Vandana hated herself. Whenever she didn't want to look like a doofus, that's exactly what her face and body did: look like a doofus. She stood there, unable to move a muscle, wondering if Mr Shiv was talking to her or to someone else behind her.
As if to answer her, he repeated his instructions: "I said come in!"
Vandana glanced over her shoulder just to make sure that he wasn't talking to anyone else.
"I'm talking to you, Ms Vandana Nair."
"Oops," she whispered and stumbled to his table.
"What's the matter? No breakfast?" He glared at her through his glasses as she placed the record on the stack before him.
"Sir?" She mumbled, looking even dumber.
"I asked... no breakfast? You look all foggy today." To her horror, he picked up her record, opened it and landed right on the 'vandalism' article.
Dammit, she cursed mentally. "Sir." She answered meekly.
He skimmed through her article.
Might as well scoot, she thought frantically and turned to leave.
"What the hell is 'vada-lism'?" came his voice.
She felt as though he'd whacked her over the head with a frying pan.
"Sir?" She stood like a mouse. I can't believe that he just found that sh*t.
"I said, what the hell is 'vada-lism'?" He repeated.
"Um..."
RSS was smirking by now.
"Eating vadas. Is that what 'vada-lism' is?"
The boys laughed.
She turned red.
"What's so funny?" snapped Mr Johnson.
"Vada-lism," answered Rajiv, still snickering.
"The three of you, pick up those mops and go swab the corridors," instructed Mr Shiv.
"No, not the corridors please!" The boys looked terrified.
"Then clean the toilets. Your pick." Mr Shiv leaned back on his chair.
"Corridors," answered Rajiv and trudged out with his partners.
Vandana watched on as they headed to the Housekeeping Department to pick up their tools.
"So, where were we? Yes. Vada-lism."
Oh, please leave me alone, she thought desperately. "It was an error," she croaked like a bull toad.
"I'm sorry, come again?"
She cleared her throat. "It was an error," she repeated. She noticed how awkwardly her neck stretched, like a giraffe.
"I very much guessed," answered Mr Shiv. "Go on, correct it and submit your record."
***
NEXT SHOT – Vandana submits her record and scoots from the department. On her way back to class, she bumps into Rajiv mopping up the corridors. She finds out why he and his troublemaker friends were punished.
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Ficción GeneralVandana Nair was gruelling through her third year of hotel management. What does she finally want to be? She was clueless herself. Truth be told, she felt that this whole thing was a mistake (Add that to her long list of other blunders). She shouldn...
