Find your faith

Chapter 88: Crushed⚠️⚠️

This chapter contains homophobia (incorrect pronouns) and explicit mentions of xenophobia, specifically towards the Chinese, Japanese and German races. Reader discretion is strongly advised, especially to people of said races.
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Lucas' POV
"Class, I'm glad to see everyone take your studies in A math seriously," Mr Williams admitted. "I have a close to full passing rate this time, except for one."

Everyone gasped, whispering amongst themselves who that one failure could be. Of course, I heard the name "Chloe" a few times, but shrugged it off. If she studied the right way, chances of failing A Math would be low for her. I didn't think much about I witnessed Mr Williams fling the test paper onto Xingqiu's face.
Xingqiu's POV
What?! 5/30? Time froze for a moment, as a lump formed in my throat. How could this happen? "There's no point crying over spilt milk, boy," Mr Williams boomed throughout the classroom. "You think the Chinese can help you with your Maths, but they just brainwashed rubbish into your brain about Chinese calligraphy and tea ceremonies. So, tell me. Are you a disgrace to your own culture?" He turned to the rest of the class. "Class, those going to the Japanese and Germany exchanges must make sure it doesn't get into their A Math work. I do not want what happened to this boy here to happen to any one of you. People that come to our country brainwash our students, and I don't want anyone to get brainwashed by all these dirty people. Do you understand?"

My face burnt, and I felt a rush of water come up to my eyes. Mr Williams continued to reprimand me for failing, when I knew I was in fight or flight for so long trying to keep everything in place. And damn, why was my own culture being dissed? I went on to China for the sake of appreciating my own culture better, not to end up getting dissed at the end. I held my breath, feeling everything vibrate from keeping it all in so that Mr Sam didn't end up scolding me. Ironically, he continued.

"Are you even Chinese at this point? The Chinese are supposed to get A for every subject. Especially maths. Someone like you should get 100 if they knew they were going for a cultural exchange. Do you need me to buy an airplane ticket for you to go back to where you belong? The panda exhibit in the Chinese zoo? I think I need the monks to circle around you and chant prayers for you."

"你给我敢出去," Crystal ordered in Chinese. "他不及格是因为他身上的压力太大了，我们能接受的压力能力是有限的。"*

She was right all along! I had been manipulated so much, I shut my eyes forcefully and gripped my long pants tight, letting out all the humiliation of receiving xenophobia of the culture I wanted to appreciate better and the crushing defeat of failing A Math. And for the first time ever, I did it shamelessly. He's crossed the line, even calling out the race I am all because of a grade. What was I to him even—a math robot?
Jennifer's POV
Xingqiu's sobs caught our attention. I screamed, "LEAVE MR WILLIAMS! YOU ARE NOT AND WILL NEVER BE ACCEPTED HERE!" He hurriedly packed up his things and apologised, literally scurrying out of the classroom. After all, I knew what we had to do: cancel the lesson so that we could get Xingqiu back on his feet.

"Lucas, help Xingqiu to the toilet so he can wash up," I ordered. Lucas, being the class monitor he was, rushed to his aid and whipped him to the boys' toilet. "And Crystal, can you get John and YZ back to class? I might need backup support. Please explain to them what happened too." Crystal rushed off immediately.

Once that was done, I thought long and hard on what to do. How was I going to contribute to this? I had successfully sent Mr Williams out of the classroom, but I heard from Crystal he had never even barely passed Maths before. He would stop crying after a while, but what if he started crying again? Or worse, what if he had a panic attack if he slips up in a later class? Hence, I decided to do the riskiest thing in my student council career: unlock the handphone locker that was meant for us to concentrate and socialise and get my handphone. After that, I would rush to the counsellor's room and get their numbers. This isn't a failure he can recover from in one day, so I had to make sure help was readily available in case his mental health manifested in the "deadly three" (as I like to call it): panic attack, self harm, suicide attempt. Should the authorities find out, I'll tell them everything. Rules are secondary when someone faced an incident this traumatising.
*Fuck yourself out of this class. He failed because he was under immense stress, there's only so much stress we can handle.