NOVEL WEB Chapter 48: Monday morning
Mondays were bad in all universes, no matter if the universe I was in potentially increased my chances of having sex by 1000%, Mondays were still Mondays, no amount of possible sex could change that.
Perhaps it was a greater force that made all beings lethargic at the beginning of the week — given that I had transmigrated to a reverse world, I did not rule that out— or perhaps it was simply the slowness of the brain to return to routine.
Despite getting up an hour earlier to get everything ready, breakfast and so on, I barely had time to find something decent to wear. It wasn't that I was picky about my clothes, it was just that everything looked absolutely awful. That made me realize that I had forgotten to buy clothes that I liked the past weekend.
I had to borrow a shirt from Nola, and that raised a few eyebrows as to why I didn't want to wear my own clothes. But after a little talk, they shrugged it off, thinking that I had changed my taste in fashion (again). And my mother seemed relieved that I had given up the trend of wearing clothes that were too revealing when, in her words, "women were ogling me."
So when Nola agreed to lend me a shirt, I was relieved. I was also a bit amused that when I wore Nola's shirt, she seemed somehow pleased, as if my wearing her clothes was somehow an indication of my decision in what had happened. To be honest, I hadn't given the matter much thought, preferring to let things cool down first.
But aside from that, it was a normal morning, I ate breakfast and walked to school with Luna, now together instead of separately like the first time. I greeted Luna's friends on the way, enjoying perhaps a little more than I should have the absurd blushes that appeared on their faces when I spoke to them and the way they seemed to have a short circuit when I looked into their eyes.
Remembering with amusement a relatively normal morning, I stepped forward and pushed open the door in front of me in a relaxed mood.
"Alex!" Peyton and Kevin greeted me with a wave as I entered the classroom.
Walking up to them, I placed my backpack under my desk and turned around before turning to them, "Hi," I replied with a slight smile.
Peyton crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat, looking at me sideways, contemplatively. "I'm still not used to your new personality." He confirmed, making me feel slightly nervous as Kevin nodded approvingly next to him.
"New personality, what do you mean?" I said, hoping to sound curious rather than nervous.
Peyton shrugged after considering my question. "Just yesterday, when you left, Rodrigo commented that you had changed, so we called it a new personality, nothing more than that."
"Oh," I said, relieved that it was nothing, although I was also a little worried because they were obviously talking behind my back, but that's the natural feeling of groups of friends, so I didn't pay attention to it and kept talking instead. "Yeah, uh, maybe I have a new personality."
"It's like you're someone else." Kevin said with narrowed eyes next to Peyton, looking at me as if sizing me up. As I was about to explain stiffly, he let out a melodious laugh. "I can't decide which Alex I prefer, now you've got that maturer vibe that's actually quite appealing."
I let out a nervous laugh. "I don't think I have that vibe but thanks for the compliment."
As Kevin was about to speak again, the bell rang and a teacher entered the classroom with a slow pace and that typical "I didn't have a good weekend" aura, so to avoid trouble we stopped talking and sat up straight in our seats.
As I listened to our teacher's bored voice, I looked around the classroom absently. I noticed an empty seat. It belonged to the girl I had greeted earlier, Sage. I absentmindedly wondered where the shy girl was.
(***)
It was the middle of second period when the question I had absentmindedly asked was answered. Sage, the bespectacled, brown-haired girl, walked painfully into the classroom at a listless pace. Her hair was slightly wet, and I could see that her glasses seemed to have fallen out of their frames and were crooked in an odd way, though she didn't seem to mind, her eyes fixed on the floor.
She interrupted the class rather abruptly, so that the stares and teasing about her condition soon followed, but she seemed to be in a good mood as she made her way to her seat. The teacher seemed to consider speaking up and scolding her for being late, but perhaps she thought it was too much trouble, for she just sighed and paid no further attention to Sage as she took her seat.
I was confused for a moment, if my impression of this world had not changed, I might even have thought that she simply woke up late and was therefore late, but when her interruption faded in favor of a boring math lesson, I continued to watch her. Thanks to that, I noticed that every now and then she seemed to have a slight twitch and would bring her arm up to her eyes and wipe them with the sleeve of her blue shirt under her glasses.
At that moment everything clicked, she had probably been bullied and she was trying not to cry. I frowned and felt the anger building up inside me. I was tempted to talk to her, I was in her shoes in my previous life and I knew how it felt to be alone in something like this, because even if parents say so, telling teachers doesn't help shit. However, my plan came to a halt when I remembered what had happened the last time I did something similar with her, so even though I was upset that the poor girl had suffered such a thing, I swallowed my anger and just looked around the class, trying to see if there were any cliques that would openly mock her.
For better or worse, I found nothing, just some delinquents in the back chatting with each other, so their bully probably wasn't in this class.
I decided to talk to her later alone, maybe I could do something to help. If I asked, I was sure I would have several girls willing to fight for me. I would do it myself if I had to, but I don't think I could do much. Besides my lack of practice in fighting in general, there was now the nature and seemingly low power of my gender.
The teacher's bored voice snapped me out of my thoughts. "Now I need you to pair up because there is a project in class. "
This drew mixed reactions, some happy to work with their friend, others just sighing at the thought of more homework.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Peyton look between Kevin and me, the conflict in his eyes clear as he considered who to choose. I saw several girls looking at me, perhaps thinking to try their luck, but my eyes were on a lone girl who hadn't looked up from the floor, a plan forming in my head.