The cafeteria seemed to be subdued as the eighth table was silent.
-"Atleast finish your meal!" Haze kind of requested to Ele in a tone of commanding. But Ele just continued what she was doing; arranged the accumulated informations, then started writing at the lunchtime.
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NEXT DAY MORNING
-"Haze, won't you get up?" Usually Hazelin never wakes up immediately but this time she got quite scared since the first thing she saw after opening eyelids was the red-eyed Ele.
-"You didn't sleep?!" Haze sat up straight and checked her alarm clock as quickly as she could. "It's 7 o' clock and holiday top over that, but what's with you!" She seemed not to be able to connect the dots.
-"Luckily, the deadline was augmented upto today 6 o' clock. I just came back after submitting. Well, I didn't want to wake you up as you were so tired, so I slept late all alone," she yawned, stretched her arms with a delightful smile, "Finally I'm relieved! Now it's sleeptime. Yay!"
-"Wait,wait! Did you forget breakfast!" Haze quickly countered back as Ele was rushing to her bed.
-"Shit! Well, just wake me up when you leave."
10:30 am. The cultural function, officials' maxim-recitation and prize giving ceremony started off.
As expected, Ele slept in for 1.5 hours i.e. the whole ceremony. When the prize giving ceremony was about to start, Rae shook Ele to wake up but ended up being railed by half-slept Ele.
-"I know who the winners are. Lemme sleep some more," Ele said in a sleepy voice,"Jamsy Clara will win the 1st prize and maybe some Scholastican will win the 2nd position of our class. None of my business."
Before Ele could finish her sentence, "The second prize is achieved by Daniel Edward from Scholastica International School", Ms. Sherrnia announced.
-"See? I told you guys!" Ele's expression was somewhat confusing. Like-she doesn't want her hardword to go in vain; nor she wants to get on stage with sleepy face, unruly hair and messy expression.
-"The first prize holder is yet to be announced, Ele", Rosa threw a vexed look at Ele.
"And the most prestigious first prize is snatched away by none other than Eleonora Auclair from Versheeyank High School. Let's offer a big hand for her!"
Rosa, Haze and Rae stood up from their seats as soon as Ms. Sherrnia said 'Eleonora Auclair' and three claps were distinctly heard all around the vast auditorium.Meanwhile Eleonora stood up as if she couldn't believe yet then!
But yeah, she got on the stage with her messy hair under barade cap, sleepy and expressionless straight face. As soon as she marched to the chief guest, Mr. Morshen Rane; she could feel the auditorium filled with clapping hands. No doubt, she was wondering "How come there are so much claps for me whereas I have been friends with just a very few classmates!"
Rest of the ceremony went on stage but prize travelled around almost the entire auditorium; among Versheeans. Other classmates did congratulate Ele, also some seniors. Though it's just very normal! But what abnormal for them was when Ele accidentally looked at the left row where Scholasticans were sit. They were trying to see her face; especially the boys! Tgere goes without saying, boys around Daniel were more interested than others to see the face who snatched the prestigious prize of their pride, that's what their expression said off!
-"See! You didn't let me keep my promise! She didn't let me; you guys witnessed, right?" Rosa's eyebrows danced up and down playfully as she looked at their faces individually.
-"1! 2! 3!" Rae said, maybe gave a signal and they three told together in a rythmic manner with a grin at the corner of lips, "Alas Ele! We feel 'bad' for you" and started laughing out loud. Ele couldn't help but laughing; even though she couldn't recollect what Rosa's promise was.
-"By the way, what did you promise?" Ele asked scratching her head as she was trying to recollect.
-"Eleeeee!" Rae almost shouted but stopped as soon as it hit her head that auditorium is too formal of a place to shout.
-"Remember I promised you that I'll ensure you won't have to participate in any essay competitions if you don't win this one?" Rosa immediately grinned again savagely.
-"Oh, that one! For God's sake I wish I did!"
The ceremony ended well. After all the officials of Versheeyank High School and Scholastica International School left, Ms. Sherrnia again came before the microphone on the stage to catch everyone's attention.
-"I request all the prize holders to stay back. Other audiences are requested to carry on. Have a nice day ahead. I, Sherrnia congratulate all the winners and also participants for your great performance once again."
She left the stage and the spotlight got switched off again. The auditorium was left with a few students like some scattered electrons in a vast atom.