Sweetheart

113

First thing in the morning, students filed into Mister Justine's room for yet another day of English class. The desks were in a circle, meaning that it was discussion day. Everyone took their seats and prepared for class as they gathered all their materials on their desks. A flash of pink caught the attention of both Aina and the teacher, and Natsu took one look at the circle before looking at Aina in confusion.

"You're here for a discussion day, Mister Dragneel," Mister Justine answered. "Welcome."

Natsu slowly nodded in acknowledgement and took the seat next to Aina. The final bell rang, so the class jumped into discussion.

"It's 'cause all of those memories were locked away by that dude," Natsu commented.

Mister Justine, startled by the boy's participation, asked him to elaborate.

"Well I mean, everyone's knowledge of pain and sadness were taken away and stored by the giver dude, so of course they won't know what it's like. I mean, they don't even know what colors are."

"That's...correct," the teacher hesitantly concluded.

"It wasn't just colors though," Aina jumped in. "Any differences were completely wiped from memory. Even the terrain had no differences. It was all flat."

"And why would they do this?"

"To accomplish sameness. With nothing that is different, it means that nobody would be able to notice the differences between people. It got rid of diversity with the aim to also get rid of conflict."

"Which worked," Natsu added. "Well, until he fucked everyone over and released everything again."

"I appreciate the analysis, Mister Dragneel," the teacher praised. "Just not the language."

"Sorry, teach."

The conversation went on for the rest of class before the bell rang. Natsu grabbed his stuff and flung his bag around his shoulder, causing a wince when it came into contact with the injury.

"Mister Dragneel, are you heading to the nurse?"

"Uh," Natsu cautiously began, "probably. Gotta head to calc first to check in. Why?"

"I'll send your math teacher an email. Do you have a minute?"

Natsu looked to Aina for clarification, but she just smiled and waved both of them goodbye before heading to math.

"I'll also let her know, Mister Justine. I'm heading there now."

"Thank you, Miss Labelle. You had a good class today."

Once she left, Mister Justine sat down at his desk and waved Natsu to sit at the desk in front. The pink haired boy narrowed his eyes, but he complied (for now).

"You certainly gave me a busy weekend," the teacher started. "However, I appreciate the effort you put into your work."

"Didn't really have that much of a choice. Woulda been told to do it over if I didn't."

"You're a mystery, Mister Dragneel."

"What's that supposed to mean?" He threw back. "My shoulder hurts too much to be insulted."

"From the beginning of the year, I only saw you as a delinquent who didn't care about his studies. You never did work, you barely showed up, and you always caused trouble in here."

"Again, if you're just gonna insult me then I'm leaving. Aren't you not supposed to be rude to your students?"

"You didn't let me finish. Doing all that work and completing it to the standards that you did must've taken a very long time. There's no doubt that Miss Labelle had something to do with it, but the work is yours, and I can see that you tried your best to get caught up. I must admit that I thought you would use the situation to get out of work for the rest of the year without consequences, and for that I apologize to you."