Leena, the eldest Moin child, is secretly attending college classes online after being dropped from her college roster in the first semester.
COVER STORY
Leena, the eldest Moin child, is secretly attending college classes online after being dropped from her college roster in the first semester. Inaya, her younger sister, is repeating the last year of O Levels and studying with Leena to improve her grades. Jasir, their younger brother, is in eighth grade, and currently participating in the Student Super Star Reality TV show, for which the second prize is a laptop. Jasir’s sisters have their eyes on this prize as well as Jasir himself, though Jasir doesn’t know this yet...
“Dear Jasir,” Inaya said to her brother one day as he stepped into his sisters’ presence; they were studying in Leena’s room.
“Just the man we were looking for,” Leena said, brightening up.
Jasir looked from Inaya to Leena, surprised. “Dear!” He repeated what his sisters had said. “Man!” He shook his head. “You two must want something very important from me.”
“You’re sharp.” Inaya grinned.
“Quick on the uptake,” Leena added.
“What on earth could I have that you two want so badly?” Jasir asked. “It can’t be my turn at the family computer. You two have phones and a laptop and everything.”
“Well...” Inaya looked at Leena, then back at Jasir. “I don’t have my phone nowadays, you know that. Leena takes our shared laptop to college with her.”
“I’m still not giving you my turn,” Jasir said. “You can wait until I’m done.”
“I don’t want your turn, Jasir,” Inaya said.
“We want that laptop you’re going to win,” Leena said.
“Huh?” Jasir’s eyes widened until it seemed as if they would pop out of his head. “The prize I’ve been working so hard to get all this time! Why should I give it to you?”
“Well...” Inaya turned her head to one side and studied Jasir’s face thoughtfully. “How far are you in the rankings?”
“Not quite in the top three,” Jasir admitted.
“You need to be a second-place contender to win that laptop,” Leena pointed out.
“Which I won’t give to you even if I win it,” Jasir said stubbornly.
“Come on, listen,” Inaya said. “We have a plan.”
“What kind of plan?” Jasir looked curious. “What am I going to get out of it?”
“Enough votes to boost you up the rankings to second place,” Leena said.
Jasir blinked rapidly, then stared. “How can you do that?”
“We have our ways,” Inaya said. “I have the people I know. They have the people they know. We can start a snowball effect to vote you up to the position you need to be in.”
“You’re not going to do it for free, though,” Jasir said matter-of-factly.
“Of course not,” Leena said. “What we propose to you is this: we boost you to second place, you loan us the laptop for the rest of the academic year. When it’s over, you get your laptop back in mint condition, and you have the spotlight of being a Student Super Star runner-up.”
“Hmm,” Jasir said, frowning. “Ah, oh, OK, done.”
“What?” Inaya stared at Jasir. “You’ve decided already?”
“Who passes up easy viewer votes for a reality TV competition?” Jasir said. “Not me, at least. I’m in the top ten but I’ll need this agreement to turn into top three material. So, is it decided, then?”
“Let’s shake hands on it,” Inaya said. The three stood up and linked hands so that each person was holding the hand of the other in a complete circle. They solemnly shook hands in this fashion and then Jasir jumped and punched the air.
“Sweet laptop, you’re mine.” He smiled. “I better not get disqualified in the semi-finals. You two should hold up your end of the bargain.”
“Don’t worry,” Leena said reassuringly. Then when Jasir left the room, she turned to Inaya. “How are you going to get your friends to vote for him without using your phone to contact them?” she asked.
“Oh, Mama and Papa returned my phone,” Inaya said. “My phone ban ended just the other day. I didn’t tell Jasir that because I wanted extra bargaining weight to push our end of the deal.”
Leena smiled and shook her head at Inaya. “Anyway, now that we have that sorted, let’s get back to your studies,” she said. “You have midterms coming up. Jasir has the semi-final round of the competition coming up. I have final exams coming up. We’d all better put in the work now so we get good results later.”
“Your first semester is over already?” Inaya looked surprised.
“How the time has flown,” Leena said. “Before we know it, you’ll have your mock exams, then your O Level papers. I’ll have my second semester, then the midterms and the finals. Jasir will have secured second place in the competition by then, and will have to return to the comparatively mundane job of finishing up eighth grade and selecting his high school study track. Soon, we’ll have our respective achievements under our belts and commenting on how quickly time passed.”
“You seem confident,” Inaya said.
“As the other option is bone-crushing despair, I think I’ll stick with confidence, thank you,” Leena said smoothly.
The day soon came when Jasir came bounding home in high spirits, grandly showing off a ribbon in his hand.
“What’s that?” Papa asked. “You have your Sports Day already?”
“Did you get promoted to class prefect?” Mama asked.
“Oh, please.” Jasir rolled his eyes. “This is the Student Super Star finalist ribbon. I passed the semi-finals!”
“Oh, yes!” Leena and Inaya said, their faces glowing. Papa nodded happily in the background.
“Oh, no,” Mama said, clapping her hands to her forehead.
Jasir looked shocked. “I think ‘oh, yes’ is what you intended to say,” he said.
“Oh, yes, you got into the finals,” Mama said, “but oh, no, now I’ll have to get a dress made for appearing at the awards show. Like you said, we get to attend the ceremony where they announce the winner and runners up, don’t we?”
“Come on, Mama,” Jasir said. “You can wear any old thing to the ceremony. You have enough fancy dresses.”
“Spoken like a true gentleman and preserver of the economic balance,” Papa said proudly.
Inaya and Leena were on Mama’s side. “You know,” Inaya said, “Mama has tea-party dresses, and dresses to wear to attend weddings, but she doesn’t have a specific appearing-on-live-TV dress. Neither do we. You know what this means?”
Papa sighed.
“This calls for an emergency clothes shopping session!” Leena said. Inaya squealed with delight. Mama brightened up considerably.
“I knew it.” Papa shook his head. “More expenditures. You’d better haul home a load of cash when you win this, Jasir. Your participation is getting expensive for me.”
“Oh, Papa,” Jasir said. “Surely you can rise to the occasion and drive your lovely ladies around for a few hours until they decide what to get. I would do it, but you know I’m not old enough to drive. Old enough to run to the corner store for yogurt, yes. Old enough to do shopping duty, no.”
“Don’t look so pleased about it,” Papa said. “You’ll grow out of these childish competitions and into adult responsibilities soon enough.”
“But until then,” Jasir said pompously, “I bid you farewell. I’ve got to study for the finals!”
“Uh.” Inaya looked confused. “What finals? It’s not annual exam time yet.”
“I’m talking about Student Super Star finals, not boring old regular school finals,” Jasir said. “You should know that by now.”
“How is he going to adjust back to ‘boring old regular school’ after Student Super Star is over?” Inaya said to Leena afterwards, when it was just the two of them cooped up together for another study session.
“He can worry about that after he wins,” Leena said. “How is the viewer vote gathering going? You managed to get him voted into the finals. This stage is extra critical. You have to make sure he shoots up into second place but doesn’t overshoot it and land first position instead.”
“Oh, I know how to monitor the live vote-o-meter on the Student Super Star website well enough,” Inaya said dismissively. “I have chat groups and feedback loops set up for this purpose. Don’t worry about that. Worry about getting me through this Maths paper and yourself through your own exams. I can’t wait until I’m done with school and no longer have to keep compulsory subjects.”
“Um, there are compulsory subjects even in college, you know,” Leena said.
Inaya stared at Leena for a few seconds before replying, “You could have kept that little piece of information to yourself and let me dream on in ignorant bliss.”
“I’d prefer you keep your eyes open to real facts rather than dreaming in ignorant bliss,” Leena said. “It’s disappointing enough to start college and realise that it’s just glorified school.”
“Leena, stop right there,” Inaya said warningly. “Don’t you tear down my illusions another bit. Stop!”
“All right,” Leena said, leaning back in her chair and picking up her notebook. “I’ll let you meet your disappointments as they arrive, one by one. It’s easier to handle that way.” She paused, looking thoughtful. “I wish there was some way to make it easier on the students,” she said.
“Like abolishing the educational system and returning to tribal hunting and gathering communities?” Inaya said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
“It’s just that...” Leena’s voice trailed off. “I realised something. College is not a job training system. It’s so much more than that. Yet we reduce it to something even lower than a training system. We turn it into a labelling system. ‘College graduate labels sold right here’ is what the college prospectus actually says.”
“Leena,” Inaya said impatiently, “I realise you are in the middle of a deep and eye-opening thought process right now, but unless I find ‘x’ in this equation, you’re going to have problems of a more drastic nature very soon.”
Leena took the hint and stopped talking, but she kept thinking.
What waits at the end of the road for Jasir’s competitive spirit? Will Leena’s train of thought lead to a real destination? Most importantly, will Inaya find ‘x’? All this and more in next month’s episode of Hackschool Project.
