Malina has had a crush on her best friend, Tytus, ever since they were kids, but Tytus has only ever seen her as a sister. While Malina is determined to fix this, the biggest obstacle in her conquest of love is her complete lack of facial expression...
After dinner, we had our usual hour of free time to do whatever we wanted.
I was content to go back to my room like normal, but Tytus grabbed my arm and, with a smile, pulled me over to one of the seating areas.
All the 'important' people I knew the names of were there, as were the other leftover women in Linda's group, and the other men in Lubomir's group. There was a dozen couches and seats arranged around three small circular tables. Those tables were connected to each other via metal beams arranged in a triangle, with a tall, dimly lit lamp standing in the center.
With so many people present, there were dozens of smaller conversations going on at once, but I focused on whatever Tytus was talking about. I rarely spoke of my own accord, I mostly waited for Tytus to invite me into the conversation with a question or two. He either asked my opinion on the topic, asked me to confirm what story he was telling, or just turned to me and smiled while everyone was laughing. It was enough that I didn't feel isolated.
Then, Anatol spoke up, "everyone, everyone!" His voice loud and commanding, we all stopped our smaller conversations and turned to him. "Time to get down to the important issue. Malina, what exactly is going on with your teeth?"
Katarzyna cut in, "we're not making fun of you! Or teasing you, we're just curious."
There were a few murmurs of confirmation as everyone waited for my response.
"My teeth are strong. It is as simple as that."
"Pfft," Tytus waved me off, "no, it's not that simple. Check this out! It's pretty cool!" Tytus jumped to the back of the couch and stood behind me, then he shoved both his index and middle fingers inside my mouth to pull my cheeks apart. "Just look at these cool fangs."
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Not my best work, I think. Note that, at the time, my face was still wrapped up and my nose still had a cast. I tried drawing it for a while but it never looked even halfway decent. And Tytus was much taller than me while I was sitting, so he was leaning forward. I couldn't get the look right though. Oh well.
But, with my teeth on display like this, there were a variety of reactions. Linda said it looked cute, as did Anita. A few men asked if I ever stabbed my tongue with my fangs, some of the girls complimented how pearly white they were. Tobiasz flashed his teeth and rubbed them over with a finger (his teeth were normal), while Moa poked her head out of his hair to stare at me, wide eyed. Marian and Lubomir had a similar look, they seemed pale.
Teodor glanced between the three and said "what's wrong with you? You look like you've seen a ghost. Or... more like a monster? Got a problem with sharp teeth?"
Marian stammered while keeping his eyes locked on my mouth, "w-w-well I just, you know, like, right?"
Lubomir gulped, "so, Malina, why are your teeth like that?"
