Safe | zarry adoption

o n e

I sighed as I made my way to history, my least favorite class. Don't get me wrong, history is (for the most part) interesting, but A) my teacher sucked, and B) I sucked at history. Mrs. Broadfoot, our extremely old teacher, had an annoying voice that she used to read straight out of the textbooks. Our homework assignments were of things that I didn't think we covered in class, but then other students got As on their assignments while I struggled to barely get a C-.

I needed to get good grades in all of my classes- there was no way I could get into a decent college without them, seeing as I desperately needed a scholarship. Having a druggie as a mother and a father that I've never met in my life, it was hard to stay afloat. I worked the night shift at a café to pay the bills while also struggling to keep up with homework and taking care of my mother. Having a sucky history teacher on top of also dealing with all that shit and not a lot of money did not help at all.

Deep in my thoughts about how much I loathed Mrs. Broadfoot, I didn't realize that she wasn't sitting at her desk as usual when I walked in. Instead, a man was standing at the chalkboard, writing. I got to my usual desk and sat down, curious as to why Mrs. Broadfoot wasn't here.

Once the bell rang, the man in front of the class turned around.

"Hello class! I'm Mr. Styles. An extremely unfortunate situation has happened, and I will be your teacher until further notice. I can't give you many details about it, so don't ask me." He had a British accent, which I'm sure had all of the girls in the class swooning. He was an attractive man, but I didn't find myself attracted to him. Besides, I saw the flash of a ring on his finger.

"Why don't we all go around and say our names and an interesting fact about ourselves. I know most of you already know each other, but I don't. Any volunteers to go first?" No one raised their hand, so Mr. Styles pointed to the closest desk to the front, Jacob Anderson. He stood up proudly, bragging about being on varisty something even though he was a sophomore. I zoned out, not listening to the others, but before I knew it the person next to me was standing up, meaning that I was going next. Shit.

"H-hi, I'm Kasey and, um..." Shit. I couldn't think of one interesting thing to say about myself.

"Can't think of anything?" Mr. Styles smiled. I shook my head. "That's perfectly okay. You can let me know another time." He winked and moved on to the next person.

"Freak," I heard someone next to me mutter.

I sat down in my seat and pretended like I didn't hear them, or that I didn't just embarrass myself in front of the whole class and my new teacher.

After everyone finished saying their names, Mr. Styles went through things about the class and what we would be learning about, even though we already mostly heard it from Mrs. Broadfoot.

I zoned out until the bell rang, quickly grabbing my bag and heading to the library for lunch. I used to sit in the cafeteria, but I didn't get the point if I had no food to eat and no one to sit with, so instead I spent my time working on homework.

I pulled out the math worksheet that was assigned and looked at it, trying to figure out how to use tangents, cosines, and sines. I used to be good at math -- I used to be good in a lot of classes, actually. But lately, it's been so hard for me to concentrate on anything and I can't focus.

"Busy?" I look up and see Mr. Styles looking down at me.

"Uh, yeah, I'm just working on math," I responded, obvious anxiety seeping through.

"You look like you're working hard, but isn't your lunch period now? Why aren't you in the cafeteria?"

"I, uh, I'm not that hungry. Plus I have homework to do," I said, gesturing at my worksheet.

"Okay. Well, make sure you eat something during the day, alright?" I nodded in response and watched as he went up to the desk and introduced himself to the librarian.

Mr. Styles was... interesting. No one had ever asked how I was doing or made sure that I was taking care of myself — it was new, but I liked it. Don't get used to it. He'll forget about you before you know it.

Knowing that the voice inside my head was right, I shook away the nice feeling of being cared for and returned my focus to my math worksheet, ignoring the rumbling in my stomach.

welcome to an episode of asteria has another story to work on as well as studying for ap exams and finals but instead decides to write another story!! stay tuned for more episodes, hopefully coming soon. i hope you loves have a wonderful day/afternoon/night <3