My Bothersome Life

Getting Ready to Teach

A girl with tangled up gradient red hair had a scythe crawled around her neck, which made her bright orange eyes glisten with fear.

When the scythe was lightly pressed to her neck, a light streak of crimson blood hurled down, leaving a slanted line on her pale skin.

The young girl holding the scythe made the blade slowly dig into the girl's neck trembling from terror. Her dull aqua coloured eyes narrowed with a harsh smile, "You know this wouldn't have happened if stayed far away from him. You should have learned to stay unnoticed in your rightful place or else-".

"This inevitable situation would have been preventable." She softly whispered while bending down to speak into the other girl's ear.

The girl that was shaking in terror did not do anything wrong. All she had done was to fulfill her own duties, not knowing that it would attract jealousy from others. A girl who was striving to survive in her ruthless life where only the fittest people was able to live a decent life.

And this girl who was swallowed up in her journey of survival was- me.

* * *

Mr. Suzuki led me to a bright classroom with around twenty students already sitting in their seats. "This is your math teacher for the next week." Mr. Suzuki announced handed me his authority.

"Hello, my name is Rika Shane but you can call me Rika since we're the same age. I hope we'll have a good time together for the next week and I will also be holding extra help sessions for people who need extra help during lunch break starting from tomorrow." I friendly looked around the classroom.

"Rika, do you have a boyfriend?" A student raised his hand.

"Which school in the first district did you come from?" Another student asked.

"Rika when are you free?" Another student asked eagerly.

"Unfortunately, I will not be that free during the duration I will be here." I pretended to pout.

That was all I was going to answer because I wasn't sure if Luke would allow me to say anymore.

Since I finished introducing myself, I exited the classroom and went to another classroom where it would be Luke's and my office for the next week.

I opened the door to see a printer, a bunch of desks, office supplies and more that has been all provided.

Luke was already inside, trying to make lesson plans for his class. However, I was relaxed, knowing that it would only take about one hour to prepare to teach a class for middle school math.

I started to flip over the math workbook to find that the math here was way easier than I thought: Find X & Y.

X + Y = 10

Sigh. I learned this in kindergarten in this world! I flipped through more pages of the workbook to find that everything was extremely easy.

After drafting up a lesson plan for an hour, I finally had free time to do whatever I wanted.

What should I do now?

I walked outside the office to find something to do.

"Hey! Rika!"

I turned to find one of my students call out my name.

"What are you doing here" I asked as classes did not seem to be finished yet.

"It's break time for five minutes."

They actually had break time here. How nice~!

"You don't have to look too surprised, I don't know how the school work where you go Rika, but this is common everywhere in the third district."

Maybe I was sent to a lower ranking school in the third district. Since I knew for sure that higher ranking schools would definitely not have breaks.

Since I didn't know my way around anyways I decided to ask, "Can you give me a tour of the school?"

"Sure!" The student's face oddly blushed as he guided me through the school.

When we were finally near something that looked like the cafeteria, I saw something very familiar from the past life.

It was one of the most convenient things ever invented in mankind for pleasure: a vending machine. It was full of chips, jelly, drinks and the list went on.

"Rika, do you not have this in the first district? Your eyes are oddly sparkling in front of the ordinary vending machine."

"Nope, there's no such thing in the first district. Plus, there's no breaks in class, and each class lasts for more than three hours." I sulked from the recalling my horrible memories.

The student looked more than just shocked. Maybe it was that unbelievable to him.

Welcome to my life.

"I don't have any money in the third district." I sadly said my thoughts out aloud.

"It's ok, it'll be my treat since you're new to this school anyways." The student showed me his wallet full of spare change.

"Then I'll just get the strawberry milk carton with cream buns and potato chips!"

"I thought you never used an vending machine before" A wave of confusion and suspicion came onto the student's face.

"Well I am from the third district after all, but I usually buy these things from the convenient stores." I sheepishly made an excuse.

I couldn't say that I used the vending machine very often in the past life.

The student gave me my custard cream bun and strawberry milk carton. When I took a bite, I felt like I was swallowed by happiness. Nothing beats junk food once in a while~.

However, all of the sudden a hand destroyed that precious moment of my savouring the junk food. A hand grabbed onto the back of my shoulder with an ominous vibe attached to it.

A scary pair of ocean blue eyes observed the delicious cream bun that I was eating and the unopened strawberry milk in my hands. Thankfully the student didn't pass me my potato chips yet so it made me look more modest.

"I was a bit hungry, so I decided to eat a snack while looking around the school." I pretended to not spot Luke's clear disapproval.

"Where did you get the money? From what I know, you don't have any money with you from the third district." Luke teemed with suspicion.

"Well-"

"Actually, I bought it for her..." The student tried to cover for me.

Maybe I looked like I was in a lot of trouble (not that I wasn't), I smiled back in thanks for the support.

Luke hostilely smiled back to the student, "I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself. My name is Luke de Roselia and I give my thanks to you for treating my partner well. However, since we will be having lunch soon we will have to give our farewells here."

The student appeared like he was almost pitying me. One cream bun and strawberry milk from a vending machine was all it took to make Luke mad.

It was fine when I ordered the same things from a restaurant with Shelly and Ellen, but not from places like a vending machine. I did understand it was because of the pride he had in the reputation of his family name, but it did go overboard many times including this incident.

Luke grabbed my hand to escort me to the room that the principle provided to enjoy our lunch. I waved back to the student to signal that there was nothing to be done while being dragged to that room to have my lunch.

As usual, this room looked like it was the fanciest place in the school. It was probably used for the most important occasions with the crystal chandelier and wine glasses filled with juice.

I sat down on the cotton white chair while eyeing the usual gourmet meals that I would be served in the first district.

After all the dishes were present on the table, the staff left the room to give us some privacy.

I ate half of my plate heartlessly while thinking about my delicious cream bun and strawberry milk that Luke made me throw away.

"Are you not feeling hungry today?" Luke pretended not to know my loss of appetite.

'I really wondered why I wasn't feeling that hungry today,' I glared back at him with complaint.

"You should eat because we're not eating dinner until we finish our jobs for today." Luke tried to dismiss my complaint.

Then maybe you shouldn't have taken my food away!

"Then maybe you can return my snack back that you threw away along the way here." I almost dropped my fork.

"You think that I don't know about your hidden stock of junk food in our room." Luke subtly threatened me.

I was shocked that he figured out. I was sure I hid them really well.

"I'll make a deal with you. I'll buy you the same snacks later once the day is over. So, don't eat them in school when we're here as a guest while representing our school."

I guessed Luke was being lenient today. But I knew what he really meant was that he would buy me the gourmet version of the same snacks while what I wanted was the familiar taste from my past life.

However, I knew that this would be the best deal that I'd get.

"Fine. I agree!" I quickly finished the rest of my plate and rushed out of the room.