Once Upon A Time, A Thousand Tears Ago #Wattys2017

Chapter 6: DO NOT DEPEND ON FLASH DRIVES, EVER

HEY READERS !!! i hope you like the story so far. Although the main story is yet to start. Now this time I am going to set vote goals. that means if you are reading it and if you want a quick update then you have to vote this chapter. As soon as I get 10 votes for this chapter, I will update the new chapter. Its a simple small vote goal. Just 10 votes. So go for it. Let me see who is eager for the next chapter. Seeeee Yaaa xxx

"You are seriously stupid. What did he do in fact?" My sister is for sure not my sister. She is just criticizing me over my behavior. But what should I do? I was never a girl who would talk to boys. Not that I am shy, but I never felt the need to. May be that's the reason why I think this is just brainlessness to talk to opposite gender people. Or maybe my sister is right that I was being stupid.

"You know me Kash, I can't talk to boys and he was smiling when that idiotic smile was not even needed" I tiredly explain her my point of view but I guess she is not buying it.

"Great Mississippi! If somebody is trying to be nice to you, you start thinking that the person is flirting with you. You need to sort out your foolishness." She is lecturing me like an aunt.

"Whatever, I don't care Kash, now lemme sleep. It was a long day"

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"Yes! All new appointees need to participate in this seminar and we want unplagiarized work. Everything on power point. Use your own flash drives. Submit your work in your flash drive before your presentation. We wish you all good luck. Let's hope to find some good researchers out of the new lot. And yes the chosen one gets the chance to choose any other appointee as their assistant researcher. Thank you doctors"

Professor Schwoski explained us all the procedure to participate in a new research seminar. Interesting. I was always interested in research projects and now is the time to fulfill my dreams. But the competition part is still there and I am so motivated to work on this. I quickly choose the topic of my research, something I had always wanted to do. A topic related to pediatrics. As soon as I step in home, I start working on my project. I want it to be flawless. I want to win this competition at any cost. Winning the competition will mean that I can do research on my own plus the research will be fully sponsored. I mean what else you want from life.

When I finish my work, I check it again thoroughly, practicing the way I am going to present my work in front of the whole committee. I hope it goes well.

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Today is the day. The day. THE DAY. I am all set, all prepared. I take all the best wishes from everyone at home. My lovely parents kissed me on my forehead and blessed me with their love and prayers. I love them so much. There comes Kashaf. Irritating but sweet. Oh and her lucky bracelet. I have started thinking that this bracelet actually works for me. She hands it over to me saying all the good things I want to hear. But my mind is totally focused on the competition.

Entering the main hall where the presentations will take place, I glance at the candidate seating area. I can see more than 20 people in that zone. May be they are from other departments as well. Anxiety is building up inside me. I start walking towards the candidate region when I see Dr. Zaroon. Poor soul. He looks at me and quickly fixes his stare at someone on the other side. I know he felt bad that day. May be I was too rude. Anyways I don't care. Good that now he won't smile like a stupid and can save his teeth from my karate punch. When I sit on my seat, I hear an announcement about submitting the flash drives for presentations. I briskly walk towards the person who is collecting all the flash drives and queue up behind 5 people. I turn and see Dr. Zaroon is standing next to me. He instantly looks away and guilt flows through me. Was I that bad that day?

"Sorry Ma'am your flash drive isn't working"

The man who was collecting all the pen drives gave me mines back with these words.

"Wait I'll give you another one" and then I start searching in my purse. Once, twice, thrice, but still I can't find the backup pen drive.

"Ma'am move aside and let the others submit their work" The brown-colored-hair man said rudely to me.

I move out of the queue to search my bag rigorously but all I find is darkness. It's the darkness of my future that I see inside my bag. All my nerves have started tingling. I feel noise and silence around me. I think I will faint if I lose the biggest chance of my life because of something as silly as this.

"Zara you okay?" A familiar voice calls my name. I look up to see the source and it's Dr. Zaroon.

I am at the verge of crying but I won't cry in front of him. "I can't find my flash drive. All my work was saved in this one and it didn't work. I had another flash drive ready but I can't find it. I don't know what is going to happen now."

I feel like I am continuously talking to this man who was badly insulted by me. "Do you have your work stored in your email id?" He cuts me from my incoherent thoughts.

"Ye—Yeah I have it" why is he asking me. I think I am going to cry.

"Okay then take my flash drive, copy your work in it and submit it from your side"

"B—But how I mean, they said one flash drive per person. That means if I use your flash drive you won't be able to use it. Oh! Do you have an extra flash drive" I inquire him in hopes that he has an extra one that I can use.

"No Zara I don't have an extra one but you can definitely use this one"

"But then how will you..... "

"Well I can present my work on a simple white board, don't worry about me. You should take this flash drive and quickly copy down your work."

"No Zaroon. I can't do this. This is yours and I know this research work is a dream for everyone. I can't build my dream on the broken pieces of your dreams"

"hahaha Zara. Who said that I am giving this flash drive for free?"

He fakes laughter and I am taken aback by his words. What does he want in return?

Remember the vote goal. 10 votes and you get the next chapter. Plus, commenting will do good too :)