The Return Of Time

Chapter 1: Asmer Meets Vacker

"Gaia."

At the sound of her name, Gaia Amser looks up at her teacher. Mr. Abrams, her English teacher, was smiling down at her. The thirteen-year-old manages to smile back at the middle aged man, despite the waterfall of dread pooling into her stomach.

Suddenly, Gaia notices something out of the corner of her eye. Looking at Mr. Abrams' hand, her eyes widen considerably. It was a test that he was passing back.

Oh no.

Luckily, Mr. Abrams also notices the other seventh-graders staring at her, so he places Gaia's test face-down, so only she can see. Before he moves on to pass the other tests back, he mouths to her, "Good job."

Nodding, Gaia holds the paper really close to her face, just so she can see the score her teacher gave her. She notices the other students trying to look at her paper, but she tries to ignore them. Please get some wrong, she pleads to herself. Please get a few things wrong. Maybe enough to get a B...

Of course, her pleads never worked in the past, nor did they work today.

She got a 105%. At the bottom of the paper, Mr. Abrams explains that he "loved her outstanding writing and couldn't believe that it all came from a seventh grader."

"Well?!" the sound of Madison Norah's extremely high-pitched voice bringing her back into her unwanted reality. "What did you get?"

Placing the paper face-down on her desk again, Gaia looks at the still-twelve-year-old glaring at her. Madison was the stereotypical "perfect child". She was in the cheer team, and everyone liked her. It was her lifelong goal to be the perfect child in everything, including academics.

Of course, her academic dreams crashed and burned violently when she and Gaia had English together. Apparently, the two shared the same teachers, but thankfully, there were during different periods. The only period that Gaia had to suffer through with Madison was fifth period- English. It didn't help when English was one of Gaia' favorite subjects.

Gaia manages to put on a smile that masks her panic. "I got a 93%," she manages to lie smoothly. "I should've worked on my transitions better." Shrugging, Gaia sighs. "Maybe next time-"

"Ha!" Madison shouts. Jumping from her chair, the-twelve-year-old points her stubby finger in Gaia's face. "Ha! Haha! " she cackles. Squealing, Madison stands on her chair and shouts out to the entire class, "I, Madison Norah, have news to say! Gaia," she pauses, pointing at the classmate she "beat". "Gaia got a 93% on her essay test! I, however, got a 95%!" Jumping down to Gaia's level, she says, "Eat that, sucker!"

"Madison," Mr. Abrams says sternly, standing up. "Sit down, young lady. Or else." He then looks at Gaia with sympathy, which Gaia mouths, "I'm fine."

Rolling her eyes at Madison, Gaia stares forward, as if she was ignoring her the entire time. After dealing with her tantrums for half of the school year, Gaia learned that Madison craves attention. So why should she give her what she wants?

Gaia internally groans when she feels someone poking her arm relentlessly. "Say something," Madison whines. Poking her more, the twelve-year-old sulks, "Gaaaaaia... Gaia.... Gaia! Gaia! Gaia! G-"

Gaia turns to her abruptly. "I'm sorry, did you say something?" she snaps before she can stop herself. "If not, can I actually listen to something useful?"

Madison pouts, her cheeks turning red with embarrassment. "Why you-" Her eyes suddenly fall onto the paper on Gaia's desk. Smiling maniacally, Madison takes the paper before Gaia can snatch it back.

"Proof!" Madison shouts, standing on her chair again. "That I did better than her!"

Suddenly, everyone starts laughing, much to Madison's confusion. One boy points up and says, "Apparently, Maddie can't do math either!"