Derek quickly hid beside the wall. He didn't know why he did it, but he felt this call would be important.
"Hello, please, who am I talking to?" Miranda said, turning on the speaker option on her phone.
"Hello, can you hear me now?" the caller responded. In an instant, Derek recognized the voice. His eyes widened. Why would Miss Alision be calling his mother at such a time? Derek was utterly puzzled.
"Yes, I can hear you now. So please, who am I speaking to?" Miranda said, lowering the volume of the TV to hear better.
"Well, I am Miss Alision, your son's English and class teacher. I would like to inform you that he's finding it quite hard to get along. Maybe if you could also talk to him as his mother, I have—"
"Whose child? Whose mother? What are you talking about? If you have nothing.
reasonable to say, I was doing something before you called," Miranda said, ready to end the call.
Alison, from the other side of the phone, was utterly shocked by the response she received. She began processing many thoughts at once and rechecked the number she had gotten from the management—but found no errors.
Before she could finish thinking, she heard, "Hint: try his father next time." With that, the call ended. Alison took a deep breath. It must have been the wrong number, she thought. Well, she didn't really think much further before falling asleep.
---
A smile erupted on Derek's face as he watched Miranda end the call angrily. She began mumbling to herself as she raised the TV volume again.
Derek wasn't smiling because of how things turned out during the conversation. All he could think was, she cares. That was the only thought filling his mind now.
Derek lost interest in the water he had initially come down to get. He calmly and quickly snuck back up to his room. It didn't take long before he fell asleep.
---
This morning wasn't anything special. Derek got up from bed, did all the necessary things, and went to school.
Upon reaching school, he was already about twenty minutes late.
This was one of the things he had always tried to avoid. He never wanted all eyes on him, but today, it was just unavoidable.
Derek strolled into class with a little courage, after all, he had a reputation to maintain, and he didn't want that to slack just yet.
But as he entered, he noticed something. The students were rowdy and all over the place. He was confused and wanted to know what was going on.
He called the attention of one of his classmates to make inquiries.
Afterward, he discovered that the math teacher and the English teacher had earlier come into the class and asked for the submission of all given assignments.
According to the student, it seemed most of the class hadn't done the assignments, claiming they were difficult, which Derek strongly believed they weren't. But he kept this thought to himself and calmly walked over to the desk where the assignments were being submitted and dropped his.
This single act brought a lot of attention. His classmates were shocked.
Grace was definitely the first to speak up. Grace was one of the class's social queens. Though she wasn't really book-smart, she had influence and power over the class's opinions.
"Who does this guy think he is again?" Grace said, pushing part of her hair behind her ear. She wore the school uniform like everyone else, but hers was clearly
customized—shorter and tighter.
Grace had been waiting for the right time to bring Derek down, and this seemed like the perfect moment. She had always been the center of attention in class—almost like a class celebrity.
But since yesterday, no one had cared to glance at her. All she kept hearing was, "The transfer student is really cool," or something equally annoying to her.
Grace hated this feeling and had promised to kill Derek's reputation if she ever got the chance. And today, an opportunity just walked up to her.
Derek instinctively turned at Grace's words. He looked at her with a hint of shock and confusion. After a while, he finally spoke.
"Sorry, were you referring to me?" Derek said, his face still puzzled. He was shy, true—but one thing Derek hated in life was insults. He'd had enough from his so-called mom.
Grace looked at Derek again and then back at her clique of friends, as if to say, Where on earth did he get the audacity? Soon, the whole class began to gather around Derek and Grace; such scenes never went unnoticed.
"Well, I was talking to you. Were you trying to say you're too smart or something… Wait, too smart?" Grace burst into laughter.
"You wish you were," she said, laughing again. Derek was immensely annoyed, but he managed to keep his composure throughout the argument.
Audible whispers soon filled the room as students began sharing their thoughts.
"But really, does he think he's that smart?"
"I bet he's an attention-seeker. He should look for better ways to gain attention."
"Maybe he just wants to focus quietly on his books."
"He's just a hypocrite, pretending to be what he's not."
These and many other whispers filled the crowd. A few students supported Derek, but they were very few.
Everyone had held onto the belief that they just wouldn't submit the assignment—and wouldn't be held accountable. But now, the dynamics had shifted.
Out of the noise, one voice cut through the air.
"Wait, are you too scared to speak up, or is this how you always go around behaving dumb?" Grace said, silencing the room.
Everyone was eager to hear Derek's response.
Derek locked eyes with Grace from where he stood. The room seemed to freeze under his gaze. Truth be told, Derek's expression was already serious—but now, he was intentionally serious.
It was a whole different ball game.
Derek glanced around, catching a glimpse of everyone, his eyes still calm.
After thinking for some time,
Derek simply walked away, leaving everyone in shock.