Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating(79)

I’m not sure where the motivation comes from, but one moment I’m sitting in my seat, looking after Ishu, and the next I’m rushing up to the stage.

“Ishita is not a cheater.” The hall descends into silence once more. Everyone’s eyes are turned to me but I can’t exactly stop now. “You’ve all got to be daft to believe that she is. What, do you believe every single thing Aisling has said to you?” I glance at Aisling, who is glaring daggers up at me. There’s a tug of discomfort in my stomach at her gaze. We’re best friends. We were best friends, I remind myself as I turn away from her, and toward Principal Gallagher. “Ms. Gallagher, you know it was Aisling who cheated. She told me so. Why are you letting Ishita take the blame for this?”

Ms. Gallagher finally stands, and shuffles over to the podium stand. And as if she hasn’t heard a single word I’ve said, she speaks into the mic, “Thank you to the three Head Girl candidates for their presentations. Voting will be next week. You can all return to your classrooms.”

Everyone shuffles to their feet and out through the double doors at the end of the hallway, stealing glances back at me the whole time. My bravery from a few moments ago is gone now, leaving me with an impending feeling of doom in my chest.

“Humaira,” Ms. Gallagher finally turns to me as the hallway becomes emptier and emptier. “You can’t just get up in front of your whole year and say things like that.”

“But it’s the truth,” I say.

“Ishita and I have an understanding about the situation with Aisling,” Ms. Gallagher says. Somehow, I don’t believe her at all.

“An understanding that Aisling can do whatever she wants?”

“She’ll be punished. But … dragging her name through the mud in front of the entire school? We have a zero tolerance policy for bullying here, so I’d be careful. Now, why don’t you get back to class?”

There are still a million thoughts scrambling around inside my head, but I know that speaking to Principal Gallagher is pointless. She thinks somehow Aisling is the victim and Ishu the perpetrator, and I’m not sure anything I say will change the way she sees the two of them. So, I step down from the stage, trying my best to not let my anger spill over.





chapter forty-six


ishu


I dropped out of the Head Girl election.

I send off the text and heave a sigh. The bathroom stall I’ve decided to hole up in has the lyrics to an Ariana Grande song scribbled onto it in black marker. That makes me smile, thinking about any of the girls in our school spending their time carefully etching lyrics onto the bathroom door instead of going to class.

My phone vibrates with texts from Nik just a few minutes later.

Nik: ????

Nik: WHY???

Because all the girls were accusing me of—

I hesitate and erase the text. That’s not really why.

Because I didn’t know how to say—

I stop again, staring down at my phone screen, unsure of how to exactly explain to my sister why I made the decision when I’m not sure I completely understand it myself.

I don’t have the time to think about it too much though, because in the next moment my phone is buzzing with a phone call.

“Hello?” I whisper, hoping that no teachers come in here looking for me.

“What happened?” Nik asks. “Do I need to come down there again?” She says it like it’s a joke but I fully believe she would do it again if she had to.

“No …” I trail off, unsure of where to begin. “I just … I got up there and I didn’t have anything to say, Nik,” I say. “Why do I want to be Head Girl? Everyone else was talking about class hoodies and debs, and how they have all of this leadership experience. I don’t want to be a bloody leader of these girls; I barely even like talking to them half the time. I definitely don’t want to spend half of the final year in school planning a dance where I’ll probably have a miserable time.”

“Well, if you go with Hani, I’m sure you—”

“Nik.”

“Sorry,” she chuckles. “Look … I could have told you your reasons for running for Head Girl were rubbish, but if it’s what you want, it’s what you want.”

“I never even thought about becoming Head Girl before … before you told us about dropping out of university.”

“So you want to be Head Girl … to show me up?”

“To … show Ammu and Abbu that I’m … not you,” I mumble. When I told Abbu and Ammu that I was going to be Head Girl, the decision to run had made sense. But now, my reasons make a knot form in my stomach.

“Trust me, Ishu … Ammu and Abbu don’t think you’re me. They’ve already written me off, but they still have faith in you.” Nik says this all breezily, but I can sense the hurt in her words.

“They haven’t written you off,” I say, even though I’m not sure I believe that.

“That doesn’t matter.” Nik sighs. “Look … if you want to run for Head Girl for Ammu and Abbu, I get that. But … you don’t have to do it.”

“I don’t … think I want to be Head Girl. Also … it’s not even possible for me to be Head Girl. Everyone still thinks I cheated.” I sigh. “They’re trying to protect Aisling, apparently.”