I sold my parents this line about "going lighter on electives" that year. Sounded reasonable. Nobody questioned it.
What was actually happening: I'd failed three subjects and was quietly grinding through supplementary exams to claw them back, semester after semester, while pretending everything was normal.
Somehow I still graduated on time. The gap just... closed. Nobody ever did the math.
But my family has this thing where they love bragging about being "back-to-back toppers," generation after generation. And every time someone brings it up at a gathering, I feel my stomach drop a little. I'm the crack in that story and I'm the only one who knows it's there.