Just A Memory

The Professor

Serenity, The School

Tuesday, September 4th, 8:00 AM

The Professor walks up to the front of the class, surveying the anxious students with her cold, dead eyes. Judging us. Making her first impressions. She then slams both hands on the desk, startling about half of the class and pulling all eyes to her.

"Welcome to room 420. I am your homeroom teacher for this entire year, so get used to me or drop out. As a side note, I am not referred to by miss, as some of you seem to want to do." 

She said the final phrase in a metered, snappy tone, glaring at me with contempt. The class was too scared to speak, or even laugh. Even though nobody was making fun of me, I could tell their eyes observing me, waiting to see how I would respond. Even though the demon in my mind was telling me to fight back or give up, my logic told me not to ruin the small chance I had left and hold back from flying into a fit of rage or breaking down and crying. Each were likely options at this point.

"I prefer to go by the Professor. Most students call me Medusa behind my back." She then hisses for extra effect, then breaks out in a small smile after several people jump up in their seats slightly. "They think I don't know, but I hear everything that goes on in this school. I am fine with the nickname. Just don't address me directly like that, unless you want to die." She says in a careless voice, waving the ruler around. 

"Now onto business. I'm sure you all have started to read Just a Memory, even if I hadn't told you to do so directly, because you all are such... excellent students. Now..." her teeth show as she makes the most fake smile I've seen, ever, "who would be willing to give me a summary of chapters one and two?"

Her eyes dart around the room to see if anybody raised their hand. Everybody cowered though, trying to hide behind one another or shrink their profile as much as humanly possible as to not get called out. I, on the other hand, was frozen in place. I told myself I had to hide from her as well as to not get called on, as I was sticking out like a sore thumb. Even the kids in the front, who seemed to fit the profile of a nerd tried to hide from her wrath. Although I was on her bad side and the most obvious choice, I reassured myself. I've already read through the first few chapters, and I know my stuff. I'm prepared. Repeating that mantra in my head, my shoulders relax and I am calm.

Until a few seconds later, when the professor- or should I call her Medusa- slammed her hands against the desk like she did at the start of the class, brandishing the ruler like she was going to skewer me straight through the heart, put me on a stick, and feed me to her thousands of devil like hungry children. Or something along those lines, I haven't imagined out her entire evil backstory yet. The present called for me to focus though, as she smiled evilly, as if she was ready to fail me. 

"What's your name again?" she asks. "I don't pay attention to the insignificant ones."

"uh... it's..." I stammer, still not fully focused on the situation.

"Ha. You think I care? No, I just want to see a piece of garbage like you squirm in your seat." She spits out, her venomous hatred of me she obtained in the first few minutes of class coming in full force. "Tell me, you little squidpiss, what happens in the first few chapters of Just a Memory?"

I reach for the book but she slams it shut immediately, smiling from ear to ear as she thinks I haven't read it. It's clear her intent is to ruin my life. Not by complaining and getting me removed, but instead by keeping me in and breaking me down until I'm nothing except a vessel holding no emotion or feeling.

"No cheating. I don't like cheaters or slow children, and you seem to be both. People like you deserve to be removed from not just my class, but society."

I gather my thoughts for a few seconds and fire back, now not sad and disappointed by my day, but ready to do whatever it takes to recover from the terrible start and build a positive reputation. 

"The protagonist, called Rose, lives a fulfilling life for 31 years, or so she thinks. She's spent the past 7 years in a boring office job where the only reasons she's staying are money and the fact she's been committed for that long, and her only memories of times before that are times of isolation, staring at random internet videos on loop. On her 32nd birthday, which she celebrates alone, she realizes that nobody cares about her, and she can't remember anybody who thinks highly of her. This drives her into an existential crisis that nobody will remember her when she dies, and is where chapter 3 ends."

Medusa is livid, or seems that way. She seems to have built hate so strong she cannot fathom that I would ever be a good student. Her face is twisted into a condescending smile, and I brace for her to yell at me for no reason. Instead, though, she claps. Slowly.

"Wow, you are such a good student! Everybody, this is the model student of the classroom. I want you to strive to be just like him" She states in a sugary sweet tone. "Clap for him, everybody!" 

Slowly, one by one, the students awkwardly clap.

"No, no! You're not doing it right, class! Clap slower, so he knows how much we enjoy his presence!" Medusa slows down her clap even more to emphasize this point. 

"Alright, that's enough."

As she walks back to the front of the class to continue the lesson properly, though, Medusa looks back. I realize it's now not one of hate, but of judging. Reevaluating me. I've done well, or at least I think I've done well.

She spends the rest of the class teaching them about the theme and analyzing the story. I take extensive, neat notes, as I now know I have a chance to survive the class and get back on her good side.

At the end, she asks if she can see me. We have three minutes to get to the next period, but I decide I can stay for a while longer.

"The second you entered the classroom, three minutes late, I expected you to be a failure. A disappointment." She says, in a dead tone. Before continuing, she takes a breath. "After observing how you have acted for an entire class, I am proud to say..." she takes a deep breath again, and this time she legitimately seems proud of how I turned out to be instead of mocking me.

 "...that you still are. Arrive on time and pay more attention, then you might be able to do something with the extremely limited knowledge you store in your brain."

That insult slapped me straight across the face, but I know how she is and brush it off as some form of tough love.

"Now get to your next period. I don't want to see your face more than I already do. And no, you do not get a late pass." She snappily walks away to prepare for the next lesson, leaving me with only a minute to rush out to prepare for and get to my next class.

A successful period in my eyes. As I walk out of the class, I see the boy's pendant fall as the bully from the bus stop smack it out of his hand. The pendant breaks open and a gem flies out. It's pure light blue, so clear that I could practically see through it. I cannot, though, as it seems to have a reflective property. It is in the shape of a heart, but there is a sense of illusion so that it seems to be a fractal, repeating on and on into infinity. After a few slow seconds that seem like eternity, the gem hits the ground, casting a blue snowflake shape on the ground and releasing a blue pulse which blasts by everybody in the vicinity, but it is weak and just feels like a gust of wind. Suddenly, it seems like time is rewinding and the gem fixes itself, the pulse reverses and returns to the gem as the boy picks it up, placing it back into the pendant.

"Don't mess with me again." The boy states to nobody in particular, staring off into the distance. Even though he didn't directly address anybody, everybody around knew he was talking to the bully, who was now staring at the gem.

I think school just got a lot more interesting.