Behind Dana was one of my two best friends, Leon.
Leon is a complicated person to live with since he most often does not know when he overdoes his pranks and jokes. Unlike Greg, who is funny and naturally amusing, Leon tries to be but ends up failing most of the time.
Often, he exaggerates in his pranks, which makes others easily hate him. To become friends with him, it was difficult. At first, he made jokes about how I looked, or about other things that bothered me, and I thought he was making fun of me.
I always ignored him, so that was it. I felt like he was an asshole.
Things started to change when the biology professor put us together on an assignment. I was very dissatisfied and tried to talk to the teacher several times to change my work partner.
The teacher didn't accept it, even when I said that we didn't get along. He believed that work would be a good way to bring us together.
And incredible as it may seem, this is what happened, although not in the way he expected.
The flashy, pretentious, and arrogant boy was completely different in his home. At school, he acted in a way, but at home, he looked like someone else.
When I arrived at his house, the way he treated me, with respect and kindness, was completely unexpected. I believed that I would be insulted and would have to put up with his bad attitude, I didn't expect to meet someone else, it almost seemed like a dual personality.
After that, we did the job quietly and spent time together at his house, playing videogames and watching movies. We quickly became friends when it came to that.
When we finished the job, he became one of my best friends along with Jeff that I have known since I was little.
He may seem arrogant and pretentious, but deep down, he's a nice guy and loyal to friends. I never asked why he acts differently at school, but I believe it is a desire to look different on the outside.
Maybe he doesn't like who's out of school.
Honestly, I much prefer the real him, but I don't plan to say anything. If he wants it, let him do what he wants.
Leon was a very good-looking guy, although not at the level of being a movie star, more or less as handsome as my brother Max. In my memories, he had dirty blond hair, greenish eyes, a small nose, and thin lips. His height was just slightly below mine, but unlike me, with my athletic body, he is thinner.
Today, his appearance was completely different. His dirty blond hair was completely dyed brown. His face was darker than usual, with dark circles under his eyes. He had some pimples on his face, and his lips were very dry.
His body looked smaller than what I remembered in my memories, and he was fatter, with a huge belly. He was wearing a white tank top showing his fat arms, and on his chest, he had a large tuft of hair.
It took me a while to realize it was him, but since he was sitting behind Dana, and the face looked more or less the same, I ended up realizing it.
Leon has a crush on Dana, although he never admits and always tries hard to deny it. Because of this, he always sits next to her and the two of them talk constantly in class, although Dana doesn't seem to like him.
When I realized it was Leon, I was so shocked that the world around me seemed to spin. With people like Greg or Dana, with whom I am not very familiar, it seemed that my mind did not register what I was seeing.
I saw them daily, but they are people I don't pay much attention to.
Leon, on the other hand, I see him every day, one of my best friends. When I saw him completely different, it was like I was punched. What I was seeing was so unbelievable that I just didn't know what to think.
The shock was too great.
I stood looking at him in silence, watching each change, my heart in turmoil.
Am I dreaming?
It was too unreal.
The class started, but my mind was not following. I kept watching Leon and the other people in the room, trying to understand the changes, and looking for reasons for that.
One thing I realized, however. On more than one occasion, Leon noticed my look, but always avoided letting our eyes meet, he seemed to be avoiding me. One more strange thing.
I only noticed the end of the class when the students got up to switch rooms. I followed Leon with my eyes as he stood up, I thought of following behind him, but he left the room quickly leaving me completely disconcerted.
We have more or less the same classes most of the time, so we always went together to the next classes. This time, he didn't even wait for me, it looked like he was running away.
"Ethan, aren't you coming?"
I stood in shock, looking at the classroom door, and a girl nudged my arm, rushing me over to the next class.
Who is this girl?
I looked at her, not knowing who it was. She had short spiky hair, with several piercings in her ear and nose. Green eyes, big nose, thick lips. She was very short and chubby, maybe 5'2'' tall.
"..."
When she saw my gaze watching every inch of her body, her face flushed, and she quickly ran out of the classroom with a happy giggle and bouncy steps.
Weird.
Will my day continue to be so strange?
When I was getting ready to leave the classroom, my teacher, Miss Campbell, approached me with a complicated expression. Looking into my eyes, she said.
"Can I speak to you for a moment, Ethan?"
"Sure, no problem."
I replied while packing my things. Professor Campbell was one of the few things that haven't changed in this classroom, so I was more than willing to talk to her. Maybe I can get clues to what's going on.
"I realized this in the last year as your teacher, but you don't seem to react very much to my appearance. What do you think about me?"
She looked very nervous as she said those words, with apparent difficulty in articulating. She spoke so slowly that, even before she finished speaking, I already knew what she was asking, and I didn't know how to answer.
I already realized that there is something very wrong with how people look here, but I haven't had time to think about what that means, so I didn't want to say anything strange. So, after realizing that she looked very nervous, I started to speak in my diplomatic tone.
"Miss Campbel, I think..."
However, before I could continue my words, someone knocked on the open door of the room, drawing our attention. When we turned around, we saw a boy looking at Miss Campbell with a disgusted expression.
For a few seconds, I was silent looking at his face, trying to understand his expression. After a while, I also felt a deja vu. When I looked through my memories, I remembered seeing that expression on the face of almost everyone in the classroom when I arrived today.
Everyone seemed to be looking at Miss Campbell with the same look.
While I was in confused silence, the student who caught our attention said to Miss Campbell.
"We want to talk to you."
I was still confused by the guy's expression, but my mind registered the pale expression on the teacher's face when she saw him.
It looked as if she had seen a ghost.
I watched as Miss Campbell walked to the door and looked outside, her expression as white as paper. Curious, I approached and saw that outside there was a large number of students.
The expression of the majority was more or less similar to the previous one; disgust. The expression of some seemed more exaggerated than others, and two of these people were deathly pale with their eyes down in silence.
"Miss Campbell, I represent the students here to say that we are going to boycott your classes from now on. We can no longer attend your classes."
The boy from before, I don't know his name, said out loud as he pointed to the students behind him.
Professor Campbell's expression grew even paler at that. She looked like she was about to pass out. Afraid that she would fall, I stood beside her and grabbed her shoulders, winning the disgust of all the students around me.
Seeing that the teacher was silent, with tears in her eyes, paralyzed without knowing what to say, I answered in her place.
"Why are you going to boycott her class?"
"It is not obvious? Since she was employed last year, every student at the school has endured this abomination. Some people have more stomach than others, so there have been no problems so far, but two students in our class have a very weak stomach."
"Only in this month, they have threw up twice in the classroom, this is an untenable situation. The health of the two has only worsened recently. Last time, Ian was even taken from the classroom to the hospital."
One of the students, a short chubby boy, was very pale as he nodded slowly.
Wow, what an overkill. Threw up? I thought in silence when I heard that. Are these guys kidding? But seeing the serious expression of everyone present, I again did not know what to think or say.
While I was thinking about what to say, I felt movement beside me and saw Miss Campbell running away with her hands on her face. I looked at her back, then I looked at the students cursing when they saw her running, and finally followed.
What the hell is going on?