Love and Letters ✔

Chapter 6

Love and Letters

Chapter 6

The next day at school, I was shocked to find Humayra strolling into school a mere two minutes before the school bell rang. It felt like a slap in the face to me. Which meant that I was taking things too literally. I should have rather been grateful that the Choudhary family was sticking to their side of the agreement. I should have thanked Allah that I was about to have a stress-free day that began on the right note. A day which did not begin with an argument with the Choudhary family.

Yet, I should not have had my mental celebratory victory too early.

Humayra strolled her way over to me, smiling contentedly for all she was worth. I studied her appearance. She looked well-rested, calm, happy, neatly attired, her scarf was properly pinned, and she looked like she wore both her tie and the correct school shoes.

It was just a gut feeling that made me wary. Why did Humayra look so happy? How does she always manage to find which spot of the entrance I'm covering? Why is she acting like an angel? Why does she look suspiciously happy? Why can't I shut up?

Why did I have to be so mistrustful of everyone around me?

"Sue," I called my best friend softly. I hated that I was chickening out. "I have to go to the bathroom. Will you be able to manage by yourself for a couple of minutes?"

"Are you running away from your sister-in-law and your husband that seems to be staring at you intently behind those dark sunglasses?"

Absolutely. "Nope. Me? Run away? Nope. Not at all." I hesitated. "Yeah, definitely. Good luck!" I turned on my heel and raced to the nearest toilet. Fortunately for me, I ran into my favourite teacher, Mr Saloojee. He taught us Biology. Or as the current accurate term would be 'Life Science'. Mr Saloojee was a tall, thin and laid-back teacher. He had only one rule, be quiet while he taught. Other than that, Mr S would let us off the hook for nearly anything. Several girls would chat to him about their relationship problems, and Mr S would happily advise them, telling them in the form of an anecdote from his friends and his past.

"Miss Amani Mia, where are you going? Don't you have duty at the doors with the naughty children?"

"Salaam, Mr Saloojee." I beamed up at the pole of a man. "Yep, I have duty, but I needed to just go... somewhere." My words fumbled over themselves as they stuttered out.

"Okay, don't shirk it, I heard that Mrs Omar is going to be checking in on the Matric classes to see who is bunking. Anyway, I'll be late to class today so tell the delinquent girls to behave while I'm not there so that Mrs Omar doesn't feel the need to hassle us both. Also, try to keep the delinquents in line, and try not to start some sort of revolution, please?"

Mr Saloojee's favourite adjective for my class was 'delinquents'. He would not shake the idea of us being a rowdy, hell-raising bunch of girls, whose sole purpose was to torture him. It was laughable, considering that our class had a much better understanding. We were a loud class, fun and able to cause a few disturbances, but we weren't anything near the snotty, stuck-up and know-it-all like the other class.

I nodded at Mr Saloojee, but then I heard Humayra's voice. "Mr Saloojee, salaams, Sir. Have you seen Amani?"

I froze in my spot and bit on my lip. Silently, I was making dua that Mr Saloojee would deny it. But it was Mr Saloojee, the nicest teacher that the school had. He wouldn't lie.

I turned around with a big smile. "It's nice to see you on time, Humayra!"

She squealed and rushed to hug me. "Amani! It's nice to see you."