While reading in the history book, I suddenly noticed a small piece of torn paper on my side of the desk that wasn't there before. Picking it up, I saw there was a message written on it:

  (Do you remember me?)

  I looked over to Touka to see her throwing me a smile. Silently, I wrote:

  (Yes)

  On the backside of it and pushed it over to her desk side. As she read the response, her smile grew. I noticed how she then reached for her bag and took out a textbook. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as she wrote a message onto it and pushed it over to my side of the desk.

  (I am so lucky to have nded in your css. I was so scared to go to a school where nobody knew me. But hey, now that I meet you again, I feel safer. Let's be friends again ;D Fate must have brought us together.)

  I read, and the awkward tension between us kind of felt like it was disappearing.

  (Sure, let's be friends again.)

  I wrote under her message and then pushed the textbook over to her side again. Maybe she was just socially awkward or something, and that’s why she stares so much, I thought. A couple of moments ter, she pushed her textbook back over to my side.

  (Mind if you show me around the school grounds during break time?)

  (Sure)

  I replied, and with that, our conversation ended. Focusing back on my work, time flew by. With the sudden ringing of the school bell, the first break time began. Watching the teacher leave the cssroom, I saw Touka turning towards me.

  “So, you’re ready to show me around?”

  “Yup, we can go.”

  Standing up from my desk, Touka followed me to the css door, and we began our tour around the school grounds. While showing Touka around all the different csses, I tried to start a conversation with her.

  “So... how have you been the st few years? I mean, after you moved out, what happened?”

  And as soon as I asked that question, her once bright and friendly expression faded. Her eyes were now nothing more than a deep darkness. Ouch, does she have bad memories of her past? I’d better say something.

  “Hey, ah, I didn’t mean to...”

  She snapped out of her state and interrupted me.

  “No, no, it’s fine. Well, it was... really... a tough time, but after some time, all my pain turned out to be fun,” she said, throwing me a bright smile. What that meant, I had no idea. But asking further into it didn’t seem like a good decision either. Then it felt clear she was dealing with something from her past. So I just threw her a friendly smile and continued our tour. Walking through the main hall, we reached the cafeteria.

  “So, and this is the cafeteria. I would advise bringing food from home, though. They charge restaurant prices for their gas station-like food.” She ughed a little bit and replied.

  "Sure, I'll keep it in mind."

  We then went out to the st thing there was to see. Going out onto the schoolyard, I pointed towards the building on the other side of the schoolyard.

  "And that's our gym, so I think with that, I showed everything there is to see about our school. Any questions?"

  "No, I don't think so. Thank you for showing me around."

  "No problem."

  "So what have you been up to the past few years?"

  Scratching my head, I said, "Well, ah, for the most part, I've been taking care of the home I share with my sister. You see, and besides that, it's just pying some games and going to school."

  "So what happened to your parents?"

  I sighed.

  "Well, it's a long story. I don't feel like talking about it at the moment again."

  "Okay, I get that. It's fine."

  "Well, I think we should head back now."

  "Sure."

  Walking back into the school building, we hear the school bell ring and make it back to our css just in time. Now we had math css, by far the worst css we had in this school. Not because of the actual math, but more because of the math teacher, Ms. Jura. A math teacher constantly caught up with teaching barely reted stuff to math. A moment ter, there she was, Ms. Jura. Oh, how much I wish she could have just left with all the other students that left this year.

  "Hello and welcome, students. Let's not waste any time and get to working."

  Like we ever do that in your css, I thought.

  "So, css representative May, would you hand out the papers?"

  "Of course, Ms. Jura."

  Silently, I watched as our css representative, a girl with gsses and light brown hair, handed out the papers. When she came by my desk and I took a look at the paper, I was pleasantly surprised. Is Ms. Jura actually going to teach us math this year?

  "Now, students, please solve the paper that was handed out to you. It's a quick recap of all the math we did st year. But first, who would like to hear the story of how our modern-day math came to be?"

  As soon as she said that st sentence, the css representative sprang up from her chair.

  "As the css representative, I think that would be pretty informative for our css."

  "Okay then, let me start from the beginning in a far, far away nd."

  Augh, and there goes my hope of actually learning math this year. Thanks, css rep; everyone here already knows you hate math, but maybe some people would like to learn. The Pandora's box had been opened, and Ms. Jura started doing her hour-long essay again.

  "And so I asked the gas station worker if they had diet soda, but he said no, so I had to..."

  What is this? It isn't even remotely math anymore. Bored, I looked over at Touka. She was holding her hand up. She had a question too, this?

  "Yes, Touka."

  "Lady, can we actually do math, or are you compensating for your ck of knowledge with your incoherent ramblings about your personal matters?"

  The room went silent.