Ali and Arif were best friends since Montessori. However, both the boys belonged to families with very different financial backgrounds. Arif was from a very rich family, while Ali had a more humble background. They also had completely different personalities.

Ali was an honest boy with a kind heart while Arif was a bit selfish and only thought about himself. But the good thing was that none of the bad traits of Arif’s nature came between their friendship.

Ali was good in studies and usually topped in his class. All the teachers and students appreciated him for his good performance. As they grew older, Arif began to get irritated by all the appreciation Ali got. Students would come to Ali with queries, who would humbly solve them.

Time flew, both the kids were now in eighth grade and it was almost the end of the academic session. They were about to have their final term exams in less than a month and, as usual, Ali was all prepared for the exams but Arif was not. Ali offered him help, but Arif refused, saying he does not have any interest in studies and that he would still pass. Arif said this because he knew that his father would find a way to pay for his good grades.

During the revision classes it was clear that Ali had already done his exam preparations as he always knew all the answers and the teachers too praised him a lot. Arif started getting jealous of Ali because of this, though Ali had no idea what was going on in Arif’s mind.

All the paper went well and on the last day of their exam, Arif made a wicked plan to defame his best friend in front of everyone. Both the boys’ roll numbers were one after the other so in examination room, they got seats close by according to their roll numbers. Arif secretly made ‘micro answer papers’ and put them under Ali’s desk.

Before the paper started, Ali wished Arif luck. Arif then asked, “Ali, what do you think? Will you top this time too?”

“I am not sure, but I can confidently say that I am prepared enough to pass with good grades. What about you Arif?” Ali said

“Well! I don’t care, but I am sure to pass the exams,” Arif responded with a smirk on his face.

Everyone was given answer sheets and the question paper, and the exam started. All the students immediately got engrossed in solving the questions, while the teacher walked between the students’ seating queues. Within few minutes of their paper, the teacher noticed something under Ali’s desk.

The teacher stopped for a second and realised that there were papers under the desk, and she immediately grabbed those papers. Ali was surprised and startled. The teacher was taken aback as all the paper contained the answers to most of the questions that came in the exam.

The teacher stopped Ali from writing further and took him to the principal’s office. Ali knew it was a misunderstanding. He regretted not looking under his desk before sitting. On his way to the principal’s office he tried to talk to the teacher, but she wouldn’t listen and kept walking.

Once reaching there, she told everything to the principal. The principal, too, was dumbstruck to see such an act from Ali. She called his parents. Ali cried for he knew he was innocent. The principal and the teacher were also confused since he had never been involved in any wrong activity in the school and all knew him as a brilliant student who had been studying on merit scholarship for years. But finding the answers from under his desk pointed out that Ali was involved in cheating.

When Ali’s parents came, they too couldn’t believe so they kept telling the principal that their son was innocent and he had prepared his best for the exams.

The examination time was over now. Arif went straight to the principal’s office to see how his plan was working. As he stood outside and listened to their conversation, he felt ashamed. In his jealousy, Arif had not realised the serious consequences of his actions.

For the first time in Arif’s life, he felt sorry, and before he could change his mind, he went inside the principal’s office and confessed his terrible act in front of principal, teachers, Ali and his parents.

He said, “I’m sorry. Ali is not responsible for anything, but I am. I did this just to defame Ali and wanted the teachers to dislike him. I wanted to be admired by teachers and all my fellow students, because I never got any attention. So I thought of this plan.

“Ali, I don’t deserve to be your friend you deserve someone better than me. Please forgive me! I have realised my mistake,” Arif confessed in tears.

“Respected principal, all I want at this time is that you give Ali a chance to complete in his exam,” Arif said.

The principle was very angry and called Arif’s parents. Upon reaching the school, they were told what Arif had done to poor Ali. As a result, Arif was suspended for a month from school, while Ali was given a chance to do continue with the exam. He topped in his class, of course.

This malicious incident brought both the boys even closer to each other since it proved to be the catalyst that completely changed Arif from a selfish friend to a caring one and from a dull student to a hardworking one.

Published in Dawn, Young World, September 25th, 2021