ThE SChoOL

p-3

Mia was woken up by the forceful shaking on her shoulder in the middle of the night. She cannot remember when she falls asleep... Mia got up and looked, it was a girl with big glasses staring at her

"You are asked into the office". The girl told Mia

." what?", Mia asked, confused, trying to shake off the sleep

"now", the girl raised her voice without changing her expression

"The... the office?" , Mia asked, confused

"Yes! The office, ma'am, is waiting", she said

"but y? can't it wait till tomorrow, its late" . Mia told her

"when she calls you in in the middle of whatever you are doing, you have to be present there" , the girl replied coldly

"I wasn't in the middle of anything; I was sleeping", Mia replied

"I have other business, could you ..", the girl gestured for Mia to come down

Still confused and not having an idea of what's happening , Mia climbed down the bed

"follow me ", the girl ordered and turned around to start walking towards the door , Mia noticed that the girl is holding a lantern instead of a torch , the same one which was hanging outside every room. the other girls were sound asleep , Mia was surprised that there wasn't a single movement from under those sheets after all their conversation , like none of them wants to get involved with what was happening as it was an everyday activity or they were simply tired.

"I am Mia, BTW", Mia advanced to start a conversation with the girl walking ahead of her

"I know who you are", the girl replied

"oh!" , Mia sighed

"so , what's your business at the middle of the night ," , Mia asked jokily

The girl stopped slowly turned around and gave Mia a wry look. raising one eyebrow as she asking what she meant

"I mean, you said you had other business to do , so I was just curious ', Mia explained with a bit of embarrassed smile

" lets do one thing I will look after mine and you will do yours properly enough to not make your business others. How's that ?", the girl asked Mia coldly

"What?', Mia asked, confused

"Yeah, I thought so , " the girl said under her breath and turned around

'Weird, Mia thought to herself, "you need to chill", she added

"I am chill , but it wont be for someone she asked to be woken up in the middle of the night", the girl said

"by who?", Mia asked

"madam OFC", the girl answered, rolling her eyes

"the madam being?", Mia asked

The girl gave Mia a hard look and said, " you will see, this hasn't happened to any of us on our first day or not until even now. Well, I guess its not much of a surprise from a transfer student."

Ok now she gets it. This girl hates her , "what's your problem and what are you on about?', Mia asked

"you broke the rules", the girl said

"what rules" , Mia asked

The girl simply ignored Mia , and said, " you can go in now" , pointing to a room at the corner of the entrance past the hallways

It was the only room lit in that darkness, apart from the lantern in the girls hand. The girl then walked back to the hallways, leaving Mia in darkness, Mia knocked and then pushed the door slightly. A beam of light flashed inside from the room , which made her shift her gaze, She entered an office with a large desk in front of her, and on the other side, a women was sitting staring at her, Mia was pretty startled to see the woman, apart from the calm demeanor from the women , Mia instantly recognized the women as she was the last thing she was thinking about before falling asleep

"how was your sleep" , the headmistress asked her

"not great to get woken up in the middle of it", Mia replied

The women slammed her fists into the table, which made Mia jump, It was like an explosion in the middle of the silence of the night, adding to the closed in structure of the building

"I will not allow ignorant behavior in my place", the women said, raising her voice. Her clam appearance has changed something a bit creepy and fierce

Mia was stunned enough to speak,

"there are rules in this house , which meant to be followed by every girl", she continued

"and don't you disrespect it"

Mia wanted to say something but she was still perplexed by the unnatural reaction from the headmistress.

"i...I am sorry, I didn't know", Mia managed to say

"Sorry doesn't cut it", the headmistress replied

"I have ordered exact number of food boxes for dinner as , you arrogantly decided to skip out , I have one left with me, I don't like to waste my food , so I ask you to go and finish the food and go back to sleep" , the women said.

"wait , what? It's over midnight and I am not feeling hungry ", Mia replied, surprised.

"whether you are feeling hungry or not is out of question", the women replied

"I cant; I don't want to ", Mia replied helplessly

"you will not engage in any other activity until and unless you do what you are asked for ", the women said

"this is insane, I want to go home" , Mia said

"No, you are not , you broke the rules, you are disobedient and arrogant and this type of behavior is not encouraged in my premises", the women said

"I want to talk to my parents , this is torture", Mia said, objecting

"No, its not , it's a simple procedure girls your age keep at, they are not complaining like you and you are not allowed to talk to your parents , call time is given once in every week , your parents were ok with it , and what are you planning to tell them , that you have been a disobedient arrogant brat , and you wont listen and carry on with simple rules , ? , they are already disappointed in you and they will ask you to stay here and listen to me", the women explained dryly with serious hate in her eyes

Mia's eyes filled up She wanted to shout and scream at her face, saying how insane the women is .the headmistress took a food box from the table and pointed at Mia. She did not have any other choice , she wanted to run from there , but she took it all in , took the box and walked towards the mess hall.

Mia couldn't feel how the food was or how it tasted; tears fall down her cheeks , she cannot believe how everything is different from her life as it used to be , Mia almost finished it and checked the time on her watch; it was past 1:00 . she stood up and looked around, There wasn't any light coming out of the HM's office , in fact, the only light around was the one above where Mia sat. Apart from that, around her was pitch black, with a little illumination added from the light above her.

Mia decided to go to bed . a rush of anger and sorrow filled inside her , she was not sure if she was able to get any sleep . the silence of the night and coldness surrounded her. She missed her parents , her previous school , home. She wanted to talk to someone , as she stood there thinking about her home. She heard someone running in barefoot. surprised Mia started to look around with sudden panic . she thought she was the only one around there, Mia couldn't calm her nerves'. 'Was it the headmistress , did she came back to check back on her' , she wondered

She desperately looked around , the silence came back, and the only sound she could hear was her own thumbing heart. Mia walked out of the hall and peeked to the direction of the headmistress room; , no light. Perhaps she imagined it Mia thought to console herself , but deep down she knew that wasn't the situation. Mia decided to go back to the room , even though her mind need to believe that footsteps was not real and she most probably had imagined that , she did not want the unreal footsteps to take another race towards her in the dark like the night demon.

She sprinted up the steps , when she heard the noise again . she ran with all her speed to the 3rd floor, pushing past the door , her heart was beating hard, sweat formed across her face Mia placed her hands on her chest to calm herself. The room was silent; everyone else was sound asleep , the sound of her forcible exhalation filled the room . is the trauma of this pace hitting her hard, or was there really someone running, and why barefoot ?! Was it a thief, must be , but why was it following her?!