Writing For Fun 2

“Ring!” Almost instantaneously, only the sounds of pens clicking and writing could be heard. It was the Mathematics End Of Year examination. I answered question by question, breezing through the paper as I felt that it was relatively easy.

After finishing the paper and checking through it multiple times for careless mistakes that would cost me marks, I took a few glances around me, only to see that everyone else was hard at work with the math paper. “Is the paper really that hard?” I wondered to myself when a suspicious action caught my eye. “Wait a second, what is he doing? Out of everybody, him?”

I rubbed my eyes and took a closer look. My eyes were not playing tricks on me. It was really him. But why? I am sure my best friend has the right mind not to cheat in exams, especially such an exam like this? I knew I had to do the right thing by telling the invigilator. Just as I was getting ready to put up my hand, a thought flashed past my mind and I put down my hand, realising the gravity of the situation. What if I lose my best friend? What if he is going to hate me? What if…

Suddenly, a thousand and one “What if’s” flooded my mind. If I tell the teacher, he will get penalised for this exam and then hate me for betraying him. But if I don’t, he will never learn from his mistake. But I will lose my very best friend whom I have been sticking to during the past 5 years. These 19 words have been stuck in my mind, causing me to lose all the courage I have mustered to raise my hand.

I took another glance at him, secretly telling myself that if he stops his cheating methods, I will close one eye and let him off. However, he could still be seen peeking at the notes which he has hid very secretly under his table. Should I or should I not…

Finally, after many rounds of repeated thought, I felt that it was a need to do so. And so, I took a deep breath, and raised my hand…

Truly, after this incident, he is ignoring me and walking away whenever he sees me. Although it really hurts me to see him doing this to me, I felt that I had done the right thing as I had shown integrity. I also hoped that my best friend will learn his lesson and stop using cheating methods to score well in tests.