It was the last class of the day, and I was counting down the minutes to the clinging of the dismissal bell.
Five minutes to go. I thought giddily, throwing a glance at my watch. I was deathly hungry.
After I had left the principal’s office, there had been no time to get to the cafeteria. I had returned to class hungry.
It became crazier whenever I remembered the detention-a delay to having Laura’s food.
“Well, it seems someone is in a hurry to go somewhere.”
I withheld a visible flinch, somehow knowing that the lady lecturing us on magic and music was talking about me.
I expected a frown on her face, but I saw a smile on her lips rather; a soft smile, as if I reminded her of someone interesting, someone that she cared about.
I forced a smile on my lips too, and hers widened.
She shook her head, and gathered her supplies on the table. “I will see you all on Thursday. Make sure to get your assignment ready by then. No excuses.”
Assignment? She had given an assignment? I felt my head enlarge out of frustration.
Who would I collect her assignment from? I wondered, letting my eyes roam about the class.
Most of their attention was on me, but I found no one I would be willing to ask for help.
Raul would have been the best bet, but he wasn’t in my favorite book at the moment. He reminded me so much of Adam and his brothers. I wanted nothing with them or the likeness of them.
Which left Levina to choose. But she wasn’t here.
Levina would find a way to get the assignment. She was the principal’s daughter-she could do something.
I will ask her when I next see her. I thought, hoping that I remembered.
Or else, I wouldn’t be doing the assignment. No way was I fulfilling the fantasies of my classmates by asking them for help.
When I had returned to the class, no teacher had stepped into the class yet for a lesson, and so the students had just been in groups, talking about the cafeteria incident.
My eyes had met Raul’s first, and I remembered wondering if he had consoled his sister, or had ignored her too, seeing the distance between them.
He had even interchanged seats…with the seat close to mine. But it hadn’t stopped me from walking to my seat as if nothing was the problem.
Not even the chants of snitch in the atmosphere had dulled my spirits.
Snitch?
A student had been bullied, humiliated and I had somehow stopped that and they had called me a snitch.
If I was a snitch, then they were goats and bastards!
Raul had tried making conversation, probably to make an apology a few minutes after I had sat down, not minding the entirety of attention we were getting, but I had ignored him.
I hadn’t even looked at him, not even when I heard the regret in his voice as he called my name slowly.
Rachel had just sat on her seat without speaking, not even her minions chattering had been able to propel her to speak.
She hadn’t come for me either. She had just stayed still in the class as if not still believing that I had poured juice on her.
Her clothes had been neat though, I had noticed, and so I had relegated it to magic.
It was when the teacher had stepped into the class, and I had gone to my locker to retrieve a book that I had noticed that snitch had also been scrawled on my locker.
Without much ado, knowing that I had no magic to do anything, I had told the teacher.
He had been incredulous, and hadn’t found it strange that I had asked him to trace who had done it to receive punishment.
Two minions of Rachel had done it. Rachel had glared at them, as if she hadn’t been happy with their output.
Well, I had taken a chalk, and had drawn on their faces and their head, until the teacher who had been shaken in shock had commanded me to stop.
I had put the remaining chalk into the opened mouth of the one who had opened her mouth whilst I drew on her.
There had been no laughs or chuckles, but I hadn’t felt any less happy. The teacher had threatened me with detention, but after a while had relented when Raul had told him I already had one.
I knew it was more of him showing mercy to me, than to spite me.
Well, I didn’t need his help. Levina had needed it, and he had ghosted her.
Right now, I was aware that he was staring at me, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of being affected. So, I just stood up from my chair, and packed my stuff. I needed to get done with detention.
As I gathered my stuff, I noticed my timetable then.
Taking a good look at it, I saw that I had magic training only on Fridays.
I furrowed my eyebrows. Why was that?
I almost asked Raul for an explanation, but bit my tongue when I remembered we were not on talking terms. I would have to be patient till I got home so that I could ask Laura or Peter.
I was just about carrying my bag when Sinclair stepped into the class, causing another round of murmurs.
What now? Another tour? No, I wasn’t interested.
He stopped before my table. I said no word to him.
Raul sat, watching us, watching if I would extend the same courtesy I had bestowed on him to Sinclair.
“Prof Bulock asked that I show you to the detention room.”
That’s right. I didn’t know the place.
Without a word, I stood up from my chair with my backpack and followed Sinclair out of the class, not even bothering him to glance at Raul.
As I walked behind Sinclair, I wondered if he would lose his headship position.
I believed that he might be one of the first people that the principal would punish; people who had stood by and watched his daughter being bullied while having the ability to do something about it.