Hackschool Project # 15: Payback time

COVER STORYInaya shares her feelings with Leena and Jasir about tricking their cousin Arisha.“You feel bad for what we did to take revenge on Arisha for making a fake Instagram account of you?” Leena asked.“Yes,” said Inaya, looking serious.“Arisha is the one who has been competing against you out of all the cousins since childhood,” Leena said.“I know,” Inaya said.“Arisha is the one who spits in your tea and sneaks a cupful of salt into your cake batter,” Leena said.“I remember when she did that,” Inaya said.“You still feel bad about us arranging to get a bad photo of her when she was all sweaty and crying from walking all over the college campus and finding out that there was no ‘dress like a village girl day’, like we’d tricked her into thinking,” Leena said. “That’s important ammunition in our arsenal. We can hold this against her for months, if not years.”“I think we should delete the photo,” Inaya said, sighing. “What?” Leena gasped. “After all the hard work we put into getting it? We’re just going to throw it away? Inaya, are you feeling all right? You were on board with this plan since the beginning.”“I just feel bad about it,” Inaya said, frowning. “I don’t like it when Arisha does mean things to me, but I’ve never really done anything mean in return. I’ve just been on the receiving end. Doing this makes me feel like I’m as bad as she is.”Leena looked carefully at her younger sister, then shook her head. “I think I understand what you mean. Once we share how you feel with Jasir, I will delete the photo in front of both of you. Is that OK?”“That’s good.” Inaya looked relieved. “I’m glad we didn’t go through with it.”Later, when Jasir joined his two sisters to regretfully observe the carefully obtained photo dissolve away as it was deleted and then removed from the trash folder of Leena’s phone, Inaya spoke up. “I think we should do more than just deleting the photo,” she said.“What on earth can we do that makes up for this apart from deleting the photo?” Jasir asked with an annoyed look on his face.“You know Arisha is coming over to stay here for the whole weekend because she doesn’t go to her grandmother’s place when her mother does?” Inaya asked.“Yeah, something ridiculous about being allergic to the garden in her grandmother’s house in this season.” Leena shook her head in amazement.“You know she really just wants to be a pain in the neck and come here to annoy us,” Jasir said.“That much is obvious,” Inaya said. “I think we should offer to make it up to her by doing what she wants us to do for the time she’s here.”Silence fell. Jasir’s eyes bulged with astonishment and Leena clapped a hand to her mouth in surprise.“You can’t be serious,” Leena said. “You want us to become Arisha’s slaves just because we embarrassed her for a few hours?” Jasir asked incredulously. “You’re exaggerating,” Inaya replied firmly. “It’s not slavery. It’s earning her forgiveness.”“Arisha forgiving anyone for anything is completely impossible,” Leena said, shaking her head. “She is going to hold onto this grudge for a long time.”“Not that it makes any difference, really.” Jasir shrugged. “She has had a thing against Inaya since forever. That’s not going to change no matter what we do.”“Are you two going to help me with this or not?” Inaya snapped irritably. She turned to Jasir. “You owe me for helping you get votes for the TV competition you participated in.” Then she turned to Leena. “You owe me for keeping my mouth shut about you being kicked out of your original college back at the start of the academic year.” Inaya stood up straight for maximum effect. “Both of you have no choice but to go along with me in doing this!”“All right, all right, calm down, Inaya,” Leena said, sighing.Jasir just made a gloomy face and stared out of the window. “My last day before enslavement to the sisterhood,” he said dully.“No need to be so dramatic,” Inaya said cheerfully. “It will be over before you know it.”It certainly was not over before they knew it. When Arisha arrived, striding along with double the confidence than usual because of the repentant messages in her cell phone from the Moin siblings in which they had promised her their services for the weekend, the three of them heaved a collective sigh. Then they jumped forward into the unpleasant task.“Welcome to our humble home,” Jasir said, coming forward in one sweeping motion with his arms open wide. He had chosen to overact in order to keep his composure throughout the ordeal. Arisha merely grinned and waved a hand airily in his direction. “Take my shoes, won’t you?” she said, sticking out her foot.“Excuse me?” Jasir’s face fell for a moment before he could collect himself.“Here, let me make it plainer,” Arisha said. She kicked her sandals off her feet in Jasir’s general direction so that they hit his legs like little sparkly missiles. Jasir winced but took the shoes and headed for the shoe rack.“Put them in the top rack.” Arisha shot this command over her shoulder before proceeding into the living room, where Leena waited.“So nice to see you,” Leena said, plastering the fakest of plastic smiles on her face to mask her inner annoyance. “It is nice to see you, actually,” Arisha said brightly. “I can’t wait to have my fun with you specifically.” Leena merely smiled a thin-lipped smile. “Mama and Papa are out shopping,” she said, “so you will have us three as your hosts today. What would you like?”“Hmm,” Arisha settled into the best seat in the living room and looked thoughtful. “I’d like some entertainment.”“Tea, water, soft drink, juice,” Jasir piped up from the background. “That’s what Leena is asking you.”“Oh, I’m not thirsty,” Arisha said. “At least, not for drinks.” She smiled a mockingly serene smile.“We all know you are here to quench your thirst for our blood,” Jasir said in a tired voice. “Come on, Leena, just bring out a tea trolley for our esteemed guest.”“Sure,” Leena said, retreating quickly into the kitchen, grateful to temporarily be out of the line of fire.Arisha got up and went towards the computer set up in the corner of the living room. “What on earth can you possibly use this for?” Arisha sat down at the computer table and clicked around. “Jasir, unlock this for me.” “That’s my computer account,” Jasir said immediately.“I know,” Arisha replied smoothly. “I said, unlock it for me.”Jasir spent a long second staring at Arisha before leaning over the keyboard and typing in the password.“Ah, this is fine.” Arisha clicked through several folders before settling on an icon and double clicking it. “This looks like a fun game.”“Yeah, why don’t you play this all afternoon then,” Jasir said irritably. “Good way to spend the time.”“I agree.” Arisha smiled. By the time Leena brought in the tea trolley, she had gotten bored of playing and was ready to move to the coffee table.“That’s a good game, but I still couldn’t beat Jasir’s high score, so I overwrote it.” Arisha accepted her cup of tea and looked expectantly at Leena. “Two sugars, Leena,” she said.Jasir froze for one heart-stopping moment before going to check the computer. Not only had Arisha overwritten his high score with her significantly lower score, she had also saved over his save file, essentially erasing his progress in the game. Leena did not comment when Jasir ran feverishly into his room, red in the face and short of breath. She knew he was going to lock himself in and punch a few pillows before lying face down in bed simmering with anger. She turned her attention to the matter at hand, which was pampering Arisha while she took an excessive amount of time to take her tea. Arisha made Leena empty the whole jar of biscuits to find just the right shape that she wanted. Then she followed it up by making Leena reheat her tea in the kitchen twice even though it was already hot. The finishing flourish was Arisha leaving her tea unfinished, with half a dozen biscuits drowned in it. Leena was ready to give up, but Arisha was not done with her yet. “I’m bored.” Arisha looked pointedly at Leena. “Bring your makeup out. I want you to paint my nails.”“Inaya is studying for her finals,” Leena said. “I don’t want to disturb her by going in there just to get some nail polish.”“I will come to Inaya soon enough,” Arisha said. “Nail polish! Now!”Arisha spent a good amount of time making Leena paint and repaint her nails without being satisfied by any of it before she started going through the makeup bag.“All of this is so useless,” she said loftily. “What does it matter to you, it’s not yours,” Leena said, annoyed.“I like this one, though.” Arisha held up a half-used lipstick and studied it carefully. “I can’t believe you have this brand in here, doesn’t look like you can afford it.”Leena suppressed a sigh and an eye-roll and looked pointedly in the opposite direction.“This lipstick is going back with me,” Arisha said decidedly, capping the tube and putting it into her handbag. “Consider it an instalment of your payment back to me for what you did.” Leena hid her expression by turning away from Arisha and gathering up the makeup she had scattered all over the place.“Inaya can stop hiding behind her books now,” Arisha said, finally tiring of the makeup. “Let’s go see what she’s doing.”“Arisha,” Leena began, but Arisha stopped her.“I’m just going to look at what she’s studying,” Arisha said with mock innocence. “It might help me to pick up some tips from her.” Then she laughed. Leena was filled with concern about what Arisha might do to sabotage Inaya this time, so she followed Arisha closely as she made her way to where Inaya was studying.“After messing with both Jasir and me, I really hope she isn’t going for the hat-trick,” Leena muttered to herself.What will Arisha do next? More importantly, what will the three Moin siblings do about it? Catch it all in next month’s episode of Hackschool Project.

from The News International - US http://bit.ly/2Slutsd