black swan || hyunjin

thirteen

Monday.

I arrive at school, the most miserable look smeared across my face. The atmosphere is grim and mundane, dark clouds forming in the air above the school grounds.

Mondays are the worst days for me, the timetable starting me off strong with maths, followed by history, double science, and lastly, art. I guess art isn't the worst, but the fact that I have to sit through all the other lessons just to reach it makes me feel uneasy.

Hearing the school bell ringing is like standing face to face with a monster that screeches unbelievably  loud in your face before swallowing you whole. I'm quite disappointed, actually, because that monster still hasn't arrived yet to guzzle me down and save me from this torturous prison. I'm giving it one more chance before I fire it's unhelpful ass.

I walk down the slim corridors, navigating myself to my first lesson of the day- maths. Having maths first period on a Monday is like hell. It's just a teacher explaining a whole bunch of nothing to students that are practically half dead, leant over their desks motionlessly.

I don't think I've ever learnt anything useful in that class, apart from maybe estimating how many bags of cookies Sam will have left if he starts with 30 bags and eats 25 in one sitting.

The answer is 5 bags, by the way.

Opening the door to my classroom, I can already smell the sleeping potion rising up from the ground. As I go to sit at my desk, I immediately get put under the spell and doze off, falling asleep for the rest of the day.

I'm joking, obviously. That would be considered underage drug abuse, and our school would get sued.

As I pull out my workbook and a pen, I feel a tap on my back. I turn my head suddenly, diverting my attention to the boy behind me, who is holding a long, rolled up piece of paper right behind my back.

He continues to prod me with it as I glare at him, a mean look on my face. What is wrong with people in this class? I want to go home. Immediately.

As we are factorising equations, I get a text from Hyunjin. I take out my phone angrily, as he has disturbed my flow once again.

I hide it under my desk as we're not allowed to use phones in lessons, which I think is stupid, by the way.

Hyunjin: ok i know ur at school rn but can u help me out im desperate

Aera: wtf do u mean broski what am i h

I get cut off by my teacher, Mrs. Lee. I look up at her, my phone still open and in my clasp. She holds out her hand, as she looks down at me, eyebrows raised like she's waiting for me to give her something.

A few seconds pass, us just glaring into each others souls, before the tension gets too much for me and I hand my phone over, breaking the intimidating eye contact.

"Thank you, Miss Kim." She says as she snatches my phone off me, the chats with Hyunjin still open. She nosily reads the chats, before stating out loud, "As a punishment for Miss Kim's bad behaviour, why don't we all read out the messages that her and her little friend have been sending each other during my lesson, because what can be more important than factorising equations?"

Anything is more important than factorising equations, replying to Hyunjin being at the top of my list. But I think that will be soon overtaken by trying not to die of embarrassment as my teacher reads out the the texts between me and him.

My teacher holds in a smug laugh, as she reads out the text Hyunjin had sent me the night before. "Goodnight, my princess baby cupcake muffins, wish I could be sleeping next to you tonignt, winky face."