When Jason was locking his door before leaving the PG, he noticed there was a pair of shoes kept outside his senior, Jasmine's, room.
His first impression of Jasmine was that she was too friendly. Like an overgrown child making friends with people.
Not like he hated her or was creeped out by her. Just that; he found her overwhelming and pushy. Especially her friend. However, he was no one to judge her, and she was, after all, his senior. If he doesn't end up getting a seat in fine arts, he has to ask her for guidance, and keeping a good connection with her will eventually help him in the future. An easygoing, friendly, pushover kind of senior is better than one who takes advantage of you, makes you drink, and forces you to participate in things you are not comfortable in.[1]
Suddenly, the door opened, and Kriti came out. She was his upper-floor neighbour who kept dragging something heavy every night. Probably it was a box of handheld instruments from her mechanical engineering department.
Maybe she completes her assignments in the apartment. 'He always reasoned with himself.
Somehow, yesterday, it was quiet last night. 'Probably,
"Good morning," Kriti said as she slipped into her shoes.
"Good morning," Jason wished, as it dawned upon him why it was so quiet yesterday.
"Going to college so early in the morning? It's literally 7:30 am," Kriti asked, pained.
"Yes, senior. I have language class at 8am," Jason replied.
"Why can't you just skip it?" Kriti questioned.
"We can't, senior. They have mentioned especially that we can't skip this class. They will inform our family regarding it," Jason said.[2]
"I swear to god, I have to talk to the administration regarding this policy of calling our parents if we do something called 'free will' in the university that goes against them. I am sick and tired of dealing with students' petitions regarding this issue," Kriti exasperated.
"Oh, senior, I'll take my leave. I am getting late for class." Jason waved goodbye and left in a hurry.
"Who was it?" Jasmine came out in her pyjamas with a glass of hot water in a glass tumbler.
"Your neighbour, Jason. The new kid in student council", Kriti replied, "and put on something warm, Jazz. It's cold outside."
"It's cold because it rained outside last night and it's early morning. Also, I am warm enough." Jasmine protested.
"Still, get inside. Keep yourself warm and don't catch cold like your brother." Kriti took Jasmine's hand and started to warm her hands.
"As you wish. Catch you up at the cafeteria." Jasmine pecked Kriti's cheek and closed the door.
Jason took out his AirPods and connected them to his phone as he decided which podcast to hear on his way to college.
After a lot of deliberation, he landed on a true crime podcast that he recently got addicted to. It was by his senior at the student council, the vice president, Lalith. He walked carefully through the busy streets and crossed the road to enter the university through the side gate A.
The guard at the gate suddenly made him stop. "Who are you? Where is your ID?"
Flabbergasted, Jason took out his ID card from his backpack and said, "Who in their right mind would go to university willingly at 7:30 am just for the sake of attendance?"
"And how do we know whether you are a student of this university or the nearby college?" The security guard said.
"There is a college nearby?" Jason asked.
The security guard felt that the guy in front of him was a blind man, for how could someone miss that big billboard that always showed off its placement record in the job market by that college? [3]
"Ok, go." The security guard said and asked him to leave.
Jason dragged himself through the three floors of staircase and finally sat on the last bench of the gallery. He texted his classmates, "Where are you guys?" And most of them replied that they are on their way and are almost there.
Looking at the wristwatch, there were fifteen minutes left for the class to start, as he decided to sleep while listening to the audio podcast.
Suddenly, the door slammed open, and Jason woke up and stood up, startled, and realised the professor had entered the class. He quickly checked his surroundings to find out people had already settled in and the professor was ten minutes late.
His two friends, Vikram and Asrar, were standing beside him. "Wake up, sleepy princess," they teased in a whisper.
"Wakey wakey," Asrar said gleefully.
"Good morning, everyone. Sit down. I'll take the attendance," the professor said with impatience. "Call out your numbers. Roll number 1?[4]"
"When did you guys come?" Jason asked as he removed the airpods from his ears.
"Like ten minutes ago," Vikram said.
Asrar teased, "You were sleeping like a baby. We tried to wake you up like five times."
"28 Present", Jason sprang up to sort his attendance.
***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Jaya hasn't been able to reach either of the two idiots since last night. She could excuse Jasmine not picking up because she often put her phone on silent mode and left it in some part of her apartment, and when in need, she would look it up in the Find My app of her paired devices.
But Siddharth, this was impossible. That guy, in Jaya's terms, is addicted, obsessed and married to the phone. The guy who is online even in the middle of the night suddenly stopped replying to text messages and calls. This made Jaya increasingly frightened about his whereabouts.
After an entire night of pacing about and torturing herself to sleep at night, she finally got a return call from Jasmine at 8 am. Jaya, scared to her wits' end, ended up screaming at her on the phone before even Jasmine could greet her good morning.
"Jasmine, do you have any idea how scared I am here? My family is having an emergency. I am in a completely different state that takes three hours to travel to by flight. Mind you, three hours. I have been incessantly calling you here all night, not just you, but even your brother. And now, now you decide to call me back. Do you have any idea what my mental state is? Where is your idiot of a brother? Where is my boyfriend?" Jaya unleashed her stress.
"Jaya, did Ranga not call you or message you to tell you that he caught a cold? I specifically asked him to do so before leaving his apartment last night. He was in bad shape last night, so probably that's why he didn't answer his calls. And his roommate senior, Lalith, was probably playing games last night on his gaming PC; that's why he didn't answer Ranga's calls for him." Jasmine soothed her.
"Oh, is that so? He caught a cold. Did he take his meds?" Jaya asked, embarrassed that she shouted so badly.
"He did. Don't worry, he is very much alive and breathing." Jasmine said.
[1] In India, there is a system of ragging or 'light fun activities', as some put it, which might get extremely out of hand. By legal standards, it is illegal to do so. However, the actions they ask to do are at the borderline or loophole areas, making it difficult to pursue them without foolproof evidence. If you have watched movies like Chichhore, you can have a very fair idea how it goes.
[2] My college won't leave my back because of a very similar reason. It's my money, my rules, yet it's me who has to worry for 75% attendance that I have no idea how the percentage is calculated.
[3] A very usual visual near colleges or universities.
[4] I am so scared of this sentence. Like no way I can get a proxy.