“Ray, wake up!”
I realized what happened before I even opened my eyes. How? How could I fall asleep on a day like this? I shot up straight as a board, eyes fixed on my desk. The people around me laughed, already standing in the formal greeting our class practiced over and over for the last 2 weeks. Janelle, who woke me up, sighed. I could feel everyone’s gaze on me—the students’, the professor’s, the headmaster’s,… the Prime Minister’s.
“Excuse me, Dr. von Trappe,” I mumbled to my teacher.
“Miss Raven,” came a very icy reply. “Please wait for me in my office.”
I gathered my things: a well-used mechanical pencil, a sea green spiral notebook with loose papers shuffled inside, a torn pink Pearl eraser with hearts inked all over it, and serving as a back pack, my floral handbag decorated with pins, buttons, ribbons, and key chains. I walked to the door, closer to the front, to the glaring eyes. I kept my own gaze fixed to the floor, studying its shiny wooden gleam. In the corner of my eye I made out the legs of the desks and chairs, the cleanness of everyone’s polished shoes.
Once I passed through the door, what would happen? Would I ever pass through that door again? I was scared beyond fathomable imagination. Did I, fifteen-year-old Raven Shampine, scholarship student at the prestigious Eclaire Academy, just ruin my future by falling asleep in class on the day that the Prime Minister—the Prime Minister, for God’s sake—would visit the school? How could I even entertain the idea that I wouldn’t be expelled for daring to humiliate this school of elites and their perfect classmates? I was a nobody, and compared to those around me, mediocre at the best of my subjects. The dismissal of someone like me wouldn’t make any difference. In fact, what I just did would surely condemn me to—
As all these thoughts raced through my mind, I had nearly reached the front of the classroom. By now, I was walking very quickly, eager to disappear from the still feet that seemed to be mocking me and the glaring eyes that seemed to whisper “Really, what an eyesore. Is she really a student here at Eclaire?” I kept my eyes on the floor, walking faster with each step, and like the idiot that I am, I bumped into someone.
Shocked, I screamed and dropped my notebook, sending papers flying. I scrambled to pick them up immediately. The room remained eerily silent, I think, except for a few muffled giggles in the back and Dr. von Trappe’s very annoyed “Miss Raven.”
I am worthless. I am less than worthless. I am a nuisance. Parasitic crap. Each paper I picked up, I gave myself another insult. At the last, I looked up to see who I bumped into. Dr. von Trappe? Headmaster? Oh God, please don’t let it be the Prime Minister—
A boy. More precisely, a guy. With jet black hair. Dressed in a black—was this Armani?—suit, he towered high above the squatting me.
I rose, apologizing. “ UM! I’M S-SO SORRY! I—!”
I looked into his eyes, searching for his reaction, and was stunned. They were the most brilliant shade of blue you’d ever seen, the kind that tempted you to pluck them out and sell them as jewels. Even the sky on the clearest, brightest day couldn’t compare to such a pure, radiant blue.
It took me a second to realize that he must be looking back at me if I could see his eyes in such detail. I stepped back. Was he, too, glaring at me? But he wasn’t. Instead, those awe-inspiring eyes were ice cold, staring indifferently right through me, as though I didn’t even exist.
I burst through the door crying, not noticing one of the papers as it floated out of my notebook onto a very bewildered pair of feet just a few meters away.
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