Project: Socialize (Chapters 1-197)

6. Mondays

Ever have that one time when the teacher asked to see you after school? Well, that is the situation I'm in currently. That is the reason why I'm walking down the hallway of the first floor of the lecture building towards the faculty office.

Since it is after school, many students streamed out of their classrooms with their own destinations in mind. Some heading to their club or sport meetings, others leaving with their friends to hang out, or some students headed home. I avoided the center of the hallway in order to save myself the hassle of squeezing through the crowd and walked by the windows that looked into the courtyard.

An intersection soon greeted me. If I turn left, I will be at the front entrance of the school and I could head home. That is the direction I want to head, but the task at hand required that I proceed on straight.

I let out a fatigued sigh as I glanced over in jealousy at the students who were leaving school. I want to leave just like them, and if I do leave, I might be able to display a dazzling smile of joy as well. But, I cannot. And it's not like I'll ever let out a dazzling smile. That's just impossible. It's hard enough for me to smile wholeheartedly already, so don't force me to.

I finally arrived before the door to the faculty office, knocking on it gently before sliding the door open and entering. Inside the faculty office, which is a large rectangular shaped room that is of a different furnishing than the classrooms, were office tables packed in the center of the room in an arrangement that allowed for the most efficient use of space while retaining a respectable degree of personal space and work area. Not all the teachers were present in the room but the one that called me in is.

I immediately located her in the faculty office, sitting in her office chair and grading papers on her desk. Her long black hair streamed over the backrest of her chair and her crystal clear green eyes were focused on the papers before her. Her posture is perfect, with her back straight and head away from her desk. She used her left hand to hold the paper that she's grading down on the desk, and in her right hand she wielded the almighty red pen that could decide one's fate.

I didn't immediately announce my arrival as I approached her desk and stood behind her chair. She just seem so engrossed with her work that I didn't want to disturb her.

As I stood there, I looked over her shoulders and at the work that she's grading. It looks like she's grading essays that we wrote earlier today in literature class. My eyes widened when I see my name on the top right corner of the paper she had in front of her, and I prayed in silence that it has no major flaws. To be honest, I'm not that sure my essay was perfect. The prompt is kinda hard in the first place. Like how the hell would I know what I want to do in the future? That's why I just jotted down something random. In fact, I might've gotten a bit carried away and written down something super embarrassing. To be honest, I don't even remember what I wrote.

I winced as I witnessed the red pen left its mark all over my paper. She circled my grammatical errors, and straight up crossed out certain sections of my writing and wrote comments on the side. From how tense her wrist is, I could tell that I had messed up badly. Therefore, to prevent myself from further destroying her mood, I decided that it is time that I speak up.

"You asked for me, Ms. Edel?"

Slowly, the woman before me turned around in her chair and made eye contact with me with her beautiful green eyes. She bears a heavy resemblance to Muria, and there's a good reason for that. Mura Edel, not only is she my literature teacher, homeroom teacher, and guidance councilor, she's also Muria's older sister.

"Alevian," she sighed, making me to start fearing for what I've done. "What is this essay?" She held the essay up to me whilst crossing her legs, and just as I had seen, it is almost entirely communist with the amount of red on the paper. "The prompt should be relatively simple, and there should be no wrong answer to it."