"Aiyoh, Ms Yuni. Give Muhammad a break lah. Stop teasing him about his turtlenecks."
It is recess time for the teachers, but apparently, they have to work something out.
Muhammad is slumped into his chair, breathing faintly. His second day with the students, all decked entirely in that frog green--- no, grasshopper green--- has not been any better than the first.
Fresh meat. He remembers the look in the Secondary Three students' eyes, as he takes his first step into a classroom that smells like wax.
"Class stand. I will be teaching you all Chemistry. Yes, I am new here. " he snaps, trying to sound cool and confident. " You should do this every lesson. Stand when I step in. Understand? Any questions?"
A girl with a squashed nose raises her hand.
"Yes?" He straightens. Time to show them who was the smartest here.
"Wearing turtlenecks in Singapore is not understandable."
He grits his teeth. Funny to think a pretty girl like Yuni would actually be grating his nerves right now.
His form class was not any better.
"Where are your documents?"
"Why do you wear eyeliner?"
Ignorant, uncultured idiot of a---
A--- Grasshopper.
His eyelids flicker open lazily to catch the curvy teacher throw her head back. "Well," she says mid-giggle, "He looks so cute when stressed what."
He gives a voluntary roll of the eye. Trademark, more like, and his head snaps bakc to Daus. "Leave it be. She's got nothing to do."
"Pffft. She's bullying you and you can't even fight for yourself." Daus claps a hand onto his shoulder, adn this time, it is deliberate, unlike his previous incident at the door. It is soft, settled, warm, as if it was always meant to be there. His eyelids flicker with delight.
An extension of himself. On him.
Muhammad suddenly feels like leaning into the arm, into the warmth, the himself.
He stops himself in time to catch Yuni snapping a sho of him with her slender black iPhone, in his half-lidded glory. "What are you doing, Muhammad? Later I STOMP it ah, then you know. Your students will love to see this," she winks wickedly.
Not in front of Daus. Oh, the mortification.
YOU ARE READING
Rhapsody of The Two Male Grasshoppers.
RomanceSet against the backdrop of a school with girls uniformed entirely in grasshopper green, a fresh, new young teacher is thrown into the career that will shape the rest of his life, as he meets another charming man in the staffroom that isn't quite so...
