Chapter 5

  Morning came about far too quickly, the alarm on my phone ringing out like a bell—so loud the neighbours could probably hear it too.

  “Huuaammm…”

  Yawning, I groped around blindly until I found my phone nestled between the sheets. Arm flopping around until slammed the off button on the cracked screen. I stilled for a second, blinking the stars out of my eyes and grabbing my glasses as silence returned to the room—for exactly twenty seconds as the next alarm began to start blaring.

  I groaned loudly, turning off my phone again before it could begin a third assault on my ears.

  The apartment was dark, the only light spilling in from the crack beneath my door. My eyes scanned the room in an attempt to adjust to the dim light.

  Eyes finally landing on my messy desk and straining to see the small calendar situated on it, I made out the date: Monday 17th.

  Right, School.

  After a full day of strenuous activity on Saturday, my social battery was burnt out. Thus, I decided to stay at home all day on Sunday and continue on my dailies—neglecting my ongoing job search to instead pull on the new Arknights banner and tier on the current Proseka event. And, before I knew it, it was already Monday.

  I dragged myself upright; body aching from sleeping on what was essentially a folded napkin pretending to be a futon. Stumbling into the bathroom, I splashed my face with cold water, brushed my teeth, threw on my uniform, once again glaring at my bow.

  My worst enemy…

  Five minutes. Five full minutes... And I was STILL wrestling with it.

  "Why are you like this you goddamn piece of fabric..." cursing at the stupid ribbon as the more I tried to fix it, the more it morphed into something that looked less like a bow and more like a sad butterfly.

  “Good enough,” I muttered to absolutely no one, even though it absolutely was not, and threw on a sweater to save face. Well, at least that took less than ten tries this time...

  Living alone was… weird.

  It wasn't bad. Wasn't that depressing, wasn't even that hard.

  It was just weird. Well, it wasn't that weird.

  The feeling of being alone and having to fend for myself wasn't new. It was just the thought of having to rent out my own house and pay my own bills, decorate my own house, get my own furniture, buying my own food... it was all quite new for me.

  For a single moment—everything felt quiet. Peaceful, even.

  Then, perfectly timed, my phone loudly buzzed with a notification from one of my Gacha games, screen lighting up and reminding me that the new collab event would start soon.

  Shaken out of my daze, I sighed and grabbed my bag, rushing to leave my cage of a house, reminded that if I didn't go now that I'd be late.

  My commute passed in its usual blur of crowds and packed public transportation, nothing out of the ordinary happening at all as I reached the school gates, quite later than usual as the morning rush was in full swing now.

  Hundreds of students streamed through the card scanners in their neat uniforms. People clustered together in the halls like schools of fish as people laughed, complained, and hurried toward their classrooms.

  In the chaos, I slipped through unnoticed; which was good, as being invisible had its perks.

  Homeroom passed without incident, and then Math began.

  Lazily reclining in my stiff seat, I watched Mr. McCoy as he walked in carrying a thick stack of papers.

  Oh yeah, the test.

  I had completely forgotten about it, which was a blunder on my part. I was hoping for above a 90—maybe a high 90 at that as I was already super confident with the material.

  “Alright guys, I finished grading your tests from Tuesday,” Mr. McCoy said, loudly dropping the stack onto his desk with a thump.

  A collective groan filled the room as Mr. McCoy chuckled a little.

  “Well, actually I finished grading them on Wednesday but I could only give you them back on the same day as the other teachers—But don't worry most of you did well,”

  With a small smile, he walked along the rows, passing stapled papers onto desks as a range of emotions appeared on the faces of the people around me as they glanced at their scores.

  I stared at the blank surface of my desk, tracing the fake wood grain until one slowly slid toward me.

  Confidently hoping for at least a 95, I flipped the paper over.

  100%

  Messily scrawled in thin red pen, the numbers sat on the top-right corner of the page, gazing back at me, inside a large red circle with the small little note written beside it.

  Excellent work :)

  Oh.

  That was… good. Actually, that was very good. Amazing even. Superb maybe.

  A small flicker of immense satisfaction warmed my chest.

  Maybe if all the tests here were as easy as this one I'd have more time at home to focus on other things instead of pulling all-nighters like last year...

  I'd definitely get into the honour roll at this school if they even had one, and prove to my parents that spending hundreds sending me to another country was worth it. Maybe they'd even give me a larger budget and I could finally decorate my desolate apartment...

  Unfortunately, my moment of quiet bliss lasted exactly three seconds as someone sitting behind me tapped me on the shoulder.

  “Wait,” Leaning forward, the voice from behind me loudly whispered, “you got full marks?”

  Another person sitting next to me leaned sideways to look, their chair scraping lightly on the floor.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “No way...”

  "Who's she? Never seen her before,"

  "Woah... Wasn't the test super hard?"

  “Isn’t she that new transfer student from 1-C?”

  "Damn, I only got an 81 and she just got here too..."

  More heads turned as the whispering got louder, and before I knew it, suddenly multiple people were looking at me. Students craned their necks to take a peek at my paper to see that it was true, some even walked over.

  My mouth went drier than the Sahara desert as I kept my head down, trying to melt into my chair. Flipping my paper over in an attempt to get them to leave— which did not work they just kept pestering me to let them see.

  Now about a quarter of the class swarmed around my desk like a bunch of bees around a flower, while half were turned around in seats trying to get a look.

  "Let me see!"

  "Yo, is it true you got a 100?"

  "Can I compare my test to yours for a quick second?"

  "Flip it back over!"

  "No way, it's true she got the highest!"

  "You've GOTTA let me borrow your notes next time,"

  "Woah, how'd you get higher than Selena?"

  Why me... What was so hard about the test? Why are they all so surprised...

  Sputtering out, I nervously looked around as they all waited patiently for me to show them my paper, looking at me like some animal in an exhibit.

  "Uh I—"

  Piercing through the chatter, Mr. McCoy cleared his throat.

  “I'm sure we're all very happy for Mai, but it's time to get back into our seats. The test rankings will be posted outside the Head of year office as usual later today.” he said casually before starting the lesson.

  Fantastic... Just great...

  Now everyone knew, but it wasn't like they weren't going to anyways. I'd never heard of student's results being ranked like this, and I guess people would've known anyways as it would've appeared on the ranking list.

  Presumably as everyone was so absorbed with the fact that I got a full score, I must've ranked at least top 3. No way no one else got 100.

  There goes the invisible shield I tried to build...

  Thinking about it, I did have to trade off something. If I wanted to top all my tests I'd have to stand out anyways as people would naturally go to me for help with homework and other adjacent things, and now I guess making some new friends wasn't so daunting. I'd have to adjust to the life around here if I wanted to graduate without a hitch.

  Just like that, the rest of the morning dragged on endlessly.

  After Math was recess.

  After recess was Science.

  And after that, Social studies.

  By the time it was lunch my stomach had regressed from its usual soft, quiet grumbling to sounding like a high pressure washing machine.

  Rows of metal tables lined the space, each one packed full with students. They’re laughing and talking ringing through the massive hall.

  I turned around and headed back to the courtyard as I didn't have any lunch money.

  Walking towards the same bench I sat at on my first day, I flopped down. Staring into the distance like an orphaned Victorian boy contemplating the cruelty of existence as he licked the lead paint off his wooden toys.

  My stomach growled again, louder this time.

  And then—

  “Hey!!!”

  I glanced up, ready to run for my life.

  Realising it was the girl from last week, I sighed. She was here to drag me along into the cafeteria, torturing me with the sight of food I couldn't afford...

  She made her way toward the bench carrying a heavy-looking lunch tray piled with food.

  Her short brown hair bounced slightly as she moved, honey-colored eyes lighting up as she saw me.

  “Hi!” she said triumphantly. “Sorry I wasn't able to have lunch with you last week... I was swamped with work..."

  She dropped down next to me like we were already friends, tray wobbling slightly on her lap.

  “I’m Vicky, by the way,” she added suddenly. "Sorry... Kinda forgot to tell ya' that,"

  “Oh—right, I'm Mai.”

  “Oooo, cool name!” she said cheerfully. "Oh yeah, I would've invited you to come sit with me n' my friends, but one of them is in a preeettty sour mood right now, and I wouldn't want you to get a bad impression of her! She's a softie at heart don't worry... She just likes to act like such a tsundere sometimes, hehe~"

  Nodding slightly, I felt daunted at the thought of meeting this so-called "softie", as they sounded a lot like someone I had met before. But there were probably a lot of other grumpy people at this school, so chances are it wouldn't be Selena. I didn't have to be so paranoid.

  After she finished talking some more, she set her tray down between us and pushed it towards me.

  “I'm sorry but I can't take any...” I said immediately.

  “It’s fine! Come on! Just take some,” Blinking at me, her mouth stretched into a small pout.

  Flustered, I tried to refuse again, “No really—”

  “Oh, If you're worried that I don't have enough food, I actually bought extra!”

  I looked at the tray again, and surely enough, there was probably enough for two on there.

  Glancing at me, she scratched the back of her head sheepishly.

  “I actually bought food for two since I thought you might not have lunch again,” she admitted.

  My face heated up instantly, turning bright red.

  “Y-you noticed?”

  “Of course I did!”

  She said it like it was obvious, all while nudging the tray closer to me.

  “Nobody sits alone in the courtyard at lunch unless they’re trying to be mysterious, avoiding someone, or broke.”

  “...The third option.”

  She shoved the tray closer as I answered.

  “Eat before ya' pass out,”

  And, right on cue, my stomach growled again.

  Vicky burst out laughing, her eyes sparkling with tiny tears as I felt my face go redder than before.

  “Come on!!! Just eat the damn food...” She pouted, "There's no way you don't like eggs and rice!"

  "Ah... It's not that," I paused, trying to find my bearing, "I just, uh, can't pay you back,"

  Letting out another small laugh, she cheerfully chirped, "Oh, don't worry about that! My parents will just give me more lunch money at the end of the week! Ya' don't have to pay me back, we're friends after all! And how could I just let one of my friends go hungry, hm?"

  After a moment of hesitation, I nodded, and she handed me a spoon. My heart felt warmer as she spoke. It felt good being referred to as a friend. I just hoped she would still call me once she got to know me more.

  Taking a bite, I suddenly wondered, "Wait, what would you've done if I did have lunch?"

  "Ah yeah... I don't know, I was just hoping you didn't..." giggling softly, she whipped her hair back, "But, ya' didn't! So I don't really have to worry about that,"

  Friend.

  It felt strange being referred to as a 'friend'.

  I took another bite, savouring the taste of the eggs as I chewed softly.

  It tasted amazing.

  Probably because I was starving, but it was still good.

  Nothing was better than a classic egg and rice.

  After she made sure I was going to eat more than a single bite, Vicky started chatting immediately.

  About teachers, about friends, about siblings, about class, about how the art council had already given her three different projects due this week for some charity fair coming up, etc...

  She talked about a lot of things.

  Apparently, she really loved drawing and helped paint murals around the school, as well as make posters and what-not.

  I mostly just listened as she chattered on and on. It was surprisingly comfortable, listening to her loud chirping. It felt normal, even.

  And for now, I'd made a new friend.

  https://someonesfishcomms.carrd.co/

  ok so like introduced a new character, wanted her to very much contrast mai in her bubbliness and readiness to befriend others while mai is js sitting there contemplating like dissovlign into air or sum LMAO anywyas

  PJSK

  Enstars

  Arknights

  Limbus

  LoR

  Taiko no tatsuji

  Genshin

  ZZZ

  Honkai

  Wuthering waves

  Arcaea (Free charts only bc shes poor)

  Love and deepspace

  Rythmn hive

  Phigros

  (Arknights endfeild when it canonically releases in the storyline)