Erum was someone who people in her school often termed as the ‘popular’ girl. She had gorgeous, long black hair and she was also the daughter of the school’s headmistress. To sum it up, Erum was a girl that an average person dreams to be. But there was one thing that was a flaw in her — she loved to brag.

Every now and then, the girl was seen bragging about her life and her achievements. No one knew if there were any bad things happening in her life, because never in her life did the girl talk about her failures or hardships. So naturally, people believed her life was all-too-perfect. Oh how wrong they were.

She felt proud to boast about herself, resulting in others having low self esteem. In contrast to that, she hid her flaws so her self-esteem would not get low.

On a fine Tuesday morning, Erum saw a classmate at the school who was sporting a fresh upper earlobe piercing. All the girls in the class were diverting their attention to that girl with the new piercing. Erum did not like that. She liked having all eyes on her and the girl with the new piercing was being a great obstacle that did not let the attention fall on her. Erum smirked to herself and thought of something wicked.

The next day, each of the girls in Erum’s class was heard gasping, simultaneously having their eyes so wide open as if their eyeballs would fall off their sockets!

The previous evening, Erum had gotten a pair of piercings on her ears. But that wasn’t the thing that was making every girl mentally drool. It was the earrings that she wore on those piercings. They were small and delicate silver hoops with beautiful carvings on them. It gave an extremely elegant look to it with tiny rubies secured on each of them. She was rich, so it wasn’t a surprise how expensive her earrings were. And that is how she got her lost attention back.

As the days passed, she couldn’t help but play with her hair and boast about how her piercings didn’t hurt a bit, how she spent an hour choosing her new earrings and how gorgeous she looks with them. Truth be told, many classmates hated her for being a self-cantered and attention-seeking person.

Then came the day when her series of constant boasting stopped and a worried aura surrounded her. If Erum’s classmates weren’t always staring at her ears, they wouldn’t have been able to let her know the dreadful news of one of her elegant earrings being lost.

Erum touched her ears and realised that the one on the right ear was lost, but, thankfully, the other one was still dangling from her ear. The smirky face of Erum was replaced with a worried one. She retraced her steps all around the school, in the hope of finding her lost earring. In unsuccessful attempts of finding her earring, she started crying uncontrollably.

Her classmates were shocked to see such a sight. They had never seen her down and broken like this. Nevertheless, they all tried to comfort her. Some even went on a group search around the school to find Erum’s earring.

“I ... I shouldn’t have done that!” wailed Erum while holding her face in her hands. Her classmates were trying their best to comfort her. “I-I am s-so sorry! This is all my fault … I was the one who couldn’t stop bragging. Now look at me! I am reaping what I had sowed!” cried Erum.

Everyone around her were also having tears in their eyes, as they remembered the times that Erum nonchalantly made them feel inferiority complex for all stupid reasons.

Erum had never looked this broken and vulnerable as she uttered, “My parents would take all my favourite things away from me if they know about this. They have always been so strict.”

At that point, everyone was feeling very sorry for her. Nobody knew that this ‘perfect’ girl had many imperfect aspects of her life too. All were speaking soft and kind words to her, while some embraced her.

“We forgive you Erum, please stop crying. I am sure that someone will find your lost earring and bring it to you,” Maha, the one who made Erum feel envious of her piercing, gently consoled Erum.

Suddenly there was a commotion, the group who had gone off to search were seen returning in the class. Judging by the beaming smiles on their faces before they had even reached them, Maha knew that there was good news, and so, she smiled too.

The girls stood in front of the wailing Erum and the chubbiest one of them, Hania, said, “Stop crying you idiot! We always got your back!”

At that point, Erum lifted her head and looked at the girls. Those were the girls Erum had always made fun of. She felt a great amount of guilt at that moment. Hania then took Erum’s hand, opened her palm and placed something super sparkly inside of it.

“Here, it’s time that this was handed over to you,” she beamed. “We found it in the library, under the table where you always sit,” she added.

Erum cried with tears of happiness and warmly hugged Hania and the rest of the group, while chanting soft “Thank you”.

Ever since that day, Erum gets along nicely with all of her classmates and has become more appreciative of them. Now Erum never thought of herself superior to others and others too become more comfortable in her company.

Published in Dawn, Young World, February 27th, 2021