Marionette

Oceans, Chapter Seven - Hikaemasu [控えます]

Amaya stared at the front of the classroom with a blank face while her brain worked furiously and her emotions smashed and thrashed around her in an attempt to pull her under, once again. She thought she would have learned how to swim, by now, but it felt like every day, something came into her life and threatened to pour more water on top of her, turning the small trickle that life had given her into a waterfall that would smash everything in it's wake.

Right now, Amaya was on the verge of snapping. And not in the sassy, tongue in cheek kind of temper that she liked to use on idiots picking a fight with her. No, it was more along the lines of something that very well would get her put in jail, if she ever did it.

It was an uncomfortable mix of anger, fear, vicious hatred and stress, all rolled into one pushing her closer and closer to just throwing herself underwater and doing something about it.

She was so angry with the situation that she wanted to murder something, and she knew who would be the best recipient of such violence. She was so scared of what she saw in Karma's eyes when she mentioned the word Teacher on the train, she realized there was nothing she could truly do to help him. She hated the disgusting man throwing his weight around in front of her, wanting nothing more than it to be this man who feels the pain of her fist. And she was stressed by everything that was going on around her.

She honestly didn't care that the disgusting man was taking his anger at Karma out on her. She truly couldn't find anything in her to find a problem with that right now.

It had taken a back seat in comparison to the very real fact that this man was responsible for Karma's disarray. Right now, it was the only thing stopping her from doing anything stupid right at this second.

She wanted to make this man's life a living hell in retribution, but she knew that she'd sooner get expelled than actually succeed. So, her self-taught habit of shouldering the brunt of ill-intent for the sake of someone else was very handy right now - So long as this man didn't say anything about Karma, he was safe from getting his face smashed into that blackboard. She didn't want expulsion, but if he did mention Karma in any way, she wouldn't be able to stop herself.

After all, when she returned to school on Tuesday morning after just wandering off like that, he yelled at her in front of the whole class, telling her and everyone else that was within hearing distance that he actually was out to get her expelled, and the one moment she gives him that opportunity, he was going to take it.

Having all the facts in front of her, given just by Karma's reaction to her words, she knew what had happened to him.

The only thing in the world that would get Karma expelled when it came to this teacher, was if he had defended someone who didn't deserve to be tormented. The most bullied people in this place were Class E. The Bullies were everyone else. The higher they were in the chain, the more despicable and vicious they were to Class E. Amaya knew that Karma had defended at least one Class E member, because to Karma, there's nothing wrong with saving someone being bullied, no matter who they were. Everyone was equal to him.

Well, not anymore.

And definitely not to Amaya, now.

The students in her immediate vicinity were all awkward, seeming to be rather scared of that disgusting man instead of Amaya, who was about ready to commit murder at that second. She guessed it was because she was the more placid since the beginning of school.

She had heard on the rare occasion that a couple of the students made remarks about it, things that weren't inherently against her, or to her detriment. They were remarks like 'Again? He needs a new hobby' or 'Can't he give it a break?'. There was even one point where she heard one of the boys say to another in a hushed whisper that they actually felt sorry for her right now.