"So, the idea of algebra of limits is that we are focusing on a mathematical equation that follows the word lim. Firstly, let's assume that limits exist and c is a real number."
"So, we started with lim x -> a..."
Mr Bernard was teaching so hard in the class for over an hour. Everyone here had been so silent since we were sitting for his lesson about 'algebra'. It was complicated, and I had no idea about everything he was talking about. Maybe I was wrong about knowing maths.
"*Yawn*"
I could hear yawning from this room. It really is that boring, but wouldn't it be rude to just sleep in class? Not even Anna looks so joyous with her apples, Stan with her collections of gold, and Calista with herself on the table. But they were as close as bloomers—are they?
"*Sigh* I would like to be reminded why you steal my coin again, Calista?"
"What? You didn't take it. You just dropped it on my table...so I thought maybe you didn't like it. Also, finder's keepers, eh?"
"*Sigh* You too, Anna?"
"What? I enjoy it! Beside, you never to get to have that coin fairly...! That is an Eastern treasure you're taking..."
"But I collected it, so I deserved to keep it, too. Plus, you're no East folk..."
"Whatever. I'm keeping it."
The class was tiring me out. I did not expect to be taught so much in this early morning without a sweet like this. The cereal Samuel ate didn't even feed me enough energy like the old candy of mine. My head keeps being dragged to the table like a heavy ball chained around my neck, and my eyes are heavy like a stage curtain.
I've slept for quite a long time, but nobody seems to wake me up. I couldn't do it to myself. It is too tempting to lay my head on this wood—too soft. Class passes through my head, and I forget to memorize what I need to do because I was dreaming about a sweet world in the Garden of Delights.
"Uhm...mimimi...mhm....mimimi..." I snore gracefully.
Suddenly, I can tell that someone is looking at me with a disgusted eye. As I was snoring through minutes, Calista's eyes were looking sharp at me as if she was mocking my ugly sleeping face. Her smile—her oddly smile—thinking of something on that sleeping face of mine.
"Heh, what a joke..." Calista commented on me. "Stan, would you look at this? Her first day at school, and she's skipping class already...?"
"Terrible. It would be bad if someone were to throw a paperball on that mouth and wake her up in a shame..." Stan thought.
"Just what I thought."
Before I could even wake by myself, my two human friends were already treating me differently than I thought. Calista was busy wrapping paper into a ball during the class, and Stan was there helping her by tearing a page. Then, they put it into my mouth, which was left open while I was asleep.
"Ack? Hrgh! Aack!"
"Ugh! Aack! Hweck! Aah!"
I was awakened by a choke from the paper ball, and I had my arms wrapping around my neck as I begged for air. Everyone was looking at me with surprise, especially Mr. Bernard, whose lesson was interrupted. But Calista and Stan were just laughing at me after putting a life-threatening prank on me. Such cruelty! But I couldn't lie that it was funny.
"Aww, my mouth...Why does it taste weird...?"
"Ms Dorriel, is everything alright there? Care to explain why you are sleeping on the class while eating a paper?"
"A paper? I didn't eat a paper! I was just sleeping and suddenly there's a paper in my mouth! You need to trust me, Mr. Bernard."
"Then why are you sleeping in my class? You know you shouldn't do that."
"I...uh...was just tired...?"
Everyone was laughing at me for that. Doorwell didn't like being laughed at, but she did deserve that for sleeping in class. Meanwhile, Calista and Stan get to escape the punishment with a chuckle from their seat.
"Can I go to the r-restroom...? I had to uhm...took out something..."
The laughs only get tense the moment I spoke of that. I didn't know what was funny about going in a hurry, but the teacher nodded to me with a rolling eye before giving me a pass to leave the class. So I rushed as quick as I could before it could be more awkward.
"Thank you!"
Calista and Stan seem to be close friends, given their alliance in the class more than anyone else here. Their coordinated prank on me reminds me of a few troublemaking Joylings like Fuss and Ruckus. Maybe that was a sign for me to stay cautious.
Stan, gifted with a keen eye, could glance at one important detail on any minor scratch he could find on a copper, perfect for a collector's behaviour. Calista, gifted with the creative mind of an artist, who could execute a wonderful performance like she did to me.
"You think she's going to leak a sugar in the bathroom?" Calista mumbled nonchalantly.
"What?" Stan pauses in shock.
"Don't get it wrong. Curiosity just gets the best of me with Doorwell's enthusiasm. You know how rare it is to find a radiant girl like her?"
"I mean, you can look at me and tell that people are not all rainbows and sunshine in a town like this. Moreover, she's a born star, too. What are the odds someone could be born rich?"
"A children screenshow star, you mean?" Stan objects with a rolled eye.
"What's the difference? She's a star, still."
"I just want to know how 'sweet' we are talking about with Doorwell. I'm not the type of person who watches childish shows, but I'm the one who liked the kind of people who smiled nonchalantly."
"Are you not afraid that something out of the oven like that could kill us? We don't even know the full extent of her presence."
"Oh, Stan. That only fuels me with more passion." Calista grinned.
—————————————————————————————————
*Ring* *Ring* *Ring*
The bell tolls in a terrible melody, but the class is over. I was sitting on the chair again, waiting for another human to show up. My face was soaked in water, determined to be awake for an entire day. But my heart was beating with a race to my head.
Calista was steering the view of this class with her smile. Her smile is wide as a Joyling, grinning at me with her white teeth out. When she called me by the left of my shoulder, I was surprised to see her friendly company after what she did before.
"Hey," Calista called me.
"Hey, friend! What's the matter?" I waved at her.
"Oh, just want to see my new friend. Sorry about what I did there, sweetheart...I just couldn't hold at the thought of your innocence..."
"Yeah, I forgive you. You're not the first person who did that to me before. Someone in the Institute has somewhat a worse stunt than you. Not to say you did something worst to me..." I talk with him calmly.
"Is that competition? Because I like to win over that guy." She smiles even more.
"Ehm, n-no?"
"*Sigh* Anyway, Doorwell. If I could ask you, what is it like being on the stage before? It must be good, was it?" She was approaching me.
"What's Doorwell Lovemore, anyway? I want to know..."
Calista smiles at me brightly as the sun. That smile was something hidden from me behind that silent demeanour, glazing like a dewdrop dripping from a petal in the dawn. She shines beside me like an actor, waiting for her time to shimmer in the spotlight with me. The black colour on her hair doesn't suit that of a happy girl, does it?
We talk together over time, chattering about my career and time as a Joyling inside. She was fascinated to hear my stage show as a matchmaker and my passion for love and mercy. But that's when Calista's tone changes from comforting to threatening to me.
"It's a Screen-show main cast for the 'Lovebloom Lullaby' where she ventures through the Garden of Delights to teach the children about compassion and love."
"Because in world, you could never have too much love. Love is always enough for you!"
"Really? I think otherwise. But what do I know at the face of a all-loving creature?"
"Maybe you should change that mind, Calista. Love is undeniable for everyone! Nobody can say no to love!"
"I do."
"Y-you do...?"
"Yeah, who needed love when you have a pride to crush?"
"I do! You should, too! How can you live without love?"
"How can you live with only love? What about hating a little bit about life, girl?" She grins and teases me.
Suddenly, this conversation goes quickly boring than I anticipated with her face. Calista couldn't stop teasing me about her thoughts of hating the love itself. My eyes were squinted with disgust, but it seemed to fuel her excitement to me. She was playing with fire.
"You know, it reminds me that..."
I didn't want to argue with her, but if I didn't do anything, she would keep teasing me. Calista keeps talking about how much she adores the violent life of pain and suffering, much like a Frowling's word. I was backed by her words, watching her tone rise every second she mentioned the word 'hate' with glee and passion.
"And that's how I ended up here with a rotting bruise on my knee..."
"Eughuhuhu..." I whine.
Sitting long with her had already drawn a bad energy around me. Calista's sadistic enjoyment makes me ill, and I didn't like being ill from her so-called 'love' of hers. But she seems to be enjoying it, and I dislike taking the joy out of someone.
—————————————————————————————————
"Oh, a new teacher!" I muttered.
Another class had started again, with a new teacher. She is such a tall woman with a terrifying face for someone to lecture us. Her sinister eyes and her ominous stance only scare me when our eyes meet by accident. There has to be a soul of a Frowling inside that body.
Suddenly, everything here went dark and unhappy. Her presence alone brings what a Frowling could offer in a room. I was afraid for a moment that someone was biting on my neck, but it was just the wind of her step coming in calmly without a word.
*Slap* "Sit!" She yelled.
She carries a long ruler, and when everyone heard that ruler slapping on the table, everyone was immediately silenced by the loudness. I was the only one who didn't sit back then, and that didn't go well with her eyes. That's when I realized I had made a terrible mistake as a student here.
"Young lady. What do you have to say about yourself?"
She asked me out of the blue, approaching my seat with disappointment as she walked closer to my seat. Everyone around me was scared to the point that they had to duck their heads out from her. But I was the only one who couldn't sit and hide like the others.
"Oh, sucks to be you..." Calista whispers behind me. "But, hey! You get to feel the first experience of a student, right?"
"I...I do...?"
*Slap*
My body shivers with such cold. The echoing slap of the ruler has turned me into a stiff doll for everyone to ponder. My body was frozen, as if I had felt this moment long before with someone similar to her. I can feel my back ready to crumble by her presence alone.
"Such insolence, young lady!" She yelled. "You must be a new student here, because you would know ettiquette if you seen one."
"Y-yeah! I'm the new student here. My name is D-Doorwell! I'm the star of the Lovebloom Lulla—"
*Slap*
I tried talking to her sweetly like an obedient student. But it only made the ruler slap harder, and she was even angrier than before. She was as brute as a beast, ready to hit me again with the ruler.
"Eek!" I jumped off. My legs are on the table as I stand, and it only made her even angrier.
"Ms. Dorriel, you know that this class isn't taken for a game, don't you?"
"Y=yeah! Uhm...maybe...? Well, N-no...?"
*Slap*
"If you ever think of getting into this place to have fun like a child, then you can go out and have
"Oh, okay...I'll go pack my bag."
I was taken aback by her words. Such unkindness only makes me undesired in this class with someone like her. I was too afraid of having her words being sharpened to my heart again like a pencil. So I decided to walk away and leave.
However, when I was about to take my bag away, Caista stopped me by grabbing my hands and warning me not to go there. Weirdly, she was insisting that I stay here because leaving her class would be 'unwise', which is odd because I heard a voice that says otherwise.
"No, Doorwell. She didn't mean that." Calista dragged me by my hands.
"She just meant that you shouldn't mess in her class while she's teaching. Not telling you to leave!"
"But if I can't play here, then what's the oint of me staying?" I asked her. But the answer was spoken by another.
"The point is that you're LEARNING! She yelled. Only this time, she hadn't slapped the table yet. "Now get back to your chair, now!"
"Eek! I'm sorry!"
I returned to my chair with fear, only to watch her grasping away my path for an escape. But as Calista had said, it made her less angry at me and brought her back to the table she belongs to. The class started with everyone shivering and legs trembling before she announced with a shout.
"Stand up! Where is your manner, student? Do you think I taught in this place for nothing?"
"Good Afternoon, Ms. Thorn!" Everyone yelled.
"Ms...Thorn...?" I pause.
Such a charm, but her name was what drew me more. They called her 'Thorn' as in a sharp needle of a vine. A coincidence or on purpose? Either way, that name is as spooky as she is. We were all afraid of a little sting beyond the rose-like view, weren't we?
"Now, get back to chair! We are having an important lesson! We don't have time to waste..."
Such Frowling behaviour, and it had me suspicious. She has no kindness to spare, and she quickly silences every attempt of joy to be found in this class. Chalk was rubbing on the board without a plea, and the student was writing with guilt.
"Wow...what a scary teacher..." I commented with a sad face as I opened my book.
"See, love didn't always get to win, Dorriel." Calista teases behind my ears again.
"That is not true! That is—" I pause, looking at Ms Thorn's face. "That is not true..." I whisper in relief.
"Ms. Valentine? What is it that provoke you now...?"
"N-nothing, teacher!"
That moment was blank in my head. I couldn't remember what was happening after that woman's face suddenly turned red before me. It didn't feel too different from home, like a voice of someone who once thought the same about me.
—————————————————————————————————
After two hours, the class ends with the ring of a bell. Ms. Thorn left without saying a word, but she kept an eye on me in a hateful manner. She might have thought of something terrible to plan against me because I wasn't doing too well in her class. It was so clear that she was.
"Okay, that was a tough class I had..." I muttered as my head was dizzy. "Aww, I couldn't believe I had to stay awake for that class of her all day...without candy..."
"Well, that's life for you here, new student. That sugar from your 'paradise' won't make a difference on an arch of Ms Thorn, no matter what you did there." Calista walks beside me.
"You're bluffing," I mutter, uncertain. "Right...?"