It was Friday afternoon and Amna was munching on chips and watching TV. She was excited since her friend Sara was coming over to spend the day and it the start of the midterm break of one whole week!

Unlike Amna, Sara decided to do most of her homework before going to Amna’s house. When Sara rang the door bell, it quickly opened to reveal her friend smiling and waving at her. Sara smiled and greeted Amna’s mum, who had come to drop Amna and was standing behind her daughter.

The friends had a great time together, just then Sara remembered to ask Amna if she had done her homework. Amna told Sara that she was in no mood to ruin her holidays and she would do it later.

Sara kept advising her to finish her homework so that she would be able to enjoy her holidays. Sara also explained that this will give Amna more time to prepare for her history test.

Amna made a disgusted face and said, “History is easy and it is my favourite subject, so I don’t need to prepare for it.” Sara sighed and wondered if Amna would ever understand.

As Amna and Sara were finishing dinner, the door bell rang. It was Sara’s parents. Amna asked if Sara could come the next day, but Sara’s parents simply replied, “She would love to, but she needs to prepare for the history test and I think you also have to prepare?”

Amna gave a faint smile. The next day when Amna was having corn flakes at the dining table, the phone rang. Amna picked up the phone, there was Sara on the other line and Amna cheerfully greeted, “Hi Sara!”

“Hello, just so you know the last sum of the math worksheet is a typo, there is supposed to be a 9 instead of 6.” Sara cleared.

Amna replied, “Oh! Okay thanks. I am going to do my homework tomorrow.”

So when the last day of the break arrived, Amna carelessly scribbled all the answers on the paper without thinking twice.

Her mother inquired, “Amna have you done your home work and prepared for your history test?”

Amna replied “Oh yeah, mum I have done my homework, and don’t worry about the test because it is so easy that I already know the answers.” Her mum trusted her so she was satisfied with the answer.

The school was back in business and it was Monday. Sara was walking towards her class when she saw Amna, “How are you dear, did you prepare for the test?”

Amna seemed unsure but said, “Yes. I did.”

So when it was time for the history test, Amna watched Sara writing feverishly and she stared at the paper as if it was in a different language. She wanted to peep into her partner’s paper but he was covering all his answers. Amna wrote things that did not make sense.

After the test, the girls talked casually and Amna told Sara that she had well. The next day, the teacher was to give them their checked papers.

Sara was thrilled to see that she had got the highest marks in the class. Among the cheerful cries of most students, Sara turned to Amna immediately, but she looked rather sad. Amna had failed the test.

That day Amna realised one thing, that she had been overconfident all this time, it was not the test result in her hands, it was in fact the result of her overconfidence.

Published in Dawn, Young World, November 25th, 2017