Unedited
Jasmine jerked up when the teacher slammed his book on her desk. She blinked rapidly and rubbed her eyes.
"Shit! I ended up sleeping." She cursed under breath.
"Sleeping in my class, again!?" The man said in french. He is a French teacher. "Stand up." He said in English, punctuated by a heavy accent.
Jasmine rose to her feet.
How did she end up sleeping again?
"Where is your textbook?" He asked and she picked it from the table. "Read the fifth paragraph to the class." Mr. Benson instructed.
Some students turned to look at her. Even Rowan the blonde haired boy with green eyes was awake.
Jasmine held her textbook with a shaky hand as she brought it close to her face.
She scanned the content and quickly located page five. She relaxed when she discovered that the knowledge she gathered in her previous life remained with her.
Because she had been unemployed, she had the time to learn so many things. Part of the things she learned were languages and French was one of the many languages she was fluent in.
"Go on, read it." Mr. Benson said confident that she won't be able to. It was after all this most complex paragraph in that chapter.
He hates it when a student sleeps in his class and thought this would be a good way to punish her and set an example to others.
Some students began to whisper among themselves, this would be a good time to prove if what they heard about her faking her mutism and speaking fluently was true.
Jasmine on the other hand was torn apart, she didn't know if she should continue pretending to be mute or speak. She had spoken to Liam a while ago and she didn't regret that.
If she speaks she may not have the chance of having to have Liam walk her through her fears, and that was one of the ways they grew closer.
"What are you waiting for?" Mr. Benson asked. "If you can't read, leave my class." He ordered.
"Go now!"
"I guess the gossip was false."
"She's truly mute, no one can pretend for that long."
"Why would he ask her to read when she's mute?"
Although they all had their different opinions, everyone anticipated what would happen.
Jasmine raised her head from the book and sucked in a scent of breath, then she began.
"Je… " she went slowly, her words breaking in between sentences. Her voice was low.
"She can read?"
"I can't hear her, but I think her lips are moving."
"Now I'm confused."
The students whispered in a low voice amongst themselves. Jasmine stopped, lowering the textbook, she has read more than half of the paragraphs.
She was about to continue when Mr. Benson stopped her.
"Sit down." he cut her short. In all the years he has been teaching, no one has ever been able to read one sentence from the paragraph. He asked her to read it because he was sure she wouldn't be able to but she surprised him.
He tried to mask his smile. He was proud of her. If she could read it fluently, it meant that his teaching was effective. There was no other way she could have learnt it.
He cleared his throat to mask his smile, before returning to the front of the class. "If I catch you sleeping in my class again, you may have to leave the class, Miss Jasmine." He said.
Jasmine released a scent of breath when Mr. Benson resumed his class.
Everything was still a bit confusing for her, but she was glad she was able to stop being sent out of the class. Going out of the class in her past life had led to more bullying.
Jasmine tried to stay awake all through the remaining session the class lasted.
When the last bell of the day rang, students pilled out of the classroom filling the hallway before spilling out.
Cars lined up at the entrance ready to take the students home. Among the other cars was a red sports car which was there to pick Kera.
Unlike Kera, the Redmonds didn't send a car to pick Jasmine in the front of the school. She had to walk a few streets away because the Redmond family were ashamed to pick her in public.
Jasmine didn't bother waiting behind. She walked out through the gate and out to the street as she has always done in her previous life.
The street is clean. Shops lined up on both sides.
As Jasmine walked down she couldn't stop thinking about what to do.
"Would I have to live this life everyday or return to my previous life?" she questioned out loud.
She soon came to a stop in front of one of the shops. There was an umbrella and a chair outside the shop. This was the place she usually waited for a car from the Redmond family to pick her.
She inhaled sharply, seated on one of the chairs behind the table as she awaited the driver.
As she awaited the car, her eyes caught sight of a bookshop. She squinted as she stared at the inscription of the bookshop through her glasses, "Davis bookies: A book for one, a book for all."
She twisted her lips.
She had not noticed the shop in the past. A man stood in front of the bookshop holding a cone of ice-cream. A little boy in front of him.
Jasmine watched as he leaned down and handed the cone of ice-cream to the boy then brushed the hair away from the boy's face.
She stiffened like she was caught doing something she shouldn't when he looked at her and smiled.
The man has a line of gray hair on the side of his hair.
When he didn't look away, Jasmine pointed at herself to be sure he was truly smiling at her. People rarely smiled at her.
When he nodded, she looked away, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose.
That moment her car arrived and she got in. The man stood there watching till her car got out of sight.
"What a creepy man." She whispered under her breath. She quickly forgot about the man as the car slowly approached its destination, 'The Redmond Mansion.'
She tried to prepare herself mentally. There was one thing she was sure of as the car pulled in front of the gate, she wasn't ready to face her family.