Jasir and Inaya listen to their big sister Leena talk about the importance of Jasir’s studies, but Jasir has a question....
COVER STORY
Jasir and Inaya listen to their big sister Leena talk about the importance of Jasir’s studies, but Jasir has a question.
“What do you mean, I have to earn my scholarship?” Jasir asked. “I already won it when I got first place in the TV competition.”
Leena paused before answering. “There’s a difference between getting a scholarship to cover your undergraduate tuition fees, and getting admitted to a college,” she said.
Jasir stared at her. “What’s the difference?” he asked. “If I get into whatever college, they can take the scholarship!”
“I know you didn’t read the fine print; in fact, you didn’t read the details about your prize at all,” Leena said. “Papa did. I got to know from him that it isn’t that simple, actually.”
Jasir threw his hands in the air in frustration. “If there was a catch, they should have mentioned it in the first place! This prize is even more useless than I thought it was when I got it.”
Inaya spoke with a confused expression. “I know you’re worried about it, Leena, but wherever he gets admitted to, he can use the scholarship, surely?”
“Not really,” Leena said. “It’s conditional. If he doesn’t meet the conditions, he won’t get the scholarship.”
“Can we stop talking about this already?” Jasir said. “I did that competition for fun. They gave me some worthless prize that you don’t really get. I’m fine with that, I still have high school and intermediate to go before I even think about college.” He leaned forward and picked up the nearest object within grabbing distance, which happened to be the guide book. Starting to flip the pages idly, he said loudly, “There’s more to life than studying!” He opened the table of contents.
Leena shot her arm out and clamped her hand down over the guide book, stopping Jasir from turning the pages. “You’re not going to waste your summer home tuition by using these shortcuts,” she said.
“You want me to be able to write leave applications for the whole class, then?” Jasir slipped his hands out from around the book and crossed his arms. “Since they’re going to be copying stuff that’s already been written in these guides, taking the easy way out. Why do I have to be another version of you?”
Leena closed the guide book and fixed Jasir with a hard gaze. “I want you to be able to write your own applications if you need to do that.” Leena’s tone was firm and her hold on the book was even more so.
“Yeah, make me do it the hard way.” Jasir shook his head.
“You really have the hard way, Jasir.” Leena looked serious. “Don’t you know why Mama and Papa put you in pre-Matric prep?”
“Bragging rights if I end up getting high scores?” Jasir said.
“No.” Whatever reserve of firmness Leena was running on, it wasn’t running out. “It’s to make sure you score well enough to get into the colleges included in the scholarship.”
“I haven’t even finished school yet.” Jasir kicked idly at the edge of the study table. “I don’t know what the fuss is about.”
“The fuss is that these colleges are very hard to get into,” Leena said. “Even if you get into them, they’re very expensive. When the Student Super Star competition gave you that college scholarship, they took care of the financial part. Actually getting admission still depends on you. It’s an offer that is worth working for.”
Launching himself onto Inaya’s bed, Jasir lay back with his hands behind his head and looked at his two sisters at each end of the room. “What if I think it’s not worth working for?” he asked. “What if I just want to have an average school life and then a normal two years of intermediate and then just get into whatever college will take me?”
Leena buried her face in her hands. “Jasir,” she groaned.
To Jasir’s surprise, Inaya spoke up. “It’s so much trouble, trying to get into a top college.” She sat up straighter. “If he just goes to a college that Papa can afford, he will get the undergraduate education he wants anyway. He doesn’t even know what he wants to do right now.” She looked pointedly at Jasir.
“Thank you!” Jasir punched both fists in the air from where he was lying across Inaya’s bedspread. Inaya grinned briefly from her seat in the corner. Leena had not taken her face out of her hands. “You don’t know what you’re giving up.” Her voice came weakly from behind her fingers.
“What do you expect me to do, spend years trying to get into some college when I can just get into whatever college instead?” Jasir crossed his arms across his chest.
Inaya giggled. “‘Whatever college’. I like the sound of that.”
Jasir waved a hand in her direction. “I know you went back for better O Levels grades and we’ll find out how good they are this time when result day comes around, but I don’t want to do that. I’d rather just start college and have fun. Even if I’m getting home tutoring to turn me into the next best board exam scorer, getting my face on an academy promotional poster is the last place I want it to be, and a successful hair transplant poster is second-last on that list.”
“You still don’t get it.” Leena lowered her hands from her face and looked up at Jasir. “You can’t make repeated attempts to get in. The scholarship is only if you get admission on your first attempt. After that, you’ll lose the scholarship.”
Jasir jumped up from the bed and grabbed the door. “I’m out of here,” he said, swinging around the door and running out of the room, leaving Leena glaring after him and Inaya avoiding Leena’s gaze.
“I’m going to talk to Aqeel about this,” Leena said finally. “If I can’t get him to understand as his big sister, maybe his tutor will be able to explain it better to him.”
“You know you can just let Mama and Papa handle it.” Inaya’s suggestion did not do anything to make Leena look less worried.
“He only says that because he thinks it’s too far away to care about.” It was Leena’s turn to get up and go to the door. “When you want to ask the value of something, ask the person who had it and then lost it.” She left the room.
What will happen when others care more about what is at stake than Jasir does? Find out in the next episode of Hackschool Project.
