AN/- This chapter doesn't encourage cheating. Please don't follow the story leads words in real life. Cheating is wrong and if caught will get you a black mark... For further details read the author's note at the end of the chapter.
I have seen author's notes saying 'I don't encourage domestic violence or rape.' Similarly I am saying I don't encourage cheating on exams. This is just imagination and not to be performed in real life. 

Finally first internal examination came. We were asked to attend the exam along with the fourth year students.

First 30 students of second and fourth year were allocated in second year's class room and rest 30 students of these two years were allocated in fourth year's classroom.

For us it was Biochemistry in the forenoon and Microbiology in afternoon.

Me being the first roll number, I was allocated to the first bench on the left corner of the classroom.

Soon Adarsh entered the classroom and sat on the second bench which is behind me.

"Aaru, have you prepared for the exam?" He whispered.

"Yeah?" I wondered why he asked that question

"Great. Show me the 1 marks then. I will poke you with pen, that time, move your answer sheet to the right side. I will copy from it."

"Huh?" I turned back and frowned at him.

"Deal?" he showed me thumbs up with a stupid grin on his face.

"No copying!" I whispered furiously.

He looked shocked and said with a pout, "Is this how you repay me with all those blood samples I donated to you?"

"Dei, I got you chocolates for that", saying that I turned front as teacher came in with answer sheet and started to place two sheets in each table.

I was writing my roll number and exam details when someone stood beside me.

I looked up to find Adi waiting for me to move so that he can sit. I moved out and he went to his seat.

"Adi" I heard voice from another bench right side to me.

"Send me all those 1 marks da." The same person whispered.

Copying huh?

I shook my head and started to answer the questions as soon as I received the question paper.

I continued to write, suddenly I heard Adi asking me, "Aaru, do you have eraser?"

I took a brand new eraser from my pouch and gave it to him.

On looking at it, he muttered, "Perfect. I will get you one after the exam."

I heard some noise from behind. When I looked back, girl behind Adi was calling him and he was scribbling something on... Wait, is he scribbling on my eraser?

I was about to ask him, he immediately passed that eraser to her. How dare he use my brand new eraser?

I looked at the teacher but she was busily looking at the students sitting at back bench. Then I looked back at Adi, he acted as if he was writing the paper sincerely. I glared at him.

What an acting!!!

On sensing my glare he looked up raised his eyebrow at me asking 'what?'

"You want eraser?" he asked and gave a small eraser.

"Use this, after the exam I will get you a new eraser."

I huffed and continued my writing.

"Adi, One mark da." I heard the person from my right side calling.

Soon Adi gave me an Eraser, "Pass this to him."

"Huh?" I looked bewildered.

"Just pass this eraser as you gave your eraser to me. That's all."

I shook my head vigorously. If I ever get caught on for helping others during exam, then they will cancel my exam and they will put a black mark on my name.

"Or just throw it near his foot, he will take it." I wished I could throw that eraser on his face for asking me to do this which could words jeopardize my career life.

"See ma'am is on right side of the classroom, she won't see us. Throw it." He gave me an encouraging smile.

In first years itself other department girls warned us to no go against seniors. As they will target you and start ragging. Ragging is wrong, but it happens secretly without the knowledge of management. Till now we weren't ragged by our biotech seniors. Now if I don't pass this then I am sure the biotech senior girls will bully me in the hostel.

If I get caught then they will washout me from this exam. Why am I caught in between these two critical phrases?

Maybe if I get caught I will put blame on this Adi right? Thinking that I took the eraser.

But my hands started to shiver while taking the eraser.

Calm down Aaru. If Mohana ma'am catches you then say Adi only passed the eraser. Even I can say 'how can second year student help fourth year student?'

3... 2... 1... I mentally made a count down and threw it on my right side.

I looked at the other senior hoping he had taken it but my bad luck Mohana ma'am was standing beside me.

She bent down and picked the eraser.

I am dead today. Maybe I should have chosen the ragging part. After all they will ask me to dance or sing in the name of ragging. Why did I choose this option?

She glared at me and then at the senior.

She removed the eraser from the plastic cover.

Tears started to pool my eyes, as I was about to tell her it was all because of the Adi. But suddenly I stopped when I saw she removed the eraser completely.

It was clean as brand new.

Huh?

For this only I was scared to death? Wasn't that senior asking for the 1 mark answers?

I looked at Adi, he was controlling his laugh.

I glared at him for giving me a heart attack.

"Whose Eraser is this?"

"Mine ma'am." Said the senior.

"Stop throwing eraser," saying that she kept on his table and left to other side of the class.

"You could have said that it is empty eraser right?" I whispered him.

"Who said it is empty?"

I was about to ask him he directed me to look at the other senior.

The other senior was taking the eraser out from the plastic cover. Then he unwrapped the paper cover which holds the company name of the eraser and started to refer the dark side of cover.

Kedi fellows!!!

I turned back to look at Adi, he resumed writing the exam.

After sometime, I completed the exam and left the hall.

Soon Adi came out and gave me a new eraser.

"Senior, don't involve me in cheating." I said to him straight away.

He chuckled, "Sure. I won't. I am sorry. I didn't know you would be scared to pass that. Next time I will ask the boy behind you to pass."

Huh? That means he will still pass those things?

"But senior, isn't wrong to cheat in exam?" I asked him.

This caught his attention and turned back to me and asked, "If this is cheating, then you using your friend's ID to borrow book is cheating. Then asking other's blood instead of yours in immunology lab is also cheating."

"Umm." Before I could explain, "See you in the afternoon exam" he said and left.

That is not cheating! I will explain it after afternoon exam.

In the afternoon Adi didn't pass me any eraser but he was passing to senior akka behind him.

Soon he finished the exam 45 minute before the actual examination time and I was answering the 1 mark questions.

"It is 'b' option, 8.5." I heard Adi saying.

Maybe he was whispering to senior akka Aishwarya behind him

"Vibrio cholerae can grow in a medium with a pH of 8.5 and not 7.5."

Wait, I somewhere saw the same line!

I turned towards him noticed him looking at my question paper.

I looked down as if I didn't hear him. I saw my answer sheet and I mentioned it as 7.5. I was doubtful regarding the pH part, as I was confused between 7.5 and 8.5. Later I chose 7.5.

"Those who finished the exam can leave the hall." When Sakthi ma'am said this, Adi stood up. I got up and made way for him.

After completing my exam I hurriedly went out and called Adi.

"Senior!" He turned back and looked at me.

"It is not cheating. Me asking for blood from fellow lab partner or using friend's ID to borrow book. Here it doesn't involve marks. But helping out in exam, the person who is putting in effort won't get proper recognition."

"Ah you are stuck with what I said in morning. Come on, no one is copying here to get first rank in the class. All wanted to pass the internals. So no harm done to toppers, okay? Coming to the cheating part. Well lab performance and record work are considered 5 marks at the end of the semester. So technically it is cheating, topper." He shrugged.

I looked bit sad on hearing his words.

"You took it serious? Come on I was joking. See we are not doctors if we cheat here then a patient will die. If a person who is not going to end up in biotech field and doesn't have some theoretical knowledge then I guess no harm in copying.

"As you said, copying is wrong. But it is just internals right? And not some GATE or TOEFL competition. The friends I helped, they were forced to choose this field, so their main aim is to pass the exam. So I helped them. But I don't copy from others. I chose this field out of passion. And I am going to continue in this field. So I won't cheat to get on top. So I guess there is difference." He said.

[AN/- Don't mind Adi's words*]

I didn't know what to reply, so I kept quiet.

"So tell me did you rewrite the answer I said." He teased.

I chuckled and bid bye to him and left the place.

Few weeks later, class advisor informed us about three days industrial visit. They gave us the dates. We decided go to Ooty and Coonoor and visit biotech industries available at those place and visit sight-seeing places.

One week before my industrial visit, my parents informed me about my cousin's engagement coming up the following week. So with no other option, I cancelled my IV plan.

As per rules I had to attend the college on Friday for attendance.

Only I was left out. Some of my friends thought of rescheduling, but all the hotel and bus bookings were finalized. So here I am, coming to class.

Classes won't be held, but I have to give attendance to each staff making my presence known.

I was bored as hell, so I went to microbiology lab.

Sakthi ma'am used to say streaking of a culture needs practice. During lab hours, one in a team of 4 will be doing the streaking. So I thought of using this hour to use for developing that skill.

I asked laboratory technician for petri dish and some medium. Since we are juniors, without any guidance, they won't allow us to work on these experiments. As she was busy with third year students, she asked me to go to the adjacent room where one of the senior is working on the microbiology lab experiments.

When I entered the room where they kept laminar chamber I saw Adi making some medium to grow the bacterial culture.

"Hi senior."

"You are here?" He looked bit shocked.

"Yeah, day after tomorrow my cousin's engagement. So IV trip cancelled."

"So sad. IV is really fun. The only time we can enjoy being in a biotech dept." I laughed at his comment.

Our department was the strict department compared other departments. All other department especially Mechanical and automobile, bunk their classes. No one can enjoy the college life like them.

"So I thought of using my time to practice more on microbiology lab work."

"You like microbiology?" he asked. There was some amusement in his tone.

"Yes. Study of microorganisms caught my attention. Especially Ebola virus. So I wanted to study those viruses." I said with proud smile.

"Great. Even I love study of microorganisms. That's why I did all my projects on microbiology and my final year project is also on same topic." He showed his palm towards the petri dishes and test tubes.

"So Aaru will you help me out with my project work." He asked with teasing smile to which I grinned.

Maybe not attending IV was a bad decision after all.

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Hi Guys!!! I know I know I said I will update soon but I took 3-4 weeks to update this chapter. Extremely sorry for the delay. Next time there won't be much delay. Will update on next Saturday or Sunday.

Regarding the exam copying, those who are about to write exams, don't consider Adi's words. It is just for story. In real, it can affect your career life if you are caught. I won't say don't copy because I never said those to my friends. My best friends and my classmates they used to copy, they used to tease me for not cheating, butI felt likfe this Aaru mentioned, so I didn't cheat. And I didn't judge my friends for that. Each one have their own reasons, maybe they were sick or were forced to study the subject. So I didn't advise them.

Even though I don't judge them, doesn't mean that I will help them. There were two incident. First one was, it was some maths exam I guess. The person next to me was from someother department. Before they gave the question paper, he asked me, 'did you study well?' I said 'yes'. For that he asked, 'then can you show me the answers?' To which, I said 'I won't show answers.' When I narrated this to my friends they were laughing and said 'you could have told him that you didn't prepare at first itself right? Instead of hurting him.'

Another one was, it was computer science exam in first year. I love computer science subject a lot. (More than biotech subjects to be honest.) On this exam, I wrote all the answers and left the hall early. Then we were discussing the answers outside the hall. My classmate who sits behind came furiously and in front of everyone he shouted saying, 'Why did you write a 2 marks for 2 pages. I was waiting for you to leave so that I can refer your paper. I saw that for 5 -2 marks question itself you have written for 10 pages. How can I copy all those in last minute. Thank god, you highlighted all the key words else I would have been really disappointed.' Saying that he left and all my friends were teasing me for writing a 2 mark question like 5 mark question. I was like 'ore asigama poche'

Do share your experience during exams. If I remember some of my college moments I will share through comments.

Take care and stay safe and hygiene!!!