Masked Girls

12. ACCEPTANCE

The familiar melody of the bell - yes, melodious because Rifton was just classy like that instead of utilising the rrrrriiiiiiing sound of a cliche school bell - resounded through the hallways as the throng of students flooded through towards the exits or their respective after-school activity venues. It was very much evident that there were two kinds of people in school - the kind that had their bags packed and ready to zoom out at the first ring of the bell, and the chill ones that lingered in the classrooms and hallways to take selfies, chatter and listen to music.

Today, I was the former, unable to spend another minute in that classroom pondering about the turning effects of forces. Mr Lynch was just - pardon me - the trashiest teacher in this school. Sadly, I wasn't able to leave early like I'd hoped due to a certain cursed number on my test paper.

"Remember, homework will be worksheets 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3! Those who scored 19 and below for the test, please see me now at the front!"

And that's my cue! Humiliation time, how fun! 10/10 would not recommend! Sparks zero joy! We should throw it away like Marie Kondo says!

With that, I did the casual walk of shame towards the teacher's table, where Mr Lynch stood placing his laptop and papers into his tote bag. Screw-Up Club did not consist of that many people, given that no self-respecting Rifton girl wanted to be part of it, but there was me, Reyna, Leia Noble from the K-Pop kids... and Rianne.

Mr Lynch turned to us with his signature look of disdain and 'omg-why-are-you-still-in-my-class' vibe as the group of misfits gathered. His vulture-like eyes swept the group, finally settling on Reyna. "You! What happened?"

Of course, another episode of interrogation how we were pulling the class average way below his expectations.

"Uhh... I was careless...?"

Lynch's expression darkened as he turned to me. "You? What's it this time?"

"Same as her," I uttered, "Careless."

Actually, I would blame you. All you do is ramble off at the speed of light, make us rearrange those disorganized notes and complain.

Leia pinned the blame on her recent series of badminton tournaments - perks of being a sportsgirl, I guessed. Finally, he turned to Rianne with... surprise in his eyes?

"You? You don't normally perform this poorly. I believe this is an exception."

Exception? So what? I get it, I'm trash, there's no need to rub it in with a Rianne!

Rianne's pale eyes widened as she spoke, "Yes, apologies, I've recently been caught up with competitions and the planning for other events. We'll be sure to do better in the future." Blah, blah, blah, yeah, you're amazing, aren't you?

"Right," Mr Lynch nodded as he continued, "You'll all need to get your parent's signature for this. Remedial will start next Thursday afternoon at two o' clock, please be there. Okay, dismissed."

We dispersed, returning back to our seats to pack up, me with a sour feeling stirring in my chest. I'd actually worked hard on this one... and still, I was trash. If I was in a comic book, I believed a storm cloud would be over my head, raining down on me with hail. Even in moments of failure, everyone else was still ten times more glorious than me.

And then there was that idiot, who seemed to think extra shaming would help us study better. With such a terrible teacher, I sometimes wished the class would make a point to fail together and rebel against the education system to prove the point that we needed Mr Lynch out. Of course, that would never happen - being the conformist robots that Rifton girls were, they would just try to beat the system by excelling in it instead of my preferred choice of a full-scale rebellion. Plus, with girls like Julie shooting her arm up to answer correctly, the teachers believed that there was nothing wrong with themselves - students like me that didn't do well were just the blights in the system and not their concern.