Read Academical Heartburn :: Episode 3 ~ Chapter 1: A Stifling Start

All the boys sat silent, but not quite a dead silence. It was more like a radio silence, as if they were tuning out the world and other encapsulating distractions and voices in the vicinity. But not Murphy. He seemed to be the only one that wanted to absorb and fully infuse with the school, and seemed to be the one breaking the other student's monotony.

This woman, who only shortly remained a mystery to Murphy continued to circle behind the lectern for a few seconds while folding her hands forwards into a triangle below the lining of her breasts (which was a little hard to see from the back row where Murphy had been sitting) eventually came to a precise halt and started speaking again.

"Hello students. As a general reminder of who I am, you may know me as Miss Wickett. I will be leading this assembly." she spoke, her voice echoing as if it was going much further out into the world.

She paused to put up a slideshow, which was adorned with the school logo and some Latin phrases as the border and a question, which said: "What do you desire?". Murphy's mind froze, like a computer glitch. This 'computer glitch feeling' drowned out most of the assembly and it felt like his entire mind was a massive spacious room that was being painted in a jet black, and also as if the entirety of the hall was going buggy. What he would answer the question with was almost too separated and puzzling, and even still the very question taunted his mind as if it was a puppet that was a slave to it's own morals.

Miss Wickett then went to prattle on about the school policy and achievements, but out of the vast ocean of words spoken, the beginning words were the only thing that mattered to him. As if the reason he was at this place was hidden in that question.

After the assembly ended (which felt like an aeon of joy and pain had elapsed) Murphy couldn't believe to hear that half of First Period had been over-shadowed by assembly. While looking at his timetable as he exited the school hall he uttered the same questions semi-uncomfortably what felt like a thousand times, "What do you desire?" and "Can you tell me where is AR4 is?". And eventually, only the second one was answered. Murphy dragged over to the art class and puffed out "Sorry I'm late!" and then dropped as if he was a lifeless corpse on the chair.

The teacher, Mr. Ling, calmly reassured him that it was fine, and the class started. Mr. Ling then put up the task on a central screen in the room, the task being to draw one of the pictures on the board. But Murphy was still tired from the walk there and from the assembly, so this lesson would be much slower than that, right?