2Rf½

1. Age 20

Spatter spitter. The shower stopped. The door opened and a woman walked out. She sighed, staring at the girl who was asleep on the mattress.

"Sana!" She called her. The girl twitched but didn't wake up.

She tucked her towel in, bent down, and shook the girl. "Wake up! This is no time to sleep."

She woke up slowly rubbing her eyes before widening them suddenly.

"What is the time?!" She shouted.

"6.05 pm." The woman replied.

"Oh damn! I have just 25 minutes left." She got up hurriedly and ran to the bathroom.

My name is Sana Shaheedh. A 20 year old college student. Today is the orientation day for my course, and at 6.30 pm, I have to attend a hall which will present the entire new batch of the college. What course am I doing? MBBS. That is something I am very proud of.

My sister, the woman who woke me up earlier, has completed her MBBS, and now is a doctor in the local hospital. As a kid, I always dreamed of being a doctor, and the fact that my family hosts a few of them really fueled that dream of mine. My great uncle, my cousin once-removed, and now my sister, to name some. My aim is to be like them. Helpful.

After taking a shower I got ready, dressing well for the night. After all, the first impression is very important. My course mates will be present and I don't want to leave a bad feeling about me. So I dressed up in my favourite combo of clothes. A blue frills top, with a pair of black jeans. I love both colours, but I have to say I favour blue more. I put on my thin framed circular glasses, and was ready to head out.

On my way out of the room, I thanked my sister for waking me up and made my way onto college.

"Thanks Thittha."

"Good luck." She replied.

It is a 5 minute walk to college. I have to pass through narrow roads, with barely any space on the side-walk. Certain people roam around this area, and it makes me feel unsafe, but the other way around takes a longer time. Hanatha advised me not to take this road, but I don't want to walk that far. I will be late.

Ugh, the constant honking by these drivers whenever there is a halt in traffic. Even if it is as short as a few seconds. It is like they have to go to the toilet in a hurry. I laughed internally, as I almost reached my destination. I let my eyes run wild as I took the last turn. There was a flurry of people around me, all attending the orientation. That is to be expected, after all this is one of the biggest colleges in the country.

Rather unnoticed I entered the hall. Good thing my sister studied here. She already had explained to me the outlay of the place, even then I almost got lost. Nervousness I guess. I sat in the front row, and almost slept through the boring speeches given by the heads of the college.

One hour and thirty minutes later, it was time to leave. An absolute waste of my time. Constant gloating about how great their college is. With all the useful information horribly crammed into the last 15 minutes. "For more information please visit the student moodle." Basically that quarter of an hour summarized.

I got up disappointed. It would have been better if I was asleep. I said that to myself as I drifted towards the exit with my tiny legs. I took the long way home through the main road as it was late. This route took more than twice the time, and I arrived home around 8.25pm.

A/N: Thittha is one of the many ways to say sister in Dhivehi.