Chapter 3.1: Erika

BY THE WAY, my bad luck wasn’t over just yet.

Just as I stepped on the cracked tiled floor of the school building, I heard my name being called in a distinctive voice that made me want to ram my head against the wall.

“Errrika!”

Only one person in this world called me in such a tacky manner. Rufus, the famous teacher on duty.

“What is it, sir?” I asked him while making my face as innocent as possible. “I’m not late, right? I’ve been in the toilet since earlier. I give you my vow.”

“Don’t mess with a vow, kid,” Rufus scolded me with a face of pretentious compassion, but his big frizzy hair made me laugh silently.

“If bad things happen to you, it’ll serve you right.”

“Usually the thing that makes me experience bad things is you, Sir.” I said casually.

“That’s because you defied me,” Rufus replied while watching me from top to bottom. “Why is your uniform so dirty, Errrika, while Eliza’s uniform is cleanly white and very neat?”

I immediately frowned at being compared so blatantly. “Well, this is called ‘having a different mother and father.’”

Rufus was dumbstruck hearing my answer. “How can it be?”

“Of course, Eliza’s parents love her, my parents hate me.”

“Errrika, Errrika.” Rufus wagged his index finger. “It’s not good to talk about your own parents like that, child.”

“Why? It’s the truth, Sir. And please don’t call me ‘child’ like that, Sir. I’m not your child.” I waved my hand. “Alright, sir. It’s over, right? If the teacher in the class reprimands me, I will blame you.”

Just when I thought I was going to escape, suddenly the nerdy girl came out of the girls’ restroom with bare feet. Damn, it could be bad if Rufus found out I had snatched another student’s shoe!

“Sir, there is a bee on your head!” I shouted spontaneously.

“Where? Where? ” Rufus was startled and screamed as he looked up and down while wagging his hands nervously at his curly hair. Taking the opportunity, I immediately gestured to the nerdy girl to leave as fast as lightning. The nerdy girl immediately understood my hint, but didn’t run off as fast as I wanted.

“Hey, hey! Wait a minute. Who is that, the one who wasn’t wearing shoes?”

Damn, this teacher’s eyes were really powerful! While the nerdy girl stopped her steps with a pale face, I was moving excitedly in the style of a super busy futsal goalkeeper while trying to cover up the nerdy girl.

“There are two bees, Sir, uh three, eh five! I think they thought your hair was their nest.”

“Move, Errrika, you are blocking my view!”

Shit, I was regarded as an ugly sight. But I persisted, while Rufus tugged at me impatiently. Of course I didn’t budge.

“What are you doing, Errrika? You want to ask me to fight you?”

“Did you even win against me?” I grinned with my hands on my hips, forgetting my aim to play obstacle course with Rufus. I could only gawk when Rufus managed to pull the nerdy girl from behind me.

“Why aren’t you wearing shoes?” Rufus scolded her while putting on a super fierce face that wasn’t scary at all. “What is your name? From which class? And where are your shoes?”

Bombarded by these questions, the poor girl was even paler — even though her calm appearance while facing off Rufus’ successive attacks deserved a thumbs up. I decided to save the nerdy girl from the uncomfortable condition — as well as save myself (actually, this was the main point).

“Never mind, sir. Please don’t make little things like this into a big problem. Look at her face, the poor kid’s face turned green because of you, Sir! Because of your inhuman yelling. Sir, where is your conscience, huh?! ”

“In fact, my conscience is screaming at this time, Errrika. This child doesn’t look familiar and that means she is rarely punished. Maybe she’s not wearing shoes because she is being bullied by her friends…” Rufus’s voice disappeared when he looked at my shoes. “How could you suddenly wear new shoes?”

“This?” I laughed awkwardly while hiding one leg behind my other leg. “These are old shoes, Sir, just rarely seen. After all, these are really cheap shoes. “

“Yes, those are not new shoes, but they aren’t your usual shoes either. You usually never wear shoes properly, you often step on the back, but this one is still very straight up… ” Rufus glared at me with his eyes almost popping out of their hollows. “Errrika, you took this child’s shoes, huh?”

Crazy. I never thought that Rufus had such profound deduction skills as Shinichi Kudo!

“Um, I have an explanation, sir,” I said, putting on a calm face. “My explanation is rather long, sir …”

“Very nice! Let’s hear your explanation in the teacher-on-duty’s room. “

“Eh, but I have a Geography class soon ….”

“Even if you go to class, are you going to listen to what Sir. Tarmono would explain?”

“Sir, how could you be like this? Are those words appropriate to hearing from a teacher?”

Even though I still obnoxiously refused to yield, in my heart I had to praise Rufus who really understood my character.

“No need to deny anything, anymore,” Rufus replied with an angry face. “Hurry up and go to jail — uh, I mean, the on-duty room.”

Well, going to the on-duty room was no different from going to jail. At least in prison they gave food. In the on-duty room, we could only see the teacher eating. In prison, there was a toilet. In the on-duty room, we were told to hold back our pee until the next bell rings. In prison, we could tease the officers. In the on-duty room our fate could be unfortunate if we dared to tease the teacher. Hmm, come to think of it, it looked like the prisons were even nicer than on-duty rooms.

Rufus sat on his throne at the top of the stairs leading to the blackboard in style similar to a hellish judge ready to send us all to the fiercest roasts.