True Stories From the Staff Room #2

Or … the one where Ana learns that she is NOT a VIP.
 
Italics denote speech in Japanese.

It was thirty minutes before home time; I was left alone in the staff room to do whatever pleases me. While some cute bear in a grade three Japanese book about kanji attempted to teach me the on readings and kun readings for the kanji “cold”, a teacher and a student rushed in exclaiming, “Wow. This is empty. Nobody is in here.”

I raised my hand. “Um, I am here.”

“Oh, it’s Ana-sensei!” said the student.

The teacher smiled apologetically. “Oh, I’m sorry. I meant to say that no one important is in the staff room.”

She repeated herself slowly and in English, “Not. Important.”