A Bland but Resplendent New Life

Tanya sat in class listening as the class went on. The class in question seemed to be boring. Half of the students were either asleep, half-asleep, or just distracting themselves purposefully from the class to prevent falling asleep and losing face like the rest.

People looked at Tanya in awe as she looked plainly at the teacher with her undivided attention and occasionally scribbled down notes. She was an iron lady to all of them and most of them looked up to as either an object of awe or envy.

Eventually, the bell went off, signifying the end of the class and the beginning of lunch period. Almost everyone hastily dispersed out the front door, leaving behind a few students who were either trying to catch up with the notes or wanted to eat lunch in class.

Tanya sighed inaudibly and sprawled unto her desk and she sank into her thoughts. She was about to sink even deeper until a tap made her snap out of it.

"Tanya…" a gentle voice called out overhead. Tanya looked up to see a girl her age, in the same uniform as herself, smiling down at her with her very soft appearance practically glowing.

She knew her. She was…

"Anna! You can't suddenly leave class in a rush like that." A boy of a similar age range as them suddenly burst through the door in haste, walking towards the flushed and soft looking girl, Anna.

"Garry, I just wanted to see her. It's been a very long time since she had come so I really wanted to see her." Anna said softly with a guilty look. She looked like someone who no one could get angry at and true to that observation, Garry softened as though he were never panicked in the first place.

"Tanya, you're back." That came from behind them spoke. They turned to look at the direction of the voice and saw a boy and a girl, in uniforms like theirs and around their age range.

The boy looked like he was involved in sports. The girl looked like a cheerleader. Toby and Justina? Why were they all here?

"Why are you guys here?" Tanya asked coldly. They all froze up at the coldness of her voice but soon shrugged it off.

"Come on, Tanya. You're like our sister." Toby said with a smile that looked like a smirk, "And you're like my lover." He said in a lowered tone that seemed to have the intention of seducing her.

Tanya and the others turned to him with expressions of disbelief, dumbfounded, disgust, and cringe.

Tanya suddenly shuddered and turned back to her book and the rest did the same and turned to Tanya.

"Hey! Are you and Mr. Alvise dating?" The girl beside Toby, Justina suddenly asked. Tanya turned to look at her and the girl felt her body chill at the sight.

Tanya was a woman with blood on her hands, both in the past and now. So when she turned to glare at the girl, her thoughts got ahead of her and she let out her bloodlust in annoyance.

The paled and her expression turned sickly. The rest felt their heart rate increase at the sight. She was scary.

"Justina," Tanya called out with a tone devoid of emotions. "Do not saying things that you cannot account for. Is that clear?" The girl quickly nodded in fear and Tanya turned around.

Justina's legs grew weak as she nearly slumped, the rest reached out and helped her onto a chair.

"I guess she just saw you and teacher Alvise walking to his birthday gala together on TV." Garry explained on her behalf.

"Wait!" Tanya said suddenly flustered and the sight threw them into panic, "You saw me with Alvise in public on TV? ! What did they say?!"

The fact that she had called him without honorifics definitely got them but they put no mind in it. They were students after all. "They said something about you being a prospective bride… or something?" Toby said nonchalantly as his arms were still slung on Justina's shoulders.

Tanya let out a strangulated groan as she buried her face between her palms. Did Alvise also take notice of this too? Did he also know what the media wrote about him. She wanted to spring up to find him but since he wasn't here despite being her homeroom teacher, that meant that he was busy else where.

Tanya slumped back into her seat that she had stood up from while contemplating on Alvise. Paparazzi b*st*rds! Those sick b!tc#€$ really knew how to get on her nerves in a peculiar manner. What was Alvise doing not taking care of this?

The thoughts seemed never ending and she groaned again, tired of the stress.

"He told me it was a private event. Could he have lied?" Tanya mumbled audibly. The thoughts were really disturbing her though.

"So, you guys are dating?" Justina asked again with a snug smile.

"At this point I might have to believe that you have something on Teacher Alvise." Tanya said blankly.

"What…! Why would you even think-"

"I told you that we weren't dating, yet you still insist on asking that question." Tanya said coolly and emotionlessly.

"That's because-" She tried to start but Tanya again beat her to it.

"There are only three reasons why you would insist on a fallacy being truth even when it has been debunked." Tanya started, "The first would be because: you are forcefully trying to make the truth a lie, indirectly saying I'm a pushover; that I'm incapable of making my own decisions."

Justina floundered over her words; stuttering and spluttering over her words like a fool. At least, that's what she looked like to Tanya.

Ignoring her spluttering folly, she continued, "The second would be that you're trying to use me as bait to get a false statement and make that the truth." Tanya took a dramatic pause after that, "Do you perhaps work for the paps?" Tanya asked with a raised brows and eyes filled with suspicion. The others followed suit.

Justina blushed furiously in shame and guilt but she tried to brush it off by saying, "Of course not! Why would you think that?" but it was too late. Tanya had her answer from her reaction.

"The third now would be that you're trying to look good in front of teacher Alvise while putting me down with these false words that you're desperately trying to put as truth." Tanya's eyes went cold as she said these and with the depths of those darkened orbs was mockery for this fool who thought she could play her.

This was her second time living this life. This spluttering imbecile was but an unweaned child before her who was almost than twice her age. These kids…

A smile came on her lips as she wore a cold look but it didn't reach her eyes. At that moment, Tanya looked very scary.

"Or is it all three?" Tanya said with a hand on her chin as she struck a thinking pose. She tilted her head towards Justina with that cold expression that did nothing but intensify. The room suddenly felt chilly for some reason and their hearts shook as they shuddered.

Tanya stared at Justina but the latter felt like a prey to the former. It was like she was being looked at as a piece of meat.

"Ugh!" She suddenly groaned. The intensity of Tanya's gaze made her stomach upset and her lips blue. She thought she might die soon with the way she was being looked at.

"I hate people like you who destroy others privacy and life in a bid to selfishly satisfy your curiosity." Tanya said as she stood and walked over to Justina who bowed her pale yet flushed face in an attempt to avoid meeting Tanya's gaze.

"You are one greedy b*tch." Tanya said and the girl flushed even harder.

Suddenly, Tanya came face first to the girl, causing her to be startled and raise her head in fear and panic.

"They sent you, didn't they?" Tanya said with a cunning smile. The girl choked on tears, words and the pressure being released by this person in front of her.

"They've become even more sloppy after last time." Tanya said with a smile. It was a silent conversation between the two, the rest of the three weren't hearing anything.

So, when the girls looked to the rest and saw them far from hearing distance, she gulped and shuddered at the insane meticulousness of the girl before her.

"Well, as you came so shall you return." The words seemed to be from a prayer book but with the way she had worded it and her chilling expressions, they seemed more of a curse instead.

"Run." Tanya drew close to her ear and quietly whispered, "Run for your dear life and tell your boss that you failed… miserably." Tanya backed up and smiled.

The girl immediately, at the slightest drop in pressure, turned on her heels and ran off, through the door, in a distance. Tanya smiled at the sight. It was a warm smile, a distinct difference from the cold one she bore just moments ago.

"What was that?" Anna asked after the pressure had been released.

"What was what?" Tanya asked with a slightly tilted head and narrowed eyes, as though she were genuinely lost.

"Why did Justina run away like that, Tanya?" Toby asked, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Wow, Toby. Your side chick for the week insults me but you say nothing but now that I get back at her, I'm the bad guy?"

"No… It's not-"

"I thought as much." Tanya said with a relieved expression and a warm smile. This time, it looked so innocent that they were mesmerized.

Cute! They all thought as they saw her smile.

In their mesmerized daze they failed to see… two shadows that moved within the class and out through the window…

At a hand signal…

…given by the one they were giving their adoration to right at that moment.