Porcelain behind Glass

Chapter 17: Misunderstood

After the last class of their first week, the portly professor instructed the freshmen to wait in the classroom for their mentors. It was an old university tradition that the student mentors usually gave gifts to their mentees for successfully surviving the first week of university life. So, the nervous freshmen waited with bated breath, hoping their student mentors would be kind enough to get them good gifts.

Far from being her humorous self, Sarah dejectedly slumped on her seat beside Hazel. She and Hazel had become good friends after Hazel had helpfully supplied her with an embroidered handkerchief during the debacle in the auditorium on Awards Day.

On her other side sat Prom and Patty, two others who had been kind enough to escort her out of the auditorium after they had been dismissed, ensuring her privacy from the curious onlookers.

Behind her sat Kris and Luke, an odd pairing if she had ever seen. While Kris was a nerd with a sweet and friendly nature, Luke was foul-mouthed and more interested in kickboxing than getting a degree. In front of Sarah sat the bane of her existence- Cherry and Night.

Since Gia had lost the post of the class president, both cousins held a grudge against Sarah. They repeatedly went out of their way to bully Sarah and make her life miserable. Night was forced by his mentor Flora to witness Sarah's torture but, he had thus far remained a mute spectator.

One thing was common amongst all of them, all their mentors had introduced themselves the past week, save Sarah's mentor, P' Rachel. It was a fact that hadn't gone unnoticed by the others and had made Sarah a laughingstock in her class.

Sarah sighed; she doubted P' Rachel would even come today. Sarah didn't blame her though. Rachel had a lot of responsibilities on her head. Furthermore, she had been forced to take on Sarah as a mentee when she preferred not to be a mentor. Hazel has been adamant in claiming that P' Rachel was not intentionally ignoring her while Prom had been annoyed with P' Rachel's neglect of her.

Marisa and Monica were the first ones to stroll in. Marisa headed straight to Prom, a big box in hand. "Congratulations", she sang as she made a big show of handing it over. An embarrassed Prom lowered his face and moved away from his over-enthusiastic mentor. Surely God decided to prank him by providing him a mentor who was the opposite of his serious and disciplined nature.

Monica smiled at Marisa's deliberate attempt to tease Prom, before handing the prettily wrapped box to Hazel.

Both friends smiled kindly at Sarah. "Don't worry, Rachel promised to come," whispered Monica, lightly squeezing Sarah's hand. Sarah smiled back though her heart wasn't in it.

Next came the swimming team. Danish embraced his sister before passing along a small box to Patty, who thanked him profusely. Niam glared at Luke before tossing a big box at him. Luke was quick to catch the box mid-air and sneered back. The onlookers knew that the two didn't get along. Niam had already begun receiving complaints about Luke from the Student Council and wasn't looking forward to the rest of the year.

"Hey, Kiddo!", greeted Milan as he tossed a thin envelope on Kris's desk. A surprised Kris was rather quick to snatch it up before his crazy mentor decided to take it back.

Danish looked around, noting Monica and Marisa happily chatting with other freshmen he leaned over his sister and whispered in her ears, "Hasn't Rachel come yet?"

Sarah shook her head in denial though she pretended not to be upset. Danish frowned. He and his father had attempted to contact Rachel several times after that fateful day but she had been absent from university.  Her phone was switched off and the WhatsApp messages remained unread. Nobody answered the door of her apartment either. The thank you note he had stuck on her door remained there till he removed it. Marisa and Monica had been rather close-mouthed, refusing to reveal any information on Rachel's whereabouts. Honestly, he was getting rather worried about her continued absence.