James slowly walked into the class. The students who were busy discussing away became silent when the principal walked to their class and stared at the new boy.
"Good morning everyone, this is a new addition to your class, introduce yourself, James," the principal said simply, gently urging James to introduce himself. James face remained expressionless as he began introducing himself.
Twenty-two students, wow, the same number of students in his former class. When James finished his introduction, there was silence. Then one tall boy at the back raised his hands "Principal Andrew, why is he short? Is he not supposed to be in I don't know, grade five?" the boy mocked, causing the entire class to laugh.
If it was anyone, they would be ashamed of themselves or destroy their confidence, but James was not affected by that statement. Instead, he stared dead at the tall boy in his eyes without any reaction. "Be careful Daniel, I don't want to hear that from you anymore" the principal scolded, before pointing to James seat, which James promptly went to and sat.
The only thing James prayed for is one, no one should disturb his peace, and two, no one should bully him. He had just gone through a lot in recent days, so the last thing he needs is to be beaten by an insecure kid.
James brought out his tablet from his bag and placed them on the table. It was the tablet his mum bought for him while he was still going to his former school.
She wanted James to keep accessing the E-textbooks from the school website from home instead of only in school. James sighed. This was the only thing that reminded him of his mum, so he valued it more than the functions of the tablet.
The tall boy was talking to his friends, busy making fun of James, causing them to laugh loudly, before standing up from his desk and approaching James. 'This will not be good' James sighed.
"Hey there preschooler, what brings you to grade 8—no wait, better question, how old are you?" the boy placed his both hands on the edge of James' desk in an intimidating manner. "James glared at the tall boy and said nothing.
The tall boy was slightly angered by his silence. He looked over at his group of friends, who were laughing and then brought his face closer to James', but James did not remove his stare from the boy.
"I believe I was asking you a question, you answer it, otherwise, someone would get hurt," the boy said, cracking his knuckles. "I'll ask again, how old are you James?" the boy said, his face twisting in anger.
Great, a bully. My luck is getting better and better, James thought. He sensed that everyone in this class was afraid of the tallboy and his friends, because the moment the boy finish cracking his knuckles, the class fell into silence and watched James and the tallboy. "Uh oh, someone is about to be pounded," one of his friends said, smiling slyly.
James poker face was already annoying the boy, so before he clenched his muscles to punch James, a teacher came in, saving James at the last minute. The tall boy looked over at the teacher, then glared at James, smiled, and went back to his seat. James knew that this was not over yet.
In his lifetime, James has faced many bullies, so this was not new to him. Most of the time he was bullied because of his height, intelligence, skin, and other variation of reasons, but this was the first time he was bullied moments after he started this school.
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"Alright here's a problem, who can solve this?" the math teacher asked. Three hands were raised, James included. The teacher looked at his direction and seeing the new face, could not help but frown "Looks like we have a new face, what's your name student?" the teacher asked.
James stood up from his seat and introduced himself. "Alright Smith, welcome to the class, please, go ahead and solve the problem on the E-board" the teacher instructed. James leisurely strolled to the front of the class and took the stylus from the teacher, then stared at the question.
This question he was looking at was among the question he searched for on his tablet a couple of months ago before his parent's death. James was slightly surprised, he turned to the teacher and asked her a question "Ma'am, is this question not among the top twenty hardest questions in Math?".
The teacher nodded. "Absolutely. We teachers from Unity School take and tackle challenges in Mathematics, thus looking for a solution to solving them. That's how young minds grow. If you don't know how to solve it, it's fine, we can do it together" the teacher said and gestured him to sit down, but James was not budging.
"I did not say I cannot solve it, ma'am, all, I'm saying is that this might be a little too much for—you know what, never mind. I'll go solve it" James said and began solving. "You don't have to talk bullshit Smith, go sit down if your tiny brain is too dumb to solve this" the tall boy jeered, causing his friends to giggle silently.
"Daniel, language" the principal warned, before gesturing James to continue. James then stared at the equation and began writing. The teacher watched intently as James solved the questions carefully and precisely.
A minute later James finished solving the questions and underlined his answer. The teacher smiled wryly and collected the stylus from him. "That's a good attempt, but you are wrong".
"No, I'm not ma'am" James shook his head in disapproval. "Just because my method of solving this question was different, does not make me wrong. Look at my answer teacher"
"The teacher said you are wrong, so you are wrong. Why don't you go sit your ass down and shut the f*ck up!" the tall boy mocked. "Strike two Daniel, one more strike and you land in detention!" the teacher warned, before looking at James.
"If you think you're right, then let me go ahead and solve this with the class. Go take your seat, because this would take a long time to finish" the teacher smiled and urged James to go back to his seat.
James sat down and opened his tablet. He could not believe it because he finished quickly, the teacher immediately shunned him, so he no longer participated in the discussion. He launched the soft copy math textbook he downloaded from his former school's website and began challenging himself, like a famous author once said "obstacles are created for an intelligent person to grow".