It's amazing how much you forget in just a few months, amazing how you realize just how awful it is to be stuck at a desk. How difficult it is to hold back, to not give in and scream. You need that little guy on your shoulder to give you a million different reasons as to why you shouldn't do something you'll "regret" right now.

Everyone will look at you like a loon, they'll treat you like it too. They'll call people who get off on kicking you around until you stop screaming, despite only giving you more reason to yell. When you get to your lowest they'll applaud and pat themselves on the back, thinking they've taken down some huge monster. Because they need a monster. It gives them such a ginormous boost of ego to take down someone who was simply tired and wanted to lay down somewhere to rest. Freaks, the load of them.

…Those were the thoughts of a blonde girl with blue eyes, her messy pigtails swaying as she struggled to keep her head up.

She glanced over at the clock nearly every second, growing frustrated as time seemed to stretch forever in this classroom. She wished she could stuff her ears at least, but her ear plugs had already been taken away by the teacher earlier that day. They were confiscated as she found it disrespectful, but the earplugs weren't to drown her voice out, it was the girls' classmates that were driving her mad.

Ingrid and Katie would not stop whispering and giggling. Winslow kept chewing loudly at his pencil. Rosario was secretly playing with a digital pet toy under her desk. Sunshine snored loudly. Pascal, Aesop and Muhammad kept passing notes to each other, some of the balls hitting her head. Henry was straight up just throwing empty paper balls at her head and Michael kept trying to glance at her chest which has grown larger over the summer.

There were only a few of her classmates that seemed to be actually listening to the lecture, or at least not trying to antagonize her…on purpose.

Olivia, the resident teacher's pet. Elijah, who seemed to be slowly falling asleep as well but not snoring loudly like Sunshine. Xaiden, who was writing something down, but considering the speed he's writing at he didn't seem to be writing down whatever Ms. Hanagaki was saying, and finally Lucia…who was pretending to look at her notes when in reality she was reading a comic book that was hidden from the teacher's view.

As Lucia noticed the blonde girl's glance, she gave a quick wave with her hand to come near. "How's the first day back at school going for you, Lin?" She whispered.

"I forgot just how long five hours could feel." She responded with a gruff tone, struggling to keep her voice steady. "I don't know how much longer I can keep my eyes open…"

Lucia gave a small nod. "Sorry about earlier, everyone just kept swarming me during recess…I was trying to look for you but Rosa was clinging to me. Like, literally clinging to my arm with an iron grip."

The blonde girl grimaced as she looked at the bruise on Lucia's arm. "My condolences. It's alright though, I needed more alone time today. Some short breaks where I can just-" Another paper ball hit her from behind mid sentence. "…breathe."

Lucia glared at Henry, slamming down her book to grab his attention. "What the hell are you doing?!"

Henry shrugged and prepared another curled up ball. He threw it with no hesitation, even with Lucia looking directly at him. Instead of letting herself get hit again, Lin caught it and crushed the ball flat.

"Usually it's expected that you gain some maturity over summer break, not mentally deteriorate to the point where you act like a bratty toddler out of boredom." She spoke, her tone still swaying.

"Finally. I've been trying to get something outta' you the whole day." Henry muttered. "Do you even get how creepy it is when you sit there all quietly for hours?"

Lin rolled her eyes and turned to face forward again, much to Henry's annoyance. He was about to grab the blonde girls' shoulder but was slapped away by Lucia who gave him the stinkiest stink eye she could muster.

"Leave her alone, jerk!" She yelled, causing everyone's eyes to gather all at once towards one spot. The exact situation Lin was trying to escape today.

Even their teacher, Ms. Hanagaki, took notice and slowly came closer to where Lucia was sitting. Rosa quickly hid her toy, worriedly looking over to Lucia's desk. She tried to get Lucia's attention and was trying to signal something, but Lucia didn't even take notice.

Ms. Hanagaki picked up Lucia's comic book, looking over the pages for a bit before scowling down at the girl. "Detention." Was all that she said before turning back to stand near the chalkboard. Once all eyes turned front again, she continued her lesson on decimals.

A long sigh came out of Lucia's mouth, for the rest of the class she continued giving Henry mean looks. For one, because he got her in trouble, for two, so he would leave Lin alone.

Just as the clock was about to strike the final hour, the woman with short dark hair turned back. "Ah, right. The same goes for you, Sieglinde Neapolitan." At this point half an hour had already passed and Lin at first didn't understand what her teacher meant. "Detention I mean, for bringing earplugs despite being told multiple times last year that you're required to listen to my lessons like everyone else."

Sieglinde gripped at her desk, her nails digging into the wood. When she noticed Lucia smiling next to her however, her rage slowly died down. "What's with the grin?" She asked.

"Guess we'll get to hang today after all, just us alone…" Lucia answered quietly.

Lin gave her friend a short smile. That was certainly a positive way to look at it, still in all honesty she would've preferred they'd walk home and hung out somewhere that didn't include Ms. Hanagaki's stone cold eyes.

She wasn't sure if it was just because she hasn't seen the woman in so long, but Sieglinde swore that the woman's eyes seemed…bitter. Especially whenever they were focused on Lucia and her.

"Hmph! What a shame." Ingrid commented, her index finger resting against her chin. "I was hoping to challenge you at the field…Tomorrow then, Neapolitan." With that she hurried off alongside Katie.

The other students who weren't in trouble today slowly left the classroom, the last one to remain was Sunshine who had slept through the whole lesson. Ms. Hanagaki rolled up Lucia's confiscated comic and gave a quick strike against Sunshine's head. She wordlessly pointed toward the door and the groggy girl stumbled out like the rest.

"Wait…What?" Lucia began to ask, "How come she gets to go? Isn't sleeping in class also-"

"Silence." The short haired woman interrupted, slamming down sheets of paper on both Lucia's and Sieglinde's desks. "The sooner you finish these, the sooner we all get to go home."

Sieglinde was sure about it now, for some reason Ms. Hanagaki seemed to be singling them out.