Urgh, why is all of this happening to me so suddenly?

I was supposed to come to school in order to solve my problems in the first place. But after the interaction I had with Maximus, I just felt like I was heading deeper and deeper into the hell that was becoming my life. Why did Maximus choose to target me specifically ? I have no clue. At least I get to rejoice on the fact that I won't be seeing his face for the next upcoming weeks.

I slapped my cheeks with both palms, trying to see if all of this was not just a stupid nightmare that my brain had decided to make up. Alas, I opened my eyes and found myself still standing in the hallway next to our principal's office. I'm so done right now.

With my hands in my pockets, I proceeded down the hallway, walking back to my history class. But once I saw the time on the clock at the end of the corridor, I realised that our class had already ended 10 minutes ago. Did we really take that long in the principal's office? It didn't feel like it. But hey, time is irrelevant when you're living my life, so I don't even care.

I checked my phone to see if I had a class scheduled right now. Indeed, I saw that I did in fact have Spanish with Miss Martinez. Damn it, I really don't want to go there. Should I consider skipping ? I mean, my mom definitely understands the situation I'm in. So if she ever gets a report card for my missed attendance, I'm pretty sure she will not say anything about it. Crap, I'm also supposed to be in the same class as Maximus and his clique during Miss Martinez's lesson. There's no way I am going near that classroom now.

I pushed my back against the nearby wall and slided down like a putrid snail along it, landing my butt on the cold hard floor. I curled up my arms around my legs and started to think on why does life hate me so much like that.

"You should be headed to class right now."

I looked up and my eyes landed onto a tall, pale red-headed student. He was very good-looking with his slim figure, his cross necklace and large glasses, on which black and yellow stripes crossed sideways on the rims. As I looked down to his bag I saw large headphones that were sticking out of the front pocket. Huh, he must be a music enthusiast or something.

He looked down at me with a concerned look, probably because he knew that I was going through a tough time. I looked at him up and down, wondering why he was still standing here.

"Excuse me, who are you ?" I asked.

"It doesn't matter who I am. The point is, if you start skipping your classes now, you'll get sent to the principal's office once again, and I don't think that it would make your life much better if you got detention or anything else."

He smiled and held out his hand towards me, waiting for me to grab it and lift myself up from the ground. Hesitantly I did so, with my head still full of questions on why this random stranger was helping out someone like me. I nodded at him, signifying I was thanking him for his warning, and went on my way without any second thoughts.

A few minutes later I unconsciously arrived in front of Miss Martinez's class. Why was I here ? Didn't I say that I was going to skip this class ? The words that the guy had said to me earlier on were indeed true, but that didn't mean that I had to listen to his demands ! Since when did random people have so much influence on me ?

Well, now that I'm here, I guess I should attend it. Besides, it is only one class. I don't think anything too bad could occur during one measly hour in a class in session.

I heavily breathed in, breathed out, and wrapped up my courage to knock three times at the classroom door. This is it ; there's no backing up now, even if I wanted to.

I didn't even wait for the teacher's response before bursting through said door. Once inside, I felt the teacher and all the students staring at me with big gaping eyes. Were they that surprised to see me here ?

I noticed that most of the students were whispering at each other. This situation reminded me of my bus ride to school earlier on. Only now, they seemed even more eager in their conversations. My face went even paler than my already snow-white skin as I was making up a ton of scenarios in my head. What were they talking about right now ? Did someone on the news finally reveal my big secret, and now the students were all aware of my situation ? Or am I just overreacting at this point ?

I tried my best to listen and understand their conversations, but they were all speaking too quietly.

"He's the guy who..." I heard a girl mutter under her breath.

He's the guy who what ? Got strangled by Maximus ? Is the merman that got spotted yesterday ? What is it ?!

Crap, I can't deal with this anymore !

As my eyes panned around the filled classroom, I noticed something that eased me a bit from my panicked frenzy. Maximus was nowhere to be found. You would think that after getting such a big scolding from the headmistress he would finally be behaving for at the very least 30 seconds. But who am I kidding ? This is Maximus we're talking about.

I was walking through the rows of desks towards my usual seating place, with my body that was, of course, shaking frantically in fear like a bloody earthquake. But as I walked along, I passed next to Owen who was smiling diligently with his eyes glued onto me. What on earth is wrong with him ? Is he the reason why the students are making a fuss out of me right now ? I don't know, but he is definitely acting weirder than usual towards me today.

A few hours had passed and it was already midday. So far nothing out of the ordinary has happened after Miss Martinez's class. But that didn't mean that I was more reassured. I quickly rushed to meet Mira next to her locker as we would usually do, then we went marching to the school's cafeteria together. Today on the menu were burgers and fries. Well, at least something good will come out of this day.

We sat down in a vacant place on the side of the room where we made sure that nobody could eavesdrop on our conversation. Mira asked me on how my morning went and I told her all about my incident with the principal. She listened to me religiously and then came the time I had to talk to her about our Spanish class.

"And once I went in, everybody pointed their eyes at me as if I was a clown in a circus. Some of the students were whispering stuff behind my back, but I couldn't hear anything that they were saying. I'm worried Mira... I'm worried that people may know at this point."

She swallowed her hamburger and put her hand onto mine that were picking and playing with my fries.

"Akari, calm down. It's obvious that students will be talking about you, not much happens in this school besides Maximus's shenanigans. Every time he finds a new person to target, they suddenly start to become the talk of the school. I didn't stop checking my phone in class to see if anything new appeared concerning our matter, but I do assure you that nothing had been spread. Of course, that doesn't mean much, I know that already. But there is no use of being psychotic over all of this situation, because we can only handle it once we get something out of it. For the time being, I suggest that you try to relax."

I was still worried at this point, but I did pull a slight smile on my face. Naturally, she reflected it back but ten times brighter.