My Bothersome Life

The Second District

When I opened my eyes, I found myself standing in front of a tunnel surrounded by metal and glass. At the other end of the tunnel was a badly broken metal vault which was pierced by a strong laser beam with the big hole.

The hole was big enough for both Shelly and I to pass through one by one as we walked into the darkness. I lit up the way by conjuring a ball of dim light on top of my palms as I took the lead.

"Shall we get going?" I turned back towards Shelly.

"...Sure." Shelly replied while she silently followed me like a tame lamb.

Shelly's eyes lit up with a mix of curiosity and excitement after we crawled through the hole as I helped her down. We bathed in the warm sunlight as I immersed myself in the scenery of self-driving cars, high sky rise condos and many people outside with their smartphones.

'Wow! So, this was the second district!' I couldn't stop staring at the lives of the people in the second district.

The busy sounds from the crowd of people hustling while carrying out their daily lives, woke me up from the engrossing spell as I turned back to discover that the tunnel wasn't there anymore.

'We'll somehow find ourselves the way back.' I convinced myself.

"Have you been to the second district before," I walked backwards down from the hill to face Shelly.

"Well, other than school, I've only been to the first district," Shelly skipped down the hill.

"Since this our only chance to explore the second district, let's enter that cute cafe below the cliff!" I cheerfully winked.

Shelly laughed as we found ourselves standing in front of a homey café with a chimney on top with wisps of smoke that came out of it. Walking down the hill wasn't hard as we couldn't stop studying the foreign landscape in front of us. 

I pushed the door as a small chime rang to welcome us in. A cool waiter in a typical butler uniform immediately greeted us as Shelly and I observed the intricate decorations and designs that filled the store.

"I'll escort you to a table, maladies." The waiter lightly bowed.

'Wow. Was this one of those butler and maid cafes?' I was impressed with the small details.

Shelly seemed unsurprised with her calm demeanor like she was used to this kind of environment as she carried on like it was expected.

'Right. Rich elites were used to these kinds of things,' I was reminded of the maids and butlers everywhere when I had visited Luke's mansion in elementary school.

The waiter gestured us to sit down on cute antique chairs that matched the wooden table that appeared to be handmade with its small inconsistencies. Some parts of the table stuck out in weird directions while it was not perfectly polished like the ones in the first district. I wondered how we would pay for our meal since the payment method per district seemed to differ.   

Instead of the money presented in like points or dollars, it was written in terms of crystals on the menu. The delicious pictures of a strawberry shortcake cost 40 crystals while milk tea cost 30 crystals as I gulped.

I gave Shelly a quick glance of the crystals written in the menu as she ignored me while ordering without hesitation, "Please give me a white chocolate tiramisu with milk tea."

Shelly gently elbowed me to order what I wanted as well, "As well as a strawberry shortcake with milk tea," I added. 

When the waiter took our order and disappeared into the staff-only door, I whispered "Do we have the money (crystals)?

"Of course, we do! I brought some crystals with me because I knew we would go to the second district!" Shelly was disappointed from my lack of trust in her.

"Just checking!" I pretended I was joking as I playfully winked at her.

'Of course, Shelly had access to money from other districts! As expected from elites from the first district!' I reprimanded myself.

The chime danced from the sudden entrance of two adolescent boys that appeared to be in their first year of high school looking around to see that no other tables were available.

"Can we sit here?" The boy with dashing opaque blue eyes with honey brown hair walked to the closest table near the entrance.

They wore a beige school uniform with a crest on their left side of their chest. The beige uniform with a crest of two tigers holding swords that crossed each other like the letter 'X' was the thirtieth ranking high school in this world. I instantly recognized this school as the number one school in the second district while I glanced back to my time in elementary school.

"How about this school?" I pointed to the booklet full of potential middle schools.

Luke sighed as he scratched the option out with a pen, "Only as a last resort."

He almost rolled his eyes. Luke turned to other pages where the schools in first district lovely filled the booklet with their eye-catching pictures. It felt ironic to see pictures of happy students when I knew that they got more miserable every time they stepped into a higher-ranking school.

"You should be thinking on how to stay at our current school," Luke scolded me as he took the booklet away from me.

"Sure," I smiled.

The waiter instantly pulled out two extra chairs and handed two sets of the menu to the new customers.

"My name is Ben and my friend beside me is Hubert," The same boy pulled out his hand for a formal handshake.

Ben was pretty much the type I would have a crush on in my past life with his good looks. Even though Luke was better looking, he was a child that liked nagging me a lot. I couldn't ever imagine him as a romantic partner.

Ben's friendly smile resembled a being called an 'idol' in my past life. 'Idols' were good looking young singers and dancers who cheered people up as I fangirled and crazily bought all their albums.

"Hello, my name is Rika and this is my friend Michelle." I gestured in return as I shook his hand.

I hoped that he wasn't able to notice me almost falling in a daze of his good looks. It was a bad habit from my past life where I stared at beautiful people as if they were a statue to be admired.

"As you see, we just got back from Signhert Academy high school because it's the weekend. How about you?" Ben didn't let go of my hand.

"We're from Abright Institute Academy middle school. We came to explore the second district since we rarely have this much free time." I tried to prevent myself from blushing.

His warm hands squeezed my small hands while my heart squeezed each time. 

"Isn't that the number one school in the first district!" Ben pretended to be shocked.

"Yes - "

"Wow! You guys must be really smart!" Ben interrupted me as his other hand grabbed onto my free hand.

When I looked back at Shelly for support, she was engrossed in a conversation with Hubert, which appeared to be Ben's friend.

"Not really..." I shook off his hands in panic to refuse by frantically waving my hands.

Ben smiled as he mumbled, "and pretty too."

At this rate, I was swooning over Ben with his charming words and good looks. Ben looked like he was close to my age in my past life, so I couldn't stop blushing at his mumbled, but cheesy words.

This was a nice change of pace. This was much better than an eleven-year-old child that kept on nagging all the time, a ten-year-old child that was supposed to be easygoing who apparently was very strict on attending classes and another eleven-year-old child who liked using water guns to threaten someone into studying. What was with all the gorgeous children around me?

Why couldn't they resemble Ben even just a little bit!

I mustered up my courage and asked, "Do, do you want to exchange numbers?"