The Exchange Teacher - Welcome to Dyntril Academy

Reianna - Bad Lunch

Gerenet-Shr didn't exactly answer what an "interface" was, but he promised to not only teach them how to read and write but he'd also have them master whatever the interface thing was in two months. Reianna's heart raced. She'd soon be able to read a book by herself!

She was daydreaming about reading books when Emilisa's question about learning Hianb brought her back. Learn Gerenet-Shr's language? Reianna wanted nothing more! She looked at Emilisa. Unfortunately, Reianna knew the situation their teacher was in all too well.

"Emilisa, Gerenet-Shr probably can't teach it to us because of ambassador-type stuff. I bet he's not allowed to."

Gerenet-Shr nodded. "Reianna is correct. Unfortunately, I can't."

"Then how will I learn to go back with you?"

Go back with him?

"Go back with me?"

"Yeah! I don't want to stay here! Kruami sucks!"

The class burst out into a hubbub of conversations. From where she sat, Reianna couldn't hear anyone object to Emilisa's statements. Like Reianna, Fawna sat quietly. She didn't know what the angelic girl was thinking, but Reianna couldn't leave Kruami. She needed to become a noble and save her barony.

"Can you imagine, Reirei?" Dmi's eyes sparkled. "You see how he treats us and the servants. And he's so strong. Imagine living in a country filled with Gerenet-Shrs…"

A utopia flashed into Reianna's mind.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Gerenet-Shr called out.

The class fell silent.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Emilisa, but we're strictly forbidden from bringing any migrants back with us. As much as I would like to bring anyone who wants to go back with me, I wouldn't even be allowed to bring back a wife were I to get married to a Kruamian woman."

And just like that, the utopia the class dreamed of was put behind a glass wall: forever to be imagined, never to be touched.

When Cayelyn asked about Madam Julvie, Reianna hid her face in secondhand embarrassment. The girl couldn't be more obvious with her crush, and Reianna couldn't help but join in with the rest of the kids when they teased the azure-haired girl.

Gerenet-Shr soon got them underway, and he spent the next several hours drilling them on how to read letters. Reianna was thrilled at learning to recognize the symbols she saw in her book. First, he started with individual letters and then moved on to pairings.

Occasionally, she would look over at the four kids actually writing the magical shapes, but she didn't let it discourage her. No, in fact, seeing Fawna diligently scribbling away only inspired her. Reianna had one of those wizards living in her room! It was almost unfair to everyone else, but she was going to get Fawna to teach her how to write that evening.

Then, Gerenet-Shr had them split into pods and battle each other over reading. Reianna had never had so much fun in her life. She and the kids around her got into it, and the battle was heated. Her pod came in third, and she swore that they'd win if he let them play the game again.

Before she knew it, the class was over, and Gerenet-Shr was dismissing them for lunch. She took her glasses off and put them in her pocket. She'd forgotten that they were still on during the class, but now that she was going to mix with kids who knew they were a lie, she was embarrassed to have them on.

Jan saw her remove them. "I think you look cute in glasses." His face brightened, and he rushed to the door.

"What?" she called after him.

"I agree," Taraia said and left after him. Of all the people who Reianna thought would have taunted her for the senseless fashion, Taraia would have been at the top of the list.

Putting the two weird comments out of mind, Reianna turned to her roommate. "Fawna, I can't help but be in awe of you every day!"

"Reianna, where are your glasses?"

"What?"

Fawna patted Reianna's pockets, and when she found the glasses, she took them out and put them on Reianna.

"Didn't you hear? These are fake. I don't need them!"

"Reianna, I'll let you in on a little secret. When you look through glasses that someone is wearing, it makes their face look bigger or smaller. I could see that there was just normal glass in yours."

Reianna blushed. "Did you know, too, Dmi?"

The bright turquoise-haired girl shook her head. "No! I had no idea," her shaking head slowly turned into nodding. "Okay, so I did; probably everybody did."

Reianna reached up to take them off, but someone grabbed her hands from behind.

"What are you doing, you doofus?" Maecy asked.

Reianna turned to look at the twin.

"Real or not, glasses are expensive! I thought you were just showing off how much your barony trusted and loved you."

Reianna thought of the dress that her barony had bought for her. Adding in the glasses, she felt so grateful. She'd survive. She'd go back and bring her people out of their poverty. She'd make Fawna the standard for girls from her hometown, not an exception.

Her stomach growled. "Haha…ha… I'm a bit hungry, it seems."

"Oh yeah! And Avali's looking for us!"

The other members of their pods lingered for them by the door. They joined the stream of students heading to the cafeteria. The nobles around them moaned about their teachers as they walked down the hall. Reianna tried to imagine saying an ill word about Gerenet-Shr and shook her head. It was unfathomable.

The line to get their food was long and slow. It seemed like there was a large number of nobles there, larger than what seemed normal. She also had a sinking suspicion that they were looking at the Class E students. No, they mostly seemed to be looking at her. A black haze filled the cafeteria.

"Hey, Fawna, does anything feel off to you?"

"Kinda? I was expecting Avali to be waiting for us near the entrance, but I don't see her anywhere."

That was true. Fawna's friend was nowhere to be seen, but then again, there were a lot of kids in the cafeteria. Reianna understood that she'd only been to the cafeteria for breakfast, and with varying eating times or some people simply skipping it, there wouldn't be as big of a draw as during lunch. So, there was a good chance that she was just misreading the situation, but the hairs on the back of her neck just wouldn't lie down.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Maybe it was that whenever she looked at a group of nobles, she'd catch a glimpse of them looking away from her. It was like all of them were conscious of where Reianna was at all times but trying to be inconspicuous about it. However, being only twelve years old, they were bad at it.

"Watch out, commoner trash," a boy said as he cut in front of Reianna.

She took a step back and let him in front of her. Dmi looked back at Reianna from the other side of the boy. Reianna shook her head.

Reianna tried to ignore the noble who'd cut in front of her, but she couldn't help but marvel at how many bowls of soup and semi-solid foods he was piling onto his tray. She wondered how he was going to carry the tray to his table.

After getting to the end of the line, the boy didn't pick it up. When he spoke, his voice was both stiff and with a weird pitch, like he was trying to recall prewritten lines. "It seems as if I've gotten too much. You should go ahead. No need to wait for me."

Looking at the awkward boy and his overly full tray, Reianna suppressed a sigh. Despite how suspicious she found the situation, it wasn't like she had a choice. She couldn't stand there forever and knew he wouldn't move until she did.

"Reianna?" Fawna asked from behind her.

Reianna scanned the dining area. Her classmates who'd gone through the line before her were sitting together at a table on the left-hand side, so Reianna carried her tray off to the right. She wouldn't subject the others to what she knew was coming.

Placing her tray down, a thunk to her left made her jump. Had it started yet? She looked over to see Fawna. "I don't think you should be near me right now, Fawna."

There was a thunk to her other side. "Have you not learned anything from Gerenet-Shr?" Dmi asked.

Jan put his tray down across from her. He'd been behind Dmi, and Reianna hadn't seen what he'd gotten for lunch. His tray was eerily similar to the noble boy who'd cut in front of her.

Much to Reianna's dismay, the seats around her quickly filled with her classmates. "Really, you guys. I know Gerenet-Shr said we need to stick together, but I think you should sit away from me for just right now.

Fawna grabbed her hand.

Cayelyn shook her head.

Taraia laughed. "Are you kidding? I'm looking forward to this."

"Oh, Miss Reianna?" Emilisa said. "Would you mind if I looked at your glasses for a second?"

Reianna took off her glasses and held them out for Fawna's pod leader. "You don't need to call me 'Miss'. We're all friends here, right?"

Emilisa nodded. Sure, they'd only known each other for barely three days, but the kids sitting here knew what happened this morning. They also grew up as commoners. They knew something was coming. Would they have bonded as quickly as they had if it hadn't been for Gerenet-Shr? Reianna was doubtful.

Just after she'd pulled her hand back from giving Emilisa her glasses for protection, cold liquid poured down Reianna's head, splashing down onto her shoulders and back.

"Oops. I tripped." It was that boy, not the one who'd cut in front of her, but the one who'd gotten in her way in the morning and on whom Reianna had dumped her breakfast.

Using his spoon as a catapult, Jan launched a spoonful of mashed potatoes at the person standing behind Reianna. "Oops, my hand slipped."

And just like that, it was on. Bowls full of pumpkin soup, lentil soup, and minestrone soup flew at the table full of kids from Class E, bowls and all. They covered their heads with their arms as the thin china bowls crashed into them, breaking on the table and shattering on the floor.

The onslaught didn't last for more than a minute, but it felt like an eternity. As the last bowl of soup was hurled at Reianna, a cheer erupted from the nobles. They laughed and chattered as they filed out of the cafeteria, pointing and laughing at the half of Class E that was drenched in liquids and food.

Taraia sat there with a grin on her face despite being more battered and bruised than the rest of the kids at the table. Her bowls and those of the kids around her were missing. The muscular kiwi-hair girl wiped her face off. "Man, that felt good. You guys should have chucked stuff back at them as well!"

"Is everyone okay?" Fawna asked.

"Worse has happened to me," Jardan said.

Reianna's body still felt the pain of the impacts. She was sure the others did as well. "You guys…you didn't have to subject yourselves to that for me."

"What are you talking about?" Thoms asked. His rust-red hair was filled with white clumps of mashed potatoes. "You'd be dead or a bloody pulp at best if you took all of that yourself."

"He's not wrong," Maecy said. "I owed you for what you did for Malcalm. This was the least I could do."

As if her words summoned him, Malcalm and the rest of the class came running over. After assurances that all of them were okay and that no one needed to go to the nurse's office, they began the cleanup. Picking up bowls that hadn't broken or were still in large pieces, they placed them on their trays. Servants showed up with mops and brooms and worked with Class E to clean the area.

Guilt ate at Reianna as she helped. All of these people were being hurt and inconvenienced simply because she'd acted so childish that morning. Why'd she have to do that? She stood up. "Everyone! I'm so so sorry, I shouldn't have dumped my tray on that guy this morning—"

"Yeah!" Jan yelled. "You should have asked me for mine and dumped it on him as well!"

"Mine, too!" Dmi yelled.

"I should have dumped mine on him for you," Maecy said.

The rest of the class joined in on the chorus. Fawna came over and squeezed Reianna's hand again. Reianna had to fight back her tears.

"Th—thank you all."

The dining staff brought out new trays of food for the three pods that hadn't eaten. As they ate, Avali poked her head into the cafeteria. Reianna's stomach dropped as she saw how large the girl's black spot had grown; it now ate up a third of her aura.

"Avail!" Fawna said and ran over to her friend. "It's a good thing you were so late! If you'd been sitting with us, you'd be covered in slop, too!"

"Yeah…" Avali said. "Fawna, can we talk in private for a bit?"

"Sure!" Fawna said and trotted over to the door.

Without hesitation, Emilisa, Thoms, and Miya got up from the table and followed her.

"It's okay, guys! She's my friend. Nothing bad will happen."

The rest of her pod didn't back down. "Fawna," Emilisa said. "You seem to have forgotten, we're one person."

Avali looked at them, then back at Fawna. "Fawna, please?"

Once again, Fawna looked at the rest of her pod. "Guys?"

"Look," Emilisa said. "There's a whole lotta dining area over there where we can see you, but can't hear you. Why don't you two go over there to talk? If you insist on the hallway, Miss, then we insist on coming."

Fawna looked at her friend and shrugged.

Avali sighed and stepped into the dining room. She and Fawna went out of earshot, and the rest of her pod returned to the table.

"I don't trust her," Miya said.

A lot of the others nodded their agreement. Reianna trusted the bright-aura Avali, but she didn't know how she felt about this one. She found it suspicious that she'd ditched them at the beginning of lunch and then hadn't seemed surprised at the state of their clothes.

However, as the two girls talked, Avali's black core shrank. She even went so far as to motion for a hug from Fawna, who almost returned it but pulled back and gestured at her dirty clothes. The two girls laughed, and Avali left the dining room.

"What did you guys talk about?" Emilisa asked when Fawna came back.

"Oh, this and that. She apologized for coming late. Her teacher held her back, and she heard about the attack from other students. She apologized about that, too."

Miya frowned. "Then why'd she need to say that in private?"

Fawna shrugged. "I guess just the large group of us made her nervous. After all, we were just attacked by her classmates. Maybe she was afraid of retaliation."

Reianna hoped that her friend's friend wasn't lying, but Reianna couldn't get over how large the black spot had been.

The dining hall doors burst open, and half the kids jumped at the sudden bang. Reianna reached out and grabbed Fawna's arm. Reianna couldn't remember a time when she'd ever been so terrified. She couldn't see a person; all she saw was a dark purple void with red eyes.

Reianna could hear her own heart beating and she broke out into a cold sweat. She wasn't looking at just death; no, whatever this aura was, it was worse than death. Those dark red eyes locked onto Reianna, and they narrowed. Then, just like it was nothing, the aura vanished. In its place stood a pink woman. Everything about her was pink, from her hair to her eyes to her clothes and accessories. And that's all there was. Reianna looked for her aura, but it didn't exist.

The woman walked over and stared down each student one by one. Not a single child was able to meet her gaze. Even the defiant Taraia looked away.

"You vermin do not belong here. Your dirtbag…teacher does not belong here. Because I'm not an evil woman, I will give you this one opportunity to leave. Abandon the school and you shall live. Remain, and I will make sure you suffer so much you will wish for and welcome death."

Just as suddenly as she appeared, the pink horror vanished.

It wasn't until Reianna exhaled that she realized they had all been holding their breath. "Who was that?" she asked.

"That was Madam Julvie," Cayelyn answered.

"Well, so much for the dating rumors," Taraia said.

"I think it's time we got back to class," Reianna said.

Jan didn't lift his head from the spot on the table at which he stared. "I couldn't agree more."