Above All Opps

Rewind it pt2: School

After Chase signed himself in at the student reception, he headed to his lesson and hoped that the teacher wouldn't question him to much. He took a quick glance at his watch: 10:25am the watch indicated, which meant that second period was ending in 15 minutes. He couldn't be asked to attend the lesson so he decided to walk around the school for a bit, hoping that no one would catch him and ask why he was out of class.

If you wanted to walk around the whole school, it would have took at least 30 minutes. So Chase walked for about ten minutes, stopping at every corner and occasionally looking behind him to see if he was safe. After about 5 minutes, he headed back the way he came and the bell announcing the end of the period rang.

10:40am was usually homeroom, so Chase entered a building which had an J sign on top of the door and climbed the nearby stairs all whilst brushing past a couple of students coming out of their classrooms. One of them, a clean shaved older guy bumped into Chase but didn't bother apologizing and he decided to start something but the second bell rang which left the student scowling at Chase. Chase was quite grateful that the bell saved him but it also meant that he was late for homeroom which led to him speed walking up the stairs. Chase made his way to the third floor which was the top floor and opened the light doors blocking his path and entered the first opened sliding door classroom to the right.

The classroom was well lighted and it was buzzing with chatter and laughter.

As soon as his figure was visible, all conversations ceased and 30 pairs of eyes were locked on him. Chase tried not to look at the faces of his classmates as he stepped into the classroom.

"Good morning Chase." Said a cheerful voice coming from his right side.

Chase turned to face the voice that had called out to him and saw the smiling face of a young woman sitting in front of a PC.

"Good morning Ms Macrina." He replied as he managed a tiny smile.

Emma Macrina was a beautiful 25-year-old, dark-skinned teacher who radiated of pure elegance. She had long smooth black hair, pretty brown eyes. she was caring, passionate and energetic. She was Chase's homeroom teacher and was also popular amongst the students for being kind hearted and a good listener. She also had this atmosphere around her that made her English classes enjoyable as well as the respect that she gave every student regardless of their status or backgrounds. No one under her teaching had ever failed their English language and literature tests.

Chase walked towards his window seat at the right back side of the class ignoring all the stares.

"Are you alright there Chase?" She asked as she saw him clutching his side in pain, seriously worried.

"Yes." He simply replied as he took his seat. His classmates lost interest in him after he had down, not that they were ever interested in him and they started talking amongst themselves.

Ms Macrina shushed the class and took the morning register. About 5 students from the class were not in school but except from them, everyone else was in. As she approached the end of the register, she paused on Chase's name, got up from her computer and circled the two late markings on the lessons he had missed.

"Chase?" She called out as she looked at him. He focused his eyes on the circled parts on the register and realised that it was about him not attending lessons.

"You weren't in your first two lessons today?" She asked as she wiped off the touchscreen board.

"I am sorry Ms, I overslept." He said, feeling suffocated as his classmates glared at him.

Ms Macrina asked sweetly, "We wouldn't like your attendance to go down now would we?"

"No Ms, it will be the last time."

"Good, I don't want to start calling your parents in because of your poor attendance and i'm sure you wouldn't want that either."

Chase nodded but said nothing. They were already nearing the end of September and he had already missed quite a bit of lessons, so his parents learning about that would make his life very difficult in which the other students would find very amusing as they knew the relationship between Chase and his parents.

For the remainder of homeroom, Ms Macrina let the kids talk amongst themselves as she sorted out some files and all Chase wanted was to go home.

The bell for break finally rung and the students all stood behind their chairs with their bags waiting for the teacher to dismiss them.

"Well then, you guys have a good day and I'll see you tomorrow!" She exclaimed as students headed towards the doors and said their ' See you tomorrow and Bye Ms' as they all exited the classroom and headed towards the stairs leading them downstairs.

Chase was the last person out of the classroom but before he could leave Ms Macrina called out to him.

"Chase, come with me for a bit." She said as she moved away from her computer and followed Chase behind and closed the classroom's door.

"Where are we going?" He asked as they headed down the flight of stairs.

"You'll see." They reached the bottom of the staircase and continued straight on towards a door at the far end of the corridor leading them outside. Once outside, they exited through another door 10 metres in front of them and turned left, then right, headed forward, then at the end of the corridor opened a set of double doors and turned left. It appeared that they had passed through the student reception but they were heading somewhere else. Finally, Ms Macrina stopped in front of an open door and ushered Chase in.

A huge whitewashed room stood in front of Chase as he looked around, a dozen beds were placed two metres from each other and a single nurse behind a computer took care of the infirmary. It appeared that there was no one there, so the infirmary was quiet.

"Hello there Chase." A woman's voice said as he stepped inside the room.

"Ms, I really did not need to go to the nurse's office, did I ?" Chase asked as he turned to face his homeroom teacher.

"I've seen you limp enough to know that you need to get looked at Chase." She said calmly as she greeted the nurse.

"Sit down Chase and let me take a look at the injury." The nurse said as she directed him towards a bed closest to her.

Gema Jones was in her mid thirties and married. Despite her age, she still looked younger than her age, with her blonde hair and piercing blue eyes that seemed to look deep inside you. She had worked at a national hospital for about 10 years before being offered a better job opportunity at the school. It was her third year at school and she seemed to enjoy taking care of children as she also had children of her own.

"Take off your bag and your shirt." She instructed as she grabbed a couple of bandages and a bottle of antiseptic out of a nearby cupboard.

Chase took off his clothes and looked at the darkening bruise.

"At least it's better than the other times." Mrs Jones said as she rubbed the cream on his bruise which caused Chase to flinch a bit but managed to not show any pain.

"Who did this to you?" Ms Macrina asked as she studied his bruise.

"I fell down a couple of stairs, "He replied sheepishly as Mrs Jones closed the bottle, put it on her desk and took the bandages that she had left on there.

"I don't understand why you're so secretive about it, we need to-"

"You do not need to worry about it Ms, it is a personal problem." He interrupted.

"Stop squirming, " Mrs Jones said as she was getting ready to bandage him up, "It's very hard to work with your fidgeting."

"Sorry Ms." He said.

"Do not worry Ms Macrina, " he started, "I will deal with this myself."

Ms Macrina folded her arms and gave him an angry look. "And how are you supposed to that Chase?!" She furiously asked. "One of these days you're going to get yourself killed!"

"She's right, " Mrs Jones said as she finished wrapping the bandages around his body, "You can't defend yourself properly, Chase and as Ms Macrina said, one of these you'll get yourself killed if you don't tell us what is happening." She said, taking a calmer and sweeter tone than the one of Ms Macrina.

Chase put his clothes back on, strapped his bag against his back and stared at the floor. He wanted to say something but his mind was blank as he heard the worry in their voices. In truth, what the teachers were telling him was not wrong. He knew that he wasn't the strongest kid around, which made him prone to bullying. One day, it had started verbally then escalated quickly to physical attacks. Even if he wanted to defend himself, he couldn't as his opponents were stronger and faster than him. Even in a 1v1 he would still lose. As someone born powerless, he had been looked down upon ever since his fifth birthday and there were only a few people who actually cared about him.

"I guess we'll go and see the headmaster, I hope she's here." Ms Macrina said as she thanked Mrs Jones for looking after Chase and headed towards the door. She didn't spare any time for Chase to protest and motioned for him to follow her, Chase thanked Mrs Jones and followed behind sulking.

"Chase?" Mrs Jones asked.

He turned around, "Yes?" He asked before stepping out of the room.

"This needs to stop, it pains me to see you come here always injured. Promise me." She said as she looked at him with sad eyes.

Chase scratched his hair, "I will see what I can do." He replied as he stepped outside the infirmary.

Mrs Jones placed the bandages back where they belonged and prayed for the boy's safety.