Chapter Text
Ali felt empty, he was alone.
He was surrounded by hatred and fear. Hatred for the betrayal he had inflicted upon M.A.T.A, nearly making Cyberaya in grave danger due to his "selfish" reasons. Fear for the damage he had once caused, both physically and internally. First, he dared attack his friends, causing them to be severely injured, then he betrayed M.A.T.A, who knows what he would do next? Murmurs echoed in the hallway, as the agents side-eyed him, as if saying:
You do not belong here, you traitor.
But the truth is, he was being controlled by I.R.I.S Override and he injured his friends, and the reason why he betrayed M.A.T.A was because he felt noticed, appreciated there. He did not just felt like an asset, he felt...human.
Ali looked up at the starry sky, and with all his emotions, he shouted:
“I just wish that I could have one more chance, a restart at this!”
As Ali sat in his room, he saw the night sky twinkled, as if responding to his wish. For once, he chose to believe that maybe things might change for the better…
When Ali woke up the next day, the first thing he saw was how tidy his room was. He blinked, staring at the room in confusion. “I definitely did not clean up my room yesterday..." He thought as he got up and walked towards the closet to get ready for school. But when he opened the closet, he saw a sky blue collared shirt with a dark blue formal vest on the outside with his name and school logo engraved on it.
"What?" Ali said as he stared at the prefect uniform currently sitting in his closet, beads of perspiration trickled down his face, absolutely dumbfounded by this discovery. The last time he checked, he was definitely not a prefect. He could barely reach school on time, much more actually carry out prefect responsibilities. Just as he was about to start a whole room investigation to ensure that he was not the main star of a prank show before actually starting to panic, he looked at the time.
"7:25 A.M."
"NOT AGAINNNNNN!" Ali screamed as he instinctively grabbed the prefect uniform and changed into it, he could not be late again. He barely completed his morning routine, before hastily taking a backpack and left the house.
Before the clock hit 7:30 A.M., Ali ran into the classroom, panting as he did so. Surprisingly, he was rather fast so he managed to reach school on time. "A pat on the shoulder for that." Ali thought. He seriously could not believe himself, making so much effort to be early to school. He made it once again, but barely. Ali then thought about all the possible punishments he could get from his form teacher, Puan Munah. She was a very strict and fierce teacher, no one would want to test her patience. Except for Ali whom in the past, often accidentally angers her for flunking his classes, being late. Just thinking about the time she sliced a rock in half with just a cane sent shivers down his spine.
Ali walked towards his seat, settling his backpack on the floor and settled down into his seat. He looked around. "Wait," Ali thought, "Wasn't I suppose to sit at the last row? He thought in confusion. But his mind told him this was the right seat. He then turned to his best friend and seatmate, Viktor Ong and greeted him, just like he had always done. "Hey bro!" Ali said, grinning. Viktor turned around, a look of confusion in his face before greeting him back with an awkward smile.
"What's wrong Viktor? You seem upset." Ali asked, looking confused. But before he could reply, a tall teacher with a shaggy hairstyle wearing a dull yellow collared shirt hopped into the classroom, carrying a cane.
Ali stared at the unknown teacher for a few seconds before gasping in shock.
"CIKGU BIDIN?!" He said, mouth agaped, and everyone turned around in confusion. Ali was glad that he did not say "Agent Karya", that would have been a disaster.
As he was about to question, he heard slight panting from the window. When he turned around, he saw Alicia staring into the classroom, her eyes seemingly fixated on Mia. Mia looked at her, nodded, and stood up.
"Cikgu!"
"Yes?" Cikgu Bidin turned around and looked at Mia with narrowed eyes.
"Uh...I don't understand the question on the board!"
The whole class went silent.
"What question? There IS no question there!" Cikgu Bidin retorted, staring at Mia with suspicion.
"Uhm...Exactly!" Mia said scratching her head. "It is precisely because of that!"
Just then, Ali looked behind and saw Alicia sneaking into the classroom. Their eyes meet and Alicia stared at him with fear. She then mouthed the words: "Pleaseeee don't tell the teacher on me..."
Ali frowned and raised one of his eyebrow in confusion. After all it is almost impossible, no screw that, impossible for her to be late but now, he sees Alicia staring at him with desperation, eyes darting around to make sure Cikgu Bindi didn't suddenly appear behind her and punish her tardiness. Seeing this, he felt a sense of pity, but he wanted to use this chance to take revenge on her for telling on him so many times. Finally, he sighed and whispered to Alicia: "Alright, I will let you go this time..." Hearing this, Alicia eye's shined with both happiness and confusion. "But..." Hearing this, Alicia, on her way to her seat, slow-turned and stared at Ali as if saying: "I knew it..." She sat in her seat as she took out her tablet and saw the punishment.
"Tidy bookshelves in school library"
Alicia groaned internally. "Great. I knew he would not let me go that easily. That clean freak..." She thought as she took out a piece of paper and started scribbling on it...
As Cikgu Bidin was teaching, Ali did not listen. Rather, he was thinking about today’s weird course of events. "Something was not right." He thought. First, he woke up to an unusually tidy room, then found a prefect uniform in his closet and now Alicia being late? There is definitely something wrong. And he remembered clearly. Never once in his life had his form teacher ever been absent before, and Cikgu Bindi is way too fierce to be him.
Unless...
No, it cannot be, that is simply not possible. But then how did all this occur? The thought of it just made Ali’s brain hurt. Just then, he felt a piece of crumpled up paper flew towards him, and he instinctively dodged it. That piece of paper landed right into Cikgu Bindi’s face.
“WHO THREW THIS?!” Cikgu Bidin hollered. Steam could be seen coming out from his ears. Ali blurted out, “It was Alicia.” Hearing this, Alicia started sweating profusely. “No, no, you’ve got it all wrong!” Cikgu Bidin looked at Alicia with anger in his eyes and angrily threw a bunch of crumpled up papers back towards her. Startled, Alicia tumbled backwards and landed with a ‘thump’ onto the floor, while all the crumpled up papers follow suit somehow, and landed right beside her and on her face.
While all of this was happening, Ali witnessed this seen unfold with shock. After all, Alicia might hate him, but she definitely was not that childish to do this to him. Only he would do such a childish act—
Wait.
Only he would do such an act. Well other than Shuan and Syed, but they did not sit behind him. That meant that he was right.
This might be a world where everything is swapped.