First Classroom

--Somewhere in the school, in an office to be precise--

"So what's your name", the secretary asked before moving her gaze from the screen to Heaven, who was standing before her with a slightly flushed face.

"Ean. Ean Ki… achoo", Heaven wasn't able to complete her sentence, because she sneezed once again.

"Are you sure you don't have a cold? Maybe we should stop and take you to the school nurse?", the secretary suggested in concern.

"There's no need. I don't have a cold…", Ean was also wondering why she was sneezing, and feeling so weird after she stepped into the office.

"That's weird, then it must be an allergy…", The secretary muttered thoughtfully.

"An allergy?", Ean did not think she was allergic to anything. But then there was a lot she did not know, and had not come in contact with, so it might indeed be an allergy.

"If I may ask, when did you start sneezing? Or when did you start to feel uncomfortable?", The secretary had already dropped her work, and turned her focus to Ean.

"When I… entered your office, no when I got to school!", Ean had started to sneeze when she entered the office, but she felt uncomfortable after getting to school.

'When she got to school…', The secretary thought for a while, before breaking into a chuckle, "Maybe someone is talking or thinking about you?"

"Talking about me? They probably don't need their tongue anymore…", Ean muttered underneath her breath. Her nasal region really felt uncomfortable, and it made her want to puke, not out of disgust but something else.

The secretary was stunned, did she mishear Ean? Just as she was about to confirm what she had heard, Ean sneezed once more.

Ean froze and kept her gaze on her sticky fingers. She was wearing gloves, but she could feel the warmth of the viscous liquid on her hands.

The secretary immediately stood up on sighting the blood on Ean's fingers. "Here, use it to wipe your hands!", she passed Ean some tissues from her desk.

She watched as Ean wiped her fingers and requested for more tissues. A trail of blood slid down from Ean's nose, as she wiped her fingers instead of removing the gloves.

The secretary who had been watching apprehensively couldn't stand it anymore, she went closer to Ean so she could assist her, but Ean took a step back when she approached her.

"I'm- I'm okay", She said as she looked at the tissues in her hand. There were traces of silver in the blood on her fingers, and not only did she not want the secretary to see, she also did not want her to get any closer.

Ean's gaze turned sharp as she cleaned herself up, there was something weird about the secretary. And she only realized it now because she started to feel more discomfort, when the secretary had come forward to help her.

She looked up when she heard the secretary's voice again, "Ean… maybe you should go see the school nurse, and let us continue this later."

Ean nodded as she held back the urge to sneeze. Just as she turned around to head towards the door.

"Wait, have this napkin. I don't think the tissue would be of much help", the secretary offered.

Ean glanced at her outstretched hand, and wanted to refuse her offer, but she thought of something and decided to accept it.

"Thank you", Ean said with much difficulty.

"My pleasure, be sure to see the school nurse, okay?", the secretary reminded her with concern.

Ean nodded and gave a light smile then left, while opening her bag to take out a nose mask, her eyes were dark but not unfriendly as she started to get lost in thought.

***

Stopping in front of the entrance of the hallway, she glanced at the trash bin by the side.

She removed her gloves and shoved the tissues inside. Dropped her bag, brought out a half filled bag of sweets and dumped the contents in her bag, the sweets were scattered everywhere, so she put some in her pockets.

And put the gloves into the sweet bag and placed it inside a small pocket in her bag, she glanced at the napkin and brought it closer for a sniff, but before she could sniff it, she felt someone's glance on her and turned around.

'No one's there, that's weird.', she thought and placed the napkin back in her bag. 'I'll check it out at home.', she stood up and adjusted her nosemask.

'It's sticky…', she removed the nose mask and wiped her nose with it. She opened her bag and put it in the sweet bag.

"I didn't know I was this weak…", She picked up the map she has dropped on the window and glanced at it, before putting it back into her pocket.

But the map kept poking out as she walked off.

***

I walked into my assigned classroom, for a second the class turned quiet as I received stares from everyone.

It wasn't a new thing except rather than fear, admiration, reverence and respect. I received gazes full of curiosity, disgust, hatred, rejection and resentment.

Nevertheless, I didn't care. I looked at the map in my hands, scanned the seats, then compared it to the actual classroom.

I'm surprised there are more than ten students in this class, because of the high requirements they have for this school. There are twenty single seats, arranged in a five by four pattern.

The last column by the window was empty with no one occupying it.

'Tch, Crystal couldn't have brought me to a more perfect School', I thought with a smirk.

I walked to the third seat on the last column, because it was directly beside the window. Then sat down there feeling relieved having found a place to sit, even at the secretary office, I stood! But before I could enjoy my seat…

I was approached by three students, who probably hated how easy school life was for them. As I watched them draw closer, I wondered who put them up to the task.

The three who were walking towards me were all girls, and I didn't know why I wasn't surprised.

The one that was leading the other two had blonde hair, and an arrogant expression on her face, while the ones that were being led, had a more arrogant look on their faces.

The girl leading their trio slammed my table with her hands unnecessarily, if she wanted my attention she already had it. So why make unnecessary noise…

"You must be new, right?", Blondie asked thoughtlessly.

I expected this, but I didn't think they'd be so open about it! I knew most of the students in this school probably had low IQ with about 30% of them being above average, but who knew that it was worse than I had thought.

They give scholarship candidates difficult exams, only to bring them into a school full of idiots, that they probably never screened because of their parents greasing.

'What kind of question is that? Has she ever seen me here before?', I decided to ignore her in anger. To think I'd have met with such a person, I didn't have the time nor the patience to be dealing with idiots.

"Of course she is, Vivian. Can't you see how she's behaving like a loner?", the second blondie in the group spoke up, and mocked me, but she probably had no idea she was mocking Vivian as well.

"Yes I'm new and so what?", In order not to lengthen the time I'd waste with them, I replied coldly, hoping they'd leave me alone. But as the saying goes, the more you resist, the more it persists.

Vivian stared blankly at Ean and thought, 'She's different from Cheryl, that lame bootlicker. Ian stone… She has quite the attitude, but it'd be nice if she joined me.", Vivian lips curved up into a smile, just as she planned on acting on her thoughts, she was interrupted by her friend.

"What's your name? uh how old are you? who are your parents are they-" the girl at the back whose hair was dyed with three different colours started to bombard me with questions, but then she was cut short by Vivian.

"Shut it Wendy! Both you and Claire should keep shut when I'm talking", Vivian snapped at them angrily.

I glanced at them in exhaustion, I was still feeling light-headed and all the noise they were making beside me wasn't helping.

But that little lightheadedness wasn't enough to stop me from doing what I wanted. I decided to answer them since they'd need to know the name of their disaster.

"Ean. My name is Ean. That's all you need to know 'cause I'm afraid that your brain won't be able to withstand the shock of my identity", I said with a cocky attitude.

Vivian looked lost in thought, "Ean… I got the name wrong but my info was right. She's so proud, even though she has nothing. Does she think because it was easy to get in this school, it would be easy to stay? But I like her and want her to join my clique, so at the moment, I'll try to befriend her when everyone is bullying her. Ciara lost out this time" .

Ean closed her eyes for a moment to think about everything that happened so far.

From the beginning, I decided to give them a cold shoulder, why? 'Cause I'd naturally attract everyone's attention, and it will be great if it were a negative audience.

'Since the more enemies I make, the more likely I am to get out of this school, right?'

I opened my eyes to see everyone staring at me weirdly.

Ean didn't know what happened, 'I didn't follow the original script, is that the reason they were looking at me with such a gaze?'

I couldn't help but shudder as I thought of one name behind all this, "Crystal".

"Ean, that's a strange name, does it have any special meanings?" Vivian said after the momentary silence.

"Special meanings..?" I mouthed thoughtfully and wanted to ask what she meant. There was a difference between "meaning" and "special meaning".

But I heard her say, "But it's cool either way". Vivian smiled at me, while my expression remained unimpressed.

'Does she think I have low IQ like the rest of them? That I'd warm up to her if she's nice to me when others aren't?', I thought.

"Meet me if you need anything" Vivian said with a smile before going back to her seat.

Like hell I would! I didn't say anything and watched her leave. But if I knew what was going to happen next, I would have refused her offer, or given her a warning to not get involved with me.

So that offer wouldn't become an unexpected factor which interfered in my plans.