Exhaling Too Much CO2

It was a very beautiful morning. The weather was clear. It was calm enough to go hiking.

A girl, humming a rock song, was walking on the way from her home to school. Actually, she wasn't walking, she was all jumping and dancing. There was a time, people would give her weird looks whenever she danced like a mad girl in the middle of the streets just like now. But nowadays, they don't give her weird looks anymore. As almost all the people of Malibu are very well aware of this crazy girl's behavior.

The girl saw some birds chirping from the tree. It would have been amazing if she could sing like other birds climbing up the tree. But alas! She can't climb up a tree as she is a little scared of heights.

All of a sudden, she looked at her wristwatch hurriedly and remembered something very important. Shit! Today was the assembly day of her school. How could she forget that? If she can't reach in time, that scary-looking P.E. teacher of her school would make her life hell. As she believes that it's better to fail in the exams than listening to that scary man's nagging.

As soon as the bell of the first period rang, the girl entered the main entrance of her school.

Wait, where are all the students? Why does the auditorium look so empty?

She zoomed towards the school building and saw one of the members of the student council with tons of files in her hand walking through the alley of the building. She rushed towards her and blocked her pathway, stretching her whole body dramatically.

That girl didn't say anything but irked her brows as if she was asking the reason for her blocking the way in a hurried manner.

"Jennie!"

"What is it now?" The girl named Jennie looked more than irritated as she knew the girl in front of her is someone very good at making trouble.

Why does she have to run into this girl of all students today? She is already very busy collecting the attendance of students at the school festival. She has to fetch all the files of each class and submit it to the council office as soon as possible.

"Why didn't the assembly start?"

"It was canceled, you dumbo! Now, go to your class. I saw a teacher inside your class. Maybe Miss Katherine."

After finishing, the girl named Jennie didn't wait anymore and walked towards another class.

All of a sudden, the girl remembered that today's first-class was of their homeroom teacher, Miss Katherine. She gave everyone a Chemistry task and requested all the students to come earlier than usual to submit the task.

Shit! She is too unlucky today. Why is all this happening to her together just in one day?

That girl ran as fast as she could and finally reached the second floor where her classes were usually held. She stopped just before the classroom door and hesitated for a while whether to knock on the door or not.

She slowly forced her head inside to see what was happening. Sure enough, Miss Katherine has already started her class.

"May I come in, Miss?" She tried to make herself super polite just to let herself pass for her fault this time.

"Of course dear… You can't."

Eh? She thought she would hear 'you can'.

Miss Katherine looked at the girl for a while then started to talk.

"Look who came today! I thought I won't be able to see our school's star, Miss Annabelle D'Costa today. How lucky I am! So, what brings you here, Ma'am?"

"Hehhe… Miss, actually it wasn't like that. Can you let me go this time?" Annabelle tried her best to show her puppy face weapon as it always worked on Miss Katherine.

"Sorry, dear. But today, I can't let you in," Miss Katherine said as if she was in pain for not being able to let her in.

"Why?"

Miss Katherine slowly stepped down from the dais as she is no longer young like before. This girl, Annabelle, is absolutely a very bright young girl who is full of vigor. Though she is always late in her classes, she somehow manages to get amazing marks in each examination. She knew, nowadays, many of her students like to do self-study rather than studying in school. It was not some kind of bad practice, but still, skipping compulsory classes was not a good thing also. Schools not only teach textbooks based studies but also help students to learn the value and importance of virtue.

After all, this girl needs punctuality in her life the most. And this is something she can only learn from school. Katherine doesn't want to be a strict teacher to her, but she has to punish this little brat once in a while. Or else she is gonna do something more crazy than this later.

"Did you attend my previous classes attentively, Annabelle?"

Anna nodded vigorously though she actually didn't attend those. She nodded because she thought her homeroom teacher was gonna let her go this time by asking some questions. At least, she can answer those rather than tolerating other punishments.

"Then tell me something, dear. What do we humans exhale in the process of respiration?" Miss Katherine asked innocently as if she was just asking something very casually.

Anna was a bit surprised and wondered why her teacher asked her such an easy question as it was a question worth asking an elementary school student.

"This? Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, teach. We exhale carbon-di-oxide."

"Excellent, Annabelle! I am proud of you. Now, answer me another one," Miss Katherine remarked as if she was very pleased by the answer.

"Sure," Anna rubbed her nose bridge with her index finger in a haughty manner.

"When we are exhausted or rush to somewhere, what happens?"

"We start to exhale more carbon-di-oxide, right?"

"Yes, certainly. So, look, Annabelle. You rushed from somewhere to here, right? You must be exhausted and are emitting a lot of carbon-di-oxide."

Anna didn't say anything but just nodded.

"We all know a toxic gas like carbon-di-oxide is unhealthy for our body as well as students' concentration on studies. Your concentration has already broken, Annabelle. I wish you could at least let my other students study attentively. What do you say?"

Anna was dumbfounded. She didn't know that Miss Katherine would take a turn like this.

"But… this time, just for the last time…"

Before she could finish, Miss Katherine stopped her in the middle.

"Now, go. Stand outside the classroom until this class ends. You are breaking the concentration of class."

That's it. She can't do anything now. All the students had quite fun watching the whole drama but didn't spell a single word as they were also scared of Miss Katherine's scolding.

Annabelle left the classroom in a sour mood and sat on a bench in the corner of the second floor. Today was really not her day, and here she thought after seeing the weather that today must be her lucky day.

Anna looked outside through the balcony of the building. In an instant, she felt a bit better. At least, the weather was still on her side. Suddenly, she felt like singing a song. She heard this song somewhere before. She started humming it. She has had a beautiful voice since she was very little, though she never thought of singing seriously.

All the school staff crossing the alley of the second floor often got to hear a certain girl's singing. She would hum any kind of song drawing all the attention from them. Today was also the same. The cleaner lady in the corner stopped working and sat on another bench near her to listen to her humming. Even the students and Miss Katherine from the class could hear her humming.

Katherine stopped her hand which was busy drawing on the chalkboard and walked outside the classroom. She found Annabelle on the bench situated in the corner of the pathway lost in her own melody. At that moment, she looked like a devoted devotee singing for her beloved almighty.

At that very moment, Katherine found the girl most beautiful and bright in the whole world. She is so radiant that she made her old self feel young again with her too.

Katherine always wondered why Annabelle's parents are not happy with her. Though they never complained about their daughter in front of her, she could feel their annoyance towards her. Anna was a little naughty, but she wasn't actually that bad. To be honest, she was a very true and pure-hearted girl. After all, Katherine saw many students in her life. So, she knew very well what kind of girl Annabelle was. But somehow, whenever the parents' meeting is held, her parents would either be absent or show up at the last moment. It was as if they were not very much interested in their daughter's life.

Katherine never got married. She has no child. So, she didn't know what it felt like to be a parent. But she saw her mother. Her mother was a woman for whom she was standing here, leading a dignified life. Without parents, children are nothing. Then, why are Annabelle's parents like that? They should be so happy to have such a wonderful, bright child.

Alas! Nowadays, parents are always so busy with their own problems that they almost forget about their own child. Sometimes, she wonders if she is able to give the right education to the students like her who are always neglected by their parents like this.