It all started when I was one of the four people who represented Asiah for Chess during USC(or ISC as the abbreviation the rector insisted on instead of the traditional one they used for years). Each one of us got a chess set to be used during practice, and unlike other sports, we didn't need a specific time to practice altogether, nor did we need a specific location to practice, we kind of just practiced whenever.
The thing is, one of my team members is a mustang; which is what we call UIA's sportsmen (kind of like HSM's wild cats.), and she's extremely busy with her own tournaments, and she's also in her third year, so I didn't know how she looked like until the day before the actual tournament. And another team member is in MRC, also third year, which makes her just as busy but she managed to participate in a few of the already few practices so everything was fine.
And then there were two.
Since my teammate, Nana, was performing for the closing ceremony, she had all nights occupied. And I scheduled my classes to fill in evenings, so the only time we mutually had were 6-7. It was usually just us two, so we decided on the location a few hours beforehand. Each block had its own study room, and nobody actually studies there (or even know its existence) so it wasn't a problem which study room we practiced in but we settled on taking turns of our own (Eg: today in my block, tomorrow in hers).
We usually practice 3-4 rounds in the span of an hour. I'm not trying to brag, but I could fairly say I never lost to her...until one day this foreigner just came unannounced (well of course she gave salam beforehand) and sat next to our chessboard and watched us play. Currently I was attacking, I outnumbered her pieces, I had a plan, and I was winning. I've played with Nana so much I already know her logic in chess. I know which piece she was going to move, and I calculated three moves from both sides could potentially end the game.
That, of course, did not happen. Everytime Nana tried to move one of her pieces, the foreigner would object and tell her to move another. She didn't speak much English, but it was understandable "No. You move this, she go here." "It's okay, I want to go here." "No! go here." (She sounded middle eastern). To be frank she dominated the game. Nana was powerless because she took over. Long story short, not only did she turn the tables and ended up winning, she won with two queens.
This happened in my block, H, and I don't know why people were interrupting us all of a sudden on that particular day, not that it was bothering, it was just...weird. we practiced in peace before, why now? Even before the foreigner came, there was this one girl who came in and asked us where'd we get the chess set, and we didn't exactly have an answer to that because our team manager gave it to us. Since I was the one facing the door at that time, I was obliged to answer her everything I know, which was, well, "I don't know!" and even after that she still asked us about the chess set. How did we get it, what were we doing, do we have any idea how to get a hold of one? It went on until I suggested her to ask the office about it, because really we have no idea.
Fast forward to a new semester, a new pre-booked room, a pre-booked roomate and two mysteriously occupied compartments that me and Ain thought would be empty throughout the semester. I noticed Uzma straight away. A checkmate is hard to forget, and she was ruthless with her two queens. The first thing I said to her was "I lost to you in a game of chess." and she laughed with the recall "I demand a rematch". I really said that, and she just laughed,"okay". We had a feast, Uzma had a a rice cooker and she cooked a whole feast, and her other foreign friends came, and she asked us to join them, and it was fun. The food is different from what we were used to, but still, it was delicious (in that sour-y yoghurt combined with kuah dal kind of way)
I thought that was it. I thought, okay, that was an interesting turn of events. I can have my rematch now, and then Zakiah told me something more interesting. She said she remembered me. I took a moment of silence and stared at her
— and then it hit me, she was the one who asked me and Nana about the chess set. I practically laughed out loud right there, because, I remembered then. Her confident four eyes, her eager curiosity, her comfortable presence and her quirkiness— how could I have missed her quirkiness?
Well that's it. The not so legendary story of how I met my roomates.
(I'm telling you, this story was way more interesting than how I wrote it)Labels: college, friends