Quincy felt the tie around the collar of her blouse had started to tighten as she walked towards the gates of Kerfla High School. The ends of her black and medium-bobbed hair had brushed the yoke of her white blouse that had the school crest stitched to the breast pocket. She loosened the tie and patted her skirt to try and remove the lint that stuck against the fabric. She stopped at the gated entrance of the school that were opened and checked the time on her watch. It was 8:30 AM. Quincy was 30 minutes early. A short and plump man peeked from the windows of the security guard room that was stationed beside the entrance. He opened the sliding windows and squinted his eyes at Quincy's face, "You new here, kid?". Quincy turned her head to the security guard. The man looked like he was in his fifties. On his head was a shiny bald spot that Quincy could see growing wider in 10 years' time. She nodded to the guard's question. "Yeah, I figured it since I've never seen your face before" said the security, "You may be an early bird on your first day, but I hope I don't have to see you walking through this entrance pass 9". The guard lifted an eyebrow and shooed at Quincy. Quincy took flight of the stairs to the main building which was Block A. She looked at her surroundings. Block A had only two storeys unlike that of Block B, C and D which were 3 storeys up and facilitated the classrooms of students. Quincy had been exchanging dozens of emails from Kerfla High's administration team ever since her former school in the countryside decided a school transfer for Quincy would be a good decision on her mental health. "I think she needs to readjust herself to some new surroundings. This transfer would be a good challenge for her to try and change herself to become a mentally and socially better person", Quincy remembered the words of the principal on the day that she and her mum were called in to the principal's office. She sighed at the thought of it, knowing that nothing could be turned back to how it was before. She wondered whether the change in the environment was ever going to change her as a person. The fact that she fell into depression for years after the incident that occured six years ago; these dark thoughts ran through her head once more as she stepped into the administration office of Kerfla High.
Quincy's pupils dilated as she stopped at the entrance of the office and looked to her feet. The dark thoughts swarmed in her head and voices were slowly emerging like demons whispering to her ear. The flashbacks of her being bullied were appearing again.
"You're a half-Versistan mutt!"
"You don't belong in this country."
"No wonder your father beat you up. Haha!"
"He was as pathetic as his wife."
"Pfft. Your father could've been a great boxer if he wasn't on drugs."
Quincy's heart started to skip a beat and she breathed heavily. She could hear a faint voice that was muffled over the demon-like whispers. "Stop being like this!" she thought to herself. "Miss Quincy Greye? Miss Greye, can you hear me?" Quincy was startled to hear a woman's voice from the back of the office counter. She snapped out of her conscience and looked up to see the sterned face of a woman with a permed hairstyle wearing half-framed glasses. She was behind the long office counter table that had divided the room into two. Behind her were another two people, each sitting at their desks facing the monitors of their computer and typing on the keyboards amongst the piles of paperwork.
"Miss Greye, are you okay? I called you a few times and you didn't respond" the woman said with a concerned tone in her voice.
"Sorry, I, uh," Quincy muttered as she clenched her fist behind her back and came up with a simple lie, "I'm having quite a headache at the moment"
"Do you need to go to sickbay?"
"No, I don't need to." Quincy stepped forward to the counter.
"Alright then. You haven't gotten your class schedule yet, have you?" the woman asked.
Quincy shook her head.
"Okay, so I'll give you your class schedule, as well as the list of books that you will need to buy at our bookstore in Block D" the woman said as she typed on a computer that was placed behind the counter table. The inkjet printer beside the computer started to whir as the printed papers came out to the output tray. The woman grabbed the papers and set them on the upper part of the counter that was in front of Quincy. The paper showed a table of subjects being taught on each day. On the top left corner of the paper read 'Class XI-7'.
"You're in class XI-7, which is at the second level of Block C" the woman said and gave a smile of service to Quincy, "but before you go to class, the principal and your homeroom teacher has requested to meet with you".