Amar Bail

1. daffodils

Daffodil is indicative of rebirth, new beginnings and eternal life. It also symbolizes unrequited love. A single daffodil foretells a misfortune while a bunch of daffodils indicate joy and happiness.  

....

7:50 in the morning and Azlan did not have enough brain cells awake to regret enrolling in this class. He still had 10 minutes till it began anyway and he could sleep for those 10 minutes, at least. He was the type who could sleep anywhere, as long as the place was clean and well, not infested by rats.

He was satisfied to be in this class even it was this early in the morning because an easy A for Taha was an even easier A-plus for him.

The bad thing, however, was that he had to be early to get a nice seat and still save one for Taha. Thinking of the devil, Taha placed himself with a thump near him. He laughed at how irritated Azlan looked for having his 'head down and eyes closed but not actually sleeping' nap disturbed. 

"Wake up GPA 3.7. You were the one who wanted us to enroll in this class remember?" He nudges him when he tries to put his head back on the bench. Azlan gives him an exasperated sigh. There goes his extra 10 minutes sleep, right out of the front window.

"Stop announcing my GPA to the entire university Taha, and can you see this lecture hall? It is house full right now because Dr. Ehsan's lecture is easy. Thank me later for saving your ass and I'll be obliged to say 'I told you so' to your face"

"Whatever dude. It should be worth waking up at 6—"

A red backpack was placed on the wooden bench-top out of nowhere. A girl with a white top which said 'prom queen' was standing right beside our desk and looked straight at Taha. "You, get up. Go sit with that girl in the front." What the actual hell?

"He is not going anywhere." Azlan looked at her with as much determination as one could muster for someone who was trying to muffle a yawn.

"Sure he is. If you sit with her for the rest of the semester I would do all your assignments for this course."

"Deal." Taha was gone in an instant. Azlan had his mouth hanging open at Taha for ditching him so easily. He was glaring at his back and shooting imaginary arrows at him. Reminding himself to breathe as he often forgot to do so in anger,Azlan started taking out his notes. So this is what being cheated feels like.

So, to ease some of his anger, Azlan took out his phone and sent some very threatening texts to Taha about how he would feel pleasure in killing him slowly and painfully. The reply was obviously some overly used emoticon.

Azlan thought of being the rational person he usually was in such situations and turned to the lady who had gained the status of annoyingly-bossy-at-first-sight—now settling in Taha's seat with the same bossiness she came there with.

"What semester are you?"

"Obviously your senior." Cynical smiles, notebooks taken out of bag, clattering of pens and highlighters on the desk.

He tried his best to not let the agitation he was feeling at her behavior to drip in his voice. The morning had turned out to be more than just disturbed naps for him. "You sure this is not your first day in the university today?"

The girl swept her hair to the side, sighing loudly and then rummaging through her bag to take her university ID out of it. "Would this be enough confirmation?"

Aleen Ghazanfar, Department of Life Sciences, Molecular Biology and Forensic Sciences, Session 2015 to 19, Roll no—

Oh, she definitely was a senior and from Life Sciences too. Apparently the prom queen was named Aleen. "Are you satisfied now?"

"Sure." Maybe now was the correct time for Azlan to regret his decision of enrolling in this class. What was more important to him, A-plus or getting rid of annoying seniors? An A-plus obviously.

He could manage this lecture, he thought, no problem. It was only 3 days a week, an hour and a half and he will make sure Aleen does not get to sit with him next time. As easy as a piece of cake.

Annoying, over-confident girls were not what he wanted to deal with—seniors or not. Is that an ink stain on her jeans? The class had not even started and she had splattered ink on her jeans. Add clumsy to the list of why he hated his first day in second semester.

....

Professor Ehsan was fifteen minutes late in his very first class. After his very long and unnecessary introduction he started briefing the class about what they should expect of the course the entire semester. 

Taha had needlessly tried to converse with the girl he was (not-so-forcefully) sitting with and all he could get out was that her name was Maham, and full stop. She was angry at someone for whatever reason and it was making his skin itch with the awkward aura that was surrounding them. He should go back to sit with Azlan starting the next class.

He had no choice but to listen to the professor to pass time. He gathered that for the course there would be 2 group presentations, one before the mids and one before the finals, and attendance would be marked as the internal grade. Cool. Azlan was right, this was an easy A.

No quizzes, no assignments and all you had to do was show up in the class to pass the internal grade. Taha was glad he wouldn't have to work that much. Wait, no assignments? That girl had him tricked?

Azlan's snickering was audible even from 2 rows back.

Serves you right for ditching me. The voice in his head sounded eerily similar to Azlan. What a shitty start to a new semester.