From Mine to Ours

33: Thank you, Sir...

It's a cold winter morning and our first day back to school after our break. Where I would usually giggle each time a snowflake falls onto my nose, my hands keep running up and down the lengths of my upper arms to seek comfort from the unusually bitter coldness of anticipation I've grown too accustomed to ever since our freshman year.

My feet stay glued to the floor while my eyes trail their gaze up the main entrance doors and to one of the teachers standing by the wooden double doors in charge of this morning's student-greeting duty. The one teacher openly showing his distaste of pulling the short end of the stick, clearly trying to stay as close to indoors as he can possibly get while still doing his job.

His eyes nearly appear black, especially with the lack of sunlight, and as soon as his dark gaze finds mine, I uncomfortably feel the shivers within my body intensifying. His scowl is replaced by a disapproving glare and his head motions me to join him on the steps. My feet reluctantly oblige.

At least we won't be alone, I suppose. I don't think I could handle his form of "admonishment" the first day back...

"Fine of you to join us, Mister Huxley," he sneers at me, all the while waving to nearby students who look our way.

He's one of the few teachers to refer to their students by their surname, but even then, he shortens them by only saying the first letter, for example: "Mr. H", instead of "Mister Huxley."

Only, he doesn't shorten mine, unless we're in class, but he sometimes slips up. Not like anyone notices, but if anyone did, I would stick out like a sore thumb. Someone might be able to at least guess something's off and offer help, but no, it all goes unnoticed, just how he likes it.

"I apologize, Mr. Brown," my head dips downward, watching my shuffling feet attentively.

He hums deep in his throat before turning to me with a burning flame visible only to me in his eyes. "Come to my office after school, we have things to discuss." He walks over to another teacher calling for him, leaving me to my racing thoughts.

I haven't seen him in two whole weeks, what could I have possibly done wrong this time?

My eyes blink open and I stare out the window that shows me the still darkened sky. It must be around 4 am if it's still this dark even in summer... I turn my head to the clock, confirming that it's indeed just before 5 am.

I can already feel that I won't be able to fall back asleep. Oh well, nothing wrong with getting an early start to the day, even if it's a Saturday-

After a much needed shower to soothe any fray nerves left from the memory floating around my head from that nightmare, I sit on the foot of my bed with my phone, my other hand moving to dry my hair.

Typically, I try to stay away from social media on weekends, relying on books or my current housemates as of late to keep me more than occupied. But as it's still far too early for even the birds to wake up, I decide on taking a few minutes to check through the overflowing amount of notifications on both my private and work accounts.

The private one being significantly quieter and having only reminders of pages I frequent to check out as most posted new content. No one outside of my family and friends know about my private account as it has a completely random username that holds no real ties to me.

Speaking of, I don't think they know about my private account yet, maybe it's time I share it with them.

Letting that idea dwell a bit longer, I skim through my public account, ignoring the comments that seem to be jabbing at either my looks or my personality, usually for no apparent reason. This does come with the job description, I suppose.