‘Great, I am not even one day into my new life and I already got in trouble. Just because I was a few minutes late to class, the teacher gave me detention.’

Clare, who not long ago had made me ran my way to school, jumping trains, a gate and what not, seemed to be a popular girl. ‘Is that why she ignored me as soon as we walked into the classroom?’

I couldn’t help but notice the cliques that divided the classroom. The popular kids sat around ‘Fancy two-shoes’ Clare, which seat was at the rightmost part of the classroom, almost at an equal distance between the first and last row. The smart kids sat in the front row, delinquents and quiet kids sat at the back, and I sat on the leftmost side of the classroom, next to the windows. The chubby kid was the only thing that stood in my way to the guy sitting in the last row.

The class went on and the chubby guy kept bothering me. The teacher didn’t seem to do anything about it. ‘Would I get in trouble if I smacked him?’

Maybe it wouldn’t be such a good idea to do so right now, but once I collect enough information, I’ll get revenge on that fat fuck one way or another.

I wanted to think about ways to manifest my anger, but suddenly an unknown voice invaded my thoughts. The voice was manly, but calm. ‘Hey, you are never late,’ they said.

Was this a system speaking to me? There was only one way to find out.

[Activate skill list!]

Nothing happened. This was no system.

‘Not only that, but walked into along with Clare. Why was that?’ They continued.

‘Who are you?’ I asked, but there was no response. I looked around to see if anyone was looking at me. Perhaps I could spot the culprit, but this was no to avail.

‘Don’t be alarmed, you can trust me, and if you do exactly what I want, you’ll be rewarded. So listen carefully, when you go to detention… I want you to tell Ayuna that Goldsmith sent you. Until then, good luck.’

The voice disappeared, and no matter what I said, there was no response. Apparently I was so distracted by this intrusion that I didn’t notice the lecture was about to end.

“Now, I shall return to you your examinations, if you have any questions about your grade, feel free to ask.”

With a pile of exams on his hand, the teacher marched across the well-polished floor and began handing out graded examinations. “Excellent, let’s see how well the other me did.”

Despite having no stakes on the matter, I felt a bit dreadful. My previous body already had gotten conditioned to feel fear of graded exams.

Thankfully, my torment didn’t last long. Since we only had twenty-five students in the classroom, the teacher was already standing next to me when I finished my line of thought.

“I am sure you’ll do better next time,” He said, with a really quirky smile. Then he handed me over the exam.

‘Ass.’

Upon grabbing the paper and flipping through the stapled document, I couldn’t help but notice the big F mark at the end of the test. The teacher had made sure to mark it really well with a big red pen as in saying, ‘Yup, you failed, good job.’

I only let out a small sigh as the teacher walked away down the row. ‘Excellent, it seems it that the original me doesn’t have any high standards to uphold.’

Upon closing the document, and swallowing a dose of second hand cringe, my eyes had plenty of time to stare at the name written on the test. Gabrielle Goodman.

‘What a pretty name,’ I thought, almost chocking in my sarcasm.

The class ended, and I managed to keep myself from doing anything out of the ordinary, just the regular stuff. I learned nothing, not because the teacher didn’t teach well, but rather because I couldn’t be bothered hearing him go on and on about pre-calculus.

Then the bell rang. I was the first one to stand up. No, I was the only one who stood up. ‘What is going on?’

The teacher proceeded to step out of the room with a briefcase containing all his documents, then another teacher walked in. ‘Oh, so that is why everyone is looking at me weird.’

The teacher swapping lasted for another two bell rings, then on the third one, everybody stood up. We were getting kicked out of the room, no students were allowed inside of the classrooms during lunch.

I had no idea where the cafeteria was, but perhaps I was supposed to attend detention now? Or was detention after school? I stalked fancy two-shoes until she entered a room that had the words Detention in its door.

When I entered there was only another three students, counting fancy two-shoes. The desks were put together to make a single table. Upon sitting, I tried to make small talk with the guy in front of me, but he only grunted. Then I looked at fancy two-shoes but she avoided eye contact.

“I- I guess not,” I said. Putting my head against the desk to cover my embarrassment. ‘Wait, I remember, I needed to tell something to a girl named Ayuna.’

While I was about to stand up, someone poked me. I quickly got myself together only to be met by the curious eyes of a girl with glasses and short blue hair. ‘Is she a Rei clone!?’

“Did the organization sent you?” She asked.

“Goldsmith told me to say hi,” I said. The girl looked at me confused, but then nodded. I didn’t know what all of this meant, but after I said Goldsmith she went silent and we didn’t speak again. Eventually detention ended, and I went back to class. Which ended rather quickly.

When I found myself outside of the Academy, I had run into a small predicament. ‘I don’t know how to go back home.’

It was getting rather dark. My plight somehow attracted the attention of a rather cute brunette.

“Hey, let’s walk home,” She said.

‘Sus’

I didn’t trust her, I could barely remember someone in class that resembled her. 

“We live nearby?” I asked, otherwise how did she know where I lived.

She hit me with a folded paper that she had at hand. “We are neighbors.”

Where was she when I was getting bullied by the class? Why did she not speak out?

‘Is this how this world works? All the good people just sit in the sidelines while evil people do their deeds?’

“Come on, Let’s go,” She said. Is not that she was convincing, but I had no other choice. I ended up following her.

It all went well until we reached the train tracks. “Someone is following us,” She said.