Unspoken Norms | Levi Ackerman ✔️

Chp 1 ~ An Unsettling Gaze

Your POV

The tag inside the uniform collar pricked insufferably against my neck.

I bit back a curse. 

Of course my mum would forget to cut the label. Considering all the fuss with preparing for a new high school, it wasn't out of the ordinary to forget one insignificant problem. 

Except, for me, it was the most paramount issue right now.

My eyes scrunched up at the intense summer rays peeking over the top of the structure before me. Walls of caramel bricks and floor-to-ceiling windows composed the school's main reception building, with a centred crest depicting a nine-pointed star—the emblem of Eldian High School.

I shifted uncomfortably beneath the tag's ruthlessness, sighing when my movements deemed futile. Worry about the tag later, I told myself, gripping the straps of my brand-new schoolbag. There were more things to be concerned about.

Involuntarily, my feet knew what to do, leading me up the steps to the main entrance. The automatic doors slid open, revealing sweeping carpets and red upholstered chairs. Stationed in the centre of the high ceiling room, the wooden reception desk glistened beneath the light.

A grey-haired woman hunched over it, round glasses projecting large blue eyes. The moment I stepped into the room, my ponytail swinging behind me, the reception lady whipped her head up. I stifled the urge to shudder under her demanding gaze. There was something about this woman that made me... uneasy.

"You are?" the old lady's delicate voice trickled into my ears, and it took me a second to process that the sound was coming from the woman's mouth. So at odds with her huge, interrogating eyes.

I wrenched myself out of my thoughts. "I'm (Y/N) (L/N). I'm a new Year 10 student." My fingers tightened around the bag straps. I've heard that Year 10 was a difficult year. It was the transition between Year 9 and Year 11, with the final two years being the hardest—obviously.

But I wasn't ready for this semester to begin, especially starting in a new school, with new people and new systems. I just hoped I would make friends easily within the first week.

The reception woman flicked her eyes to what seemed to be the computer screen in front of her, as I couldn't see over the raised border of the desk. A few taps on the keyboard, a swipe of the mouse, and the lady returned her crushing blue gaze to me. 

"You are in Room 27. Rooms 1-30 are in the right Academic Building. Rooms 31-60 are in the left one. Just go find your classroom and your teacher will inform you about the system." She indicated to the double doors in the far right. "Go through this exit. There should be signs to tell you where to go. If you have any questions regarding the layout of the school, come visit main reception."

I smiled. "Thank you." 

Take away the smile, beneath I was just a whirling mess of nervousness and worry, added on with the woman's unsettling gaze, and the fact that I couldn't remember the layout of the school even after the tour beforehand, and the prospect that I will undoubtingly not survive the first day.