Drafts

Chapter 1.

First day of the second year of this class, I'm feeling good! Amethyst thinks to herself, smiling at how well the last two semesters had gone for her. She had always been a top English student, which is what had ultimately pushed her into writing as a projected career, but she was particularly excelling in university, ranking second in the course by the close of the last semester.

The first semester had one test in which Amethyst had absolutely creamed all of the other students, achieving a mark of 98/100, with the rest of the class averaging at around 70, as well as one take-home assignment, a critical essay on King Lear. Amethyst had never credited herself as being a particularly amazing critical writer, opting for more creative pathways instead, which is why, she reasoned, that she had been given a mark of 86/100. Second semester had been a flurry, landing Amethyst at a 95/100 for her film review task, and a 97/100 for her creative short story. With the weightings of each task, she was only behind the top-ranker, Sooheon Jung (affectionately known as 'Sunny', an acquaintance of Amethyst's), by less than 1%.

However, Amethyst had gone ahead and read the syllabus for this semester, and she knew that she was due to come up Aces.

The entire semester focussed on creative writing in one form or another. A rubrick was due to be handed out today, which gave options for depth-study like tasks on any form of creative writing; the only catch was you could only do each form once. This document would have a range of creative writing forms on it: poetry and sonnets, film and theatre, short stories, or narratives to name the most prominent.

'A-are you g-going to go i-in?' Asked a voice from somewhere behind Amethyst, snapping her attention away from her nostalgic thoughts and instead onto an unfamiliar face. Amethyst just stared, unable to collect her thoughts for a few seconds while they simply looked at eachother. He cleared his throat, and, speaking without a stutter this time, spoke again. 'I asked if you were going in, you've been standing here just looking at the door for a few minutes...'
'Oh, yeah, sorry, I was having a moment in my head.' She apologised. Amethyst was curious as to who the new student was, as she'd never seen his face before, so she asked, 'Are you new here? Are you taking this English course?' He chuckled slightly, showing off a set of teeth reminiscent of those found in a rabbit's mouth. 'I am, I'm Jungkook, and you are?' He asked, extending his hand.
'Amethyst, but sometimes I get Amy, and that's okay too.' She said, placing my palm against his, accepting his handshake. They then walked into the auditorium to find two vacant seats, which was easy as the class itself was very small, and the pair were early.
'My friends back in Korea called me Kookie sometimes, and considering you're the first person I've met, save for my roommate, I'm going to allow you the opportunity as well!' He exclaimed, showing his pearly white bunny teeth again.
'Thankyou for the honour, Kookie.' Amethyst replied, taking her regular seat on the first landing of the room and freeing her laptop of its case, setting it on the small table ready for class to commence.
'Where are you from, Amethyst? I can't place that accent, is it South African?' Jungkook asked inquisitively, happy to have already made a friend in his first ever class at the university.
'I'm actually Australian, my accent is just a little messed up at the moment from being here in America lately.'

The pair continued to make idle conversation until the rest of the class filtered their way throughout the larger room, gradually causing the atmosphere to change into one of expectation rather than apprehension or tension.

Amethyst checked the time on her laptop, noting that the class' teacher was due to be here 10 minutes before now. Where's Mrs Barten? She thought. Her unvoiced question was answered no more than 30 seconds later, when a shorter, mint-haired man near burst through the door to the auditorium.

'I'm never running again, not for Namjoon, not for anyone.' Amethyst could hear the man say as he gasped for breath, nearing the front of the room. He dropped the backpack that Amethyst hadn't noticed previously onto the desk on the left hand side of the room, Mrs Barten's desk, pulling a clear plastic waterbottle from one of the pockets concealed within the bag, and took slow drawls. 'Alrighty.' He said sharply, obviously waiting on the classroom to finish up their discussions and other chatter before he said whatever he was going to. 'I am Mr Min. I am your substitute for today. You may not have received an email yet, but Mrs Barten quit during the break. I was told to only tell you that it was not through any fault of the class, she simply no longer wanted to teach.' Mr Min yawned. 'Now, I am covering for your new regular teacher today as he is out sick. His name is Mr Kim. However, I have a massive migraine from being out drinking until god knows how late last night, and Mr Kim did not inform me that he was sick until this morning, which explains the reason for my being late and why I went out drinking on a school night. I am fully qualified to teach English at a collegiate level, however, in my condition, to even speak is making my pulsing headache worse. So, instead of doing something structured, which Mr Kim didn't leave for me anyway, spend this lesson working on a creative piece. It will not be marked or graded, I just would rather no one disturbed me for the duration of class.'

No one did disturb Mr Min. The air of apprehension settled back over the group of university students, unsure what to do in a situation such as this. Jungkook and Amethyst actually got some work done in the class period, choosing to both work on creating character profiles for future characters in their respective writing. Mr Min did not move from his position with his head on the desk, presumably sleeping. By the time the end of the class rolled around, Amethyst was almost worried about the substitute teacher - an hour and a half was an awful long time to be completely still in a single position.

'Here, give me your phone,' Amethyst requested. Jungkook obliged, handing her an unlocked black iPhone XS, the same model as her own. She gently tapped the screen in a few different places, her nails hitting the glass screen softly. Her phone vibrated from her pocket.
'There, now we have eachother's numbers!' She said excitedly, handing the boy's phone back to him, happy to make a new friend in such a short amount of time. Her gaze moved from Jungkook to Mr Min, with his head still on the table. 'You go ahead, have a good rest of your day.' She said, fixing the backpack strap on her bag.
'Okay, Amy. You too!' The bunny boy exclaimed, turning out towards the door.

Amethyst was by no chance a thrill seeker. She loved playing 'Chicken' and dodging cars in the city, but she would never skydive or anything else extreme. Waking up this Mr Min guy was certainly scary, as Amethyst had already begun stressing about if he would be angry at being woken up, but under the circumstances (class having just ended) she figured it would be okay to go ahead and gently raise him from his slumber.

'Hey?' She said tentatively, stood more than a meter away from the sleeping figure at the desk. He didn't so much as stir, so Amethyst tried again; she came 4 steps closer to the unconscious professor and repeated herself. This did nothing. So she went for it. Amethyst tapped Mr Min on the shoulder, hard enough to hopefully jolt him from being unresponsive. 'Hey, Mr Min.' She all-but whispered. But it must have worked well enough as he lifted his head from laying atop his arms. 'Yes, Miss....' A pause.
'Hortan, Amethyst Hortan.' She replied, flashing a small smile. 'You know, it is possible to drink without getting a hangover,' She offered, continuing, 'You don't have to drink until you're effed, you know? It's just a formula.'
Mr Min sighed, standing up and gathering what he had come in with. 'You'll get along just fine with Namjoon. He's a smartass too.'
'Who's Namjoon?'