Hello, Mr. Umbrella

Chapter Ten

The blessed Islamic month; Ramadan was fast approaching but that doesn't guarantee Gossip Gurl was going to stop messing with Aliyah. It had been two days since she lost her memories. Those two days were the worst; she had to skip school on purpose, but she couldn't continue hiding from school—either ways, she was going to resume eventually, and hiding was only going to make the situation more worse. Most importantly, the answers she was looking for lies in school, she somewhat believed Gossip Gurl's someone from school and she strongly had a hunch about Bilal being her mystery knight-with-pink-umbrella—Mr. Umbrella. Since he was the one she saw with her in the picture she knew not when it was photographed.

All she could pray for was for the day to end already, she needed to process many things. She was supposed to pay attention to their chemistry teacher; Mr. Elias, but she didn't grab a word he said into her head. Aliyah could just see his mouth moving, but they were wordless—like he was muted by an unknown, supernatural force. The only joy Aliyah had was her self-entertainment moment. Cussing and swearing were the words that her brain replaced for Mr. Elias' normal sweet and old voice.

All her smiles were unrelated to Mr. Elias' teaching, her brain began a little Netflix show for her.

The bumbling and shining yellow chemical, boiling inside the test tube in front of Mr. Elias drew Aliyah's mind back to Ramadan. Every year, they would fast during Ramadan; as expected for every Muslim family, but that wasn't the memorable event, the memorable event was iftar (The evening meal (of dates) that breaks each day's fast during Ramadan). Every iftar, Mrs Santos would make fresh pineapple juice for the whole family, for them to quench their thirst with. If Aliyah had a genie in the bottle at the moment; her only wish would be: for the genie to turn back time, rewind or fast forward it.

Something degenerated her self-absorbed wish. She remembered that fresh pineapple juice wasn't the only memorandum she had about Ramadan; she remembered there was something she did; something shameful and embarrassing last Ramadan and she had been praying no one saw her. May the lord forgive her.

This Ramadan was going to be good; at least, nothing bad has happened; Gossip Gurl's post had ceased somehow.

The ringing of the bell was somewhat different, it sounded like Alan Walker's song: Lily to the ears of the bored-to-death students, including Aliyah. The bell had graced them with its sound. Mr. Elias gave the class a short homework and walked out of the classroom, clueless about Aliyah's divided attention. It was definitely hard to tell whether she was paying less attention to him when Aliyah was actually giving him understanding smiles.

Chemistry classes were always boring but overtime ones were the worst; the students' exhaustion pushed them out of chemistry class—to a much ventilated space. The choking smell left behind by the chemical in the test tube was unbearable for the students. They all left immediately.

Daphne and some other girls were about to walk out of the classroom when the sight of Aliyah's writing stopped her. She excused herself from the girls and sneaked to Aliyah's back. "What were you thinking throughout class?" She asked inside Aliyah's ears.

Frightened, Aliyah dropped her book and her pen followed. "Stop sneaking on me. It's creepy." Aliyah announced, shakily.

"I see you were not listening to Mr. Elias. Remember Aliyah, you have a valedictorian title to retain."

Aliyah sighed heavily as she picked her pen. "Thanks for the 'helpful' reminder. I think I'll stay back and study."

"As you wish." She muttered, "see you at Jeremy's." Daphne winked before walking out of the classroom.

"Insha Allah (if God wills it)." Aliyah said to already-gone Daphne as she face palmed. She was in the same situation like this one-year-ago. In all of her life she always has to worry about one thing or the other. She had to worry about her valedictorian title; she didn't even know why she was awarded that; she was bad at public speaking, yet she was awarded that title. The only thing at fault was her smart brain. Since this was final year of highschool, she ought to come out with good grades and for easy acceptance to her dream university; Calvin. She needed to retain her valedictorian title.