The next day was a Tuesday. Xana and her friends skipped school on Monday to visit Old Tim. This was Xana's first time going to school in this era.
The four friends usually went to school together along with Lucas, Deanna's/ Xana's little brother. Xana had a little problem of what to wear that day. Deanna's style was absolutely plain while her's wasn't.
At the end, she picked out a white shirt and black pants. 'I need new clothes. But I don't have money', this was Xana's problem.
On the way to school, Xana listened to the siblings as they talked about the local school sponsoring intelligent students to study in the city. She remembered that she heard this from Lucas once and he mentioned about her being picked.
'Well, this is good. Deanna was actually a very intelligent girl and was picked for this.' she thought. 'But how did Lucas know about her being picked?'
.....
Acorn Village High School
Class 5, Section B
9:00 AM
Assembly was over and students were retreating to their classes. Sam and Max
were in Class 4, Section C, while Sean was in Class 6, Section A.
Xana entered her class and immediately slid into the back seat. She dumped her backpack on the desk and pulled out a textbook to read. A voice immediately interrupted her.
"Oh look here, if it isn't the ugly duckling [1]", a scratchy voice sounded.
Xana looked up to see a thin boy with shamate[2] hair. A gang of thin boys were behind him and the whole class had their eyes on her.
Xana went through Deanna's memories and recognized this boy as Denis Hatfield, the infamous school bully.
Why was Deanna picked on? Well, she happened to be an eyesore to his girlfriend, Tina who shoved Deanna's face in the toilet bowl. As Xana recalled this, she cringed internally.
'This idiot's girlfriend shoved my beautiful face into the toilet bowl and he's still disturbing me?'
Immediately Xana caught a palm flying her way. It was the one of Denis trying to slap her.
'What guts', she thought. She was a martial expert and knew every form of fighting there has ever been on this Earth. In the future, they practiced consolidating of qi which was not as exaggerated as in novels but was quite powerful.
She swung his palm which made him fly backwards till he hit the wall. The class gasped.
"You b***ch", Denis' gang cursed at her.
'That was it.'
Xana stood up and the sheer force generated wind that blew on their clothes. She immediately slapped the boy who insulted her.
"You're a b***ch. You're whole family are b***ches", she said.
Denis got up from the wall which had cracks and glared at her.
"You dare!"
Xana narrowed her eyes. She left her desk and walked to where the thin boy was.
Using only one hand, she lifted him by his neck and hung him on a nail in the wall using his jacket. Then she slapped him.
The gasps in the class were becoming more and more audible.
"Stop, immediately!" a shrill voice sounded from the door. It was Tina.
She also had a gang of followers behind her who were snickering at her.
Xana gave them a look over and slowly walked towards them.
"How dare you wretch!" Tina screamed at her. One of her followers got the hint and stretched her hand to slap Xana.
Xana turned her gaze to the girl who was immediately scared stiff. She caught the hand and drew the girl closer.
"You know, for a weakling, you've got guts." She said while looking at Tina and snapped the girl's wrist.
Tina had began to retreat under her pressure but she couldn't avoid the slap that came after her.
Xana ignored the shrill screams of the girls and walked to her desk.
Very soon, a teacher came half-running into the class.
"Oh my!" the teacher exclaimed and pointed towards two students to lead the injured to the clinic.
This teacher's name was Steven. He was one of the volunteers that came from the city to teach in a local community.
"That was a cruel move from you Deanna, that was disappointing." he scolded her.
Xana simply ignored the man and kept on reading her textbook. She wasn't Deanna, she was Xana.
As she read, she thought it really funny the teaching methods of these professors and scientists of this era. It was horrible. How were students supposed to grasp this content?
After all the ruckus was settled, Mr. Steven made an announcement.
The school was going to sponsor ten students to study in the city and these students would be the smartest and most intelligent in the block. There were ten names listed out for this sponsorship already but the school had decided to hold a quiz to settle disputes between the teachers arguing on who was more intelligent than the other.
"Two students from our class have been picked and I am proud to have such intelligent ones in my class, as much as the rest of you. Only the best students would be picked in every class. The sponsorship is thanks to Hon. Ronald who is giving his all to get into the position he desires.
Let today's lesson begin."
The murmurings in the class subsided and students focused on the lesson.
During recess, Xana was reading the fourth textbook titled; Governance and Politics and was laughing internally at the incorrect histories and shallow solutions to world problems.
Once again, she was interrupted by no one else but Max.
"Hey, Deanna let's go to the new stall that just opened. They sell egg and beef noodles there." he said enthusiastically and pulled Xana away from her desk outside. Sean and Sam were waiting for them at the door.
"I heard what you did to Tina, Denis and their gangs." Sean said.
"Yes! Yes! That's Dean my girl." Max hooted.
'Who the heck is your girl?' Sean thought.
As they walked down the field filled with acorn trees, they passed Tina and Denis walking together. Their faces twisted in rage upon seeing Xana and her crew.
"I'm going to pay you back." Tina fiercely whispered to Xana as they passed each other.
[1] Ugly duckling is a children's book.
[2] Shamate is the transliteration of smart in Chinese. It's sardonically used to refer to youths dressed like rogues in coloured hair and the likes.