"If you make one more loud sound I''ll have you expelled!"


    I had already made it to my next class by the time she finished her sentence.


    "You''re late, Celio. How do you manage to be so late?"


    "Blame Miss Daoust, she was the one who kept me in her classroom."


    "She kept you in her classroom? For half an hour? Why would she do that?"


    "I don''t know. Ask her yourself."


    "Insolent child. You''ll soon be moving to another town if you don''t straighten up."


    I heard small laughs and snickers from the back of the classroom. That same group of kids had been chuckling at my every move for the past. What I wouldn''t give to bump them off one of these days. I just need them alone but they''re always glued to each other.


    "Of course, Madame."


    Laughter burst out across the classroom, everywhere except for where they were. They played teacher''s pet when it helped them, and that way they could get away with whatever stunt they tried to pull on me while the teachers would just ignore them. I went and sat down at my desk next to Elle, but Miss Larche had already walked over in front of me. She frowned at me and held her hand high behind her.


    "Come on Marie, don''t hit the kid."


    "He was being disrespectful. He must learn somehow."


    "You were just threatening him with expulsion, choose one or the other."


    "Why are you on his side? He insulted a teacher."


    "He called you ''Madame''."


    "Did you hear his tone?"


    "He''s twelve, Marie. All kids that age sound obnoxious."


    "Then I suppose all of them will receive physical discipline."


    Mr. Savard let out a sigh before starting to speak again.


    "How are you going to explain this to the principal, Marie? Are you going to march in there and demand he be punished for calling you ''Madame''?"


    "I''ll tell the principal about a little thing called connotation."


    "You''d have to get one of the students to confirm that he was speaking in a disrespectful way for the principal to even care."


    "I''ll tell the principal."


    That asshole.


    "Nobody likes a mouch, Reynold."


    "How will you justify speaking to a student like that Savard?"


    "Easier job than you justifying slapping a kid. Just teach the class you''ve used most of your time already."


    Miss Larche lowered her hand and walked back to her chair. Mister Savard left the classroom and continued walking down the hallway, and we got back to the history lesson.


    "As I was talking about before I got so rudely interrupted, who here can tell us about how Articulago formed?"


    All of the students besides me raised their hands. I was counting on her doing the same thing she always does, so I tried to look like I was hiding from her. I avoided eye contact and pretended to focus on things that were near me, and eventually, she called on me.


    "Celio, why don''t you tell us about the formation of this country?"


    "Long ago, we were five separate countries who were all in some sort of conflict with each other. Then the king of Penilago had a meeting with the king of Arten, and they formed an alliance along with Icuria to stop the never-ending conflict. They named the new country Articulago and took over the other two countries who hadn''t immediately joined the alliance."


    "The other two countries, what were their names?"


    "Maedorran and Tidugo."


    "Well, Celio, you''ve made up for your insulting behavior. I''m certainly impressed that you took the time to get notes from Elle after you were out for a day."This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    I couldn''t stop myself from grinning. It felt strange, being happy that Miss Larche was complimenting me. Maybe she wasn''t a bad person, but she does have very little patience. Well, at least she wouldn''t be mad at me for the rest of the day.


    "Hey, that''s too easy. The old countries are now city names. Of course, Celio knows those names, he''s been expelled from every school around the country. I don''t know if he''ll ever stop traveling."


    Elle stood up to yell at them like she usually does, and I tugged her arm to try and get her to sit down. Her screaming at them hadn''t stopped them before, it wouldn''t stop them now. However, before she could say a word Miss Larche actually defended me.


    "Now now, that was a bit too far, Reynold. I know that we usually ridicule Celio for his poor academic prowess, but you remember what Mr. Savard said. You must choose one or the other. If we point out his mistakes, we can not then also condemn him for his successes. It''s certainly not fair to make excuses for why he knows something that you might not. While it is true that he has a poor record pertaining to his behavior, if anything I am glad that he has used the opportunity to learn more about the country. I don''t know if all of us would care enough to remember the names of cities where we had to move away from because we got expelled."


    Was she defending me or insulting me more? She was definitely telling Reynold that he was wrong, but in every other part, she was talking about how I acted poorly in the past. It didn''t matter, she got Reynold to shut up and the class didn''t reward him for insulting me this time.


    "Our time is up. Make your way to the main room of prayer, it''s time for Zaehval."


    We all got up from our seats and walked to the big room in the middle of the school.


    "Thanks for giving me your notes, Elle."


    "I can''t believe you thought I''d say no. You know I don''t hate you, right?"


    "You seem very focused on how the teachers see you, I thought maybe you would think it''s embarrassing to let me look through your notes."


    "My name isn''t Reynold Mobles."


    We had a quick laugh before we had to get quiet again as we walked through the doors to the main room. The large statue of Phrosus was surrounded by students from the other class. I grabbed Elle by the arm and we rushed over to get as close as possible. The closer you were, the earlier you got food.


    Students slowly sat down around the statue, until eventually, the entire room was silent. The principal stood behind us all and led us in the prayer.


    "To he, incarnate of golden."


    "To he, a man of sacrifice."


    "To he who has taken all in the world, and left us with just enough."


    "To he who has allowed us to thrive, to he who has chosen to share."


    "To he who has experienced indulgence, and left us with fleeting virtue."


    "Only to indulge himself one more, to save us all from such a fate."


    "To he, who has it all. Not through choice, but through sacrifice."


    The next half hour was spent going through all of the students. All of us had a line given to us when we entered the school that morning, and we had to recite it when it was our turn. Mine was-


    "To he, who lives in disarray."


    I ended up getting my least favorite combination of sandwiches and snacks. They liked to call my type of sandwich "Holy Cheese," cause of, well, the holes in the cheese. It tasted disgusting, I couldn''t bear it. Along with that, I had to force down some chopped-up carrots. They weren''t even boiled. Every single bite sent a shiver down my spine. Elle offered to share hers with me, but the teachers hated it when she did this, so I told her to keep her food.


    After Zaehval was finished, we made our way to Mister Savard''s class. We had gone over redzovnas yesterday, which meant that today we''d be going outside to tend to the garden. The two chickens who we kept there always rushed towards me when we went outside, and I would carry them around. The best part was that they would always run away from Reynold, and he''d go chasing after them every time. Eventually, he''d either fall or get tired, and we''d all laugh at him.


    When we got outside, they immediately rushed at me, and the rest of the students went off to water the flowers. We were constantly rearranging the garden because otherwise we''d just be sitting down and doing nothing. This time, Mister Savard had some of the boys move the chicken home to the corner near the school. I was feeding both chickens with some of the leaves from the nearby tree. One of them nearly bit my whole finger off.


    I was carrying one of them over to Elle, but the second I looked away I heard the other chicken scream. I immediately let the chicken in my hands down and I turned around to see who but Reynold throwing random pebbles from the ground at the chicken. It was trying to run away from him, but he would hit it every single time, and it screamed in pain every single time.


    "Hey! What are you doing?"


    "I didn''t think you were blind and stupid."


    "I was giving you a chance to stop."


    "Oooh, so scary! What are you gonna do, cry to Mister Savard? He saved you from getting punished by Miss Larche, maybe he''ll save you from me this time."


    "I don''t need Mister Savard, I need you to stop being an asshole."


    The entire class gasped.


    "Oh, what? You''ve never heard me say the word ''asshole'' before?"


    "Celio! We do not use that language here."


    "I''m sorry Mister Savard but Reynold is hurting the chickens for no reason. I''m pretty sure I''m using the word right."


    "That doesn''t matter, there are some things that you just don''t say. Reynold, stop throwing pebbles at the chickens."


    "Why?"


    "What?"


    "Why should I stop throwing pebbles at the chickens? You always tell me to stop doing things but you let Celio do whatever he wants! He always picks up the chickens and pets them, or he screams in your class, but you don''t respond at all! Whenever I speak in your class you always yell at me!"


    "You are taking these things horribly out of context-"


    "Why is it fair that he gets to spend all the time with the chickens? All I''m trying to do is play with them!"


    "The chickens run to him immediately, Reynold. We can''t force them to like you, especially not when you try to hurt them like this."


    He was acting. He couldn''t even make any actual tears so he had to keep his arms over his eyes, pretending like he was constantly wiping his face.


    "We all know the only reason why Celio loves to hug those chickens is because he can never hug his mothe-"


    Miss Daoust was going to be mad at me again. In an instant, I was right in front of Reynold. Maybe the problem was that he could ever speak, I think the entire school would be better if he wasn''t able to.


    I decided to fix this problem by breaking his jaw. Unfortunately, he went flying with the jaw.