After the third lesson of the day, I found Yasin alone in the hallway, most probably walking to the teachers" room. I straight up approached him as he tried to evade me. But, understanding my intention, he gave up and let me talk to him."We have a serious situation." I said.
"No joke." he replied. Since we were in the hallway, and there were lots of students around; we didn"t want to look unprofessional. We had to swallow all the curse words we wanted to use, and leave the fighting for a later time.
"Come over here." I said. Although unwillingly, he followed me. I guided him to the chemistry lab. I looked at his face, then inserted the key and unlocked the lab.
"Please have a look." I said. Yasin looked at me with suspicion, and then slowly pushed the door open. The horrible situation of the chemistry lab was in view.
"What?" he said. "I thought you would already have cleaned it."
"You- you..." I wanted to curse really badly, but I held myself back. Only he and I had the keys for the chemistry lab. And if I wasn"t the one who did this mess, then he was responsible for it. Yet, with an unexplainably daring move, he was still accusing me.
"Don"t mess with me." I said. "Who else could"ve done this!?"
"It is definitely you!" he replied. "Wouldn"t I know if I was the one who did this?"
We both paused and stared at each other when we noticed the strangeness. A few earwitness students nearby later joined this short staring contest.
Maybe Yasin and I didn"t really like each other, but I knew that he wouldn"t lie about this.
"What is going on here?" I asked this time. Yasin looked inside the chemistry lab again, worried about the event.
"I have no idea." he replied. Our voices were lowered, and we were no longer trying to fight each other. Perhaps, for the first time in our lives; a common goal, a mystery had united us.
Just then, a few curious students came closer to take a look at the lab themselves.
"No matter how it happened, we have to clean this up." I said. He nodded.
"The hard part will be asking for new lab materials. Our budget is tight." he said.
"Don"t enter." I told the student nearby, and entered the lab. I began picking up shattered gla.s.s parts from the floor.
"Don"t bother." Yasin said. "I will get something to clean this up." He left the lab"s door.
I stopped picking up gla.s.s parts and began waiting for Yasin. Just then, the bell rang, indicating the next lesson was about to begin. I had to close up the lab and leave for the time being.
- - -
After the fourth lesson, I came to have another look at the lab. Just next to the door, I saw Yasin with a mop in his hand and a mask in his face. He saw me looking at him unlocking the door.
"Got to be careful when dealing with chemicals." he said, showing me the mask on his face.
"I already breathed all that air in, nothing happened." I said. "But sure."
He pushed the door open and got inside. I tried getting inside too, but I was stopped by Yasin.
"No, I can handle it myself." he said. "Consider this as an apology for shouting at you with no evidence in my hand to accuse you."
"I did the same to you." I said. "We are equally responsible."
"Fine." he said and sighed. "Okay, well then... I can clean the place up, but you will do the explaining to the administration."
"Okay, agreed." I said. I felt a strange happiness after this short conversation... It was good to know I could, in fact, talk to Yasin like a normal adult human being; trying to get things done without constantly fighting and hurting each other.
I left the lab and tried to prepare the exact sentences I would say to the princ.i.p.al. He was not going to be happy, and I had to mentally prepare myself to get yelled at by a person who wouldn"t normally yell at me.
I walked upstairs, busy with my thoughts. I made my way in the relatively empty hallway, towards the princ.i.p.al"s room. When I got there, I saw another teacher waiting in front of the door. She was Ayla, a relatively old and experienced English teacher. She was liked by some, and disliked by some other people; but with no doubt, she was one of the best teachers in his field.
I simply nodded to her as a greeting, and knocked on the door. The princ.i.p.al didn"t reply.
"I think he might not be inside." Ayla said.
I waited for a few seconds before I knocked on the door again. If he had some business, I wouldn"t want to disturb him; but I really wanted to get the talking done since I had everything prepared in my mind.
No reply again.
This time, without waiting for his response, I pushed the doork.n.o.b and opened the door. In the worst case scenario, he would just get angry with me for a while, and that would be it.
I silently let myself in as Ayla looked at me worriedly.
My brain froze. My blood pressure went high. I could feel my hands shaking. My heart almost ripped my ribcage apart.
"Sir? Mr. Princ.i.p.al?" I could only make a weak voice. Hearing these words, Ayla stepped inside and slowly came next to me.
"EEK!" she cried when she saw the princ.i.p.al, laying there motionless on the floor. His coat had blood on it, which probably came out of the long cut on his neck. There were puddles of mixed blood and urine on the floor.
I immediately held Ayla by her arm and got out of the room.
"I"m calling the ambulance." I said as I closed the door. While this was happening, a student council member had arrived there as well. He wanted to see the princ.i.p.al. Just when he approached the door, I held him by his shoulder.
"Don"t." I said. He looked at me, confused.
"Just don"t." I repeated. "Trust me."