"Zukroof. Zukroof! Are you okay? STOP! you'll break the tip of the pen!", Nashra was screaming whilst shaking my shoulders when I realised I was supposed to be writing something on the notepad.

"God! What is making you so angry? Mind telling me Zuki?", asked Nashra.

To say I was angry was an understatement. I was furious. My head was on fire. I could still feel the pain in my hand. The part where he held me was still red. It's been a week to that incident and I had to give him a nice one back. 

During recess, I saw him walking down the stairs on his way to the canteen.

Perfect timing, I said to myself.

"Noor, are you ready? I asked. 

"Hold on Zuki", she followed my instructions, "Here, take this", she handed me the key.

"Are you sure you asked Fais there next class is in the computer's lab?" 

"Yeah, I did"

"And he sits at the same place as you do, right?" 

Noor blushed. 

"Noor we don't have time for your blushing!" I said as I unlocked the door of the lab. 

This whole idea of breaking into a lab just before their class was Noor's idea because she was given the authority of the lab keys. And the rest of plan that we were going to execute in the lab was mine. 

We bunked our next class which was Miss Sasha's. We instructed other members of our gang to hide our belongings under the table and tell her if asked, that we were absent. 

We didn't have much to prepare for the plan I had in my head so we just waited for the bell to ring till the time we were hiding in the lab. When the bell rang, we hid in our respective places. Noor under the monitor table where Faisal was going to sit undoubtedly. And I chose the monitor right beside him hoping Yazan would sit beside Faisal. 

When the class started I was kind of regretting executing this plan because that meant me & Noor were sitting under the tables for a whole forty-five minutes. But I knew it would be worth it if I get to see Yazan fall flat on the floor with his face on the ground. 

And that was it. My moment was right there in front of me. Yazan was sitting beside Faisal and I knew that when Faisal called out his name. My task was simple, I just had to take the laces of his shoes and tie them together and I did. 

Now, it was show time or more like shoe time. I and Noor were waiting for the moment. 

And there it was, Yazan pushed his chair behind and stood. As I expected, he turned to take a step and got imbalanced and slipped. Just like that, face flat on the floor. 

It was when he fell and his face was to our side beneath the table that I realised it was the wrong person. It was Faisal and not Yazan. 

I kept my hand over Noor's before she could react to Faisal getting hurt. "You told me Faisal was sitting that side!" I whispered to Noor and then I mouthed sorry to Faisal who was wincing in pain. 

"Ouch! That must have hurt!" I heard Yazan said when he knelt in front of him and then he turned towards us as if he knew we were sitting beneath that table. He gave us a smirk. That very smirk I hated with every piece of my being. And like a cherry on top, He winked at us as he picked Faisal up. 

Dammit! He knew!  

"Who could have told him?" I began thinking when we returned to our class.

"What happened?" Zeenath asked looking at me trying to break the tip of the pen with my rage. A thing I used to do out of habit when I was angry and out of the zone. 

"Yazan knew we were hiding beneath the table!" I groaned. "I sat hiding under the table for forty-five minutes, my neck and back aching like anything just...just to see him fall! And what did I get to see? His stupid and idiotic and annoying smirk! UGH!" 

"Hey, his smirk is cute, okay?" Zeenath told and I just gave her a death glare. 

I was so pissed. "Who do you think must have told him?" I asked her.

"Maybe no one told him. Maybe he must have figured it out" She said and when I again gave her a death glare she shrugged. 

"Oh wait. I know how he must have figured out! First of all, you have to admit he is a smarty pants!" She said and I just rolled my eyes. 

"Oh god" I groaned more dramatically leaning on to the desk table. "Just tell me please how did he figure out?"

"Simple! He must have seen Faisal give the lab keys to Noor" 

"And how did Faisal get the keys?" I asked.

"Duh. The lab teacher is Faisal's aunt remember?"

"No. I didn't. I thought the lab teacher gave Noor the keys by her choice!" And then it clicked me. "Wait. Wait. Wait. You mean to say it was Yazan who planted this idea in Faisal's mind and Faisal suggested it to Noor and Noor came and told me?" I asked her with my mouth open in bewilderment. And she just nodded sympathetically.

"Shit! I am such a stupid!" I covered my face in my hands. "So. So. Stupid"

So here was the back story. I had played so many pranks on people but never in my entire existence did my prank was played back on me. I was furious for this reason. 

"It's my birthday Zukii and for god sake can you get out of your daydreaming? you were supposed to write the list of items for the birthday party and see what you have done!", said Nashra.

I looked down at the notepad. I had actually broken the tip of the pen. "Umm. I am so sorry. Leave this! I know everything to get from the market. You say, How are you feeling being 11?", I asked her turning towards her to give her my full attention. 

"I'm good, I don't feel anything new today. I just feel like how I was yesterday." She wrinkled her lower lip out as she shrugged. "The same me and nothing has changed. I wonder why do people ask 'how are you feeling being eleven?', She huffed slightly.

"Hmm..." I nodded as I continued. "you know what? What they don't understand about birthdays and what they never tell you is that when you are eleven, you're also ten and nine and eight and seven and six and five and four and three and two and one at the same time. And when you wake up on your eleventh birthday and you're expected to feel eleven, but you don't. You open your eyes and everything's just like yesterday. It's today that you don't feel eleven at all. You feel like you're still ten. And you are underneath the year that makes you eleven. Like some days you might say something stupid and that's the part of you that's five and maybe on days when you're all grown up maybe you will need to cry like if you're three and that's.. that's okay, that's what I tell Mumma, when she's sad and needs to cry, when she misses dad who stays miles away from us. Maybe she's feeling three. Because the way you grow old is kind of like an onion", I laughed.

"Or like the rings inside a tree trunk or like your little wooden dolls that fit one inside the other, each year inside the next one. That's how being eleven years old is. You don't feel eleven. Not right away. It takes a few days, weeks, even sometimes...even months, before you say eleven when they ask you. And you don't feel smart eleven, not until you're almost twelve. That's the way it is", I explained to her.

She smiled reassuring me that she felt lighter because of my words. "You're good with words Zuki!", she said.

"You bet!", I winked at her and moved towards my laptop to check my facebook which I haven't, since what seemed like ages.

1 Inbox, 20 notifications, 2 friend requests.

I checked notifications some were tags on photos, events, some were candy crush & criminal case invites. I clicked towards friend requests. One from Yazan and the other was Talha.

Yazan? Sending me a friend request? , I got confused.