Teera and Hanirah

2:Giraffe

2

Teera was distracted. She tried reading manga on her phone under her desk as the cikgu sejarah's shrill voice droned on and on, almost like a lullaby but much more annoying.

She found it ironic that she had led a little revolution in school for students to be allowed to bring handphones with arguments like 'what if emergency' and 'google can help enhance studies', but now she was acting like a prime example of her teachers' counterarguments.

But alas, she was distracted even from her distraction. For an Indian girl who doesn't believe in karma, that was unacceptable. So she decided that she was no longer distracted but annoyed.. at Hanirah.

The way the class was set up, rectangular tables were arranged together to form 6 big groups, something about a shift towards collaborative learning, more like a shift towards uncomfortable sitting positions and back pain.

Groups rotated weekly and that's how Teera, who was of the smol variety, ended up at the far back and Hanirah, who was the tallest in their class and probably form, ended up up front.

More unfortunate than the fact that they were both out of place, was the fact that Teera was somewhat blocked by Hanirah who was in her direct line of vision. And this posed as another 'valid' reason for Teera to be annoyed by Hanirah.

The first 'valid' reason for her annoyance being that Hanirah wouldn't agree to being interviewed. Teera recalled how she was just asking Hanirah questions yesterday, really nice and polite and all, and how Hanirah had suddenly gone berserk and manhandled her.

She made a mental note to add that to her list of things on why Hanirah was oh so annoying. Lost in her thoughts, Teera was caught off guard when Hanirah decided to turn around with the cockiest grin on the planet plastered across her face.

Then Hanirah proceeded to mouth 'Stop Staring, It's Rude'. To which Teera reacted with the most flabbergasted and offended expression she could muster and mouthed back 'who wants to stare at you'. Hanirah lifted an eyebrow and did a semicircle head motion signalling everyone.

Teera did a gagging motion to signal her disagreement but she knew that wasn't an argument she could win. Hanirah was popular, for all the right reasons, and that was a fact. With a final charming wink, Hanirah ended her theatrics and turned back around.