Light Upon Light

#23 The Conspiracy Theory

Assalamualaikum!

Here I am with yet another chapter in the life of Junaina Ali. I love how this one has turned out and I hope you guys will too.

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#23 The Conspiracy Theory

Much as I'd like to say I avoided Najwa after that day and took every measure to not meet up with her at school, it was quite opposite. And it was all my fault.

As previously mentioned by many people, Najwa was multi talented. She could sing and act. She had a pretty good accent and spoke English fluently. She is one of the very few people whom I've met in this school, who actually speaks English all the time. Najwa also has a history of winning prizes in literary competitions as well. And as is necessary, she also had good grades.

If only I could spot a single flaw in her.

She was way too perfect.

So Najwa being the super cool multi talented genius that she was, was training the group of smaller girls for their group song. Since I was part of the group events of our own category, I had to attend all the practise sessions. Najwa and the kids were going over and over the audio of the song they were singing. They would pause the recording and start practicing and then Najwa would make them listen to it again when they messed up and she couldn't get her point through. This went on for a couple of times.

Until I accidentally ended up intervening.

"Maybe you should just get them print outs of the lyrics and teach the song in parts?" I suggested at the umpteenth retry.

Everybody paused their actions to observe me. Even I would have done the same if I were in their post. For someone who has been quiet for the past few days, I spoke out of nowhere.

"That's actually a pretty good suggestion. The lyric sheets are being printed. Saira ma'am has gone to get them. But you're right about teaching them the song in parts. Kids need more practise than us after all," She remarked.

And that's how I got roped into helping with the practise of lower categories with Najwa.

The practise sessions were gruelling to be honest. By the time I reached home all I wanted to do was sleep. My voice would always be hoarse at the end of the day. So much so that Dadi had ordered Chachi to make me drink the bitter kaada every day after school. In a way I was grateful for it too, otherwise my voice would be completely gone by the time of the fest.

Meanwhile back at Ashiana the adults have started conspiring among themselves for the last few days. God knows what discussion it is that gets stopped as soon as they see one of us near them. It was starting to get really irritating. So much so that I was willing to call a truce on the cold war going on between me and Samar.

Ever since the fest has been announced at school he has been trying to demoralize me in every possible way. He was being childish by bringing the rivalry at school back home. Initially I just ignored him or gave him the cold shoulder. But when he started being mean and taunting me in front of all the adults, I lost it.

'A'udhu billahi mina ash shaytani rajeem!' I yelled and everyone paused mid bite to stare at me for my sudden outburst.

'You were already crazy, I'm starting to thinking it is going to psychotic levels because of the fest at school. Let it be Juni, it is okay if you don't take part,' Samar commented.

'Oh please! I was just trying to get the jinn of rivalry out of you. Clearly it didn't work!' I said.

Maybe I might have yelled a bit.