09-01-2019, 02:42 PM
She was smoking a cigarette as she answered the door.
After a quick greeting (and an obligatory "hello" to Reshma's mother - propped up, as usual, in front of the television), Reshma led the two boys down to her basement bedroom, locking the door behind her (Reshma's parents were "progressive", and felt that she needed her privacy).
Barun accepted a cigarette and flopped down into a chair while pulling a lighter from his jacket pocket.
Girish, who didn't smoke, just leaned up against the dresser. Reshma lay down on the bed and propped herself up with a pillow.
"So," she asked, flicking some ash onto the dirty shag carpet, "What are you guys doing here? I thought you had math with Wilson until 3:00."
Barun grimaced. "We did," he answered, "Until he kicked us out."
"What?"
Girish took over the explanation and outlined the sequence of events that had led to their expulsion from the math class.
Typically, Reshma immediately blamed Shanti. "That cunt!" she swore angrily, "Cheating on the test and getting you guys kicked out. She's really asking for it."
"Yes, she is," Girish agreed quietly, "And I think I know how we can give it to her."
"What do you mean?"
"We know she's cheating on her exams, right?"
Barun and Reshma nodded in agreement.
"I think that it's pretty likely she'll cheat again. I don't think that she's had to do it before, so she's probably way behind in her work.
The fact that she's cheating - and that we know she's cheating - gives us a hold on her; a way of blackmailing her, but we need more."
Barun thought this over for a few moments. "Like what?" he asked.
"First, we need concrete evidence of the cheating. No one is going to take our word over Shanti's. That's where you come in, Reshma. Your dad lets you use his video camera and radio - microphone. We'll use that to trap her."
"And then what?" Barun was starting to become excited at the prospect of blackmailing Shanti. Girish fell silent for a moment, looking at his two friends.
"How much," he asked finally, his voice strained and odd, "How much do you hate her? I mean really. How much do you want to see her suffer?"
"Hey man," Barun answered uneasily, "I just want to get back at her for putting me down last year. I don't want to, like, beat her up or anything."
"Well, I would," Reshma spat out. "I hate the bitch. Always flaunting herself, and prancing about like she owns the whole fucking school. She deserves whatever she gets. I'll do whatever you want to help get her."
Girish looked over a Barun, his eyebrows raised as if to ask 'are you in?'.
"Aw, fuck it," Barun said finally, "I hate the bitch as much as anybody. I'm in all the way."
"Good," Girish nodded, "Cause when we're through with her, she'll be the biggest slut in the history of Greenwood High."
The English exam was being held the following Monday, only five days away, so they had to move quickly.
The first step was to get a hold of the exam questions beforehand, a proposition which might have proved difficult but for the advances in electronics technology which had culminated in the computer.
Exam papers were commonly written out on school computers and stored in the school network, which allowed for "maximum flexibility within the school bureaucracy regarding application of secretarial assets".
Incidentally, it also allowed someone with the appropriate equipment and skills to break into the system and download the required information without leaving any traces of his actions.
Girish, something of a hacker, had broken into the system a number of times in the past with his home computer and modem and was quite familiar with both the security measures and the layout of information within the network.
In the end, it took him all of about twenty minutes to download the appropriate exam paper. Barun and Reshma were impressed.
"Deva deva," she muttered, "I wish you'd told me about this before I failed my fucking history test last year."
Girish just shook his head. "I don't think this is the kind of thing you want to do too often. If I go in often enough, they'll figure out what's going on. I was saving if for a special occasion." He looked up at his two friends and grinned maliciously. "And I think this is it."
Frustrated, Shanti slammed the book shut.
The exam was coming up in just a few days, and there was no way she was going to be ready.
She had done her best to catch up on the first two months' work in a couple of days, but it was almost impossible for her even to get through the material in time for the test, much less actually understand it. And there was impossible for her to cheat on this exam the way she had in math.
In that class, she had gotten away with writing out a number of formulas and applications on crib notes, but that just wouldn't work for an English test.
There was too much material to read and assimilate, and without knowing exactly what material the test was going to focus on, she was forced to try to learn it all in just a few days: a daunting task at best, and almost certainly doomed to failure.
She was going to blow the test for sure!
Shanti slumped back in her chair and stared at her pouting reflection in the desk mirror.
It wasn't fair. How could she be expected to keep up with all of this classwork while at the same time attend all the student council meetings as well as the swim club practices each morning.
It was impossible. They just expected too much of her! She felt her large, green eyes brimming with tears; she wanted to be Head Girl so badly, and now...
She was interrupted from her self-pity by the ring of the phone at her bedside. Sniffling, she got up and crossed the room to answer it.
"Hello?" It was Ashima, her friend from school. Careful to disguise her inner turmoil (Ashima, like all of the other girls in their particular clique, could smell weakness the way a shark smells blood; any hint of a problem and it would be all over the group by the end of the next school day, threatening Shanti's position), Shanti fell easily into the standard school banter of gossip, innuendo and casual put-downs of other students. Shanti was good at this, and Ashima sensed nothing out of place.
After a while, Barun's name came up and Shanti happily recounted the events of yesterday's math test.
Ashima had almost certainly heard about it by now, but the combination of a first-hand account together with Shanti's particular style of sarcastic humour made the story well worth hearing for a second time.
The two girls were soon laughing together at what had happened.
"Well," Ashima laughed at the end of the story, "It does sound as if they made absolute assholes of themselves, alright. And that threat of summer school must have scared the shit out of them from what I heard."
"What do you mean?"
"I heard that Barun has got a hold of some of some of the exam papers coming up. I guess he wants to bring up his overall marks so Wilson can't fail him or something like that."
Shanti felt her heart jump a beat as her breath caught in her chest. Barun had copies of future exams? "Where did you hear that?" she asked, trying to keep her voice casual. Evidently she had succeeded, as Ashima failed to detect the change of mood.
"Sana told me," she answered, "I think she heard it from Reshma, although why she was talking to that cow, I don't know. You remember Reshma? She was the one..." Ashima started to drone on about Reshma, who was definitely not a part of their exclusive clique, but Shanti wasn't listening. Barun had copies of some upcoming tests.
AND HE WAS IN HER ENGLISH CLASS!
After a while, Ashima wound down, and Shanti let the conversation die a natural death. While she was careful not to mention Barun and the exam papers again, it was never far from her mind. Finally, the two girls said goodbye and Shanti hung up the phone.
Thoughtful, she walked back to her desk and looked the pile of unread English books. Cheating was a serious matter at Greenwood (it had taken her a long time to screw up her courage enough to do it during the math test), but stealing exam papers was something else altogether.
She remembered a guy who had been caught with a stolen paper about four years ago, when she was in her first year at the high school.
He had not only been expelled, but the school had prosecuted him for breaking and entering and theft (they succeeded on the first count, but failed on the second).
It had been all over the papers in Adyar. She shuddered at the thought of that happening to her, but what was the alternative?
Besides, she thought, making up her mind, she wasn't going to get caught; she was too smart for that.
It was all too easy!
Shanti had approached him the next day - just as Girish had predicted - and, in the guise of sympathizing with him over his humiliation in Wilson's math class a couple of days ago, she had sounded him out about the papers for the upcoming exams.
As Girish had instructed him, Barun pretended to be suffering from a bad cold and sore throat, and lowered his voice to a rasp. Shanti didn't seem notice; either she didn't care, or couldn't remember what he normally sounded like. Probably both.
Enjoying the experience of Shanti being friendly to him (although aware that Shanti had skilfully manipulated the circumstances of their "accidental" meeting in such a way as to locate it in the Study Hall, which was usually deserted), Barun drew the encounter out, repeatedly side-stepping her indirect attempts to get him to admit to having the papers.
Finally, she was forced to ask him directly: did he have copies of the upcoming exam papers? Seemingly reluctant, Barun eventually admitted that "yes" he happened to have some copies of future exam papers, and "yes", in particular, he did have copy of next week's English exam.
After a quick greeting (and an obligatory "hello" to Reshma's mother - propped up, as usual, in front of the television), Reshma led the two boys down to her basement bedroom, locking the door behind her (Reshma's parents were "progressive", and felt that she needed her privacy).
Barun accepted a cigarette and flopped down into a chair while pulling a lighter from his jacket pocket.
Girish, who didn't smoke, just leaned up against the dresser. Reshma lay down on the bed and propped herself up with a pillow.
"So," she asked, flicking some ash onto the dirty shag carpet, "What are you guys doing here? I thought you had math with Wilson until 3:00."
Barun grimaced. "We did," he answered, "Until he kicked us out."
"What?"
Girish took over the explanation and outlined the sequence of events that had led to their expulsion from the math class.
Typically, Reshma immediately blamed Shanti. "That cunt!" she swore angrily, "Cheating on the test and getting you guys kicked out. She's really asking for it."
"Yes, she is," Girish agreed quietly, "And I think I know how we can give it to her."
"What do you mean?"
"We know she's cheating on her exams, right?"
Barun and Reshma nodded in agreement.
"I think that it's pretty likely she'll cheat again. I don't think that she's had to do it before, so she's probably way behind in her work.
The fact that she's cheating - and that we know she's cheating - gives us a hold on her; a way of blackmailing her, but we need more."
Barun thought this over for a few moments. "Like what?" he asked.
"First, we need concrete evidence of the cheating. No one is going to take our word over Shanti's. That's where you come in, Reshma. Your dad lets you use his video camera and radio - microphone. We'll use that to trap her."
"And then what?" Barun was starting to become excited at the prospect of blackmailing Shanti. Girish fell silent for a moment, looking at his two friends.
"How much," he asked finally, his voice strained and odd, "How much do you hate her? I mean really. How much do you want to see her suffer?"
"Hey man," Barun answered uneasily, "I just want to get back at her for putting me down last year. I don't want to, like, beat her up or anything."
"Well, I would," Reshma spat out. "I hate the bitch. Always flaunting herself, and prancing about like she owns the whole fucking school. She deserves whatever she gets. I'll do whatever you want to help get her."
Girish looked over a Barun, his eyebrows raised as if to ask 'are you in?'.
"Aw, fuck it," Barun said finally, "I hate the bitch as much as anybody. I'm in all the way."
"Good," Girish nodded, "Cause when we're through with her, she'll be the biggest slut in the history of Greenwood High."
The English exam was being held the following Monday, only five days away, so they had to move quickly.
The first step was to get a hold of the exam questions beforehand, a proposition which might have proved difficult but for the advances in electronics technology which had culminated in the computer.
Exam papers were commonly written out on school computers and stored in the school network, which allowed for "maximum flexibility within the school bureaucracy regarding application of secretarial assets".
Incidentally, it also allowed someone with the appropriate equipment and skills to break into the system and download the required information without leaving any traces of his actions.
Girish, something of a hacker, had broken into the system a number of times in the past with his home computer and modem and was quite familiar with both the security measures and the layout of information within the network.
In the end, it took him all of about twenty minutes to download the appropriate exam paper. Barun and Reshma were impressed.
"Deva deva," she muttered, "I wish you'd told me about this before I failed my fucking history test last year."
Girish just shook his head. "I don't think this is the kind of thing you want to do too often. If I go in often enough, they'll figure out what's going on. I was saving if for a special occasion." He looked up at his two friends and grinned maliciously. "And I think this is it."
Frustrated, Shanti slammed the book shut.
The exam was coming up in just a few days, and there was no way she was going to be ready.
She had done her best to catch up on the first two months' work in a couple of days, but it was almost impossible for her even to get through the material in time for the test, much less actually understand it. And there was impossible for her to cheat on this exam the way she had in math.
In that class, she had gotten away with writing out a number of formulas and applications on crib notes, but that just wouldn't work for an English test.
There was too much material to read and assimilate, and without knowing exactly what material the test was going to focus on, she was forced to try to learn it all in just a few days: a daunting task at best, and almost certainly doomed to failure.
She was going to blow the test for sure!
Shanti slumped back in her chair and stared at her pouting reflection in the desk mirror.
It wasn't fair. How could she be expected to keep up with all of this classwork while at the same time attend all the student council meetings as well as the swim club practices each morning.
It was impossible. They just expected too much of her! She felt her large, green eyes brimming with tears; she wanted to be Head Girl so badly, and now...
She was interrupted from her self-pity by the ring of the phone at her bedside. Sniffling, she got up and crossed the room to answer it.
"Hello?" It was Ashima, her friend from school. Careful to disguise her inner turmoil (Ashima, like all of the other girls in their particular clique, could smell weakness the way a shark smells blood; any hint of a problem and it would be all over the group by the end of the next school day, threatening Shanti's position), Shanti fell easily into the standard school banter of gossip, innuendo and casual put-downs of other students. Shanti was good at this, and Ashima sensed nothing out of place.
After a while, Barun's name came up and Shanti happily recounted the events of yesterday's math test.
Ashima had almost certainly heard about it by now, but the combination of a first-hand account together with Shanti's particular style of sarcastic humour made the story well worth hearing for a second time.
The two girls were soon laughing together at what had happened.
"Well," Ashima laughed at the end of the story, "It does sound as if they made absolute assholes of themselves, alright. And that threat of summer school must have scared the shit out of them from what I heard."
"What do you mean?"
"I heard that Barun has got a hold of some of some of the exam papers coming up. I guess he wants to bring up his overall marks so Wilson can't fail him or something like that."
Shanti felt her heart jump a beat as her breath caught in her chest. Barun had copies of future exams? "Where did you hear that?" she asked, trying to keep her voice casual. Evidently she had succeeded, as Ashima failed to detect the change of mood.
"Sana told me," she answered, "I think she heard it from Reshma, although why she was talking to that cow, I don't know. You remember Reshma? She was the one..." Ashima started to drone on about Reshma, who was definitely not a part of their exclusive clique, but Shanti wasn't listening. Barun had copies of some upcoming tests.
AND HE WAS IN HER ENGLISH CLASS!
After a while, Ashima wound down, and Shanti let the conversation die a natural death. While she was careful not to mention Barun and the exam papers again, it was never far from her mind. Finally, the two girls said goodbye and Shanti hung up the phone.
Thoughtful, she walked back to her desk and looked the pile of unread English books. Cheating was a serious matter at Greenwood (it had taken her a long time to screw up her courage enough to do it during the math test), but stealing exam papers was something else altogether.
She remembered a guy who had been caught with a stolen paper about four years ago, when she was in her first year at the high school.
He had not only been expelled, but the school had prosecuted him for breaking and entering and theft (they succeeded on the first count, but failed on the second).
It had been all over the papers in Adyar. She shuddered at the thought of that happening to her, but what was the alternative?
Besides, she thought, making up her mind, she wasn't going to get caught; she was too smart for that.
It was all too easy!
Shanti had approached him the next day - just as Girish had predicted - and, in the guise of sympathizing with him over his humiliation in Wilson's math class a couple of days ago, she had sounded him out about the papers for the upcoming exams.
As Girish had instructed him, Barun pretended to be suffering from a bad cold and sore throat, and lowered his voice to a rasp. Shanti didn't seem notice; either she didn't care, or couldn't remember what he normally sounded like. Probably both.
Enjoying the experience of Shanti being friendly to him (although aware that Shanti had skilfully manipulated the circumstances of their "accidental" meeting in such a way as to locate it in the Study Hall, which was usually deserted), Barun drew the encounter out, repeatedly side-stepping her indirect attempts to get him to admit to having the papers.
Finally, she was forced to ask him directly: did he have copies of the upcoming exam papers? Seemingly reluctant, Barun eventually admitted that "yes" he happened to have some copies of future exam papers, and "yes", in particular, he did have copy of next week's English exam.
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