‘Then there was light!’

No, I just woke up half-dead, half-hallucinating. The room’s white walls were to the brink of shadows, making the color decay into shades of black. Yet, despite all this darkness, the afterimage of a white flash still lingered in my eyes. Was this because of an alarm? Either way, as soon as my mind returned to me, my phone’s black screen lit up, and the phone began to ring.

‘Unknown number.’

“Yeah… I am not answering. Who even calls at 7:24am?, clowns!”

I pressed my finger against the screen with indignation, declining the call. I had no reason to pick it up either way. What if it was a ghost? Or even worse, what if it was a scammer trying to steal my identity? Phone calls fill me with a lot of anxiety, if anyone wants to talk to me they could do so at school.

After stepping out of my bed, onto the cold wooden floor, I bee-lined into the restroom and took a quick shower. For a bit I kept checking myself out in the mirror, but soon enough I got dressed and made my way downstairs.

Upon reaching the dinning room, I sat down on the wooden dinning table that awaited me with what looked like breakfast. My parents were already sited as well. Mother was still in pajama while father was wearing a business suit. ‘Maybe she doesn’t work in the mornings?’

I was about to take the first bite into my bacon, but my parents looked at me funny. “What!?” I asked. ‘Did I do something wrong?’

“Gabrielle, stay right where you are,” My mother said. Her voice was filled with authority and it gave me anxiety. When she stood up and walked out of the dinning room, I made my best effort to not break eye contact with dad, who kept doing his best effort not to laugh.

Up to now I thought he was a serious man, but I could still see that coffee mug shaking as it covered his lips. ‘What was so funny?’

Just when I was about to ask, I felt a hand push my head down, this was followed by a hair brush going down through my hair. “Ouch!”

They were rough. “Don’t move, silly, your hair is a mess,” Mother said. This only made it more embarrassing for me. Soon enough dad cracked up.

“What a wonderful day, isn’t it,” he said.

‘Being a girl is hard.’ Once I found myself outside, the raising sun waved at me as it dispelled the shadows of the morning street. I still had plenty of time to go to school. By the time I reached the train tracks, my phone said it was 7:51, ‘I think I’ll make it on time.’

But just to be sure, I began to speed-walk. This proved to be a wise decision, as by the time I reached the school gate, it was already 7:59. The police officer at the gate waved at me, and by the time I reached my classroom it was already eight o’clock.

I found my desk without any issues. Humans have an interesting way of claiming ownership of things. We might not remember a name, place or formula that we’ve spent hours trying to memorize, but we sure remember what belongs to us. Let this be our phone number, address or favorite chair in a public restaurant.

While the classroom slowly filled with students and I awaited for the class to start, I pulled my phone and began to browse the internet for the first time since I transmigrated. At first glance, it seems that most of the websites that I browsed did not exist anymore. Yet, similar websites did exist. Which means that this world to a degree still functioned in a similar manner as mine. I could browse the chans while at school, ‘Ha!’

I looked into the /occult/ and /espers/ to see if I could find something useful. I just hope that this didn’t mean that now I was in a watch-list. From what I could gather, ever since the enactment of the inclusion act of 2037, all mentions of espers as individual entities were banned. In other words, schools and public institution are to treat espers as if they lacked any special abilities. This meant that on some occasions, espers had an unfair advantage over regular humans. While in others, they were not accommodated for and faced unfair treatment. For instance, an esper that had the ability to ignite fire would face charges of arson if he accidentally used his powers out of anxiety.

There was more information floating around the /esper/ board, but most of it was lost among the barrage of insults that non-espers and espers threw at each other. Meanwhile, the /occult/ board was filled with skittzo posting.

My stay in the chans didn’t last long. While I browsed the internet, I could feel that something wicked was coming my way. The stench, the rot. I knew who it was. The chubby guy that sat behind me had arrived. It seems he wanted to bother me again. But to my luck, the class started right away, putting all of his attention into the teacher’s math lecture.

Or so I thought. Because the moment the teacher went on to write things into the board, the bullying resumed. My predicament was noted even by fancy two-shoes as she walked in late into the classroom. Something had to be done. If they were picking on me because I was short, then they’ll hear me roar.

I grabbed the heaviest hard-covered book underneath my desk and when the chubby guy sitting behind me began to shake my desk again; I turned around.