THE BACK BENCHERS

5.Suspicious

Well, I didn't mean she has turned cold all of a sudden. Just felt the motherly love missing somewhere. It's ok mothers are also human, they are allowed to bad days and mood

A notification on my mobile broke my deep thoughts. Well, yes I had a phone and I remember how to use it. Mobile became like a part of our body, it's just like using our hands to consume and legs to transport ourselves.
It's a message from Jake.

It said ' Bro, it seems we have a full portion test on Science tomorrow, but u don't stress. Take good rest and don't make your mum suspicious. '

Ok, I thought to myself. My mom came inside with a platter of food, placed it on my desk and went off. I devoured my dinner in a jiffy, because I haven't eaten anything since the coffee in cafe. It was 7pm, I didn't have any business to do. So, I decided to pretend to study to wail of the rest of the night.

Thankfully, I was studying, when mom entered the room to talk. She was so surprised and shocked that she had forgot the reason she came into my room.

I smiled to myself. She has not seen her son studying, maybe I had been a dominant, notorious kid refusing to listen to parents. But, I had no other choice now, I have to pretend like I study to avoid any questions or a conversation with my mom. If the truth comes to light, then god knows what will happen to my friends. I looked into my subject book, some topics seem to be familiar, infact much easy when I tried to solve. I looked at the clock it was 10pm. I should get some rest, but my mind felt fresh and wide awake. Of course, who would have a glimpse of sleep after sleeping in hospital for 2 days. Man, 2 days!, how did they manage to get out poop off my body😂.

It was 1 pm. I ransacked the whole room, to find anything about myself. Since, I seemed to be a minimal person, nothing important or emotional to me, was found. I heard some noises outside the door. I saw a shadow in front of my door. I don't want to make my self suspicious any more. So I turned off the lights immediately and laid on the bed, covered myself with the sheets and pretend to be sound asleep. It was mom, she had come to check on me. I peeped out a single eye to check if I had planted any suspicion inside her.

Needless to say, she indeed looked suspicious. She came near my bed, thought I was asleep, then went near my work desk, touched my textbooks and rough paper. Then, after few moments she looked into my direction as if she knew that I was just pretending to sleep. She left the room after few suspicious glare in my direction.

Shit! I think I over-did the studying part. Should have behaved normally. But what is "normal" for Duke? How would Duke behave in home? in school? with friends? with parents?

These questions made my mind too tired. Sleep pulled me in. I closed my eyes, thinking about what new is in store for me tomorrow.

Next morning,

I woke up to the ring tone of my mobile. Heck! 10 missed calls from Jake. I jumped out my bed, wore my uniform, thankfully I saw where my uniform was while searching last night. I reached the school after the first period. The second hour teacher has not yet reached. So i entered the classroom, everything was normal except, Anushya eyes spitting fire everytime I made eye-contact with her. I took my seat with Jake and Liam, in a three-seater bench. This bench had the view of the whole class. Every student was visible from here. No teacher seem to bother what u do.

Yes, it's the BACK BENCH. We are back benchers. For the test we all sat two in a bench and started the test. The test seemed pretty easy, I answered the questions I knew, finished in about an hour. I went out of the class, roamed to kill the rest of the time.

Time passed by, it was lunch, I waited for Jack and Liam to finish their papers.

"Phew! That was one hell of a paper" Jack told "Did u even attempt the paper, Du? asked Jack.

"Yea! It was somewhat easy, I answered the questions I found familiar."

"Are u sure? U seem to have finished the paper too fast. It's ok u didn't study yesterday, but u have to.... Our boards are coming up in few months. We ought to get atleast above 60% to get a good group in our senior year."

"Ok, enough of that, let's go for lunch" Liam finally said it. I came to school even without packing my lunch. Thankfully I had some money in my pocket with which i brought some sandwiches.

We sat down for lunch.

"So how did it go yesterday with, mom?" asked Jack with a mouthful of food. Liam and Jack were looking at me for an answer. I was too quiet.

They got tensed. "Please don't tell ur mom is sus on u" said Liam. I nodded with disappointment. A sense of defeat spread on their faces evenly. I wonder sometimes how these two manage to give same reactions at the same time.

A huge roar crowd was buzzing near the notice board. Jack asked a student what was all that about.

"The science test results are out" shouted the guy and ran off towards the notice board.