Noticing the confused look on Ali's face, Mr Andi continued with his hands flailing around to prove his point, "Don't you see how she treated me the other day? Kicking my chair while I'm sitting on it. Getting mad over nothing."
He then added, "Ha! On your first day! She also treated you badly. See? You don't believe me. That's just how bad-mannered she is."
Once finished, he sighed loudly while shaking his head. He must have his feelings bottled up for so long based on how relieved he looked after that. However, venting his frustration must have taken a toll of energy on him.
He pulled the chair which belonged to Miss Laila and dragged it right next to Ali's. He then patted Ali's chair, waiting for him to take a seat.
Ali wanted to refuse but upon seeing the other man's stare on him, he did think it would be wise to do so. He might get scolded for refusing. Ali then sat down hesitantly while discreetly moving his chair a few centimeters away from the man.
Pondering over what Mr Andi had said, Ali doubted Mrs Zhang was the type of person who would get mad over nothing but he was not going to deny that what Mr Andi had little truths to it.
From the little snippets of moments that Ali had witnessed, Mrs Zhang's actions had been quite unreasonable. She refused to listen to Ali's explanation and chose to kick Mr Andi's chair causing him fell when she could have simply reprimanded him.
However, Ali refused to listen to one side only. Mr Andi was not acting like an angel either. He himself as well.
"It's not always like this, you know. We've had many male teachers here in the past but all of them quit. The shortest time they stayed was like three days … and the longest one is a year. Very short. Even my washing machine lasted longer than them, and I used them everyday." He continued.
Ali hummed in reply. "Actually, I think the longest male teacher here is you."
"Yeah, yeah. It's me."
The prayer room behind them opened and a female teacher walked out with a pink cloth bag in her hand. A name 'Zabedah' was sewn in black colour on the bag indirectly revealing the name of the owner.
"Did I hear someone say 'quit'? Do you want to quit, Andi? I've been thinking of quitting a year ago. It's good to quit with someone rather than alone." She inquired, grinning as she was putting on her black flats.
"Hey. If I quit, what am I going to do to feed my children? Two of them are still schooling. It's fine for you. All of your children are already working."
She walked over towards them and put her arm over Ali's cubicle. "Don't blame me. Who told you to get married late?"
Despite her savage reply, her laughter was sweet and friendly. "Blame. fate, then. for that. being the reason. I met my wife late." Mr Andi replied while imitating the robotic voice with his hands spread wide.
Both erupted into a fit of laughter. Listening to the playful banter between the two, Ali could not help but to let out a small laugh with them despite his previous intention to maintain his composure in front of his two seniors.
Still absorbed in her laughter, the woman leaned forward towards Ali's cubicle with her plump body, nearly knocking over the thin panel. Ali stretched out his hand, holding the panel still.
Her eyes widened upon noticing her mistake. She apologized profusely although Ali had mentioned repeatedly that it was fine as he managed to save it. Truthfully, he only would not be fine if the woman successfully broke her panel and refused to replace it.
"Sorry. I suddenly came here and interfered with your conversation. What were you two talking about?" When her eyes fell on Ali for the second time, she cried out with excitement. "Wait. Oh! You are the new teacher, isn't it?"
Ali nodded with a smile without replying.
"Hi, I'm Mrs Zabedah. Wait, why were you talking about quitting? You were only here for three days. Andi?" She turned towards Andi and glowered at him with a scolding voice.
"Don't get angry with me. He was asking about the other male teachers and I just answered him. I told him there's no one else since they all quit." Mr Andi replied defensively.
"Oh, yeah. It's definitely tougher on the male teachers to survive in our school. Everyone knows well that Mrs Zhang could be quite biased in the sense that she preferred female teachers over male teachers. We thought Mrs Alia would definitely be replaced with a female teacher for sure and then you came. Today, another male teacher. Maybe she's changing for the better but I think it was more likely that she was forced to. I mean, why would she be changing all of a sudden."
Ali listened to Mrs Zabedah's words attentively. He had only spoken to two teachers about the principal yet both of them shared such negative views of her. The small flicker of light he tried to shed on Mrs Zhang's image in his head was turning dimmer and dimmer.
Mr Andi who had also been listening, gritted his teeth as he said, "Mrs Zabedah, we're trying to make him stay here, not scare him away."
"I'm not trying to scare him away. I'm just telling the truth. I could be very encouraging if I tried," She said with arched eyebrows. Her dark pink lips puckering in dissatisfaction.
Mr Andi shook his head, smiling. "I mean, if you want to tell the truth, you've got to do it right. Basically, the woman is an ogre in human form. A human ogre, I would say and that is not a compliment."
"Eyy, I would not call her an ogre. She did not eat men but she did chase them away." A loud roar of laughter erupted following her remark.
Ali bit his lips, while his eyes darted around, hoping that the teachers who had started coming into the staffroom did not hear them or worse, join in the conversation.
It did not help that this Mrs Zhang shaming thing was currently happening at his cubicle, which would easily have caused his place to be the crime scene and him as the prime suspect.
Ali noticed Miss Laila coming over to her desk and was about to wave at her but she was too engrossed in typing something on her phone to notice him. He noticed there was also someone walking behind her.
His eyes widened with shock when he catched the sight of pale white hands and shoulder length black mixed with grey hair.
Ali gasped in shock. This is not good. Why on earth is she coming here for? The meeting table was over there. He quickly nudged Mr Andi who was sitting next to him in the arm.
Since Mrs Zahara was standing right in front of Mr Andi while leaning over Ali's cubicle, she indirectly blocked the view for Mr Andi but not for Ali.
For the first two attempts, the latter completely ignored him while continuing conversing with Mrs Zahara. When it came to the third attempt, Mr Andi turned towards Ali with his eyes narrowing on him.
"What are you doing, Mr Ali? Stop interrupting us." He said with his eyebrows creased in annoyance.
"Erm, I really don't think you should say that." Ali said with a quivering voice as his eyes met with the deathly glare of the woman who was currently standing patiently behind Mrs Zahara.
He could feel his blood running cold and sweat started forming on his back despite the cold air coming from the air conditioner right behind him.
"Of course, she is not an actual witch but still, you can see the fine resemblance between the two. The only thing missing from her is just a broom between her legs." Mr Andi continued, despite the rougher nudging by Ali. He even contemplated covering the other's mouth to stop him from digging his grave deeper than it already is but to no avail.
"Please, Mr Andi" Ali said, not daring to bring up his head.
It was Mrs Zaharah's turn to ask. Unlike Mr Andi who was annoyed by the interference made by Ali, her face instead was full of concern. "Why? Do you have anything to say?"
"Behind you." He whispered, indicating the presence of the person they had been bad mouthing freely with a turn of his head. Mr Andi let out a loud gasp of surprise.
Before Mrs Zaharah could turn her head around, the person mentioned suddenly spoke, "Mr Andi! The witch is now wishing to speak to you in her office." She paused before opening the back door. "And please bring a broom as well as the witch currently got none between her legs."