"Thank you very much for calling me. I will talk to him when we go home" a middle-aged woman said without a smile. She was seated next to a sober Nathan, and the female principal was writing something on a piece of paper.
The principal gave the piece of paper to Nathan's mother, who read it for a while, and her expression changed. "Mrs Gloria, please let us discuss this like reasonable adults. You cannot suspend him, not when he's close to writing his exams", Nathan's mother begged.
"Look, Mrs Gloria, it's not as if I haven't warned Nathan enough. We can not tolerate his obstinate attitude anymore. He almost lasered his classmates for god's sake. Let him take these days off so that he'll think about what he did."
Nathan who was slumped on his seat stood straight with an angry look. "Principal, it wasn't my fault about what happened. James distracted me when I was performing our group project demonstration. I was trying to impress our teacher, but he kept distracting me from..."
"Shut up Nathan! Are you mad?" Nathan's mother hollered at him, causing him to droop his face. "It wasn't my fault", he kept mumbling on his breath. "Calm down Mrs Dougler. Proper punishment would be meted out on Nathan, but before we would be able to do that, he cannot step on the school's premises as of now on."
Mrs Dougler was a bit hesitant. She does not want Nathan to stay at home for personal reasons. So she brought out her smartphone and fiddled with it for a moment, and placed her phone back in her purse. A moment's later, the principal's desktop computer chimed, indicating a notification.
When she opened the message that entered, she sighed and smiled. She then looked over at Nathan and boldened her face. "Nathan, look at me. If any event like this ever reaches my ear again, I would not be lenient with you again. Come on, go back to your class", the principal said sternly.
"Thank you very much, principal Gloria," Mrs Douglas said with a smile, then turned and glared at Nathan. "Let me hear this again, and you will be going to military school, trust me!" Nathan shuddered at that statement.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
James was chatting with Ana and her friends when Nathan barged into the class with a stone-cold expression. He went to his seat and sat down noisily. James only took a simple glance at him, before ignoring him.
Nathan kept making a series of noises to attract attention, from banging his table, to coughing loudly. He noticed that whatever he did, no one noticed him. It was like everyone was ignoring him on purpose.
"What the hell is wrong with you people? Are you all doing this on purpose?" Nathan asked as he stood up and glared at the entire class. One girl turned and gave him a cold stare. "We are not the one that told you to bring your death robot that almost killed the class. Please can you sit down and stop making stupid noises."
Nathan was dumbfounded. So they are intentionally ignoring him. "So just because of an inconvenient mistake, you guys are treating me like a diseased cow, huh", he said. Ana, who was chatting with her friend, stood up and stared at Nathan.
"Inconvenient? Nathan, you almost lasered our heads off. Listen, we don't hate you, despite all the stupid things you've done. You are one that keeps trying to prove that you are better than us, and you know that it would never happen as long as you despise correction. Oh, by the way, James won the stupid bet you made on Friday, that's if it was even considered a bet."
Nathan rage brewed from inside him as he approached Ana. He wanted to slap her and threatened her, but he was blocked by two of his classmates. "What are you trying to do Nathan, you don't want to be expelled right?" the boy blocking Nathan asked incredulously.
"Get out of my way Nico" Nathan threatened, but the boy didn't budge. "What the hell is even wrong with you Nathan? Do you think you can just go around threatening people anyhow? Don't ever forget that we know you, the real you, so if you don't go back to your seat and sit the hell down, not only would I make up a disgusting secret to the whole school, I would also report to the principal, pervert!", a girl, which went by the name of Cherry said.
Nathan stopped in his tracks and looked at Cherry. He was very shocked at what she said. For almost a year now, he thought no one knew about his past deeds. He always had a crush on her. Two months ago, he bought an expensive bracelet from the money he stole from his parent and gave it to her as a way to express his love for her, but she blatantly rejected it, saying that she cannot collect what she don't know where it came from.
Despite the rejection, Nathan did not give up on wooing her. Sometimes he would study hard in the night and answer questions in class, just to impress her, but she would ignore him like he never existed.
Nathan had always thought it was because she was shy, but right now he knew that was not the case anymore. She apparently knew all the brazen acts he did in his previous school. This shattered his heart in pieces.
"So all my hard work was for nothing," Nathan thought. Because the threat was coming from Cherry, Nathan couldn't do anything anymore, and just slowly walked to his seat and sat down dazed.
"Nathan", Cherry called him. Nathan's ear perked up instantly. He thought Cherry wanted to apologize for what she said. He was about to stand up and tell her to not worry when the next words completely broke him.
"Just so you know, James is ten thousand times better than you. I just wanted you to know that. You keep bullying him for completely no reason, not knowing that you are the one that is the weak one. Such a p**sy", Cherry spat angrily, before sitting down and continuing her interrupted conversation with her friends.
Nathan could not even raise his head up. For the first time in a long time, he had never been so ashamed in his entire life. Suddenly he felt that he was lonely in this world. "I cannot believe she said that" Nathan mumbled repeatedly.