Team building was fine. Attending a class called "Orientation to Community Service" was fine too. They would be taught how community service could be beneficial in various aspects. They would also participate in one day of volunteering. All of this was fine, it didn't look too boring. What wasn't fine however was having to attend this class at 7 a.m. Nobody should wake up this early and despite being enrolled since the beginning of the semester, Katherine never managed to arrive on time before today. She thought she deserved a prize or something. As usual when she didn't have time to do her hair before morning classes, which meant everyday, she put a headscarf on. She however always managed to miraculously put makeup on. People didn't need to see how sleep-deprived she really was. Also she couldn't just hide behind a mask which was unfortunate. As for her hair, it hadn't seen the sun in weeks.
As usual, Akua was sitting at the back of the classroom, her head rested on the table and she was sleeping, as useless as ever. She had a very punch-able face. Maybe because she still looked like a teenager and teenagers are a pain in the ass. Next to her, Shafiq was drawing something on her arm or maybe her cheek, she couldn't tell. He fortunately didn't notice Katherine passing by him, it was way too early to talk to anyone right now. Especially to Shafiq whose voice screamed "punch me". She noticed two familiar tufts of black hair at the front row. One was long and smooth and the other one pointed in every direction. Mannan was scribbling on a piece of paper while Thaou was looking at him. She could talk to them another day. She then spotted Isaias talking to a woman with long curly brown hair and fair skin, probably this Emel who joined the club last weekend. She seemed nice and she knew she had to introduce herself. But she sighed because she had to sit next to Isaias for that and God knows how much this man loved to talk. She saw him pour a Monster Energy drink into what seemed to be a cup of coffee. He then said "I'm going to die" and drank the whole thing. That was it. That was enough Isaias for today, Katherine started to walk to the front row but he unfortunately had to notice her. He was shocked to see her before ten for once and gestured her to come. She reluctantly sat with her friend who introduced her to Emel.
"Before the lesson begins..." Great. What was it today? "I have to make sure nobody can read minds here." It was worse than what she could've imagined.
"Why?" Emel was as confused as Katherine. Poor girl didn't know what to expect with this... thing. But Katherine didn't either and that was the scary part.
"I can't tell you right now." he started. "I can't risk a mind reader to hear what I'm going to say." At this point Katherine put her head in her hands and sighed, waiting. The day hasn't started yet and she already wanted to scream. "We are going to mentally scream, the three of us. If someone flinches, we have our mind reader." Not like this though.
"Please, don't make me do this." Katherine almost begged. She even said the word "please." What more could be done to avoid all of this besides killing someone. Preferably Isaias.
"Why? Are you the mind reader?"
"I'm gonna choke you." Isaias' existence screamed "punch me".
"Okay on the count of three we'll all mentally scream. I'll look at the back of the classroom, Emel will look at the front and Kate will look around our table. Any questions?"
"Why are we even friends?" Katherine didn't like to make friends at school or at her workplace. She was there to work and work only. So when she decided to allow Isaias to talk to her, she didn't know this would be the biggest mistake of her life. If she had met him earlier, she could've created the club only for him and name it "Isaias hate club." Maybe God was punishing her for being so cold to strangers. She still liked him though. God, not Isaias.
"So one..."
"I hope the professor expels you like in high school."
"Two..."
"Are we really doing this?" This time it was Emel who interfered.
"Three!" Surprisingly, Katherine did it, out of frustration but she still mentally screamed. Isaias looked disappointed. "I would've bet Shafiq could read minds, too bad."
"Why him?"
"Because he's smart." Was he though? He didn't look like it. Except for Mannan and sometimes Thaou, the whole club looked pretty dumb to Katherine, her included.
"I saw this guy flinch. The Tamil one, what's his name again... Mannan?" Emel said. Oh no. Why would she encourage him like that? Isaias looked too pleased, she didn't like his expression. He wanted to be sure it wasn't a coincidence and counted to three again. And this time the three of them saw him flinch and leave the classroom immediately after. For Isaias there wasn't any doubt possible: Mannan heard them scream and had to leave because he couldn't take it anymore. For Katherine he went to the restroom and Emel just seemed amused by the situation.
During the class, Isaias kept staring at the man sitting at the front like he wanted to dig holes in his head. Maybe he wanted to communicate by thinking. Maybe Katherine didn't care. The teacher told the class they had two months left to volunteer and write a report about it. Emel was actively writing everything down since she enrolled in the middle of the semester and was two months late. It was surprising the teacher even let her enroll this late but the class wasn't really popular so that must've been why. From time to time, she would ask Isaias what he was trying to tell them earlier. Since Mannan was listening to the lesson, he couldn't read minds at the same time so it must've been safe to talk. But Isaias being Isaias, he had to build suspense for whatever reason. He needed to "take care of the problem" before revealing everything. If he was going to kill him, Katherine had to make sure to be the first one to report him to the police.
At lunch time, Mannan went to find Katherine, asking her what was wrong with her annoying friend. Apparently, he skipped class to follow him around and stared at him while grimacing. "Is it how he flirts?" he asked. The thought of an almost two meters tall adult man staring at his crush without saying anything and hoping he falls in love by making eye contact with him was pretty amusing. She just told him about the mind reading theory and advised him to ignore Isaias. "I've been ignoring him for months but it's hard when he's following me like a stalker." he answered. "Also, why would I be able to read minds? Why me?" She knew he didn't question where this idea came from because he already knew the answer: because it's Isaias.
"He saw you flinch and leave class this morning. He says it's because you heard him mentally scream." She wasn't going to include herself or Emel in this, if he wanted to make a fool of himself, he would be alone in this.
"Flinch? Has he ever seen someone hiccup before?" He clearly was tired of him, who wasn't? That's why people liked him so much, if life was a story, his would be a continuous disruptive element. Even if you wanted to, you couldn't feel bored when he was around. Frustrated, Mannan left Katherine with her friends. Oh that's right, they were here. None of them questioned her about her conversation though. Even them were used to this guy's shenanigans.
At the end of the day, the prime suspect texted both Emel and Katherine to meet him in a cafe. He related what he did today which was stalking Mannan for six hours straight. He reached the conclusion that Mannan knew he was there because he heard him mind singing a song from his favorite band. Of course that would be the only possible explanation.
"But what did you want to tell us this morning?" Emel was giving far too much importance to this man.
"That's exactly why I summoned you here." And with that, he started looking for something in his bag.
YOU ARE READING
Welcome to the Mistakers Anonymous
HumorEverybody makes mistakes and you shouldn't feel bad about them. In fact, you should even share them to the world, or at least to six other people to start. Welcome to the Mistakers Anonymous!