Esme the Quiet One

CH.3

Kayden Woong muttered an inaudible "shit" under his breath. Unfortunately for him, Ms. J was not that bad at reading lips.

"Yes, a truly shitty day indeed. Come on up. We need to start the class."

Kayden Woong glanced around at his classmates and noticed that everyone was sitting upright and unusually quiet. No one greeted him with the usual 'Hey Kayden' or 'Wussup Kay-man'. Even when he was late like today, some would still be able to sneak out their signature handshake and exchange silly remarks of being late. But not today.

Kayden plastered a big smile which usually appeases the teachers and slowly walked towards the lady whose arms now are loosely folded across her chest. "psst, walk faster!" One of his classmates urgently whispered to Kayden. Obediently, he fastened his pace a little. The closer he got, the clearer the sound of her high heels clicking steadily against the floor.

"Good morning, Kayden." Ms. J greeted as soon as she was able to read the name off on his name tag. Kayden stared at the lady blankly.

"good morning uh, teacher...? "

"Miss Jade Williams. Ms. J will do. Did you have a good night's sleep, Kayden?" Ms. J pursued with her questions.

"I slept well. Ms. Jade Williams, thank you. How about you?" Kayden being Kayden who is always oblivious to the situation, earnestly responded.

Ms. J gave an unladylike snort. "Touche.  Do you like to play games, Kayden? I don't enjoy playing games but I would love to play one with you." Ms. J's tone went lower, it sent chills down the students who heard her. Ms. J is the epitome of confusion and mood swings. Everyone has quickly realized it, except for Kayden Woong.

"Uh, sure. What games are we playing?" Kayden in his usual clueless self answered the teacher.

"Tell me who is your best friend."

"Noah Trevor" Kayden answered without missing a beat.

 "Noah Trevor, please stand up." Ms. J announced without even looking at the person who was standing up. Noah Trevor almost knocked his chair back trying to stand up as fast as possible.

Ms. J explained the game."Okay, Kayden. The game is a simple one. You choose the right answer, you may go back to your seat. If you choose the wrong one, you may still go back to your seat." 

Ms. J then turned her attention to Noah. "But, your friend Noah Trevor, has to pay for the penalty. Is that alright with you, Noah?" Ms. J asked with one eyebrow raised. A collective of gasp was heard. Both Noah and Kayden looked at each other. Noah was sending the I-can't-believe-you-man-look to his friend. Kayden, on the other hand, blinked once then twice before it dawned on him. It was a very unfair and cruel game. Kayden sent an apologetic look to his best friend. Noah let out a regretful sigh. Everyone knows Kayden is as dumb as a boat.

It was a little pass 7:30 a.m., Noah Trevor was seen running laps around the track field while his best friend, Kayden was busy finding ways to make it up with his friend.

**********

"Yo, dude my man Kayden, wait up!" Noah called out to Kayden who was rushing back to the classroom from the canteen.

Kayden heard Noah just waved back at him without breaking his stride. By the time Noah caught up to Kayden in class, he was already pulling out a notebook and borrowing a pencil from a classmate. It was one of the rare moments where Kayden was focused outside of the sports arena. Kayden took one look at his friend and said "Science notes" before intensely copying down the daylights out of a science textbook.

"Shit. Shiiiiit. Why didn't you remind me earlier?!" Noah realized the gravity of the situation. The memory of him running around the track field three months ago immediately sent him into acts of repentance.

Noah took out a piece of A4 paper from his file and desperately searched his textbook in his bag. Three minutes of desperate searching, Noah found his lost textbook under Kayden's left elbow. Years of friendship forgotten, Noah yanked out the textbook from Kayden and said: "get your own *beep* textbook." No time to spare for arguments, Kayden looked around for alternatives. Everyone was busy jotting down notes. 

"UGHHHHHHHH!" Kayden banged his head on the desk in frustration.

Bang. Bang. Bang. *insert sound of someone whimpering* Then, silence.

Might as well mentally prepare for the worse. Sighing loudly, Kayden stopped his headbanging. Closed his eyes and took a deep, calming breath. Then he kneeled. Put is hands up and-

"What are you doing?" the voice of Miss Jade Williams sounded from the rear doorway. 

Kayden flinched and open his eyes. Lowering his hands in a fist and resting it on his knees like a samurai preparing for Harakiri. Staring at the floor before him, Kayden solemnly answered: "I was praying."

Ms. Jade Williams blinked once and walk to stand directly in front of Kayden. "Praying for what? Are you sick?"

"No, Miss J. Williams. To save me."

"Save you from what?"

"From you" clenching his jaws, eyes tightly squeezed shut and knuckles almost white, Kayden accepted his fate.

Miss Jade Williams threw back her head laughing out of genuine humor. Well, that was unexpected.

 "You, kids are so adorable. Am I that scary? Stand up, Kayden. Go back to your seat. I'm not that bad." Ms. J tried to compose herself, traces of laughter still in her speech.

The teacher let out a 'these-kids-are-so-adorable' sigh and wiped her eyes delicately with her fingers. There was a ring on her right index finger. Another item banned in school. Esme noticed. She has been observing Ms. J closely for almost three months now and has made a series of mental notes regarding her peculiar set of characters. I wonder which group Ms. J belongs to when she was in High School. Esme thought. Nothing about the teacher made sense.

"Okay, children. Back to your seats and put away whatever work you were doing. Now its time for you to focus on me. You know how I hate it when people don't pay attention to me." 

Did Ms. J belong to the queen B group? She does love attention. And shoes. Esme's thoughts were spinning.

"Oh. My. Gosh! Your shoes are so cute, Ms. Jade! Is that a new one?" That was Vallerie Cho squealing over another pair of Ms. J's collection of shoes

Yep.  Loves shoes.

"Riiiight? Tell me about it girl! Oh. My. Stars! This pair is one of my favorites. Next time when you're... " There goes Ms. Jade Williams in her exciting and animated self conversing with Vallerie Cho about shoes. 

However, the talk of shoes was only a ruse to buy the class some more time to finish up their work. Since Vallerie Cho was also a crazy shoe lover, she decided to take on the first line of defense. Talk of shoes roughly takes about 15 minutes.

7 pairs of shoes later, Ms. J seems to be returning to her teacher mode. Esme looked around and noticed most of her classmates has finished copying down notes. Except for one. Kayden! Esme's eyes widen and she frantically reached over to her right and tapped her classmate signaling her to Kayden. The classmate looked over and had the same wide-eyed horror when she saw Kayden. She too immediately tapped the person next to her. The frantic code red was successfully sent to Victoria Li; the esteemed class rep of Level 2, Toshiko High.

Pushing back her glasses, Victoria Li raised her hands.

"Ms. Jade Williams, may I ask a question?"