THE TOWER OF LIFE

CHAPTER 9: A SHOWDOWN LIKE NO OTHER

Amina left immediately after eating for two reasons, she needed to take her drugs to withhold the pain and she needed to sleep early for she wasn't sure if she would be able to sleep well at night.

The driver came as she called him and they went home. She got home a few minutes past 5:30 pm, she had spent 2 and a half hours with Amina and it actually felt nice.

"Where are you coming from?" She didn't expect her to be home that early, she usually came back late, they all did.

Amina smiled "Good evening Ma! I'm coming from the hospital, I went to collect my test result."

She eyed her warily "What happened this time?"

"I had an endoscopy scan done for my IBS."

"That again! Are you still faking being sick again? Who would believe you are sick when you look perfectly fine."

Amina didn't say anything, she couldn't for she had nothing to say when she knew her Stepmum wouldn't even believe her.

"I'm sorry." She muttered.

"Whatever!" She walked into her room, leaving Amina stare at her retreating back.

Amina shook her head and walked into her room. She took her drugs and slept off without a worry about the world.

She woke up past eight at night, it was the only way she could get some sleep and she felt guilty for missing Maghreb Salah. She performed ablution and prayed.

She had oat and banana for dinner, she was grateful her stomach wasn't misbehaving that night and she was more surprised when she went back to sleep.

..........

The next day, she woke up early, prayed and started getting ready for school. It was the first time in many months that she felt like a normal human being without worrying about her health or thinking about her Mum.

She ate cashew nuts and tea for breakfast and left for school after exchanging pleasantries with her parents.

On her way to the her classroom, she met their homeroom teacher who greeted her with a charming smile of his. She had known him for 3 years now and he had always been nice to her, she had no idea why. He was the only Teacher that even after knowing about her condition showed a great deal of care and worry.

The other Teachers pretended not to know what she was going through. But she didn't actually care about all that, the fact that her homeroom teacher was nice to her was enough.

She waved at him "Good morning Sir!"

He smiled again "I have been waiting for you here, I knew you would walk by any moment from now."

He squinted his eyes staring at her wide eyed.

Amina frowned "What's wrong, Sir?"

He scratched the back of his head "You actually look good today, I... I mean you look better than usual. I bet you got more than enough sleep these days."

She nodded "I feel a little better today actually."

"Well that's nice. I actually wanted to have a word with you."

Amina nodded "Okay Sir!"

He chuckled "The way you always call me 'Sir', you would think I am that old. I am just 25."

Amina shrugged "You wanted to tell me something?"

He sighed "You always act serious with me. I wanted to talk to you about your result from the previous session. It was bad and you barely passed into the next class."

"There had been several meetings about your performance in your previous class and I had to convince them to give another chance to prove yourself."

Amina nodded, she knew she messed up her grades the last 2 previous terms. She was always missing tests and her make up tests, she hardly had time to read and never could concentrate during class.

"Amina?"

"Yes Sir!" She was lost in her thoughts again.

"You really need to improve this year, I would really like it if you graduate together with your peers. Don't let your health be your downfall. You have to be strong and give it your best. Okay?"

"Okay Sir! Thank you very much for everything."

"And remember if you need any help, I will gladly help you. You can get any of your classmates to tutor you, reading with another of your peers can make understanding and retention of that memory easier."

"I will keep that in mind, Sir."

"Get to class before the bell rings." He waved her away and walked to the staff room.

She walked into her classroom, it was almost filled with her classmates.

Aina'u was already sitted, she waved at her when she sighted her.

Amina smiled at her as she took her seat beside hers "How was your night?"

"Alhamdulillah! It was fine and yours?"

Aina'u shrugged "Same. It was nice actually after many weeks."

"I saw you talking with the homeroom teacher on my way in, is everything all right? You didn't seem really happy with it."

Amina sighed "It's nothing serious, just that my result from the previous session was bad and I had to be pardoned to be promoted." She whispered.

Aina'u shook her head in dismay "That's really bad. What will you do now?"

Amina settled her bag in her locker "He said I need to do better this year if I want to graduate."

Aina'u gasped "So it's this bad?"

"It's that bad!" Amina pouted and Aina'u couldn't help but laugh.

The class started soon, Amina tried her best to concentrate and it went quite well actually.

When the bell rang, signifying it was time for break. Amina brought out her phone to Google a word the teacher mentioned while he was explaining the Laws of Matter.

She felt a presence in front of her, looking up, she saw Habiba, her classmate and childhood friend. She wouldn't really call her a close friend, their parents were friends and they grew up together.

When Amina's Mum left, both Habiba and her Mum left her too. They pretended not to know her anymore and Amina understood well that they wanted nothing to do with her.

"Yeah?" She asked as calmly as she could.

Habiba glared at her "What's wrong with you?"

Amina shrugged "What are you talking about?"

"Don't you dare feign ignorance, I saw you with him."

Amina sighed, it wasn't the first time this was happening. She didn't care that Habiba had a crush on their homeroom teacher and had been trying to get him to go out with him, ignoring the no student-teacher relationship.

Aina'u ignored the cold glare the other girl was giving Amina and asked Amina what was happening.

She shook her head "Don't worry about it."

Aina'u was about to intervene when Amina stood up so that they were on the same eye level with the other girl.

"I have told you several times and this will be the last time I warn you that nothing is going on between me and him. I don't care about your childish crush but please leave me out of it, besides I already have a lot on my plate." Aina'u was surprised how calm Amina was as she spoke.

The other girl's eyes flashed red "How dare you talk to me like that? What the hell do you think you are?"

Aina'u looked between them, then around them as most of their classmates were still in the class staring at the showdown.