angry voice.
It seems like Michael is more angry at me than the others.
"I have never had such an irresponsible group in my projects before, the whole point of making you develop a web-app by yourself was to make you learn and be through with it, but no, you think it is a waste of time? There is no need to talk to you anymore," Michael said. "You can get out of my class now," he added.
My heart dropped.
"This is not her first time buying people," Angela said. "She even bribed our teacher in school so that she will get the essay paper the day before," Angela said. "And her Mama-"
"I am not bothered about what happened in the past," Michael cut across her sharply. "Alex, Vipin, and Cinderella Get out of the classroom now," He said in a final tone.
Vipin slowly started to walk out, Alex followed while I stayed back.
My body was refusing to move.
"Ella..." Alex pulled my bag and literally dragged me out of there.
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Hey guys,
So what do you think? Is Michael very harsh? Don’t forget to let me know what you think.
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Love you,
Shakthi.
- Writer
