“Bianca! Get your head out of the clouds!” yelled Ms. Taylor.
School had just started but try as she might, Bianca struggled to keep her eyes open. She was startled when Ms. Taylor yelled at her and it jolted her alert.
“I’m so sorry Ms. Taylor! It won’t happen again.” Bianca, apologised profusely.
“Hey, what’s with you today? You seem quite off. Everything okay?” whispered her friend, Natalie who sat right next to her.
Bianca shook her head and told Natalie that she was fine with a wry smile and told her to not worry about it. Natalie didn’t seem convinced but decided to let it go as Ms. Taylor had already started the class.
Bianca tried her best to stay focused during her classes but her mind kept drifting. She dreaded having to go for her last class of the day. With each peek she took at the classroom’s clock on the wall, she felt that time was passing by too quickly.
As the bell for recess rang, Bianca immediately made a beeline to the school’s rooftop, not telling her friends where she was going. Once on the roof, she found a secluded place where she knew no one would ever go and sat there. She felt like crying, yet no tears came out. The air was fresh and cold, but she felt like she was suffocating. Lost in her thoughts, she could only gaze at the breathtaking scenery of the nearby park from her school’s rooftop.
The bell for class to resume rang not too long after, and Bianca reluctantly gathered her things and headed for her next class. She was relieved none of her friends had noticed her absence during recess as she did not feel like explaining why she disappeared the way she did.
Time passed by way too fast for her. It felt like only minutes had passed but here she was, standing at the door of her last class. She took a deep breath and pulled down her hoodie so that it covered her face and quickly made her way to a seat that was at the back of the class. She hoped that nothing would happen but yet she knew deep in her heart that it was just wishful thinking.
“Good afternoon class! Let me take a quick attendance and we shall begin our class.” said Mrs. Rose.
Mrs. Rose called out all of her classmate’s names but not hers. Mrs Rose then closed her attendance book and was keeping in in her bag when Bianca timidly raised her hand and softly told her that she forgot to take down her attendance. You could hear a pin drop in that classroom as Mrs. Rose turned visibly red.
“How dare you interrupt my class! Do you not have any manners?! There! I’ve taken down your attendance now! Happy?!” said Mrs. Rose fuming mad.
Bianca sank further into her seat and wished so badly that the floor would just eat her up. She did not know why Mrs. Rose was so hostile towards her. Mrs. Rose was still grumbling out loud, complaining about how Bianca was so rude to interrupt her while she was talking.
“Well, since Miss Bianca seems to think that she’s the most important person here, why doesn’t she come up to the blackboard and solve this mathematics problem?” said Mrs. Rose, her voice laced with hostility.
The topic of the mathematics problem on the blackboard was supposed to be taught in this class, but luckily Bianca studied ahead as she was deathly terrified of Mrs. Rose and did not want to suffer any more of her wrath. With a shaking hand, she took the chalk and slowly began to solve the problem on the blackboard, double, triple checking each step.
When she was done solving it, she quickly scanned through her solution to see if she’s made any mistake in her working. When she found none, she took a step back and timidly hung her head and waited for Mrs. Rose to check her answer to the problem. Mrs. Rose was silent. After awhile, Mrs. Rose suddenly started yelling at Bianca once more as apparently she had skipped a step in her solution. Instead of simplifying the subsection of the problem one by one, Bianca had simplified all of them in one step and for Mrs. Rose, that was completely unacceptable.
“Is it so hard to do each section one by one?! I can’t believe how lazy you are!” said Mrs. Rose, still fuming mad.
“But isn’t her answer correct, Mrs. Rose?” asked Bianca’s friend while raising his hand.
Mrs. Rose sputtered. “Well, y-yes. But that’s besides the point! She shouldn’t have taken a shortcut!”
With her head still lowered, Bianca quickly apologised to Mrs. Rose but that apology somehow made her angrier. She got thrown out of the class and was told to never come back to her class ever again for being rude. She felt so deflated. She had no where to go to. She couldn’t go home as she had no family left. She lost them months ago to a car accident. She had to work part time in order to afford to go to school.
Without even realising it, she was standing on the school’s rooftop once more. This time, her tears was flowing freely but yet she felt emotionless at the same time. She let out a huge sigh, feeling deflated and looked wistfully at the ground below.
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