In March, we were going to have our final exams. So, our school said no to all competitions. Students must do only one thing and that was studying.
It started very early in the last week of January. That was when all students started coming to school even though the winter vacation had ended few weeks before. Teachers started pushing themselves and us to the extreme. First thing they did was to complete the syllabus. There wasn't a lot of stuff left and our syllabus of all subjects was covered within a couple of weeks. After that came a barrage of disasters i.e., tests, quizzes and what not. In February, there was not a single day when we didn't have a test.
Because our focus should be only on studies, there was no physical education's period. It didn't seem like my school cared about students' physical or mental health. My hands would get tired from writing all day long. But in the middle of darkness, I did see a ray of hope.
While section A was supposed to have the smartest students in the whole class, not everyone was on same level. Section A did have the smartest students, but it also had students who were below average. Most of them were boys. Another stereotype ended up true. Boys were stupider than girls… on average. Whether boys cared about studies or not didn't matter. They couldn't just keep failing or getting low marks in the tests. Or they would get punished or worse, humiliated in front of the whole class.
To avoid punishment, they needed to get good marks but without studying, it wasn't just possible. So, the only thing left for them to do was… to cheat. Obviously, boys couldn't just ask each other because most of them didn't give a damn about studying. They used to come to school to talk and laugh. To cheat, they needed someone who was prepared and smart enough to know the answers. There were only few boys who met that criterion. Dirk, Nolan and Me. We were the smartest boys in the whole class and that alone should be enough to tell give you a rough idea about how smart boys were.
I used to score the highest marks, but Dirk and Nolan were not even in the top ten. However, when compared to other boys, we were like Einstein. Both of them would help their friends in the tests. My friends and others would ask me for help as well but at that time, I was the righteous man of God. I hated cheating and I didn't want to be a part of something so wrong. Also, it was extremely risky. All teachers hated those who helped others more than those who were receiving help.
But my friends would always emotionally blackmail me into helping them. If that failed to work, they would try to bribe me. Out of pity, sometimes, I would end up helping them. It was extremely risky, but my friends would brainwash me into thinking that friendship was the greatest thing in the world. I could give tests any other day, but I would get only few opportunities to help my friends.
However, asking each other for help wasn't the only way my classmates used to use. There was one method that had very high success rate and very simple to execute but it also carried huge risk. All you needed to do was keep the notebook or book of the subject that you had exam of close to you. It could be anywhere from right under the test paper or in the bag.
I didn't know what it was like to cheat but from what I used hear from others, it seemed quite thrilling. However, it was still not enough to make me try to do it myself. I was happy just helping my friends every now and then. Because I had also seen others get caught while cheating.
If you got caught cheating, you would get zero marks on that test. However, that wasn't the worst part. Teachers would quite literally humiliate you in front of the whole class if you got caught. I didn't need to experience it to know that it sucked. And it would have been worse if someone like me got caught. I didn't want to ruin my reputation that I had built up after much effort. I never needed to cheat and even if I wasn't prepared for an exam, I would have rather decided to fail than to ruin my reputation.
Teachers' efforts and those tests did help everyone a lot. Even those students who used to be scared of exams no longer feared the final exams that finally took place in the first week of March. Finally, everyone was going to pass, at least from our section. Teachers were probably very happy as well.
That time too, my exams went well. I didn't have any problems with any subject. After exams ended, we got a month-long holiday. In the middle of those holidays, a parent teacher meeting was held to distribute the results of final exams. I went with my mom and aunt because my cousin also used to study in the same school as me. I got my result and luckily, nothing had gone wrong. I received A+ in every subject.
But exact scores weren't written in the report card and because of that, I couldn't figure out the exact percentage. Few other students had also scored A+ in every subject. Thanks to that, there was no way to figure out the exact ranking of every student. While I didn't like it, I was also kind of relieved. In every midterm and test I was the top scorer, but I knew that nothing was certain in life.