Delinquent High

Chapter 11

Finally, finally, the hellish morning finished with a loud gong echoing around the school. Wei Wuxian's head snapped up with hope, if this was the lunch break, surely he would be allowed to go to the bathroom. This small fact was making him inexplicably happy. It was as if he had just received the best present ever. He did not think about how banal this should have been and instead decided to enjoy it.

All the students were still sitting perfectly still at their desks though so the perplexed and suffering Wei Wuxian did not move from the spot either. He did not dare to go against the rules now unless he wanted to be put into another undesirably humiliating situation. He much preferred to stay still a few more seconds and follow his fellow classmates' example.

"Class dismissed," the teacher finally closed the lecture and went back to his own desk where Wei Wuxian was standing.

Wei Wuxian thought that he was in for more mocking or another punishment, but the teacher only gathered his books and teaching materials and left the classroom without looking at him once. The sigh of relief which escaped Wei Wuxian's lips must have been heard by the entire school. He had enough of being the target of all the bullying and abuse. For what else it could have been when he was the only one made to suffer like this?

Once the students started moving and conversing softly between themselves, Wei Wuxian darted towards the door at lightning speed. He very nearly did not fall into the hallway and looked to both sides. He had no idea where bathrooms were in this building and neither had he time to go searching around for too long. He was feeling more and more desperate by the second.

The students from his and other classes started flooding into the hallway. They were moving in a much less frantic manner than him, probably already trained to not rush to the bathroom this desperately. Wei Wuxian stored the information in the back of his mind, apparently it would be better to walk slowly and deliberately in the future, it was for the safety of his currently terribly abused bottom. He however did not pay this information any more mind as the need to relieve himself had by now become completely overwhelming.

He looked around some more, searching for a sign which would lead him to the nearest bathroom. There were none, at least as far as he could see. He trembled in place and crossed his legs to give himself a second longer before an accident would happen right in the middle of the hallway. He was now desperate enough to even ask his classmates for direction despite what state they had just witnessed him being in. But none of them stuck around it seemed.

Suddenly, Wei Wuxian felt a light tug on his uniform and he spun on his heel to face the offender. After what the teachers had just put him through during the morning lectures, he was on edge, prepared for the eventuality that his classmates would want to continue in their steps.

Luckily, it was just a small looking boy, all nervous and hunched into himself – as if he was scared to interact with him, possibly in order not to attract negative attention to himself – who was standing behind him. Wei Wuxian relaxed. The boy pointed in one direction and his lips whispered: "Bathroom."

Wei Wuxian did not stick around long enough to actually thank him properly. He just nodded and marched into the indicated direction. He was not running; not that he did not want to be in the bathroom as soon as possible, but he saw teachers patrolling the hallways and he was not about to give them any pretext for another beating.

Only when he turned around a corner did he realize that the boy could have been trying to mislead him. His classmates seemed to have been only smirking at him all morning long, he did not actually expect them to accept him, not after all the times he had been made into their entertainment during his punishments. However, now that he was thinking about it, he did not remember seeing the boy in his class. But if he had not seen Wei Wuxian's desperation as he was staring at the potty, then how could he have known that he was searching for a bathroom?

It was a mystery for another time, Wei Wuxian decided when the sign of toilets came into his view. The boy had not deceived him and he was eternally grateful for that. He barged inside, truly at the last second, and quickly went to relieve himself. At least his luck was standing by him this time around, there was no line and he did not have to wait a second longer.

Feeling incredibly better and lighter, Wei Wuxian was about to exit the bathroom stand when he heard voices coming closer. If he was back in his previous school, he would have walked out confidently and greeted the others with a huge grin, no matter if he knew them or not. At the Delinquent High however, he did not have a good feeling about that hushed conversation. All the more when he overheard his name being mentioned among bursts of laughter:

"...that Wei Wuxian, does he even know anything? Or was he doing it on purpose to attract attention to himself? I have never seen anyone dummier than him, he has the triple nines number and he still dares to even come to school? He must be either very brave or very stupid." One voice was saying.

A second one agreed with it: "Yeah, exactly. And he even kept acting up and tempting the teachers into punishing him more and more. I bet his butt must feel pretty sore by now. I wonder how long will he last... I hope longer than the last one. I want to have some fun with him too. Did you hear chairman Lan Qiren? 'I hope all of you will help in educating your new classmate'. If this is not an open invitation, I do not know what is."

And a third voice, the one Wei Wuxian hated the most, not because of the mocking tone but because it reminded him that everyone had been witness to him being humiliated just minutes ago: "Have you seen his expression when teacher Jin Guangyao took out that potty? It was hilarious..."

Wei Wuxian could not hear anything more because there was a sound of a toilet being flushed and then running water as those people were washing their hands. Wei Wuxian stayed in the stall until he heard the door being closed and only then peeked outside.

Since he had not heard his classmates talking the whole day, he could not tell who had just been there with him. The only sure fact was that at least one of them must have been from his class; unless the rumours had already spread far and wide He wondered what they have been talking about, he could only understand half of it at best.

What intrigued him the most was the mention of his assigned number which was beginning with three nines. It worried him to no end as he was trying to remember if anyone else had three nines on their name tags of if he was the only special one. Special in a bad sense of the word, he had not been imagining that he was now wearing a target on his back. He figured that that special number must have been the source of his doom all along.

He would have to ask someone and investigate more about the Delinquent High. He could not stay this ignorant; it was causing him to be punished constantly for breaking rules he knew nothing about. If he was to survive in this hell with an ounce of sanity left, he had to become smarter than those who were abusing their power.