It was Friday at 4:00 am, Jiya woke up as usual, but this time, she was sluggish. She sat on her bed and yawned. On raising her hand to cover her mouth, she whimpered. "Ah, so painful!"
She slowly massaged her shoulders and legs, but it didn't help to lessen the ache she was feeling all over her body.
Since on Tuesday, they had started to follow the school routine.
Waking up from 4 am to 4:30 am and all that just so she won't miss the exercise and everything else.
A student who came late for exercise on Wednesday had to make up for the minutes she missed with hours.
She was late by thirty minutes, however, she had to stay behind for three long hours by herself doing exercise when the rest of the students were already getting ready for class.
You could guess what happened next. She missed the allocated time for food and when she hurried to class on an empty stomach, the door to the class was already closed.
Her misfortune didn't end there, she was marked absent from class and didn't submit her assignment the next day due to the fact that she wasn't aware, or that she wasn't in the mood to do it.
With her absence in class and not doing her two assignments, she was sent for two weeks of detention.
The unwilling student had asked what she should have done about the assignment since she was absent.
The teacher had said. "You have a dorm mate, who is also your classmate.
In your dorm, you will find a screened wall close to your head bed. Press the button and all your pending assignments for the week and other relevant reminders will be displayed.
Or you can also check for the assignments by clicking the button on your desk. It will display your statistics on the whiteboard in your classroom and your impending assignments too."
Jiya sighed. Since Tuesday she is one of those who had always been the first to get to the field. However, her dorm mate Vicky is always a second to being late every day.
She wouldn't have cared about Vicky sleeping all day long if not that the instructor had made it clear yesterday, that they have to be going to the field with their dorm mates else whoever is late will have to suffer with their dorm mates
Jiya hopes that today Friday, Vicky can be considerate and not cause her trouble.
It's not that Vicky made any rules or something that she must follow, but as the nice girl she is, she can't just leave the apartment knowing that Vicky was still sleeping and also risking getting dragged into Vicky's punishment for being late.
She sighed again before dragging her battered body to the bathroom.
The exercise she had from Tuesday until yesterday has been hell on earth for her. It was so tiring, painful, and overbearing that she wants to scream.
On her way to the bathroom, she stopped and turned to look at the sleeping Vicky. She thought for a few seconds about what to do, then decided to try her luck.
She walked slowly to Vicky's bed. On getting there, she offered small prayers in her mind and got ready to be yelled at.
She stood a little further from the bed, just in case she decides to go physical, because, on normal days, she would only yell or maybe ignore her.
" Vicky" she whispered.
"Vicky!" She increased the volume of her voice a little, however, Vicky was long seeing herself sleeping on her bed at home and bickering with her sister. As Vicky was about to take a bite of a KFC chicken, her sister grabbed it from her and said "Wake up".
Just when she was about to fight for it, she felt a tap on her leg and then a voice "wake up". Wondering if the universe was against her, she slowly opened her eyes to see jiya in her pajamas and hair packed in a ponytail staring back at her timidly.
" What is it?!" Vicky tried to rein in her annoyance. The face she was seeing right now won't allow her to lash out at the girl.
"It's 4:00, you should wake up and get ready for exercise."
Vicky stared at her moving lips like she was staring at her KFC chicken. Actually, she was visualizing herself eating KFC chicken until Jiya's hand raised slowly to readjust her glasses back on the bridge of her nose.
"4:00 in the evening? Is there no class today?" Vicky asked.
Jiya stared at her dumbly for a while before understanding what question Vicky was asking. "No, no, it's 4:00 in the morning" she answered while slowly turning her gaze down because she already knows what will happen next.
"You...you...woke me up at 4:00 in the morning?" Vicky asked quietly. Her voice was so low and emotionless that Jiya's heart thumped faster.
She only realized yesterday that her apartment mate was the richest in the school aside from the students from Povich country.
"N..no, Vicky, I just saw that you are always a second to being late every day every year that one day you would be late for sure and get punished. So, I...." Her voice trailed off when she saw the person in front of her has become extremely angry.
"DID I EVER MENTION TO YOU THAT I WANT TO BE HERE?!!!" Vicky roared.
Jiya nodded then shook her head, making Vicky look confusingly at her.
"If you are done, you can leave" Vicky said and went back to sleep.
When she heard the sound of the bathroom door closing, she tried to go back to sleep and fight for her KFC chicken, however, no matter what style she slept with, the dream refused to resurface. She got angry and threw her pillow to the door, imagining it to be Jiya.
...….
On a field larger than a stadium, more than a thousand students could be seen scattered around the field all wearing black shirts on black cargo trousers matched with black boots.
All the girls either braided their hair or made it into a ponytail.
Vicky and Jiya got there just a second before the whistle was blown.
Jiya sighed in relief and thanked God in her heart and walked toward her brother, leaving Vicky to stand by herself like usual.
"Why are you late?" Ayaan asked.
"Isn't it obvious? You can guess." She answered tiredly. She looked at her brother and asked. "And you, why the dark circles?"
"I didn't have enough sleep last night. I was studying" he shifted his gaze away from her face and looked away.
"You are lying. You weren't studying but reading. I bet it's a novel. Tell me, what novel were you reading" She tried folding her arms on her chest but felt the pains and quickly let her arms fall to the side.
" I can't hide from you can I?" He sighed. "I was reading that author's book. Mom is mine" he answered.
"You mean Hassy_101? I haven't read the book in a while. Brief me" she smiled.
"There's nothing to brief. She turned your Lu Yan evil" Ayaan said dismissively.
"What!" Jiya exclaimed.
"Hi guys" Abdul Rashid walked over.
"Hi man, how are you doing?" Ayaan responded.
"I'm cool. Hi, sis" Abdul Rashid waved at Jiya without getting a response. "Bro, is she okay?"
"Yeah, she's fine. One of her beloved characters in a novel is soon to be killed off and she's upset about it" Ayaan explained.
Abdul Rashid stared stupidly at the siblings for five seconds before bursting into a puddle of laughter. "Are you kidding me? She's like this because of a novel? Oh my God, my tummy hurts"
"It's funny, right? I'm used to it. Ladies and drama" Ayaan shook his head and sighed.
"What do you two know? The way you guys get upset over a football game is how we ladies get upset over what we love too. Lu Yan was so nice, naive, beautiful, cool, and nice. Now she's going to die" Jiya said sadly.
"You mentioned 'NICE' twice." Abdul Rashid said.
"Did I? Then it's a bonus for how cute she was," Jiya responded.
Vicky, who was standing alone far away, turned to look at Jiya and the guys for a few seconds and looked away.
"Attention students!!"
Following the booming sound of the mic, the thousand plus students from year one to year three, all stood erect like pine trees.
Since Tuesday, the new students have all known to not stand leisurely or lean on anything or anyone while on this field.
Even Vicky isn't an exception. She has been standing erect since she came to the field. The more reason she is eager to leave this school.
Her peace and simple lifestyle have been disrupted. Not only is she not allowed to sleep for long, she was also not allowed to eat KFC chicken. (KFC chicken is not on the menu) And now, she's not allowed to lean on something for support!
The thought of violating the school rules keeps calling unto her and she was soon going to answer the call of her nature. (Rebellious)
"Today, we were late by one minute due to a mistake from our end. To not shorten the period of exercise today, we have discussed that one minute will be deducted..." The instructor stopped talking when he saw the freshers smiling.
The new students all showed wide smiles on their faces. Deducting one minute from the school's time will be a little considerable, even though it was unfair trade.
When a student is late for minutes, they pay with hours. However they all know that the school wouldn't want to deduct hours from their time, so giving the students one minute extra time from the school's time should be a fair compensation, right?
Now they can close before one minute and that one minute will go a long way in running back to their dorm to get ready for the cafeteria.
In the year three-section, a lady with an hourglass shape with thick dark brown, mesmerizing dark green eyes, finely shaped straight nose, kissable plump lips, high cheekbones, sharp jaw, and brown and blonde hair, sneered at the happy year one student and said in disdain, "Hayseeds."
The lady looked sophisticated in her black uniform with almost twenty girls and boys surrounding her, there was no doubt she was not simple.
The students standing around her either giggled, smiled, or smirked at her rude remark.
"...Why are you all smiling?" The instructor asked the year one students before he continued. "...One minute will be deducted from your time to cover up for the minute that was wasted."
The students' smiles froze on their faces. How was that fair? If they are late, the school would increase their exercise time which would ruin the rest of their time and make them get detention in the end. If the school is late, they still deduct from the student's time, how was that fair to the students?!!
"Now exercise begins!" The instructor ignored the sad students like he wasn't seeing their faces and turned away.
The students, according to their classes, walked to their respective posts in the open field with advanced exercise equipment.
There were five types of equipment in the post for year one students. With each piece of equipment. There was an instructor who would select students according to how their bodies were feeling at the moment and also considering their stamina.
Vicky and Junaid were sent to the push-up Center.
Jiya and Ameenah were sent to the jumping center.
Abdul Rashid and Ayaan were sent to the Weight lifting Center.
"Hi, I'm Junaid" he introduced, however, Vicky ignored him and went straight for the push-up.
Junaid wasn't offended and he smiled and walked after her.
Ameenah on the other hand could see Junaid running after Vicky. She bit her lower lip. 'This girl again? Why won't she just disappear already!' She screamed in her mind
Jiya, who felt that her partner wasn't looking good, asked: "sister are you alright?"
"Do I look like I'm not alright to you? Mind your damn business!!" She yelled in frustration.
"I...I'm sorry," Jiya apologized and hurried off to her position. She didn't know why all the rich kids she had interacted with were being so rude. Well, except for Abdul Rashid.
She turned her gaze to look for him and saw he was with her brother.