The Ballad of Citra Sidek and Her Terrible Taste in Men

9

"I don't want to tell her-"

"Then you tell her lah!"

"Are you crazy? She will kill us!"

Citra raised an eyebrow. "What in the world is going over there?" her voice thundered across the classroom. "Zahir? Natasha?" her vision zoomed in on a pair of kids sitting towards the back. "Are you doing your work or do I have to go there and do it for you?"

Reluctantly, the portly Malay boy stood up and brought two books to her. "Erm... Natasha pasted my slip in her book," he said hesitantly. "I told her to be careful but she... pasted it and... it came out like that."

Citra reached across her desk and frowned. Not only had the wrong slip been pasted. It was also pasted upside down. "Natasha!"

The student jumped in her seat.

"Get over here right now!"

The skinny girl with pigtails shuffled nervously over. Ms Citra was not known for her gentle demeanour. She was a harpy with a sharp tongue. A dragon in the classroom. She said so herself and proved it on many occasions. "I thought it was mine so I pasted it," Natasha blubbered as she stood behind Zahir.

Citra pinched the space between her eyes. What the fuck, kid? Your name is printed. Okay, Citra. Try not to murder these children. Breathe. Breathe. Okay, say it slowly. Please be more careful next time.

"Can you be more careful next time?" Citra asked sharply, realising that it was much gentler in her head. "Your name is not spelled 'Z-A-H-I-R', right? And not only that, it's upside down!" The offending book shook like a leaf in a tornado. If it had a spine, it was broken.

Natasha shook her head as Zahir remained quiet. Citra glanced at the two ruined books in front of her. "Okay, okay... we can fix this. First, I need you two to go wash your faces and dry your hands at the sink! Natasha, fix your face, it's just paper, and when you come back here, I want you to bring your glue stick. Zahir, get the scissors," Citra barked her orders. "Move it."

Citra found herself standing and leaning her weight on her palms as the pair scrambled to get what she told them. Children, Citra thought. She loved them but there was no way in hell she could stand one of her own for more than six hours a day. She took a deep breath to calm herself and walked over the main door for some fresh air. The school was built around the science garden, often used for lessons on Botany and the like. Something within her told her to look up.

On the third floor, she saw Marilyn and Arjun exit the computer lab. "Looks like she's really working you to the bone," she remarked to herself.

Arjun's expression was unreadable but Marilyn's hands were waving around more than usual. Just as Citra was about to turn, Marilyn's hand rested on Arjun's shoulder where it lingered for more than a second. Taking a step back, Citra wondered if she had seen something she shouldn't have.

"Miss-"

"Shhh-" Citra shushed Zahir without looking. Arjun had stopped walking. Turning to Marilyn, he took her hand gently... but firmly removed it from his shoulder, his expression stoic.

"That's Mr Arjun and Ms Wong," Zahir said looking up at the pair.

Citra turned around and nudged him back into the classroom. "Stop being so nosey!" she said, the hypocrisy not escaping her. Her eyes involuntarily drifted to the upper floors but they had disappeared out of sight. Damn. She turned on her heel to face Natasha and Zahir who had done as she asked. One held a pair of scissors while the other grasped a glue stick on its last legs. "What am I supposed to do with this?" Citra raised an eyebrow when she removed the cap and saw that there wasn't enough glue left.

She sighed and looked to her class. It was back to business. "Does anyone else have a glue stick? Xavier? Okay, could I borrow it, please? Thanks."

The rest of the day passed by in a blessedly calm manner. Anna was away at a workshop and Dahlia was on child care leave. Her second child had come down with Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease and there was no getting around that one. Citra remembered her complaining about having to sacrifice all her CCL days in one instance. She made a detour to the canteen and bought herself a cold bottle of green tea. Walking over to the hot drinks vendor, she placed her order, "Aunty, one kopi gao siew dai."

"Eh, today drink coffee ah?"