A fine morning.
A fine winter morning in Gotham city.
To most of the people in the world, it might be a mere imaginary city of Batman. Or some other fantasy place where different gothic events took place, thanks to the wonderful imaginary journey of the magicians of words.
But very few know that somewhere in the world, a small city named Gotham really exists.
Not in the way it is described, as a high-tech city, with supernatural existence and satanic activities, or black magic type of things. It exists as a calm, serene city, where every day feels like spring. Where winter feels warm, summer feels comfortable. Where wind flows cool enough to soothe people's life. Where people live in peace, harmony.
People from many classes can be found here, rich or poor, kind or unkind, helpful or helpless. But above all, people here have a rather peaceful life than the outer world. And despite being a small city with some tiny neighborhoods, they needed to be dependent on the outer world.
In a city like that, there lies a commercial neighborhood, with all kinds of malls, offices, markets, and other facilities. And near those, there were some households, where people lived their life with ease.
Among those households, Airi was born and bred in the Arne household.
And today, Airi Arne was getting ready for school in the morning.
Putting on her uniform, she wore the best-looking ribbon on her hair, tying those up in a high ponytail. She let a small number of her bangs rest on her forehead, which made her face look baby-like.
She wasn't one of the excellent-looking girls, but "Maa says I look the best with a pony, and this pink ribbon." So, she always gave her best shot at looking cute. After all, looking cute was her best weapon to be at the center of attention, and she liked it.
Today she is going to start her high school life. She has always studied at the school which was five minutes away from her home on foot. That school might not be the top one, but it was indeed one of the best schools, so she grew up being a fine student with golden marks.
She was always treasured dearly by her parents, and so her parents kept her close to them not to give her extra struggle to commute to farther schools, though she had all the qualifications to study at the top one. She had always been ranked top in her school, so her teacher recommended that she enroll in Sandra High, one of the top ones in the city. Even though it wasn't the closest in terms of distance, they rolled with the decision because Airi wanted it.
So here she is, having her breakfast happily, with the Sandra High uniform on her. She was going to read in such a high-profile school, and it would be the first time she would go somewhere alone which was farther than the five-minute walking distance.
"Airi, you had the juice?" Her mother called out to her from the kitchen.
"Yeah, Maa. I did."
"Good thing, want some more toasts? Let me bring some to you," she brought the entire tray of the toast and put that on the table.
"Where is your dad? He is going to be late for his office. How long is he going to…" she noticed her husband dozing off on the sofa, with the newspaper in his hands.
Airi's mother stomped towards the dozing man and snatched the newspaper from his hands. But yet, he showed no sign of waking up.
"Oh, would you look at that Airi, your Paa is having such a nice time dozing off. Well, Mr. Max, HOW LONG ARE YOU PLANNING TO SLEEP THERE?"
By the end, her voice got so high that the man jumped from his sweet little nap. The way he got startled was so comical that Airi couldn't help laughing out loud, and of course, Airi's mother found it hard to control her laughter.
"Oh, Sara, I wasn't sleeping you see. I was… umm… meditating, yeah. Thinking about…"
"How beautiful the world is and how wonderful God must be to create this right? Sara mimicked her husband, interrupting his words and saying it out loud herself. "Just stop it already, Max. cook up something new, will you?"
Max gave an apologetic look to his wife as he began to coax her, "I am sorry, I just got a bit tired that's all, and who do you think is the reason for that, if not you keep me awake…. mmph."
Sara grabbed Max's mouth with her hand to shut him up.
"What the world do you think you are saying in front of Airi!"
Airi was literally cracking up by now seeing the sweet little banters of her parents. "Oh, my God stop you guys! I am done with eating. Maa, Paa, I'll head out now."
"Study well dear!" Sara waved at her daughter with a smile on her face.
"But don't forget to find a cute little boyfriend there, and be lovey-dovey like your parents," Max waved to Airi with a mischievous smirk on his face.
Sara knocked hard on Max's head, "What are you trying to teach her, sheesh!"
Airi waved back to both of them, having an ear-to-ear smile on her face.
Well, this is how peaceful Airi's family was, for the entire day. It was the same, with sweet, loving, and caring morning breakfasts to soothing, cozy, and peaceful dinners. It was way more peaceful than heaven, at least Airi could bet on it.
Until the day she started her high school life.
Until the day Sandra High got on her so deeply that Airi got wrapped up in it, stuck pretty badly.
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She got some money her mother gave her to go to school comfortably, hiring a cab. But Airi wanted to enjoy the view on her way, so she chose to walk to the school.
It was January, so the temperature was low enough to keep people under blankets. No doubt, this time of the year is such a pain to the students. But Airi has always liked winter more than anything else. Because only in winter she could do practically anything, without getting sweaty or tired. Even food digests well in winter. And she could try cool outfits all winter long. Nothing beats the fact of looking cool.
So surely, Airi feels more energetic in winter. And she enjoyed her long walk to school, while the entire city was covered in a blanket of fog.
Her new school was quite a distance away, as she reached there after walking for quite a while. Upon entering the large premises of her school crossing the gate, she was baffled by the enormous view in front of her.
"Woah!! Would you just look at that! Such large buildings!" Airi walked ahead, not removing her eyes off of the magnificent buildings.
"God! I am not going to be lost in it right? My previous school is nothing compared to this."
She looked around her to see other students dressed in the same uniform as hers. Those students were around her age, some might be one or two years older, by the way they were walking with a book practically shoved up to their faces. They must be seniors. But all of them equally emitted such an elite aura that she couldn't help staring at them.
Sandra High is a school of total rich kids.
No wonder they all look so refined and bright.
She kept walking with an awestruck look when suddenly she came across a commotion in front of her. Students were gathered around something, and by the look of them watching so intently, something must be going on there. She wondered what must be happening to make such a huge crowd on the premises. And slowly, she walked towards it.
She moved ahead, squeezing into the crowd, to see what was going on. After a lot of difficulties, and getting some hits of the elbows, she met eyes with the view in front of her. The first thing she caught her eyes was a girl sitting on the ground, with books and her bag scattered around her. And then she noticed a group of three girls standing in front of that girl. By the looks of it, it seemed like the girl fell on the ground, or…
"Did they push her?" Airi didn't even realize that she voiced her thoughts out loud.
Just then, Airi felt a tug on her sleeve, and when she looked back, there was a girl beside her. "Shh, don't say that out loud. Do you want to be in the same condition just like that girl?"
"Oh, wow, look at this! You managed to follow us here huh?"
Airi and the girl beside her both looked back at the scene when a voice started speaking up from there. It was one of those three girls.
"I say, where do you manage to collect enrollment fees huh? Care to tell us that?"
The girl sitting on the ground didn't utter a single word in response. The whole time, she kept her head hanging down towards the ground, almost making a hole in it with her continuous staring.