Tantalizing Hopes

12. First Few Drops Of Rain

Assalaamu alaikum warahmathullahi wabarakatuhu!

Please leave all the thoughts that run in your head while reading the chapter in the form of comments here. Trust me, they help a great deal in motivating me to furnish another chapter for you people. Had this chapter for a long while in my drafts because of the lack of inspiration 🙃

This was the longest chapter btw!

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"Do you not see that Allaah sends down rain from the sky, and We produce thereby fruits of varying colours? And in the mountains are tracts, white and red of varying shades and (some) extremely black. And among people and moving creatures and grazing livestock are various colours similarly. Only those from amongst His servants who have knowledge fear Allaah. Indeed Allaah is Exalted in Might and Oft-Forgiving."

[ Al-Fatir : 27-28 ]

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Following the whole fiasco involving Rizwan and his fracture, the management who were duly informed called for an urgent meeting. It lead to all the executive members assembling in the board room and arguing for length behind closed doors with raised voices before finally coming to a conclusion regarding how to tighten the institution's hold over the staff and what more rules can be passed in order to ensure that such things didn't happen again on campus.

It wasn't unexpected but still, the situation pretty much spread anxiousness in waves.

Everyone who had set their eyes on the expensive cars lined up in the parking lot awaited with abated breath the final verdict they knew was coming their way. Fear and concern wrapped their fingers around their hearts, for they could sense things getting difficult for them. More intense for them.

And sure enough, the first of the cars had only just passed through the main gate and disappeared into the wider world when the P.E teacher in whose period Rizwan fell was summoned to the principal's room and given a memo. Next, the helps who had been on duty around the ground at the time received a good verbal lashing. A few additions were made to the rule book, things most were not happy with, and even the stage was closed, stating that it would not be open from here on unless and until some function or program was taking place on campus and more than one teacher was present on site to keep an eye on the mischief makers.

The changes made things messier for a few. It didn't really bode well with them. They murmured their dissatisfaction in hushed whispers and in empty passages, longing for what they had once been able to do without any hindrance.

Zahra, on the other hand, was a different case altogether. None of the transitions or added rules seemed to affect her. Her lips had no complaints, and neither did her face register any dissatisfaction. She easily fell back into her usual routine as if it had not even been disrupted in the first place. Her classes went on as usual and her additional duties around the campus kept her too occupied to worry about what was happening around her.

After making sure that the office was informed about the payment Ibrahim had made on Rizwan's behalf, she had disassociated herself with how the management went about on setting things straight, and left it at that. How and when the money was to be paid back was not to be her concern. And the guy who had acted swiftly and with so much warmth and care when the rest had watched, transfixed, was definitely not to be her concern.

As her friend's brother and as someone in whom her colleague was interested in, he was off limits. End of the story. The fact that she had so firmly refused the said person when his sister had brought up the subject only served to fortify the wall of reason of why as to why she had to maintain her distance.