Teacher's pet

chapter 3: a mere mistake

Time had flung by so quickly, I had to look at the date twice to fully process- it was November 2nd. The start of a new half-term which meant a new rotation in science- biology!
I have loved biology since year 7- it was truly an exquisite subject and I was pretty good at it(if I were to say so myself).

After an array of subjects: maths, English, history and computer science, it was lunch, it was pretty tiring, having had the last 7 days lounging around at home and doing some revision here and there.
Lunch was a deserved rest for me. The continuous learning had made me exhausted.

I sat outside with my best friend, Yuna. I met her on the first day in year 7. We instantly clicked and I could be myself around her. She's the most bestest best friend I could ask for and I'm grateful for her.
Lunch passed by swiftly as we sat under the cold skies talking.
We're in the same class next: science so we walked the long route to the labs.

When we reached the door, Mr Win was waiting and greeted us.
"Hi" he said to Yuna as she went in and sat down.
"Hi Joy, how was your holiday?" he asked as I sat down.
"I guess it was good, I didn't do too much though, and how was yours?" I asked out of politeness. He said a couple of things which I shook my head along to, mildly listening.

The rest of the class followed soon after and all the hustling and bustling of bags and getting seated stopped to a silence soon after.

It was a pretty standard lesson: protein synthesis in fact. A ton of practice questions however.
"Everyone, let's have 5 minutes to complete this 6-marker on transcription" said Mr Win. The class groaned unanimously-6 markers required more time and effort then they should.
But anyhow, I started writing. Surprisingly enough, I finished quite early so I sat still, reading my work, scanning for any errors.
-
Suddenly, I felt a pair of arms on either side of me, hands on the table, his chest pushing into my back. I instantly made myself smaller- pushing my shoulder blades together to avoid his touch.
I put my hands together under the desk, they were clammy with sweat. I felt slight panic, uncomfortable with his breath so close to mine.
He brought his red pen in closer to tick my work. I shuddered.
He whispered "good work" before he left.

What was that? It wouldn't have lasted more than two minutes at most, but it felt like an eternity of  discomfort.

As the lesson went on, I ignored it. It doesn't mean anything , right? He brushed onto me accidentally, it was a mere mistake. Nothing that should concern me I thought.

By the time I had left school that day, I felt uncomfortable, not at ease. But I'm sure it was nothing. To make me  feel better I told myself-I was being dramatic for a trivial reason. Should I really be feeling uneasy about this? No.

...

I only later realised how easily we can manipulate our memories.