Chapter 3 : New Teacher

All of us walked back to our places. After the public execution, everyone acts like nothing happened. When I turned my sight back to the center of the capital, I saw the police officers putting Mr. Lacsa's body inside a sack. Blood is scattered in every part of the area. I can't look at it any longer.

When we finally arrived in the school, the students went back to their classrooms and continue their classes. I look at my schedule to find out if I have my next class. 

"Oh. I have my three next classes," I said to myself. Luckily, those are higher classes. They wouldn't be stressful for me.

I continue walking to reach the Secondary Building where my next class is. When I reached that building, I heard several shouts for the second floor.

"Give way! Give way!" one man shouted from above. Due to my will to know what is happening, I continue to walk to the second floor of the building. 

"Give way! Give way!" Mr. Estraña shouted while carrying a student. 

I don't know what to react. I stand still and was stucked on my feet. Instead of helping Mr. Estraña, I just watched him while he is carrying the student.

"Ms. Fryxell," I was back in my consciousness when a female voice talked from my back.

"Madam Principal," I fixed myself to look atleast presentable in Madam Principal's eyes. I didn't expect her to be here in this situation.

"You can now go to your class. You're next class is in Class-B, right?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am," I answered while I'm having a hard time looking at her eyes.

"Okay. Go to you class. You might get late," she said. She didn't wait for me to answer for she started walking down the stairs. 

I went to the classroom of Class-B. When I enter the classroom, the class is quiet. I shouldn't be surprised for this is the quietest of all class I'm handling. But their silence for today is different. 

I just ignored it and started giving their last summative test for the first quarter. 

"Remove everything on your table. I just want to see one black ballpen," I said to the whole class. 

They started putting their thing back inside their bags. Some drink water from their tumbler first before putting it back to their bag. When I know that every student's table is clean, I started giving their test papers.

"Miss Fryxell?" one of the students caught my attention by calling my name and raising his hand.

"Yes, Mr. Avila?" I asked him.

"We don't have any reserve papers to write our solutions," he said.

"Don't worry. I will provide you those papers," I answered.  "And class," I get the attention of all students. "Your solution will be written on the blank papers I'll given to you. You don't have to use any other papers. Just use the one I'll provide. Do you get it?" 

"Yes, ma'am," all of them answered.

I continue to give them their test papers. After that, I distributed the blank papers. 

"Every students can get a maximum of 5 blank papers only. If five papers aren't enough, just come at me and I'll give you more," I said to them.

When all of the students have their own papers, the test started immediately.

"You have 45 minutes to finished the test. You may start now," with my cue, the students started answering the questions on the test. 

"Say present when I call you name, okay? Amad," I started calling their surnames for the attendance.

"Present."

"Cadavos."

"Present."

"Cambri."

"He's absent Miss Fryxell," his seatmeat answered.

"Okay."

I looked at Mr. Cambri's attendance status. I find out that this student is absent a week already without a single excuse letter. Maybe I should talk to his adviser later.

I was in the middle of calling the students' names when someone knocks at the door. I opened it myself for I don't want to disturb my students while they are taking the test.

"Oh! Mr. Estraña! What brought you here?" I asked him when I opened the door.

"I just want to inform you that Ms. Romano is rushed to the hospital," he said.

"So, Ms. Romano is the girl you're carrying earlier?" I asked.

"Sadly, yes."

"Why? What happened?" I asked him.

Miss Romano is a great student. She is one of the top students in Class-B. I didn't even notice that she is not in the room. But what bothers me the most is that she is in the hospital. Miss Romano is a healthy student. When Madam Principal conducted a health research for the students, it turned out that Miss Romano is one of the 27 students of the school with the strongest immune system. 

"Well, she just lose her consciousness after we went back to the classroom. The doctor said she might be stressed," Mr. Estraña explained.

I sighed. "Thank you for informing me. I'll just give her a special test," I said before Mr. Estraña left.

I went back to my table and continue on doing the attendance.

-

"The capital's so harsh," Dhaile said while we're in the cafeteria. 

"So true. It's not humane," I replied before giving a bite to my burger. 

Dhaile and I don't have our class to entrr anymore. We still have much time so we decided to stay in the cafeteria for a while. Besides, both of us didn't have our lunch earlier. 

"I can't still believe it. I thought Mr. Lacsa is a real man. See, several girls are chasing him for him to be their boyfriend. If I were him, I will choose to be a man. I don't want to die," she said with a frowning face. 

"You're saying that because you are also one of the girl who's chasing Mr. Lacsa," I teased her.

"Shut up girl! Someone might hear you," she widened her eyes while giving me a threatening look.

"So I'm right?" I said while slightly laughing between my words.

"That was two years ago," she gave me a sly, nasty glance. 

"But still, you liked him," I teased her again. I just laughed when Dhaile frowned at me. I knoe that she's a bit annoyed at me. Well, that's normal. 

"Whatever," she replied and go on eating. 

When Dhaile and I entered the school for the first time, I know that Dhaile has a crush on Mr. Lacsa. Actually, most of the female teachers and students has a crush on him. Well, I can't blame them.

Mr. Lacsa is indeed a handsome guy. He is also a good teacher and a cool guy, so there's no doubt that girls are chasing him. Except for me. I'm not into boys. I like the the same gender.

Regarding that thing, the feeling of suffer that Mr. Lacsa experienced earlier is now coming back to my body. I can feel the hit of the sword. The scenario earlier came back to my mind again. 

Sweats are starting to build up on my body. My hands are getting cold. Seconds later, my hands are already trembling. I'm getting nervous because of what I'm thinking.

The public execution happens everytime the authorities found out someone who us gay or lesbian, or even transgender. Those people who are part of the called LGBT Community are being punished in the country. 

I must hide the real me, or else, I'll die. I'll meet the same fate as Mr. Lacsa. 

"Casy? Are you okay?" Dhaile's voice stopped me from thinking.

"Me? Of course," I stuttered. 

"Are you sure? You're trembling," Dhaile asked. She held my hand and her face was shocked.

"Shocks girl! You're cold!" she exclaimed.

"No, I'm fine. Okay?" I assured her.

"Then why are you trembling? And your hands!" 

"It's just," I stopped for a while. I don't knoe what excuse I'm going to say to her. I simply look around, hoping that there's something inside cafeteria that can help me think what to say. 

"Uhm, it's just cold here," I lied.

"Do you want to move to other area?" she asked.

"No need to do that. We will just finished our food."

Dhaile and I go back on eating. We didn't notice the time. It is already quarter to four in the afternoon when we finished our food. Both of us are really hungry that's why we ate huge amount of food.

We were walking to the Main Building when Dhaile suddenly burp so loud.

"Excuse me," Dhaile said after her burp. 

"That's too loud girl. The students look at you oh," I said to her while pointing the students who were shocked because of the loud noise that she made.

"I don't care. Wait, who's that girl walking with Mr. Celeste?" Dhaile asked while pointing on somewhere.

I look at the direction that Dhaile is pointing. I saw Mr. Celeste with an unfamiliar lady. She is wearing a plain violet t-shirt and a fitted jeans. Her hair is in high ponytail. She is just holding a blue purse.

"Why did they let an outsider in?" Dhaile asked.

"I bet she is the new teacher," I replied.

"How do you say that?"

"Well, I don't know. I just guess that."

Dhaile invited me to walk and introduce ourselves to the unfamiliar lady. 

"Good afternoon, Mr. Celeste," I greeted him.

"Oh, good afternoon Ms. Fryxell and Ms. Chan," he greeted us. "Let me introduce to you the new teacher of Felghana Nationa High School," he added.

"This Miss Kataleya Carson," Mr. Celeste introduce the lady. "Ms. Carson, this is Miss Dhaile Chan," Dhaile and the new teacher made a shake hands.

"Ms. Carson, this is Miss Calliope Sydney Fryxell," I extend my hand to her and we have a shake hands.

"You can call me Kate," the new teacher said while smiling.

"And you can call me Casy," I said.

"Okay so, I'll just lead Ms. Carson to her office. We're going now," Mr. Celeste said before they continue on walking.

"I like her," Dhaile said.

I look at her. It is not just an ordinary look. 

"Hey. I mean, I like her as a teacher. Stop looking at me like that. Geez,", Dhaile said before walking away.

I look at Kate's direction. I can feel something about this girl. I just can't figure it out for now. But I'm sure that there's something unusual at her.