Ali was too stunned to speak. He watched helplessly as Mr Andi walked following Mrs Zhang out of the staffroom but not without passing an accusatory look towards Ali before closing the door behind him.
"You should have told us earlier. Look at what you've done." Mrs Zaharah whispered in an accusatory tone similar to those given by Mr Andi. Ali deduced that their friendship must have gone way back causing even their reaction towards the situation were similar in a way.
If he was the old Ali, he would have defended himself and told her off that Mr Andi and her should have watched their own mouth instead.
However, the new him was aware of the fact that he was still the junior teacher as compared to the two and that they were Asian who valued politeness towards the older more than anything still stands.
It also did not help that they were also the current main focus of the teachers present in the staffroom. He could feel the heavy inquisitive stares by the other teachers on him and Mrs Zaharah. Defending himself out of a sense of justice this time might only backfire on him.
Left with no other choice, Ali reluctantly nodded to the other's whisper, causing the other to stomp away in anger. She then approached her friends who had pulled her to her cubicle and crowded around her for the tea.
Thankfully, not many of the teachers were present in the staffroom as the bell had only rung several many moments ago but still, from his experience, these teachers often had a secret Whatsapp group among themselves.
In that group, they left out certain people who they thought did not belong to their clique and especially the boss, for sure. This practice of gossiping behind people was basically like a high school mean girl concept except with more subtlety.
Ali was convinced that given the fast technology, this type of breaking news might have already spread fast all over the school like a wildfire in a green forest. Ali sighed in defeat.
At least, he managed to avoid facing the wrath of the principal at the moment. However, unlike Mrs Zaharah who was currently occupied in spilling the tea to her colleagues, Ali continued staring at the door in which Mr Andi had left with a feeling of guilt.
Should he go after them or not?
Ali stood up abruptly and was about to leave his desk but as soon as he heard his name being called by a soft almost-familiar voice, he turned around immediately.
It was Miss Laila, standing beside her desk. She had a paper in her hand and a pen in the other. Ali had forgotten entirely her presence due to being occupied with the whole previous fiasco.
"Where are you going?" She asked, with an eyebrow raised.
"I'm going to the principal's office."
"To meet the principal?" Ali nodded. "But we'll be having a meeting in 15 minutes. You might want to meet her after that."
"A meeting?"
"They just posted about it on the Whatsapp group." Seeing the confusion on Ali's face, she exclaimed in understanding. "Oh, right. You were not added into the group yet. Let me send you the invite link."
She went on her phone right away and after a few moments, he could hear the notification sound ringing from his pocket. Eyes widening in surprise at how quick it took her to find his number, Ali took out his phone from his pocket and clicked on the link sent straight away and made sure to discreetly add her number into his contacts list.
He glanced towards her, her eyes turned into a crescent moon as she read the message that Ali had become a participant in the group.
Noticing the other's glance on her, she looked up from her phone screen and smiled when her eyes met Ali. Ali, who was caught off guard, muttered a simple thank you which earned a wider smile from her and quickly busied himself with organising the already tidy files on his table.
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"Heard your students complaining about the test in your class today. Wow. How did you even find the time to write tests for them every day? I could never." Mr Scott whispered near Ali's ears as soon as Mrs Zhang turned around, her back facing them.
Ali gritted his teeth as he wrote down his name on the attendance register for the teachers present in the meeting. He regretted slowing down in taking a seat at the long meeting table before.
His intention was noble, which is to allow the senior teachers to take a seat first and sit at the remaining vacant spot. In fact, he was relieved when the teachers all took a seat, there were only three empty seats available for him and two were next to Miss Laila.
The other empty seat was next to Mrs Zaharah but based on the bitter expression she had on her face, Ali did not dare to trigger the tigress by sitting next to her.
However, his relief was momentary since only when he walked near to Miss Laila's seat did he notice that the further seat from Miss Laila was actually right next to Mrs Zhang who sat at the head of the table. Ali hesitated.
Mrs Zhang, who had finished writing the date and the time on the whiteboard, scolded him. "What are you waiting for? Hurry. Take a seat." said her with a stern expression on her face. She had a black marker in her right hand and her left hand clasping the whiteboard behind her seat.
Ali did not dare to ponder more so he hurried to the seat right next to Miss Laila and sat down. Under the watchful gaze of Mrs Zhang, he then opened his black covered notebook and took out a pen from his dress shirt pocket.
"Just where is the other one?" Mrs Zhang muttered as she looked down to the screen of her notebook computer which she had folded in half to turn it into an Ipad and laid it down on the table.
Although she was muttering, Ali could hear her mutter very clearly being the person nearest to her. He contemplated in his mind, the person he knew that was not on the table were Mr Andi and Scott.
Ali prayed silently that if Mr Andi was to come, he would not choose the seat next to him. He did not get to finish his prayer as he was interrupted by a booming voice belonging to a man named Scott Lee.
"Sorry, Sorry. I'm late." He hurried in and dropped a brown box on the table with a big thud, causing the dust on the box to fly all over the table and some got into Ali's nose making him sneeze.
The others started dusting off the dust from their clothes and their place with a dissatisfied look on their face. On the other hand, Mrs Zhang with both her hands on her waist and wrinkled eyebrows, were staring down at Scott who had quickly removed the box from onto the table to the floor.
Scott, who was trying to fend off some dust from his clothes as well, immediately stood up straight as soon as he noticed the angry staring down Mrs Zhang had on him.
Knowing that a simple apology would not diminish the anger that the other had on him and get him out of the situation, Scott scratched his head with a foolish smile on his face while muttering 'I'm sorry, again' to the principal.
Miraculously, instead of reprimanding the other, Mrs Zhang simply let out an exasperated sigh and waved for him to sit down.
Ali, who had been observing their interaction by exchanging a side look, looked up to them with his mouth gaped open in shock.
Just what kind of voodoo is this person using?, he thought as he watched Scott sat down with delight. The other seemed to be so proud of himself that when he noticed Ali's curious look on him, he replied back with a wink.
Mrs Zhang continued with her speech as if nothing happened. Her words came in through Ali's right ear and out from the other. The pen that had been in his hand from the start of the meeting but it had not even glided on the notebook once.
The reason for his lack of focus?
The person sitting next to him.