At around the evening, there was an uproar in the house since Zoe could not be seen anywhere. The mother panicked and she shoved the man out of the house to look for her precious daughter. Jennovice looked at all these patiently. The boy was standing behind the door and quietly observing his panicked rescuers. He could not take this anymore and he got out of the house before the father of the house could do anything.
A girl of twelve or something was sitting under the shade of the dying tree all on her own. She was staring at the huge wall which separated the forest and the land owned by her parents. Then she heard the rustling of bushes and a little boy crawled out of it and sat beside her. The boy was not that little compared to the girl, nearly eleven. They stayed silent until Jennovice opened his mouth to say something.
"Why do you always come here?"
The girl kept looking at the wall as if looking for an answer to her little brother. she replied in a low voice. "I don't know. It feels as if I belong here."
"In the forest?"
"No, in the wall."
Jennovice did not know how to counter that bizarre statement and he chose silence. After silently accompanying his sister, he took her back. At home, no one scolded her.
"Do you want to see what's in that wall?" The father asked.
The girl was prepared for a scolding, but she never expected such a suggestion. She was stunned for a moment and quickly shook her head.
"It is only worth looking at when I don't know what it is."
They did not pester her anymore.
------
At the school Jennovice thought, It feels empty, the gazes feel empty.
No one in the class ever looked at him. They just acknowledged that he was there, but they never bothered to talk or even smile at him. Everyone instinctually avoided his gaze.
Jennovice never really thought very hard about it until he discovered that his sister got the same treatment. No one bullied the siblings, but no one befriended them either.
"It is human, no; living being's nature to avoid those who they feel are different than them."
Ms. Trey paused for a second. She took a sip of water from her bottle and continued her teaching. She was teaching the kids poetry, and she herself seemed to like that poem a lot. Zoe could not remember who that poet was. She could not care less about the name.
"The weaker races have a survival instinct. And when in the presence of a being a lot stronger or stranger than their definition of normal, they start to avoid them, refuse to meet their gaze, even not staying in close proximity with them.
"They don't even need to hear the being brag about their strength, they just feel it. They react to it subconsciously; it can be some kind of inborn reflex."
The girl looked outside the window. She was well aware of how a lot of people treated the siblings differently. They now only force a smile at her only because her father was the headmaster, though her brother still got the same treatment. It pained her a great deal. She did not even ponder through her painful memory for a minute, she saw a car pull back in front of the school gate, and a girl came out of it.
"Wha...what the!?" a surprised Zoe shouted.
The startled Ms. Trey asked, "What's wrong, Ms. Daves?"
The girl only apologized profusely and sat down, embarrassed.
She never expected to see her long-lost friend there.
----------
"Students, she would be your new classmate starting today. For some difficulties, she had to join the semester late, so be nice to her and help her out, okay?"
"Yes, teacher!"
Everyone answered energetically. Of course, they would be, the new transfer student was the most beautiful 'human' being they had ever seen. Her beauty completely overshadowed Ms. Trey who was well known for her looks. even she found it hard enough to keep her eyes off the child less than half of her age.
"So, student, go ahead and introduce yourself."
The girl did not respond.
"Student?"
"Ah, yes!? Ah... I'm sorry, I was lost in thoughts." The student stuttered and scratched her head.
Although that was her excuse, everyone in the class very much noticed her staring dumbly at the kid sitting beside the window.
The girl cleared her throat and said in a not-so-loud-not-so-quite voice.
"Hi everyone, I'm Sera Willhelmberg. I studied in Yorkshire National School for two years and returned last month."
No sooner did the girl finish her sentence than the whole class broke out in shouting.
"Willhelmberg!? Are ya kidding me?"
"What? Hell no! Why would a Willhelmberg come to our school?"
"I can't believe I'm seeing the real deal!"
Even the teacher was shocked but she soon recovered and she led the girl to her designated seat. Sera was not very surprised by this reaction, she saw the same thing in her previous school too. She wanted to say something but the faculty left soon to calm the incarnations of chaos down.
At around lunch break, the new transfer student became the center of attention. Even students from other classes grouped at the window to steal a glance. It felt like a scene out of a romance-transfer student trope manga, and as always according to those mangas, the transfer student gets the most attention, be it wanted or unwanted and Sera was no exception to that.
"Hey, are you really a Willhelmberg?"
"Do you have your own company then?"
"I heard you have an older sibling, are they as good-looking as you?"
The constant wave of bizarre questions shredded the girl's outer armor, she felt like a caged monkey, thrown in front of gawking visitors, naked.
Everyone wants to get a certain amount of attention in their life. But when they become an exotic animal for observation because of this desire, they want to back down. Of course, who would want to walk on a trembling stick crossing an abyss when a slight mistake can cost you and your family their entire reputation?
Sera was no exception to that rule. She just wanted to have a few friends, not people who are mocking her in their heads constantly because of jealousy.
"Hmph, I'm pretty sure she is dumb in studying"
"She is basically sitting on her mother's fortune. I bet she is a useless young master."
She could guess what was going in their mind up to a certain extent. Both their inner and outer clashing with each other due to their contradicting meaning, sometime they would interfere with each other and create a deafening sound, it made Sera feel like standing in a room with nothing but full blasting speakers in it. She felt like she would go insane. It happened every time she changed schools, but this time it felt way above her tolerance. But then an angel came to her rescue.
"Sera? Is Sera here? The headmaster is asking for you. I'm here to take you to the office." A certain familiar voice rang out from the door.
She shot up from her seat and went out. She sighed in relief and then she took a look at her savior. It was that girl beside the window.
Sera could not stop her hand from moving forward and grabbing the girl.
"Zoe?"
The girl did not slow down or answer her.
-----
"Da...Sir, I brought Sera."
leaving Sera in the office, Zoe turned to go back to her class but was stopped by the man. he dragged her back into the office and made her sit beside the dumbfounded transfer student.
"You can certainly go back, but after I introduce you two again."
The headmaster of the school who was also Zoe's father, Jace Daves, paused for a moment to observe the girls' faces and continued.
"I know you two know each other from your past encounter, but I'm pretty sure that did not end very pleasantly. so, let's start over, shall we?"
"Not now." not giving her father any more chance to speak, the young girl got up from her seat and bolted down the corridor towards her brother's class.
The poor father did not even get the chance to stop his child. he helplessly looked at the child who was sitting in front of me.
"Um, she's not usually like this. I wonder what got into her."
Sera averted her eyes from the headmaster's way and looked through the corridor left empty after Zoe.