1 Starting

I was staring out of the window, looking aimlessly at the people and cars passing on the road, and the workers who were constructing some sort of building. Of course, the thought of what kind of building this is was more captivating than the lecture going on in the classroom.

I glanced at the teacher just to make sure that everything was fine. Looking at the English teacher being immersed in her lecture as if it was the only thing that mattered. It's fun to listen to her from time to time. Actually, I had already read all the stories in the book, so it wasn't that interesting for me.

Beside me were my friends who were doodling and writing things that are better left unsaid. I giggled while reading those and seeing sketches of dresses, more like gowns on ladies with astonishingly huge breasts.

"Why would you do that to the poor fictional lady?" I thought to myself. Even though my thoughts were something like this, I just couldn't help but smile looking at them.

I looked up from the paper to check up on the teacher.

"Oh no! No, no, no," I was screaming inside my head. The teacher was silently looking in our direction, and we all know that's not a good sign. I am a goner. "Goodbye, world. It was nice while it lasted," I gave my last goodbyes.

But before all the goodbyes, I gave a nudge to my friends, letting them know of the danger. It's astonishing how much they were absorbed in their own world.

They became stiff before they hurriedly put everything away and put the already opened book in front of themselves.

Not only the teacher but the whole class was looking back at us. After a few eternities like seconds, she continued with her lecture.

I think it is the basic requirement for a teacher to have the look that says, "beware; you have been warned," or else why would each teacher have such deadly weapons? Well, at least the senior class teachers do.

Being the shameless person that I am, I went back to staring outside after a few minutes.

It was relaxing seeing construction site workers work. I don't know why, but seeing someone work hard is satisfying, even in anime. It's ironic considering that I am extremely lazy most of the time.

It's amazing how simple things captivate our minds just because there is a slight chance that it could be magical.

I admit it, the first time I saw bricks being thrown up, I thought someone was jumping up and down from a four-story building. It took me a while to grasp the situation, and it didn't help that there was a black cloth hung on the roof that seemed like a person standing.

Well, English was the last period for today. It will already be 3 o'clock when I reach home and would have to attend academy from 4 – 8. Only to come back home at 9 o'clock. I sighed thinking about all this. "Well, this is life, not that I have any complaints."

Sometimes, just once in a while, I truly wish for something more. Sometimes it's a wish for peace and quiet, in short, a slow life. But there are also times when I wish for a successful one which I truly earned with my hard work.

I think academy is more suitable for me than school. You can go there in your regular clothes, and it's not that strict about rules. You can actually sit in a relaxed way as long as the teacher does not notice, well the same goes for school, but somehow it's more lenient.

If only schools were more like academies, but then again, we would have less appreciation for academies too, so I guess it's fine.

"Pssst," Nicole whispers in my ear.

"Huh, what?" I whisper back.

She points to the sheet of paper on which our current game of SOS was going on. "It's your turn."

"What took you so long? I thought the game ended like ten minutes ago," I teased her.

"Hey!! I needed to think," she smiled at me.

"With what?" It's just so fun teasing her, and it's rare because it's usually me who is the victim. She simply pouted in annoyance.

"All you both do is play games. What did you join the academy for?" the girl sitting on my right said. I shrugged my shoulders, choosing not to answer.

"To play games," Nicole said nonchalantly while still looking at the paper.

I pinched her arm. "What!?" she asked while suppressing her scream. I simply sighed, looking at her face, and replied back to the girl by saying that we already know this topic by heart.

"Bufha..." Nicole suddenly turned to face the wall, clearly trying to stop herself from laughing. After that, it took me a while to make the girl believe me. I glared at Nicole, who was still laughing. Well, I can't blame her either, and anyways that girl didn't bother us after that.

The class finally ended.

"Wanna go to the canteen?" Nicole asked.

"Nah, I'm just going to sleep for a while," I replied.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm just tired."

"Are you absolutely sure?"

"Don't worry, just go. I'll be fine."

"Fine," she finally left.

In just about two to three minutes, almost all the people left. It's still noisy but it's better than before.

I fell asleep as soon as I laid my head down on the arm table.

I woke up after a while but didn't lift my head up nor open my eyes. Something feels off.

"Huh!?" it echoed as if this whole class is empty, even though I said it softer than a whisper. A shiver went down my spine. How can it be so quiet? There was pin-drop silence, hell, I could even hear my own heartbeat.

Could it be that everyone left? But that's impossible! Nicole would have woken me up, and if not someone else from the class would have, at least attendants would have woken me up. All sorts of weird thoughts kept going on and on in my head. I don't know for how long I have been like that.

I finally gained the courage to look around. "What the...?" I immediately sat up straight and frantically checked to see the whole class. "What is going on?"