Settled in the meeting room, everyone was intently waiting for Azlan to commence what he had gathered them here to listen to. It had been an hour since his arrival in the valley.

"Where is everyone else?" He cleared his throat as he glanced around the premises with furtive look and the teachers looked sideways at each other, thinking who he was referring to.

Their chaotic thoughts were broken by Asmara.

"I believe you're talking about Safa," she hissed. "Well, might I remind you. Remember how the fun loving sadist inside you blatantly commanded her to enjoy her leisure time by taking shower in the rain for hours the other night, that too as a 'punishment'? Yeah, she's still recovering from it so I'm really sorry to divulge that she won't be able to act as your toy for a few days."

Her voice was calm and placid but the hint of bitterness was not hidden from anyone as they all stared at Azlan in shock.

For a few minutes there was a complete silence in the room while Azlan faltered with a scowl set on his forehead, struggling for words that had already put up a fight with him to not come out. Or maybe he didn't have any to justify his immature act. Well... he did. But they didn't need to know that. They shouldn't.

"I hope your friend is fine now," he said, tautly and nonchalantly.

"Oh yes, she is but I don't know for how long, now that you are back," she spat and he shot a deathly glance towards her, his jaws clenched.

"Anyways, all rubbish aside," he continued. "It took me a great deal of effort to finally find a group of constructors that'd be building the second school. The land is quite wide and palatial so we'd have much more facilities in this one as compared to the one already being run so there's that."

"But what about the TTC?" Khadija intervened. "What if they create a mayhem this time, too?" Her face was embossed with lineaments of worry.

"You don't have to worry about that. I'll be supervising everything myself this time," he assured and she let out a sigh of relief and contentment.

"The architect will arrive in a few days and then we can finally start," he announced and everyone nodded as they grinned.

******

Safa mindlessly dug the fork in her scrambled eggs, sitting at the counter, propped on the black bar stool as her hand supported her head from falling off by the way it was drooping. She was still in her sleeping suit right now, her hair mounted into a high messy bun.

Asmara placed a cup of coffee in front of her, jerking her off of her thoughts as she squished both her eyes upward. "What are you thinking?" She chirped before siting from across her.

Safa convulsed her head incoherently as she played with the contents of her plate. "You know Ayyan, right?"

"Ayyan Azram? The student from 1st grade?" She furrowed, gaining a nod from Safa in return.

"What about him?" She asked as she spread butter on her toast.

"He fainted again a couple of days ago."

The movement of her hands abruptly came to a halt as she plopped her head up with a frown. "Again?"

Safa nodded as she continued. "And that's not even the worst part." She traced her thumb on the rim of the cup.

"What do you mean?"

"His father is not a good man, Asmara," she divulged and Asmara's visage scrunched into paradoxically entangled expressions: confusion and fright of hearing something horrific.

"So what are we gonna do now?" She inquired once Safa had narrated everything.

"I don't know." She shrugged agonizingly as she juddered. Even the aroma of coffee was not being able to placate her right now. "It's not like we have a say in anything. I mean we don't have any right on him. I want to help him but I'm shackled. He's his father." Her voice wavered into tiny fragments, piercing through her heart. "I feel like my head's gonna detonate. It's a mayhem in there." She rasped desperately as she held her head with her hands.

******

She tugged the cashmere close to her as her ivory dupatta (scarf) impeccably set on her head fluttered against the whooshing wind. The ground was empty right now as the classes were on the roll.

She moved ahead when a figure coming out of the office blocked her vision. It was Azlan, who suddenly stole his glance away on catching her. It amused her.

So the Nagini feels ashamed. Good!

With calculating steps, he mustered enough courage to stroll towards her.

"How are you, now?" He asked, surreptitiously. Clearly uncomfortable.

"Aww shucks!" She waved her hand. "Of course I'm okay. I mean it's not like I drenched in rain for, I don't know, like 3-4-5 hours. Actually I don't even know the count." She pulled up a phony smile. "You just don't worry. Nagini."

"Look..." he cleared his throat hesitatingly. "I... uh..."

Oh, so he's trying to apologize. Let's just look straight into his eyes and make him more uncomfortable. She wounded her arms on her chest and tilted her head to the side.

His stiff chest rose up and down under her contemptuously disdainful gaze. " I... uhh....emsorry," he mumbled.

"I'm sorry, what? Didn't quite catch what you said." She cocked her head forward and he gnashed his teeth. He knew she was playing with him.

"I said I'm sorry, alright?" He spat in a not-so-sorry tone and she sniggered with triumph.

"It's okay. It was my fault anyway."

"Really?" He suddenly perked his head up at her response.

"No, asshole. It was obviously your fault. You know you'd give Voldemort a tough competition," she snapped and he took a step back, afraid that she might pounce on him.

"But you just called me his pawn," he said.

She scowled as she contemplated. "When?"

"Just a few minutes back when you called me Nagini."

Holy mother of fooking pakora! What is he, a bat or something?

Not knowing how to turn the cards, she chirped without thinking. "What if I had died, you moron?"

Not gonna let you have the power play. Nope. Never.

"Ahh, don't worry. That wouldn't happen... Not so easily," he said as one side of his lips curled up in a demonic smirk while she peered at him in bewilderment.

"What do you mean?"

"No, I mean, God doesn't take people like you away so easily from earth. People like you are the trial for good humans in this world, you know," he jeered with a lopsided snigger.

"Oh well, then I guess you're one hell of a lucky person. You'll get to witness umpteen generations," she derided as she accidentally-on-purpose stomped on his polished black shoe, before strolling off towards the staff room.

******

A/N

Three days off. Woohoo!

Going through existential crisis right now, tho. Does it happen to you, too? When exams are over and you start questioning your own existence?

Like, I'm so happy that I don't even know what to do to treat myself before the exams-torture begins again.

Anyhoo! Let's just see how many updates I can give during these three days.

Vote and Comment <3.