Once I got around the cafeteria, Building Three was easy to spot. A large black "3" was painted on a white square on the east corner. I felt my breathing gradually creeping towards hyperventilation as I approached the door, breathing. I tried holding my breathe as I followed two unisex raincoats through the door.
The classroom was small. The people in front of me stopped just inside the door to hang up their coats on a long row of coat hooks. I copied them. They were two girls, which became obvious as they took off their coats. One was a porcelain-colored blond, the other also a pale ceramic with light brown hair. At least my skin, also light-colored, wouldn't be a standout here.
I took the slip-document up to the teacher, a tall, balding man whose desk had a nameplate identifying him as Mr. Mason.28 He gawked at me when my slip-document identified me as Bella Duck. It was not an encouraging response, and of course I blushed tomato red. But at least he sent me to an empty desk at the back without introducing me to the class. It was harder for my new classmates to stare at me in the back, but somehow, they managed.29 I kept my eyes down on the reading list the teacher had given me. It was fairly basic: Bronte, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Faulkner.30 I'd already read everything, because I went to school. Knowing everything: that was comforting... and boring. I wondered if my mom would send me my folder of old essays, or if she would think that was cheating. I wondered if next time I should have saved them digitally. I went through different arguments with her in my head while the teacher droned on.
When the bell rang, a nasal buzzing sound, a gangly
28. A mason, by trade, is a person who works with stone. A sub-group of these are known as the Freemasons, a group of individuals who wish to spread the joy of their trade throughout the world, free of charge.
29. The author leaves two possibilities open, both ripe with implication. The first is that the students turned around in their seats to look at her. The second is that they all have eyes on the backside of their bodies, probably their heads.
30. Famous authors whose works deal with similar themes as this text.