THE PAMPERED WIFE

Evergreen High School. Sharon sat in the middle row, twirling her pen as she tried to focus on the math teacher's lesson. However, her mind kept drifting to the unfinished draft she copied from a YouTube channel the night before. "Any questions?" the math teacher asked. Sharon's attention was interrupted by Mr. Thompson's loud voice. She looked at her friend, Rachel, who was silently listening as the teacher moved on to another topic. Math wasn't her thing; she preferred English and her elective course, fashion designing, which aligned perfectly with her passion. Despite her efforts to pay attention, the equations didn't seem as easy as they looked. Soon, she found herself losing focus and unintentionally making beats with her pen on the table. However, she underestimated the noise, and Mr. Thompson's voice interrupted her again. "Miss Parker, would you like to explain the reason you are making noise and not paying attention?" "Uh... I was paying attention," Sharon lied, hoping Mr. Thompson would leave her alone with that response, but he insisted. "Oh? Then can you solve the last equation?" he challenged. Sharon glanced at the equation on the whiteboard, which looked like ancient languages clustering together. After staring at it for a long time, she looked back at Mr. Thompson. "Mr. Thompson, I think you were right. I wasn't paying attention," she admitted. "It wasn't my fault though. I couldn't stop thinking about some things I left at home." Some students laughed, but Mr. Thompson looked at her sternly before saying, "Please, Miss Parker, this isn't a playground. Try to pay attention; this is important." Sharon nodded, feeling the heat creep to her face. "I'll try." But as he turned to the board and her eyes followed him to see what he wrote on the board, she still did not understand making her mind drift once again back to last night wondering 'How the f**k did that woman draw that curves again?' unconsciously she took her pen again and start to draw on the back of her book. A tap on her shoulder brought her back to reality. Rachel, her friend who was sitting beside her gave her a sympathetic look. "You are not paying attention again" she whispered "This is important, I heard from Oliva that this is probably going to be a question on the college entrance exam" "I know, I know!"Sharon whispered loudly"It's just the lecture is boring" Unexpectedly her whisper was loud enough to be heard by Mr. Thompson. He turned around and his gaze met hers. He then addressed sternly "You should wait for detention!" "But I was trying to focus" Sharon grumbled "It's just that I'm getting distracted". But that only earned a few chuckles from her classmates and a stern look from Mr. Thompson. Rachel, who was watching her from her side gave her a sympathetic look again as she comforted her "You will get through this". And then look at the board when Mr. Thompson continues to teach. Sharon could only look at the board dejected trying to understand what the man was addressing. Soon the class ended. Sharon happily parked her math book and prepared for the Next Class which happened to be her favorite, English language, what she likes about English is how dynamic it is. She likes how it feels like, learning new things and the never-ending new words and sentences overall she likes it. Later in the day, the bell that signals the end of the day classes rang and the last teacher of the day got out of the classroom, Sharon parked her book inside her bag and prepared herself for detention. Rachel followed her out of the classroom but said goodbye when they separated on her way to detention. Sharon looked at Rachel's back and couldn't help but feel lonely. This was probably her punishment for getting easily distracted. Detention in high school is not that harsh; one has to wait in the room at the back of the teacher's office. What makes it harsh is the time one has to spend inside the school, especially when there's no one around. Sharon is already feeling lonely now that everyone is excited about going home. She walks towards the teacher's building and heads to the room behind it. She paused in surprise when she heard some noises coming from the supposedly silent and quiet place. She held her breath, briefly entertaining thoughts of ghosts making the noise due to rumors about the place being haunted. However, she quickly dismissed those ideas. She didn't believe in metaphysics, so it was probably just some troublesome kids making the noise. Summoning her courage, she opened the door and was surprised to find not just one, but three troublesome kids playing a game, as if it were their secret meeting place.