Don't call me cheater

Chapter-8

My heart was on full delight, a new feeling was arising, it felt my crush was on the way. My stomach was full of satisfaction, but I ate dinner. I don’t know what happened to me but I was smiling out of no reason. What else my sister needed then.

‘Did you eat something nasty today at college’, she looked at me

‘No’

‘Then why are you smiling so unpleasantly’

‘Should I have to pay you for a smile’

‘But you are behaving so different now’

‘Don’t worry, I just feel good. It was my first time on Acoustic nights’

‘Are you sure nothing fishy?’

‘yes, don’t worry about me’

I laid on my bed and looked upon the ceiling. Small luminous stars that I had fixed there were twinkling ‘so that is Asif and that’s me,’ I said to myself looking at them. The moment when we were looking stars came to my mind. I slept with a smile that day with his jacket in my arms with his smell around me.

Our finals were near. I had to say it was a very hard time. From childhood, I have always secured the first position in my exams you can say that is the only specialty I had.

But this time, everyone in the class was amazingly smart for the very first time I was worried about the position, but somewhere I knew I had to focus on increasing GPA position wasn’t everything. Our college had a rule if anyone gets F in 3 subjects he/she will have to repeat the year.

I was sure none from our class were going to repeat, all of them were Acumen.

As exams were near Asif, I and Punkuj used to revise together at the library. Upisa was with her group as not all subjects were the same for us.

Subjects were harder, whether it was a college or at home, Asif and I used to have constant communication on video chat. We used to solve old questions the whole night, and the advantage was sleep also denied coming when we were together. Sometimes when Asif used to concentrate on his work, I used to look at him on the screen, his innocent face, innocent behavior used to pull me toward him like a magnet.

Finally, the exam started. On the examination hall in front of me, there was Udaya, one of the students from my department and behind me it was Punkuj. The first exam was of physics, one of the hardest subjects. During MCQ’s Punkuj was`poking me from behind signaling me to show the answers, but when someone disturbs me I forget what I remembered too. I signaled him some of the answers, but he was continuously picking on me. One time came when I was completely blank. Anger on me was piling up for him. At one point teacher snatched his answer sheet, he was going to snatch mine too, but I assured none of it was my mistake. Then I focused on my answer sheet. I solved all MCQ’s some knowingly, and some were just a guess. By that time teacher had already returned Punkuj his answer sheet, then I signaled him all the answers. Showing eyes meant the answer was A showing nose meant the answer was B and so on.

After MCQ it was time for subjective questions. The questions were too hard most of them were never seen. Udaya who was in front of me wrote drop in the answer sheet and went from there. Punkuj did the same as that almost 10 students in our department went even without attempting the questions. Out of 10 questions, I was sure about 6. I could easily pass the exam, but for a nice GPA, it was better to drop. I was having a mixed feeling reading the same course again after the semester would be more difficult. On one of the corners, Asif was still writing on his answer sheet. Looking at him I got the confidence I gave the exam and attempted every question though I wasn’t sure about 4 of them.

‘How did your exam went?’, I asked looking at him, he wasn’t looking fine

‘It was a mess’

‘Then why didn’t you drop like other’

‘If I would have dropped you would have dropped too, and believe me dropping exam won’t do good, you cannot get A once you drop the exam. I am happy I attempted it, but I think I will get F’

‘You won’t, I know’

The next exam was of mathematics. More horror, we went directly to the library. I have to say Asif was good at physics but was equally poor at math.

‘I am going to fail in it, don’t waste your time on me,’ said he.

In a sense giving 1 hour to make him solve 1 question was not so good at the time of exam but if I give up on him it would have been like giving up on me. We sat there until 6 pm and returned home. That day Asif didn’t call me he might have thought about me, I tried to contact him as well but he didn’t reply.

The next day the orientation was the same but this time Asif was behind Punkuj. Seeing Punkuj yesterday act in class I didn’t think it will be good for Asif. The exam started as before Punkuj again started poking me from behind as it was the MCQ section. But this time I was prepared my math was good, I solved all the problems and also gave time to reveal my every answer to Punkuj. I thought he was most intelligent in the group but that time I understand I overestimated him. I was just hoping Punkuj would transfer answers to Asif. While Udaya in front of me was calm the whole time.

The subjective section began. After a while, I heard the sound of a teacher scolding Asif and Punkuj snatching their paper. Asif was continuously pleading the teacher to return it, he continuously was saying it wasn’t his fault but he didn’t. I got distracted it was like snatching my paper I didn’t write a single word until the teacher returned them after nearly 20 minutes.

It was a huge loss. Asif was looking ruined. I was worried. When the exam finished I went for him.

‘That paper was a huge mess, I didn’t even have time to attempt 15 marks question. It’s F in this too’

He was off the whole way. That was the first time I ever saw him that sad. His mood was killing me, I tried to make him laugh several times, but all was in vain.

All the way, I was worried about him I knew it was not his fault Punkuj most had done something there. When I returned home that didn’t change. That day he didn’t even message me, his msg came when I was about to sleep, it said ‘I am sorry for my behavior today, I am sorry, I am never gonna do that again’

I was like ‘What?’

I was worried about him and in turn, he said to me sorry. I was more worried about that. I called him on messenger but he was already offline I tried cellular call but that was also futile.

The next day when I saw him he looked fine, I was relieved the same smile, same charm, and same handsome face coming toward me.

Likewise, exams of chemistry, English, biology went by but for all exams, Asif reaction was like he was getting clear F.

‘HORROR’, more than Asif I was beginning to worry about him. What if he gets F in more than 3 subjects and has to repeat the year. That was a total horror whereas Asif was sure he was going to repeat. He was clear about his future

‘After I get the result to repeat, I am gonna leave this and go to Canada with my sis’

That’s all, and what about me. He was the only hope from the start when something was increasing between us he was talking like that. That time I realized so far it was just one side. I was an i***t to think his activities meant something. For the first time in my life, I was praying God with tears in my eyes to not to make him repeat. From then despite showing happiness in my face I was always worried about Asif’s result more than mine.

After the exam uni gave us 3 weeks' holiday. The holiday was supposed to bring happiness but for me, it was like 3 weeks without Asif, I was already habitual of him. On the last day of the exam, Asif proposed a short hike to a nearby hill. It is known as bald hill as the top of it is plain and is popular in that area. I was already worried about not seeing him for 3 weeks so I just immediately agreed and unfortunately Upisa, Mahma and Angi also came with us along with Punkuj. We bought snacks and junk foods in a nearby shop and started climbing the hill. The path was slippery with fallen leaves all the girls including Upisa and Angi were slipping on that. Punkuj was busy helping Angi and Asif on helping Upisa for me and Mahma we were totally fine with the path. After sometime when slope ended Asif came to me.

‘Are you happy Kusum?’

‘I am, thanks for bringing us here’

we started to walk together, leaves were falling from the trees and it felt like a scene in a romantic movie. We reached there after 1 and a half hours of walk. The top was so beautiful. It was more like a meadow. Different types of flowers were there and the benches were kept there for travelers and in the middle, there was a huge view tower. Thankfully it was empty we all hurried there. The view from the tower was just awesome. cold breeze was hitting our face. Meanwhile, we all sat on the tower and unpacked everything that we bought and begun to eat.

On the way down the hill, all of us were singing and having fun. Asif and I were on the back talking about random things again but they don’t seem to mind that at all.

Three weeks isn’t a big deal but I don’t know why it was a big deal for me. Thinking of not seeing him for three weeks was waking hell out of me I didn’t know how I was going to handle him going foreign.