“Now everyone needs calm down, settle down!” commands the teacher, he sounded irritated at his still excitable students.

     I sat in a desk at the very back of the class, I had gotten a seat by the window. I watched as boys and girls around me spoke to one another happily, I would sometimes be able to catch some of the words exchanged between them, but other than a couple words, I didn’t pay too much attention to them. I felt a weird tingling feeling burn into the side of my head; someone was watching me. I turned to face the students beside me, but they weren’t paying me any attention, they were to engrossed with the conversations around them. The feeling of being watched still did go away and I turned towards the window. Nothing was there, the court yard was empty and desolate. The feeling of being watched had disappeared completely and I shrugged.

      I turned back to the teacher, who had finally taken control of the classroom. But a group of girls next to me whispered to one another.

     “Have you seen, Izume?”

     “No, I haven’t. I thought she was with you.”

      “Where could see have gone? I saw her just the other night.”

They fell silent once the teacher started to talk.

       “My name is Mr. Shogo Tsukioka and I’ll be your substitute teacher till Mrs. Sakaki is away on vacation.” He sounded irritated and he glared at a group of girls whispering to one another.

     “Miss,” he looked down at – what I assume to be the roll sheet. “Niida, would you like to tell the class what you and your friends are talking about, seeing how it seems to be more important then what I’m saying.”

     Obviously, not taking it as rhetorical statement, she spoke, “We’re talking about Izume, she didn’t come home last night and when I called her, her mom said that she thought Izume had already got to school.”

Mr. Tsukioka sighed, “Alright, might as well tell you about this now. You’re going to hear about it later. Sadly, your friend, Izume Eto was found dead this morning. Sorry for your loss.” In all honesty, he didn’t sound at all that sorry.

His whole class erupted into discussion.

     Everyone was talking over each other. The girls beside me sat in shocked silence, not knowing whether to cry or talk to those around them about it. While two of the three friends decided to argue with the class that it was some kind of sick joke, the one girl, whose last name was Niida cried.

     I felt bad for the girl and everyone who knew her, but I didn’t know Izume; it was mighty difficult to feel loss for somebody you didn’t really know.

      It took him a couple minutes to quiet everyone down, but when he finally did, he acted like he didn’t just drop a bombshell on the class.

      “Alright, now everyone needs to settle down. This is very heartbreaking, but this is still a classroom and we still have to learn.” And he started taking role.

     I was surprised at how cold he sounded and how unfazed he was when it came to a student being found dead on the streets only a few hours ago. And I wasn’t the only who thought that as well, but no one spoke their opinions.

     I tried my best to concentrate on the names of my schoolmates, but there was so many names, that in the end I stopped thinking about the names and just got lost in thought. I thought back to the crime scene of the girl this morning and I felt uneasy knowing that I had seen the class’s dead friend just a couple hours ago on the way here.

      “Sharp. Edith Sharp?” Mr. Tsukioka called, looking around the class.

      “Here.” I said, raising my hand slightly. The whole class turned back to me, they looked at me like I was a new exhibit at the zoo. I waved awkwardly at them and they turned back in their seats.

Mr. Tsukioka marked me as here before starting the class with a monotoned voice. It appeared to everyone that he wasn’t so fond of his job. He continued talking and talking, never stopping to let us write any of what he said down. He seemed to take pleasure from our scrabbling to keep up. It was a long and rather boring class that seemed to cause a lot of people to become frustrated.

      I could hear people sigh with relief when the school bell rang, ending this class period. The students around me were quick to gather their things and shove them inside their bags. They talked to one another, some talked about the lesson, some talked about the teacher, but most talked about Izume Eto.

      Walking through the halls I heard them talking about Izume; much like most schools, gossip spread like wild fire. It seemed to captivate everybody’s attention. I walked to my locker to switch out my books, when my locker slammed right on my face and jumped. A girl with dyed blond hair stood beside my locker, her arms crossed over her chest.

      “Are you the new girl? Edith Sharp?” she asked her voice was high pitched and squeaky, she didn’t seem very pleased to be in my company.

I nodded, “Yes, I am.” I eyed her cautiously. “Can I help you with something?”

She rolled her eyes and said, “Yeah, you could probably move over. You’re blocking my locker.” And she nodded to her locker, which was right under my own.

      I shifted over, allowing her to get to her locker, I mumbled a sorry before scuttling off into the crowd. I heard her say rather loudly to her friends how weird I was. I heard them all laugh behind my back, and I sighed. I kept walking, ignoring them.

      The day went by slowly and without a hitch. Classes were slow and the only thing people could talk about was Izume and whether if her death was fact or fiction. It caused a lot of debates in classes and it cut into class time immensely and by the time to teachers were able to grab control of their classroom, their class time was almost already over. But the teachers confirmed what they were saying about Izume’s death and once most of all the teacher’s confirmed her death, most of the students would walk the halls with a somber expression