Imagine

꒰ LOST ꒱

. ⇢ [Chapter 1: Lost] ˎˊ˗ ꒰

A 12-year-old girl sat on her chair, gazing outside of the window. The teacher and her classmates still fully occupied with the topic. The girl hums a melody, as it is her way of relieving stress. She taps her index finger against the desk of her armchair, as she sways her legs back and forth.

"Mika!"  The said girl let out a small gasp at the sudden voice of the teacher. The male teacher clicks his tongue while shaking his head with disappointment. "The door is wide open if you're not interested in learning." He spoke as the class went quiet, all heads turning in Mika's direction. Since there are no air conditioners in each classroom at school, they are replaced by electric fans, and since the weather is quite hot, the doors are left open in order for air to come in. 

Mika was embarrassed and ashamed. She grabbed the ends of her skirt as she looked down, avoiding the stares of her classmates. The pace of her heartbeat beats faster as the silence lasts longer. After a few more seconds of silence, the teacher sighed and turned his back around, now facing the board.

"El Filibusterismo is the sequel to Noli Me Tangere, which is one of the works of Jo–" Mika spaces out again, playing with her hands as she steadies her breathing. She placed both her hands on her cheeks as she leans over, feeling the coldness of her hands. This is her habit whenever she experiences something that makes her feel uneasy. She sniffs as she finally listens to the lesson.

" Hey, stop it!"  Mika's seatmate whisper-yelled to a classmate of theirs, who is throwing small bits of eraser in their direction. Mika couldn't concentrate. She clicked her tongue looking at the person throwing the eraser and turns out it was Tan, who is known as the noisiest student in the class. Tan was actually throwing it to Mika's seatmate, James, but instead, it keeps landing on Mika. There are a few bits of eraser getting stuck on her hair due to her playful classmate. Mika was about to throw one back since she was pissed off, but suddenly the teacher saw it.

" Mika! Tan! James! Stop playing!" The teacher hits the table, making a loud thud. Tan stopped and looked at the front. James snickered. Mika hastily put her hand down while dropping the small eraser. 

The teacher still chose to be furious. He stormed up to Mika as the classroom fell dead silent. The teacher named Mr. Minerva or Sir Minerva grabbed Mika's arm and drags her outside against her will. Mika couldn't do anything about it. She doesn't know how to confront the teacher about what truly happened for she isn't that excellent at socializing. Besides, would anyone even believe her? she's known as a liar since 1st grade when she lied to her parents about her test scores and got scolded for it publicly. Teachers saw it, students saw it. But people won't believe in her changing to righteousness since she still has some personality traits from before.

"Stay here for the rest of the period." Sir Minerva commanded her while harshly pulling her outside of the classroom and releasing his grip on her.  The teacher enters the classroom again as Mika looked down with shame. Voices of her classmates and the teacher were heard in the class, as they continued their discussion of the lesson. Mika places her back against the wall and slowly glides down to the floor.

There were other students roaming around the halls, probably heading to the bathroom or to buy something from the bookstore located on the first floor of the school building. Two girls passed by her while looking down at her. Mika felt more guilt and shame reaching to her heart as she looks down. 

"such a disgrace to your family,"  A voice spoke. Mika looked around searching for the person who speak, but decided to leave it alone. "I'm a failure,"  Mika whispered, twiddling with her fingers.

As minutes passed by, she sat with her legs in front of her, arms placed on top of her knees, with her head tucked in her arms.  She lets out a heavy sigh as tears began to well up in her eyes. She quickly wipes them away with her school uniform sleeve, since she is afraid that once the teacher finishes and leaves the class, he would see her crying. There are a lot of scenarios of what might happen next flashing in her head, and she is afraid of it. Mika doesn't want to have another problem to stress about. She finally closed her eyes as the voices of students participating and the teacher teaching became static. 

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

"oi, Mika..wake up."  A voice whispered into the said girl's ears. She opened her eyes, searching for the person who spoke to her with her eyebrows furrowed. James stood there with a look of pity, "Sir Minerva is gone. It's Math period now," He said then proceeds to go back to the classroom. Mika gets up and stretches, with small sounds of bones cracking. She rubs the tiredness out of her eyes and follows James to class.

Upon entering, almost the whole class fell silent. Groups of friends stopped talking, some classmates of hers are looking at her. She couldn't make out the emotion on their faces, was it pity? disappointment? hatred? she doesn't know.

Mika walks to her respective chair as the class gradually become livelier. After a few minutes of waiting and Mika looking outside while sitting on her chair, the next teacher finally entered the class.

" Alright everyone, let's start this math class with a prayer as always, Mika Ezra? May you please stand in front and lead the prayer please." The teacher spoke.

shit.

Mika stands up with hesitation, and walks in front, for the whole class to see. She then proceeded with the prayer, with a few voice cracks here and there. She felt embarrassed but still continued. 

" Thank you Ezra, you may now proceed to your seat." The teacher spoke, clearly holding in her laugh. Mika hastily moved to her chair and sat, as the Math teacher began to write on the board with chalk.

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

"–Goodbye everyone, See you tomorrow!" Their teacher said while waving goodbye to everyone. Mika walked out of class, wearing her backpack full of notebooks and books. She finds it quite heavy but believes she is a strong girl. 

She prepared her money from her pocket, given by her mother which will be used as her money for transportation. The route, to finding a taxi, she walked on, barely have any other person visible, which she finds peaceful. Until a kick of a cup was heard. Mika looked in the direction where she heard the sound coming from and saw an empty cup from the vending machine, laid on the ground.

She hesitated on whether she should check or not, but decided to move in the direction because of the sudden small ounce of curiosity. Red hair gradually becomes more visible as she goes closer.

Golden eyes looked up at her. The male seems to be about 5 feet judging from his size, which is taller than Mika since she is 4'11. The stranger's curious gaze stuck on her face, as Mika observed him. Red hair, gold eyes, white shirt, brown jeans– bruises? 

Mika lets out a small gasp. "Come with me, I'll help you.", Mika said, lending her hand out for the boy to grab. The male hesitated before finally grabbing her hand, and as expected, the stranger is taller than her. "Who are you?" The boy asked. 

"Mika. Mika Ezra, You?" She replied as she held into her backpack, gesturing him to follow her. "Zen Istele." The male named Zen replied. "Where are we going?" He added. "To my house, I'll help your bruises, " Mika pointed at the visible marks on Zen's skin.

"But first, we need to look for a taxi, and don't worry, I have the money, my mom gave it to me." She said, finally reaching the area where many taxi drivers wait for people to give them a ride. Zen hummed in reply, as a small smirk crept into his face.