❝Don't you see the cycle we are living in? The same repeating cycle our ancestors have lived in?❞ I yell glaring at him.
He chooses to remain silent, his eyes set in a hard glare. He's starting to get annoyed with me, but I have to help him under...
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"THESE ARE TWO of the regs who will be joining us this year," the teacher for my second-year English class, who had introduced himself as Professor Thatcher, announces to all of the Xs already seated at their own desks.
Terrence Wu stands next to me. He's one of the regs I haven't really gotten the chance to speak with. The last time either one of us uttered one word to each other was during the breakfast before our families came to visit. Now we would be forced to stick together, especially since we are the only regs attending this particular class.
"Please introduce yourselves," Professor Thatcher says turning towards us with an expectant look on his face.
The intimidating stares radiating off of each X in the room is quite overwhelming. Even if this had been a classroom filled with regs at each desk instead of Xs, my heart would still pound heavily as if it wants to jump out of my chest and run away. I don't blame my heart for reacting this way, I myself want to run away.
Three nights ago, we were all informed of the arrival of the Xs. I didn't want to believe that time had flown by so fast, but when I checked the date on my phone and realized how close the first day of school was approaching, I was hit with my first reality check. It was a silent agreement all of us regs made with each other; we all refused to eat in the cafeteria the days following, none of us wanted to risk bumping into one of the Xs until it was no longer a choice. It was a costly decision, as we all were forced to order food instead and sneakily run outside to grab said food from delivery without being seen by an X.
Now standing here in front of all of these Xs, I want nothing more than to return to the days prior when all I had to worry about was how I was going to behave around the Xs. Instead of physically living in this moment where I am unable to spare even a single thought and just forcefully interact with them.
Terrence looks at me and I believe he realizes that I'm not going to be the one to speak first, because he sighs heavily and says, "I'm Terrence Wu." For a brief moment, all eyes are on Terrence, giving me time to breath in sigh of relief, but as soon as he finishes introducing himself the attention refocuses back on me. My nerves skyrocketing up once again, my heart angrily pumping blood, cursing at me for tricking it into thinking I was finally falling into a relaxed state.
"Uh –my name –I mean –I'm Veronica Morrison," I curse internally at myself for being unable to form a coherent sentence. Not only will these Xs laugh at me for being a reg, they'll also laugh at me for being incapable of speaking correctly. They'll accuse me of having something like anomic aphasia. I feel like I should have worn a scarf, it would have been quite useful in this moment. I could cover my face and hide myself from their accusing stares.
"Please be welcoming towards them," Professor Thatcher says, despite his own tone not sounding too welcoming. "You can go find two free seat," he instructs before turning his back to us and beginning to write the date on the blackboard.
