Moments Beyond A Thousand Stars

03

"Where are the other parents?" Mom asked glaring at the principal.

"They're busy and couldn't get here." He answered.

  "Are you kidding me? how can I leave my workplace to come to this school and you tell me the other parents aren't here. I had meeting but I had to cancel it to come here and--"

"We are sorry Mrs Mukhtar." He cut off calmly.

      Will he shut up already, as if he hasn't done enough damage. Apologizing will just make things worst.

She turned my way and I just knew it, the look on her face said it all.

"Hafsa, how many times have I warned you not to break school rules and of course getting involved in fights is breaking a school rule, am I right?" She asked giving me the glare that caused excessive goosebumps to grow on me. I nodded, "How many times have I told you not to get into fights, how many?" The anger in her voice, I couldn't just keep silent.

"Um.." I thought. Truth be told, she has never really warned me because she knew I wouldn't try it. Well, I proved her wrong.

     "Never mind," she turned back to the principal, "what's her punishment?" I flinched at the word 'punishment', sounds so weird.

    "A week external suspension," I sighed in relief, 'thank God its not internal' I thought.

    "Well then, I'll seize your phone along with it," she assured.

       No, not the phone, anything but the phone.
   
     I nodded obediently.

   I slightly glanced at Sauda, who was quiet, she had a small smile of her lips.

    Mama sighed frustrated, "Let's go," she stood to leave but stopped at the sound of Sauda huffing.

     "Tough luck." she muttered but was heard by all in the office.

     Mr. Balogun rose an eye brow at her while I and mama glared at her and before anyone could know, mama slapped her hard.

     "You," she pointed her fingers at her, "Don't think I'm not aware of what you do to my daughter, you have harmed her and we kept quiet. She had gone through a lot because of you, luckily she's a strong girl, if not you'd regret ever laying a finger on her from the start." she finished.

     "Mrs. Mukhtar, you can be penalized for domestic abuse," are you kidding me, Mama turned to him.

      "Oh, so now you know domestic abuse, when she was bullying my daughter, you didn't know that. When other students were being bullied by her, you didn't remember it was part of your school rules right?" she gritted her teeth angrily,"I would have sued your school, after all, I'm a lawyer. I didn't react because by the time I found out what my daughter was going through, it was already too late. I want her to graduate with a good result, its quite unfortunate this is the best school in the town, I have no choice. But let me warn you, if you let this girl off the hook again, I won't hesitate to sue this school for allowing bullying and domestic violence." she spat.

    She didn't wait for a reply, she turned on her heels and headed out, leaving us all dumbstruck.

      Silently, I followed behind. Hot on her heels, a few students glanced curiously and muttered a few words.

      "Heard she fought with Saudah," I heard someone say.
      "I heard Ahmad Kareem was the reason," another added.

      I rolled my eyes before turning my attention back to my angry mother. We headed out of the school and straight to the school's parking lot, I  around, the parking lot was a bit empty. I saw a few boys from my class curiously gazing back and forth at me and Mama. My eyes finally found what they were searching for.