The Stage Is On Fire

Ruqsana watched the livestream of Ahmer’s speech from her hotel room, her lips turned as if impressed. She checked the website she had built and noted that five hundred people had already signed up for the boycott with more joining in.

‘Not bad, fiancé-kun,’ she mentally praised Ahmer, ‘You might actually have a future in politics if animation doesn’t pan out for you.’

She took a peek from her balcony to see if Akbar and Tayyib were still stalking her, ‘Now how do I get to the AniCon without those two noticing?’ The paparazzi reporters were still sitting at a tea stall near the back gate, waiting for a glimpse of Roxy or Ruqsana.

‘Maybe they won’t notice if I take the front gate this time,’ She came up with the idea, ‘But there are paparazzi at the front gate who may recognize me from the meme. Should I try a different disguise? But I’d have to explain to Prince.’

She looked through her stuff, searching for something she could use to modify her disguise without becoming unrecognizable to Prince, until she finally pulled out a scarf, ‘That could work.’

Back at Shah Sarai University, Mahira Shaikh was trying to control the chaos left behind by Ahmer Qaiser. The boy had rushed out of the stage as soon as he finished his speech, his so-called friends were also nowhere to be seen. A good portion of the students had taken Ahmer’s word to heart and left the college. Perhaps it was a good thing, with the leader gone maybe she could steer the others from taking part in this foolish rebellion.

“All of you, get back to your classes!” Mahira ordered the crowd through the mic, “Anyone not in their class will face severe consequences.”

“And what exactly will you do?” Alisha asked aloud, “Expel us? Because if you do, we’ll bunk the college even harder!”

“Yeah!” a bunch of students yelled in agreement.

“I am not joking Alisha Zaidi! Give up this foolish rebellion-”

“Ma’am please, let me try to talk to them,” Abdul Ghani stopped Mahira from agitating the students even more and took the mic, “Children, there is no point in throwing your future away. We can discuss this matter without escalating.”

“Our captain tried that and got suspended for it,” Said the vice captain of football team, “The time for talking is over. It’s time to act’”

“Yeah,” The football team agreed, leaving the venue.

Mahira snatched the mic, “Obey me you brats or there won’t be anyone worse than me for you!”

“There is no one worse than you,” Fahad quipped before taking his leave. More students followed him.

“It’s no use,” Abdul sighed, “we should try talking to the President to salvage the situation.”

Ammar and Farha watched as Mahira and Abdul tried fruitlessly to rein in the chaos. Farha was anxious about the situation Ahmer had put himself in. She had tried to stop him and talk to him but Ahmer fled with his friends without listening to anything Farha had to say. On the other hand, Ammar was still shocked by what his brother pulled off.

“How did he do it?” Ammar asked Farha, “He is such a quiet guy, he doesn’t like talking to anyone outside his friend circle.”

“That’s the thing about quiet people, they are good listeners,” Farha answered, “Ahmer understood everyone’s anger and found a way to help everyone channel it.”

“It must have been his friends who came up with the idea,” Ammar was sure.

“Even if they did the execution was up to him,” Farha pointed out.

“Too bad Abbu won’t let this go on for very long,” Ammar scoffed.

“Will you tell bade abbu about this?” Farha asked.

“I don’t have to, this will reach him even if I don’t say anything,” Ammar replied.

At the Parliament, Suhail Qaiser was in the middle of a meeting when his assistant, Usman Baig, brought him news of Ahmer’s little rebellion.

“HE DID WHAT?” Suhail screamed, his voice heard throughout the Parliament. Suhail immediately left the meeting, Usman trying to keep up behind him, “Where is he? Where is that brat?”

“Sir, he and his friends ran from the college after declaring the mass bunk,” Usman answered, “We don’t know their current location.”

“Call him!”

The assistant complied but Ahmer didn’t pick up his call, “He’s not responding.”

“Give it to me!” Suhail snatched his phone and tried calling Ahmer but he didn’t respond to the call, “That insolent brat! Keep trying!” The assistant nodded.

“Find him! Find those brats! I want them dragged to my home in chains if you have to,” Suhail ordered before entering his car, which took off immediately. It didn’t take them very long to reach the Qaiser Residence. Suhail stormed in, surprising Rahila and the servants who were cleaning the hall.

“WHERE IS HE? WHERE IS YOUR SON?” Suhail asked Rahila.

“Ahmer or Ammar? They are both at college,” Rahila replied, confused by Suhail’s anger.

“Ahmer is not there, switch on the television!”

Rahila did as asked and was shocked by the news reporting about Ahmer’s mass bunk movement, “Oh Allah!” she gasped.

“I’m going to kill that brat!” Suhail roared.

“Calm down please, I’m sure he has a good explanation for this,” Rahila tried to pacify him.

“Calm down? Calm down? That boy is dunking our family name into mud for his useless hobby group!”

“Well, threatening to kill him isn’t going to make him come home faster,” Rahila retorted. Suhail was taken aback by how fiercely she defended Ahmer and huffed out grumpily, “I’m sure he will come back when he is ready to explain himself. Let’s wait until then,” she advised.

“Sir,” Usman entered the hall, “Media has gathered outside for a word on Ahmer sir’s movement,” he informed Suhail.

“Keep them out, tell them Ahmer’s mess has nothing to do with us,” Suhail ordered.

“Yes sir.”

Suhail turned to Rahila, “Call Ahmer and tell him to get here this instant because the more time he takes the deeper he digs his grave.”

Near Raees Royale Hotel, Tayyib and Akbar were having their twelfth chai and tenth cigarette of the day when they received the news of mass bunk at Shah Sarai University.

“Hey look,” Tayyib showed his phone, “Ahmer Qaiser just started a mass bunk at his college.”

“Students bunk classes all the time, what’s the big deal?” Akbar asked.

“Look at the numbers!”

Akbar squinted, “Over 2000!”

“And more are joining in,” Tayyib added.

“This is big, we should go to the university to get a scoop from students. We might even catch Ahmer Qaiser if we hurry.”

“Umm… Actually…” Tayyib grimaced.

“Oh no,” Akbar could guess why.

“Boss wants us to get a byte from Ruqsana Raees,” Tayyib showed a text from their boss.

“And just how do we do that?” Akbar asked, “They only let us in when there’s a big event they want to promote and even then they are surrounded by guards to keep us away.”

“There’s no sign of the meme girl either, it’s like she has disappeared into thin air.”

“You don’t suppose she left through the front side?”

The two reporters looked at each other before running around the hotel wall to the front entrance. They frantically searched for any sign of Roxy among the crowd exiting.

“What if she’s already gone?” Tayyib asked Akbar.

“Then we just lost our meal ticket,” Akbar sighed.

“So now we hope Ruqsana Raees shows up without guards around her?”

Akbar was about to nod when an idea struck him, “Actually, we may not need an interview.”

“What do you mean?” Tayyib asked.

“Ahmer’s website, what if Ruqsana built it? She’s studying software engineering.”

“How do we confirm that? Also, didn’t they like have a fight? Why would she build him anything?”

“That’s the thing I love about Shah Sarai Glam,” Akbar grinned from ear to ear, “We don’t need facts, we can work on speculation.”

Excited by the idea, the reporters decided to pitch it to their boss. Had they paid attention to the people exiting from the front, they may have noticed a girl in pink dress, red jacket and leopard pattern scarf with expensive sunglasses trying to hide from them after spotting them. Instead of taking the taxi like usual, Roxy rushed to the nearest metro station where she went to the washroom to remove her scarf and glasses, changing into her usual disguise.

‘Hopefully, no one else will recognize me from the meme,’ She hoped as she rushed to catch a train.