"Miss Lopez!"

I jumped in surprise when the teacher called my name. I didn't realize that everyone in the class was looking at me. My sudden reaction made them laugh.

"What are you trying to do in my class?! Are you going to sleep forever or might as well leave!" She furiously asked. I felt shame in my body.

It suddenly occurred to me that I had dozed off while standing, as she was still asking my classmates about our oral quiz. I hadn't answered her question correctly earlier, which was why I had ended up standing and falling asleep in the first place.

"Sorry, ma'am. I didn't get much sleep last night because of our neighbor" I told her this truthfully, but she just became angry instead.

I'm not wrong for saying that. It was already three in the morning when I finally got to sleep since our neighbor was doing karaoke all night for a birthday celebration.

"Is your sleeping still my problem?" She annoyingly asked.

"I'm sorry, ma'am…" I said. It seemed that if I kept explaining myself, she wouldn't let up. "Could I answer another question instead? Is that alright with you?" I asked, hoping to change the topic and also to receive my grade for the quiz.

I was nervous that she would not accept my apology, but I'm glad she did. She even let me answer a question and thankfully I got it right this time. At last, I was able to sit myself down.

When the bell rang, some of my classmates ran out of the classroom, but I decided to take a nap instead since I had been deprived of sleep all night.

I was about to take a nap when a classmate called me.

"Rianne, Ma'am Lou's looking for you" I immediately bit my lips out of frustration when I heard what my classmate said.

"Yeah, thanks…" I lazily stood up from my seat and headed for the faculty room. I'm about to accept my fate that the teachers would give me a hard time again.

I'm on my way to thinking that I should really pass down my position as the senior-student president of the curriculum. It's such a pain when they are giving me a lot of tasks but I can't turn down them either since I need to save up while studying.

I'm the eldest so I should really make an effort to at least support my needs and my siblings Working as a student in this school was really a big help since I'm able to save money from doing their cleaning requests and sometimes I get to have free food.

"Ma'am…" I knocked on the wall of the cubicle where Ma'am Lou was. She immediately stopped what she was doing and offered me a seat.

"There's something I want to discuss with you, and it might involve a request as well…" I looked at her curiously, intrigued by what she had said. "You knew that your adviser was on leave due to her pregnancy, right?" I nodded in response. "Mr. Alvarez took a sudden leave as well, and our principal asked me to cover his class."

Ah, I'm starting to understand where this is heading…

"They decided to merge your class with Mr. Alvarez's because you share the same strand. I think you should inform your classmates about this." I suppressed my disappointment and simply nodded.

"That's just temporary, right?" I asked, hoping for the best.

"I'm not sure, but this might continue until your final year since we're short-staffed this school year" I really want to let loose and express myself fully. I can already picture the struggles I'll face during the last years of high school."

Yet I remained calm and let out a smile that I hoped would never tell that it was the fakest one that I had done in my life.

"Okay… When will they come to our class?" I asked, even though I just wanted to feel numb inside.

"Don't worry, I'll get their list for you tomorrow, so they can probably join your class next week. For now, just announce it to your classmates first" She instructed before leaving the faculty room.

I felt my annoyance grow as I made my way up the stairs back to our room. Holding onto the railing, I silently cursed as I climbed from the second floor to our room on the fourth floor.

I was busy catching my breath when suddenly two students walked by, bumping into me.

"What the—" I stopped myself from swearing when I realized there might be a class on the second floor. "Hey! Are you guys blind?" I confronted them in a lowered voice to avoid causing a disturbance.

"Oh, sorry…" One of the guys said with a smirk.

It suddenly struck me that this guy might be a jerk.

"Wait, it's class time right now. Why are you two outside?" I asked, knowing that students aren't allowed to loiter during class hours.

"Our adviser called us to the faculty" One of them replied. I looked at him skeptically.

I didn't recognize their faces as being from any of the student officers or representatives who are typically called to the faculty.

"What grade are you both in?" I asked to verify their story.

"We're in the same grade…" The other guy said, but I narrowed my eyes in suspicion to the one who had bumped into me.

"Who's your adviser?" I pressed.

"It's Mr. Alvarez…" He answered, which made me laugh sarcastically.

They were definitely lying.

"Are you kidding me?! Mr. Alvarez is on leave!" I couldn't hold back my frustration any longer.

I was about to walk closer to ask for their names and report them when the other one playfully shouted.

"Bye!" And they both took off running as fast as they could.

"HEY!" I shouted as I was about to chase after them since they had quickly exited the building. "Fuck—!" I exclaimed and kicked the walls when a teacher suddenly spotted me which calls me to run away immediately.

I was panting and sweating when I finally reached our classroom, trying to catch my breath while announcing the sudden change in our class to everyone.

It quickly became chaotic, with some students opposed to the new setup and others accepting it. They had a lot of questions, and I did my best to answer them.

"Which strand are they from?" the girls asked.

"It's the same as ours" I replied.

"Who's their adviser?" they added.

"I think it's Mr. Alvarez's class…"

They suddenly erupted into squeals at my response. I hadn't expected them to be that excited.

"Finally… There will be more boys this time. It's kinda boring since no one looks good in this class…" one of the girls commented.

I chuckled at her remark. I couldn't blame her, we only had five boys in the class, and two of them are unfortunately not real boys.

"Look who's talking to herself again…" One of the boys teased.

"What did you say?!" Elaiza confronted him, leading to an endless back-and-forth of banter between them.

Later that day, I checked the room one last time before locking it, ready to go home as it was getting darker. Suddenly, I remembered the rumors circulating among the students about a man in black standing on the stairs of the second floor at night, which sent chills down my spine.

I found myself praying silently as I made my way down to that floor. I was cautious with each step, and when I arrived, I felt a wave of relief when I didn't see anything.

I let my guard down, feeling too relaxed, when suddenly I heard footsteps behind me. Fear gripped me, and I struggled to move. On the brink of yelling out of terror, I turned around to find a man standing right in front of me.

"AHHH!!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, instinctively hitting whoever or whatever was blocking my way. I shoved the man to the floor and ran for it.

"Oh! Fuck—" I instantly stopped from going down when I heard it.

I instinctively hurried over to check on the man.

As I approached, I felt regret over me when I saw him. He was wearing a uniform from our school, sitting on the ground and holding his elbow.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!" I exclaimed frantically as I reached him, suddenly realizing who it was.

"YOU?!"