Chapter 8 - Join The Dodgeball Club
"Which club?" Basir asked. He already lost hope and whatever he got, he would take it at this point.
"The Dodgeball Club," Cikgu Malik replied.
"...Isn't it full?" Basir asked in confusion.
"We never asked the Dodgeball Team. I am afraid you guys will blame me for forcing you to join my club, so I never brought you there. My club has a lot of spots left," Cikgu Malik smiled.
"Oh," Basir nodded without thinking much but not Akmal.
Akmal squinted his eyes at Cikgu Malik as if he had smelled some conspiracy going on.
Basir suddenly thought of something and he excitedly asked, "Can I take on the managerial position?!"
"No," Cikgu Malik flatly answered his question. "My club is the same as the others too. That 'office' job is for disable or experienced students. You are perfectly fine, so, no. Unless you have some kind of illness, but the answer is no."
"..." Basir was silent and he lost his excitement, "Obesity is a disease too," he mumbled softly.
"Obesity can be treated with exercise, so you will be a normal member," Cikgu Malik heard him.
Basir: "..."
The trio went to the gym assigned to the Dodgeball Club. This gym was shared with the Volleyball Club. The Dodgeball Club took half of the gym and the other half was for the Volleyball Club.
"Cikgu, you are here!" a senior student spoke excitedly and he saw the two dejectedly poor students following behind Cikgu Malik.
"Hmm," Cikgu Malik nodded, "Are we full now?" he asked.
"If including these two lambs," the senior student answered happily before he saw Cikgu Malik glared at him.
"Cough! Cough! I mean including these two juniors, yes, we are full now," the senior replied.
Basir was so dejected that he did not hear that but Akmal heard it loud and clear that he was speechless.
"Sigh~ The school is too harsh this year. They give the spots just enough for everyone," Cikgu Malik shook his head.
"Well, without doing this, some of the clubs will probably disband. So, this is not a bad idea either. Look at us this year, we get a lot of new members. Look how happy they are!" the senior spoke excitedly.
Akmal looked at the Form 4 students who just joined the club too. He recognized a few of them and their expression was listless and hopeless. It looked like not many of them were willing to join the Dodgeball Club.
'Yeah, they look super happy,' Akmal looked at them with pity.
Some of the Form 4 students saw Cikgu Malik with Akmal and Basir behind him, they immediately showed a passionate expression as they were afraid of Cikgu Malik.
However, they also looked at Akmal and Basir with pity. The duo was now the most popular Form 4 students in their school.
Akmal looked at them with pity but they did the same to him too.
"Gather everyone," Cikgu Malik said. The senior nodded and he shouted for everyone to gather in front of Cikgu Malik.
Cikgu Malik glanced at Akmal and Basir. He looked at their name tag and said, "Akmal and Daffa, you can join them too."
"It's Basir," Basir spoke speechlessly. No one called him that. It was his name but it sounded too Arabic for a Malay like him.
"Akmal and Basir, go," Cikgu Malik corrected a bit and spoke.
The duo left Cikgu Malik's side and joined the other Form 4 students. All the Dodgeball Club students lined up properly in front of the teacher.
No one would not want to line up properly as the teacher in front of them was the infamous Cikgu Malik.
"Assalamualaikum everyone. I don't need to introduce myself as everyone is aware of my identity," Cikgu Malik spoke while looking at the students lined up in front of him.
"Welcome to the new members and welcome back to the old members."
"I will not talk long but for today, the seniors can resume their usual routine as for the new members, we will record your name and you can go home. You can stay if you want to see your seniors training but yours will start tomorrow."
After that, Cikgu Malik talked a bit more but Akmal sneakily glanced around and there were about 60+ members in the club including the seniors.
'There are quite a lot of members in this club. The chance to join the official team must be super competitive,' Akmal thought.
He was not familiar with Dodgeball. Although the sports were now as popular as football, Dodgeball was still a fairly new sport.
Since he was in this club, he also wanted to join the official team as it would boost his resume a lot and he could enter any University a bit easier.
A member of the club against a member of the official team. It was obvious which one was superior.
"Okay, that is all. New members can register with this guy here. The others can resume your training," Cikgu Malik ended his speech. He pointed at the seniors earlier for the new members to register there.
Akmal and Basir went to that senior to register their names. As they were waiting for their turns, Basir became a bit cheerful as he started talking to the other new members. They were talking about their bad luck in joining the team.
It was finally Akmal and Basir's turn.
While registering their information, the senior spoke, "Are you guys okay?"
"Hmm?" Akmal raised his eyebrow. He was fine but Basir immediately said, "I am not okay."
"Which part?" the senior asked while smiling playfully.
"Erm…" Basir did not know what to reply. He wanted to say that he did not want to join the sports club but that would be rude to everyone in the club. He could not say it and decided to stay silent.
"I know you must be angry being dragged like that by Cikgu Malik," the senior spoke.
Basir never thought of that but now that he thought about it, it was indeed embarrassing. Be that as it may, it was their fault so they had no right to be angry.
Akmal was embarrassed but not to the point of being angry at the teacher. He had the same thought as Basir. It was their fault.
"He had to do that or many students will keep delaying this matter. He used you guys to show to others they need to make their decision faster or they will end up like both of you."
"He did not want to do this but last year's experience was enough reason for his action today," the senior added. Akmal and Malik looked at each other.
"Last year, many students delayed this matter and it caused many teachers' work to be delayed. It is not one or two hours but one to two weeks of delay."
"So, to quicken the process, I suggested this method to Cikgu Malik and it worked wonderfully," the senior smiled.
'So, it is his fault after all!' Now the duo was angry.