The next day I had to go to school, I actually got up late, probably because of being tired from yesterday's PE class. Last night after going to bed, I fell asleep quickly. My mind is still not very good, my head is dizzy and I feel like my brain is stuffed with cement, weighing my head to lie down on the desk to sleep.

To my surprise, when I arrived early to class, I found that a large number of seats were empty, occupying two-thirds of the class. It was not until the bell rang that many students stumbled into the class. Obviously, many students in the class got up late today as well.

A record number of students were late to class -- a staggering one-fifth of the class -- setting a new record for "iSTEM" schools.

The form teacher's expression is naturally self-evident; I can feel her heart rise with fire, burning a hole through a person as if using a red paintbrush. Again, she mercilessly scolded the late students. We all knew that she was likely to scold them because this would cause her to lose this year's excellent teacher award opportunity.

Mrs. Tucker was attracted to the headmaster of the school, but her attitude was slightly eased; she naturally forgot about what we as a collective did, but she still took the late students, severely criticized them all morning. She had the late students who studied in school were write a self-criticizing paper and also punished them with cleaning the school toilets, including her little garden for a week.

This morning, Dianthe seemed to have a hunch that this was all her fault; so she sat on the desk without saying a word the whole time and covered the upper half of her face with a book. She completely lost the vitality of yesterday, and no longer took the initiative to chat with others after class. She wanted to make the others ignore her own sense of existence.

In the class, as if I also verified my question from yesterday, I again saw Dianthe’s strange ears and tail exposed. It seems to be the main reason for their negative emotions. Dianthe exposed more of her ears and tail more frequently; I even saw that her ankles were distorted in an abnormal point of view, like a mass of free deformed soft clay.

But Dianthe seems to have had anticipation and a habit. That her strange body features gave her skill to cleverly cover-up and change back to her original form and disappear into thin air with extremely quick speed. The action is like a skillful magician, using an exquisite peerless trick to change a rabbit or pigeon under a magic hat.

If it hadn't been for the distance between me and Dianthe, and me secretly watching her actions and reactions, I'm afraid no one in the class would have noticed that this classmate had exposed her non-human characteristics many times.

At noon, the students who had been taken away by Mrs. Tucker came back from the principal's office. Each of them were like captured soldiers, with angry and unwilling faces.

After seeing what happened, Dianthe hid from the students' view, sat down in the corner of the canteen, and after finishing her meal quickly, she ran out of the canteen with a nervous expression, as if she was suffering from a kind of sad mood. I even thought her psychological quality was too fragile.

It's not that I couldn't understand Dianthe's ideas, but what surprised me was that she cared so much about the relationship between her and the group being late. Maybe ordinary people would only condemn themselves in their hearts without affecting their actual actions.

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I didn't know if it was because I was watching her all the time. As a desk mate, I had an idea to comfort her, so I followed her in the direction she left. However, Dianthe didn't go to the playground to relax but went to the office of the Dean of Education.

At first, I thought she had some personal matter to attend to, but the sound of teacher Michael talking to her came out of it and reminded me of some suspicion that was circulating in the class.

Acting on purpose between Dianthe and teacher Michael, we were the real objects of observation; I couldn't help but feel a surge of anger in my heart. I quieted my steps towards the door and listened to the conversation with my ear close to the door. The voice inside was clearly in my ear.

"Sir Michael, I am well aware that the Ohio department wants to conduct a social observation experiment on mythological creatures, but under the current experimental system, your practice not only puts me in a difficult position to integrate into the group but also indirectly implicates others."

Dianthe’s restless voice came from inside, still mixed with the clear sound of banging the table, her words were full of unwilling anger, but the content of her words was more about the request.

Teacher Michael, with his stubborn voice, retorted without hesitation: "Dianthe, I'm sorry we can't tell you observation experiment project details, you only need to follow some steps. As a migrant, the experimental system is no problem; you need to know yourself as a mythical creature. This in itself is a factor that affects the normality of this social experiment. We can't use a human in this social experiment to measure your factors."

"I am not an experimental animal. The ultimate goal of this year-long social experiment is to find a way for mythical creatures to get along with human beings. This is not my place as an exchange student to be placed in an awkward position!"

"That's right, so we're testing whether you can co-exist as a mythical creature in an awkward situation with humans and whether humans indirectly hate you because you can't bring them luck as a unicorn."

"I am not human! But you can't just say no to the idea that I want to live normally because I'm a mythical creature! Even you, as the person in charge of the project, are wrong about QiLin. QiLin can indeed bring luck to human beings, but this racial feature is not absolute.

"So, you want us to ignore your race and let an ordinary person please a mythical creature as a normal element of a social experiment. You know a creature with the power to destroy towns and cities walking down the street, do you think the powerless humans can see you as equal?"

Mr. Michael's voice became increasingly shrill, and although I didn't know what his expression was like behind the door, I was sure Dianthe was upset.

"When I signed and sealed it in advance, I clearly saw that there was no provision in the legal document that created an inappropriate environment for the person involved; and I don't need to cooperate with that."

"Well, since you're putting me on the spot, I'll report to your dragon king that you're not cooperating with our social experiment."

"You can't do that!”

Dianthe roared angrily. Just then, I heard the table being overturned and a cup breaking and Michael started arguing too.

"Why can't you do that? I am the person in charge of your social experiment. I have the right to communicate with your superior or even complain about your defiance!”

"I did not cooperate, obviously you, as the person in charge of me is by every means, are being difficult... "

"Well," Michael cut in, "You don't want to disappoint your boss. I remember the Dragon King of the East had high hopes for you!"

"What do you want?”

"So, you better play along. If I remember correctly, endurance is also a gift of mythical creatures like you.”

"I... "

I seemed to hear Dianthe; she obviously could not compete with Michael. I also do not know what to do, although I want to help her. But what can I do? Push the door and shout at Michael, or turn away to tell others about the things Michael said.

I know what the right choice would be, but I still choose to pretend not to have heard their conversation. Let's comfort Dianthe in the afternoon!

When I was about to turn to leave, the back foot stepped on an empty glass bottle, and the clear sound echoed in the corridor. At that moment, I heard many sounds, such as Michael's footsteps approaching behind the door, Dianthe's screaming, and my heart beating...