Reverie and Nightmares

9

"Oh my God, what is happening? Why isn't Watanabe doing anything?" A female student squealed, almost falling from her seat.

"Why is she being so extra? I love it! I love it!"

"Ugh, I wish I had my phone today, but I left it charging last night. So happy for the recording in the back, though!"

"For real! She's killing it! Why have we never seen this before? You got this, Alexander!" This student would spark a domino effect: it drove the entire class crazy, repeating Alexander repeatedly.

Watanabe couldn't even find the words; in her eight years of teaching, she'd never been met by such extravaganza. Nothing would stop this without risking their dignity. A dignity earned from trouble and facing one's demons. But what would that mean? Would it mean hating oneself because Mikan surely did? What does it mean to find comfort in cutting? Who knew? That theory itself was rather considered as a can of worms left only to the brave and stupid. Which one was Mikan?

"H-hello... Class... I will present everything I've been researching lately..."

"You got it, golden cutie!" One of the boys in the back shouted. Watanabe had to chuckle at this, her face taken aback.

Mikan smiled and tightly gripped the sides of the podiums, almost as if she were carefully watching her step above lava on a bridge. "I am Mikan Alexander... I transferred here earlier in the year... I transferred here with the idea of. And I admit I was interested in the library... That's been critically acclaimed as the largest in the world in an almost exclusive E-book... World... As a foreigner, I have to be honest with everyone else here... It's time to face the t-truth..."

"Whoo!" One of the male students yelled, hoping he'd start a band with more others who'd do the same, but Watanabe placed a finger to her lips.

She presses the forward key and clears her throat again. In what she'd seen before, people clear their throats when aiming to regain the attention of a crowd, as well as allowing a few seconds of a break to regain their confidence and breath. "I wanted to speak from my heart what I've thought from my months in this institution." She said, "I'd need to adjust, of course; the change from Brighton to here in Kamagasaki has been something I knew from the plane ride... H-here."

The smirk of the boy who'd been trying to start a wave of woos' had been cartoony, and Watanabe was already to stop the energy that drove that boy with only a frown.

"It's been interesting learning about how different your culture differs to mine, but. T-trust me when saying this: the culture of living and breathing is the same. We breathe from our noses and our mouths."

"And lungs!" A student shouts.

"Of course, I was going to g-get there... My point is... I've been gifted well just by being here... I'm fine with the way I am if that was on the top of anyone's mind... Like, I mean, all of you were so interested after I took off the... Blazer, but neither paid me the right attention to that... I'd have deserved it if I was someone else..."

"Who'd you come here with!? How is your family? Where are they?"

Watanabe was near the path of busting a vessel after another student questioned again. And she was sure of allowing a pop after seeing Mikan, her confidence gone as it had been pulled away from her. Her mother was the first thing that came to mind, and it hadn't even been a full fifteen hours since the abuse, so this raw feeling was something a little farther than poisonous. Mikan almost imagined the boy knew what she'd done, all the hits and the cuts. Hell, he might've even known about the self-cut in her left wrist. And if he knew, the class all probably did, too.

Her stuttering became apparent, and her struggle to maintain a clean audience was wasted. Mikan was close to tears, and if the pain of the wound in her wrist hurt, this sentimental feeling in her heart was carved harder than the trash can. As a teacher, she had to do something, right? Teachers often disregarded bullying to protect the dignity of the school. Still, if an entire set of students in a class saw it play out and the recording included, it wasn't just a matter of losing her job but Mikan being hurt for a long, long time.