The Blooming Flowers

Relieved

Mira's pov

It's still 6’o clock in the morning. Some birds are making noise while sitting on a tree branch outside my window. Everyone is still sleeping in my home. I have to hurry. I combed my hair and checked my bag again to see if I'm forgetting something. No, I have everything I need for today. I take a look at my little sister who is sleeping soundly on the floor bedding.

“Hey Aria, hey. Wake up Aria”, I called her while shaking her shoulder.

“Umm, what is it sis?”, she asked with a sleepy voice.

“I'm going to college. Close the door behind me. Don't make any sound, okay?”, I said to her in a low voice. Well, I didn't really need to tell her those. She has been doing this for me for years.

Okay now I should hurry up.

Then I got out of the room. My parents are sleeping in the room beside ours. I carefully walked to the main door and opened it without any sound. Aria followed me without a sound. After getting out of he house I signalled her to close the door.

There is no one in the alley. I walked for five minutes. I walked up in the main road leaving our senile neighbourhood behind. After I came to the main road I could finally see some people. On the other side of the road there are sky high buildings. What a scene. One road but the different sides of it has different faces of the world.

There is also some buses in road. One of them will go by my college. But I didn't got into it. I will walk.

After walking for almost over one and half hour I can finally see my college buildings far away. Suddenly my phone rang. Who is calling me at this hour? I take out my mobile phone from my beg. It's Sarah! My classmate.

“Hello”, I answered the phone.

“Hello, Mira?”, I can instantly recognise Sarah's calm voice.

“Yes I'm Mira. What is it? Is there anything wrong? ”, I asked her.

“No, no. I called to ask where you are right now”, she said from the other side of the phone.

“Oh, I'm close to college right now. Are you already in there?”, I asked her.

“ah, yes. I have already arrived. Ok then be careful in your way. Bye”, she replied.

“Yes, bye”, I cut the call after that. I should have walked faster. Maybe everyone is already in the classroom. I'm late.

I passed the college gate almost running. After I get into the classroom, I saw the group I'm supposed to do the assignment with is already sitting in a corner. I walked to them hurriedly.

“Hello everyone. Good morning”, I greet them while catching my breath.

“Good morning”, said Sarah.

“Where is Neli?”, I asked as I couldn't see her anywhere.

“We also would like to know that”, said Rina.

She looks angry. Why? What happened? Maybe because we are getting late.

“Should I call her?”, I asked them.

“It’s no use, we already did and she didn't answer”, Sarah said.

Oh, this is bad. But Neli didn't come even after we waited for fifteen more minutes. Some other classmates of ours also came early to do their assignments. They are already working on it. Alia also started to look through the books and materials. We are just quietly sitting together.

“I think we should start already”, Sarah said breaking the ice.

“What about Neli? Who is going to do her portion of work?”, Rina asked her.

Good question. But we will see that later.

“Let's just start first. We can keep a portion for Neli to work on her own”, Sarah replied.

“That’s a good idea”, I said as we are getting late.

“Okay then let's start”, Rina said.

After that we did our assignment for two hours straight. “I think we should stop for today”, Alia said suddenly. I guess we couldn't finish it in a day in the first place. So it's okay to not over work ourselves.

“Yeah, I also think so”, Sarah agreed.

Class will begin in twenty minutes. We were about to get up after packing things up for today. That's when Rina said in a law voice that Neli was coming.

Looking back I saw Neli entering the classroom. Wait she looks like she is in a wedding or something. Is it common among rich girls to do makeup like that! Maybe that’s the case. But that much makeup needs time, did she not come early intentionally?

“Hey Neli, Why are you so late?”, I asked her being curious.

“Oh hey guys. Good morning. How have you been? Well you see I forgot about coming early today. Have you finished the assignment?” Neli said.

My mind went blank for a moment hearing her reply. Did she expect us to do also her work.

“What? What did you said?”, Rina asked her.

“I asked if you have finished the assignment already?”, Neli asked again.

“Why? Should we have finished the assignment already? The one also you have to work on?”, said Rina. She looks angry.

Neli kept quite for a moment. And after understanding what Rina meant she was about to say something but Sarah didn't let her say anything. Maybe she saw a fight coming.

“Well Neli, actually we kept aside a portion of the assignment for you. We are already working on our portions”, Sarah said.

I looked at Alia and noticed that she is also looking at Neli with annoyance in her eyes.

“As you can see our schedule is a little different from yours so, it's good to divide the work from the beginning”, Sarah added.

That's a good idea. This way we won't be held back for the errors caused by her irresponsibility.

“Oh what? I don't even have the materials”, Neli said being flashed.

“I’m giving you the materials”, said Sarah. While giving her the materials she said, “Here. And I've marked the part which you need to work on”.

Taking the materials from her hand Neli disappointedly went away. I guess she understood that no one is going to be her slave in this group. But will we be in trouble if we do the assignment separately?

Should I tell others? But it kind of looks impossible to do it with Neli. We have no other option. Let's just stop overthinking. I don't wanna be Neli’s slave anyways.

“Hah, the princess has come. She will go around doing whatever she wants and we will have to do the assignment for her! Just who does she thinks she is?”, Rina said with a disgusted face. I can't blame her. There are people like Neli who make people feel like people owe them. They just talk in that way and make people feel guilty for no reason. I myself am disgusted.

But still I smiled at Rina's reaction. She really is very expressive. She can't hide her feelings I guess.

Suddenly hearing someone laughing I looked to see who it is. It's Alia. She is laughing! She won't even smile while talking to people. She also talks less. But she looks really beautiful when she laughs. It's like her eyes have become bright, shiny and also is smiling.

Rina said, “You can laugh!”

Oh Rina, that sounds rude. That's also my reaction. But we can’t say it to her face like that. I looked at Alia. She looks surprised.

“Come on Rina, don't be rude. Of course she can laugh”, said Sarah.

I can feel that Rina didn’t mean to be rude. She just spoke her mind. So I tried to cover for her. “No, no it's just that she don't even smile while talking. That's why we are just surprised”, I said.

Rina also explained, “That's what I was saying. You don't even smile. But hey, you looked really beautiful when you were laughing”.

That's right. She looked like an angel. After looking at us for a moment, Alia gave us a little smile. Oh, we are out of trouble.

Alia is still smiling at us. We smiled back. I don't know why but I liked this little moment between four of us. Also I felt a sense of relief in me.

Coming to college, I had a lot of problems and hesitations. I choose this government college because of it's lower expenses. I had chance to go to a bigger government college. I didn't get admitted there. Because that college is too far. So, the transport expense would be higher.

I also felt pressured. Because in college, almost all students are from higher social classes than me. Girls like me usually don't really get to go to college. I had a concern that I won't be able to fit well in here. I was also looked down on in school because of my lower social status.

So right now, I'm kind of relieved.