Delicate

After knowing that her teacher was Mr. Coin, Alexa could not help but feel different. Like right now, it is Saturday and, the cafe is opened.

Standing behind the cashier, Alexa lifelessly took the customer's take-outs order. She kept sighing, Mr. Coin was the last in the line, soon, she will need to talk to him.

She wanted to cry upon remembering how she treated him in the past, the glare and the rolling eyes she did just because she needed to count his money.

(Goodness! How did he get all of those coins? How many piggybanks does he have?) she thought.

After getting the customer's order, Alexa turned her face away and shouted, 'Leo, one cappuccino,' and then looked back at the customer.

'I didn't order a cappuccino,' the customer said.

She bobbed her head as she replied, 'I know! That one was for me,' and gave her a vivid smile.

When it was finally the turn of Mr. Coin, Alexa silently gasped, (Here he comes!) her mind started panicking. She had been wondering if he will take all of her snobby action towards him personally and give her a hard life at the school.

'Hi,' Mr. Coin said.

'Good Morning Sir!' she snappy said and plastered a bright smile, round eyes blinking with cuteness.

'Whoa! What happened to you today?' he said with a surprise, his lips were curved with a smile.

'Nothing! I just realized that life can be surprising.'

'Is it huh.' he replied, rubbing a thumb on his chin.

'Yeah. My mom always said that we should not mix our personal issue to our work, so, I am in the mood to share that to you,' after saying those words, her mouth set in a hard line, hoping that he will understand why she said that.

The man just looked at her, 'Great to know! I want one americano,'

After the man paid with a card, which was really a surprise to Alexa since he usually orders a dozen, she looked at him with a fake smile.

'How old are you? I mean you're a teacher but, you look like you just came out of mother's womb,' she bit her lips, she doesn't mean to be that sarcastic but, her tongue had said those sharp words.

The man cackled, 'I am 22, I think I've already told you that.'

She rose an eyebrow, not sure if he did.

'Are you really sixteen?' he asked in a whisper.

Alexa's mouth fell open in shock, here she was, complimenting him by saying that he looks younger but the man couldn't even believe that she's sixteen.

With a dull face, she said, 'Yes, I am sixteen,'

'When are you going to be 18,'

She screwed up her face, wondering if he really meant his question but, seeing the serious on his face, her lips parted to whisper, 'Sir, you're a math teacher. It's a simple addition.'

On the other side, Louisa was hiding under the table by the comer of the wall. She was polishing her skull after her classmate played it around.

Her face wrinkled, remembering how they took her precious skull and threw it at each other. She didn't even try to stop them, she knows that the bully likes attention and she wouldn't waste her time on them, so she just let them take her skull and she sat quietly on her chair.

Seeing the scratched on her skull and the missing teeth on them, Louisa's lips quivered. Under the table, her face darkened, her hands clenched the skull so tightly until it broke.

Her eyes lowered to the ground; the pieces of the skull were scattered on the floor.

She left the table with the tablet on her hand, her sight darkened, both in anger and by her hair that was blocking her sight.

Her head jerked into a different direction, when she finally found her mother, her feet walked to reach her.

She tugged on the hems of her dress and showed her what she had written on the notepad.

'Mommy, I was bullied,' she pouted her lips while her eyes were shining with tears.

Her mother squatted on the ground; one hand was stroking her hair while the other was holding her arm.

'Darling, remember what I told you about the bullies?'

She nodded.

'Good. Bullies are losers. Observe their behavior and find out their vulnerabilities. Once you have it, strike back,' her mother squinted at her, a cunning smile was on her lips.

Louisa agreed, mirroring the smile of her mother. Her mother has always been like this, she never went to her school to deal with her bullies, instead, she gives advises on how to deal with the bullies.

Out of nowhere, her father spoke.

'Do you think it's good advice, Daniella? Didn't we just pay huge money for settlement after Louisa scared her classmate? I mean those kids jumped out of the window and end up with broken bones because they thought Louisa really had a bomb' Evan said, squatting next to his wife.

He remembered how much his wife was cursing at the principal, saying it was just a prank and nothing else but, he knows better.

He frosts when his wife frowned at him, 'Do you really think I have forgotten how you doubted me?' she snarled at him.

'Oh! I didn't know that you are still angry?'

His wife snubbed him and said, 'I am so, go and fold the laundry. I want my dress ironed and the kids uniform too.'

With no other choice, Evan got up.