SIDEREAE

Chapter 5

Sid decided to go to school early to go to the library. She didn't manage to do a single homework last night, because after she ate dinner and went to her room, she immediately fell asleep.

"Yes! Finally, I'm done." She leaned back on her chair and sighed with relief.

"Here, this is the last one," Mathieu said, pushing the book and the paper containing her homework.

She immediately took them and organized them properly before putting them away inside her backpack.

"Thanks for helping me with my homework, Mathy. I might not be able to finish all of this if you didn't give me a hand."

"No worries. I'm happy to help," He chuckled and ruffled her hair. "By the way, how was your job hunting yesterday?"

"Mmn, well. . .I got rejected at first, but thankfully after trying for the fifth time, I managed to get a job at the ramen shop."

I said smiling widely at him. Mathieu looks at me with proud eyes, as he lightly laughs while patting my head.

"I knew it! Well done Sid." 

"Mn. Thanks." I nod embarrassingly, "If..if you have time later, I'll treat you to some ramen as thanks for helping me with my homework."

"Really? I'm looking forward to it. I'll pick you up at your classroom later."

"Shouldn't it be the other way around?" I asked making him laugh.

"It's fine. Just wait for me there, okay?"

"Mn."

* * *

I submitted my assignment as soon as the teacher asked us to pass it and started the class right after receiving our homework. Math and Physics are the subjects where I struggle the most, and currently, my first subject in the morning is math. What a great subject to start with early in the morning.

I'm not completely dumb when it comes to academics. I'm somewhere above average but no matter how I study math, I can't understand a single thing from it.

Isn't it enough to learn the basics of calculation? Why do we need to study complicated stuff like algebra, calculus, and so on? Numbers should be enough, so why do they still add letters and make it complicated?

I tried to concentrate on the board as the teacher write down some examples for the formula. I quickly jot down everything from the board to be able to listen completely to her explanations. After, explaining the formula and showing us how to apply it in solving problems, Ms. Jensen gave us an exercise, where we need to solve problems using the formula that she taught us.

"Ugh, why is it easier when she's solving it on the board? I don't get it. . ." I murmured while scratching my cheek.

"That's wrong! How can you be so bad at this, when the example is literally on the board?"

I turned my head to my right side, after hearing a familiar male voice. I almost screamed, after seeing Oneiroi standing next to me with furrowed brows. Thankfully, he managed to use his ability to suppress my voice from screaming and save me from embarrassment.

I took a deep breath, as I calmed my racing heart. I wonder how long will I get used to him. . .randomly popping in front of me. I quickly took a piece of scrap paper and wrote on it.

"Why are you here?!"

"Huh? Well, because I'm bored and I'm curious about your class," He replied nonchalantly.

That trait of his is certainly annoying. I sighed trying to erase my irritation, caused by him.

"Anyway, you should've added 4y to each side. Then rewrite the equation as x = 4y -1."

"Err, Like this?" I said following what he said.

"Yes, then substitute that into the other equation. Distribute the 2 before combining the similar terms. Then add 2 to each side before dividing it by 10. . ."

"I said, add 2! Not subtract it." Oneiroi grumbled seeing the mistake that I made, "Are you an idiot?"

I gritted my teeth and glared at him. This jerk is even stricter than my teacher in grade school. It makes me want to stick my pen on his nose and kick him on his knee.

"I get it, okay. I just accidentally wrote the wrong sign!"

"Excuses."

"Ugh. . .At least I'm not that stupid compared to someone who doesn't even know the word cupcake," I rebutted before turning my attention to my paper to rewrite the problem once again.

I internally rejoice when the bell rings, indicating that the first period is finally done. Thankfully, Ms. Jensen didn't give us any great homework. I stretched my back while waiting for our next period to start. However, the feeling of relief from surviving the math period quickly died down, as Mr. Blanco stepped inside the class.

"Crap! I forgot. . .physics is the next subject."

Cold sweats formed on my forehead as Mr. Blanco starts the class.

* * *

Maybe God heard their cries. . .that's why he granted them a miracle. A miracle which means, their teacher in English is absent today. A sound of relief resonated throughout the whole classroom because of this.

Sid and her classmates managed to get an hour break from the class which is nice, as they were tormented by their previous subjects. Sid decided to use her free time by reading a web novel on her phone. She's been following the novel for a month now because she finds it interesting.

The story is about a normal girl who suddenly got isekai'd in a novel as a fake saint, but it turns out that she's the real saint. . .while the original 'Saint' of the novel, turned out to be a white lotus bitch.

This type of genre is really popular these days, where the antagonist becomes the protagonist of a story. But because it's popular a lot of novels were made and most of them are garbage, because of generic cliches or have a strong start then went downhill in the middle of the plot. There's also some unsatisfying ending which is a big disappointment for readers like Sid.

What Sid enjoyed the most while reading novels, is the war of words between the protagonist and antagonist. She always imagined herself as a character, who can confidently refute her opponent, who tries to humiliate her. She can only become fearless and confident in her imagination because Sid knew that she can never be able to bravely refute any mean words that people throw at her. Why?. . . because she's a coward. She's always been the silent type and always hides her pained emotions behind her poker face.

Sid remembered the time when she wanted to play with her classmates during grade school, but they purposely left her out saying that they don't need an extra. When they need to borrow something from her, she happily lends it to them, hoping that they'll be able to like her and include her during playtime. But, when she tries to borrow a pencil or a piece of paper for her classmates, they look at her with sour eyes and rudely refuse her.

Oneiroi who was floating beside her yawned loudly, as he stretched his back.

"I'm bored," He said while wiping his tears from yawning.

"Just go outside to sightsee."

"I don't want to, it's scorching outside. Plus you're just telling me to fuck off."

"Tsk! You can just use your magic to cool yourself," Sid replied without averting her eyes from her phone.

"Well, I'm too lazy to do that. . ." He said as he started to drift around the classroom.

He curiously watched everyone doing their things. Some of the students are huddling around watching movies, or playing games. The girls are talking about beauty products and their crushes. They all have someone to talk to except Sidereae.

"You don't have friends, do you?" Oneiroi suddenly said when he got back beside her and saw her flinching when he said those words.

"What do you mean? I have a friend." "Hm? Do you mean that boy named Mathieu Noor?"

"Yes."

"I don't think he is."

Sidereae tore her gaze from her phone and look straight at his golden eyes. Her face is void of emotion but her mismatched eyes flickered with anger.

"What do you mean by that? Mathieu is my best friend. He's the only friend that I have. You don't know him well, so you have no right to doubt him," She said firmly.

"Is he that special to you, for you to defend him?"

"Of course, Mathieu is the one I trust the most aside from my dad."

"What if he betrays you?"

"Why are you asking me these questions? Mathy will never do that. I'll bet my life on him," She confidently said making Oneiroi grin secretly.

'A potential weakness. . . I wonder, what will happen if he betrays you? Will you be able to face it Dreamer, or will despair consume you?'