“A time machine?”
“Yeah, I know you will say that is kind of stupid. Don’t worry everyone around me already said that.” Cyrus said those words with some sort of a forced smile.
“No no that’s cool.” Serene can’t really call it stupid for she is technically a time traveller and the device that did get her to this time point is from her father. “But why a time machine though?”
“There are two reasons. First, it looks cool in the animes that I watched. Second is that I want to see the future with my own eyes.”
The answer is not what Selene has been expecting. Selene assumed that his answer would be going along the lines of he wants to advance science. After some thought, she began to realize that isn’t this a good thing. Maybe this is her way to get back to the future.
“So you said that you will finish this in under 2 years?”
“Well I have to or it will never be finished ever.”
“I want to find what I think I can do so would it be possible for me to crash at your place until you finish that project of yours?”
“Are you saying that you want to accept going to my school but you also need a house to stay in?”
“Pretty much.”
“Well that is fine I am the one who told you to go to my school anyway but you would have to sleep on the couch at least for this night though.”
In Selene’s thoughts, she is thinking how much of a gentleman her father is making a lady like herself sleep on the couch. She wonders how her mom could have fallen in love with him. Maybe he invented a mind hypnotism device. Selene will not be surprised if that is the case.
***
It has been 2 weeks since then and preparations have been made for Selene’s enrollment to her father’s school. The school uniform top has to be purchased from the school itself but the bottom skirt needs to be acquired from random shops that sell uniforms.
Unlike the world from the time Selene came from the schools today still uses physical books. While it was promised that her tuition fees would be free, that does not include the miscellaneous stuff such as her uniform, books and ID. Cyrus still had to spend a lot just to get the requirements for her to go to school.
Speaking of requirements. Legal documents are also of course a must when it comes to being enrolled on a school but as she is not from this time period she has no such documents to show off. To Cyrus's surprise, the current student supreme government volunteered to take care of this matter as she also took care of a similar matter just a few months ago.
Selene has been given a room by Cyrus. She had to sleep on the couch the first night because the room that was supposed to be her room was not prepared yet. The room went from a storage room into a bedroom that one would expect from a teenage girl. The room is furnished with a bed, a mirror, a cabinet full of clothes and a small coffee table.
For some reason, Selene feels excited about going to school tomorrow. Despite her father being impressed by her academic performance when they first met in this time period, she herself is not actually what you would call a genius back in future. While she may still be above average it only comes from memorization and not actual intellect. Back in the future she also did not have a lot of friends for people avoid her for being the daughter of the great Cyrus. Maybe in this time period even if temporary she would have a better school life.
“This Uniform is not bad at all.” Selene with her excitement went ahead and took her uniform for a test drive. Looking at the mirror she asses her look and liked that the skirt goes below the knees. A student uniform comprises of a blouse top, skirt bottom, black socks and black shoes. Depending on the grade level female students would either have a ribbon or a necktie.
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“Honestly these books are heavy” Since Selene came from a time when everything was digital she only had to bring devices dedicated to education.
It is now getting late so Selene went ahead and got to bed. Normally it would be hot at night but luckily her room got an aircon installed by Cyrus. With excitement for the new experience, she closed her eyes with high expectations.
***
“Why is everyone avoiding me?” The first day of school arrived and Selene went to school with great enthusiasm however quickly she noticed that people were avoiding her. She went around and tried to greet people but quickly the students she approached fled.
She sighs thinking that this is pretty much what also happened in the future. Ever since she was a child other kids have been distant with her because of her association with her father. Selene is hoping that at least in this time period that it would be different but she could not be more wrong. While in the future her father has prestige, the current Cyrus has a reputation of being a difficult person to approach and interact with and as he is considered a crazy science freak people often just want to avoid anything related to him. It does not help that he is always at odds against the student supreme government president.
Selene went to her classroom and as she sat on her desk, this marked the start of her first day in a school from the past. At this current time point, she is a Grade 11 student. In the Philippines, the educational system of this time is called k-12. Kindergarten is the first level followed by grades 1-6 representing the elementary school, grades 7-10 representing junior high school and grades 11-12 which represent senior high school.
Selene is currently in the grade 11. Senior high school in the Philippines is divided by specialization strand. Selene is currently taking the STEM strand for it is what aligns with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
The school that Selene has entered is apparently not a normal school. This is what they call an advanced school meaning only those who excel in a field can enter. This is a place where those talented and gifted gather. Selene’s knowledge is only based on what she knows about the future and not because of her excellence. In terms of actual intelligence, she feels like everyone around her just beats her one hundred percent.
Honorary enrollee students are held to a higher standard because they are the students that the upper advanced students such as Cyrus recognized as someone who have great potential. Had Selene known that having such a title comes with so much pressure she would not have accepted it but what is done is already done and she can only do what she can do.
Time passed by and the class started with everyone having to introduce each other one by one at the front. Selene is surprised that even in the past, students were still required to do the cursed go at the front and tell your name, age, hobby etc. Everyone is awkward but at least most of them got some laughs from the other students.
Selene on the other hand, everyone was just quiet. She tried to crack a joke and yet it just showed how much they did not want to care about her. To this moment she still does not know why they act like that towards her. She just assumes it's caused by her father.
Lunch time has come but still not one conversation has been stricken. Looking around she recognizes that some of the people in the cafeteria are her classmates. It looks like everyone already has their own social circle which makes sense because everyone of them already knew each other from junior high school.
Gathering her courage she proceeded to approach one of the social groups, Selene needed to make a good impression, how should she greet them? Should she be casual or be more formal? She went to their table and uttered her word.
“Hi.” She went with the in between but she just got shunned. What is the deal, why are they ignoring her?
“We have no care to be friends with an honorary enrollee.” One person in the group made his piece to Selene.
“What?” Selene still has no idea why with all the hate.
“Hey Gary, calm down.” The girl on the other side of the table trying to de-escalate the situation proceeded to apologize on his steed. “I am sorry about Gary’s attitude. My name is Rose.”
“Oh hello, I am Selene.”
“We know.” Again Gary responded rudely.
“Gary stop that.” Still trying to de-escalate. “Look Selene, I am just going to be honest the students here do not really like honorary enrollees.”
From what they explained honorary students are seen as privileged snob students who see others as inferior. They only care about results and grades and will readily use others as a stepping tool. How they would describe them is despicable.
“Wait I am not like that.” Waggling her hands side by side she tried to clear her name.
Of course, they won't buy it. There is nothing that she can do right now to prove her intention. With defeat, she just went ahead and brought her lunch to the classroom and just ate alone there.
Lunch period now finished everyone started to go back to the classroom, Selene noticed that before everyone entered the classroom that they were reading something from their notebooks. This looked peculiar for it is still the first day, what can people have written on their notebooks for the first day?
It did not take long for her to discover the answer though.
“ Okay class, take one paper and pass the rest to the back.” The teacher announced to the class that there is a day 1 examination.
“An exam?” What in the world it is only the first day and Selene already has to take an exam? Will it be hard? What is the subject going to be about though? From what it looks like the exam is going to be math.
That was easy according to Selene, compared to the math exams she took from the future the ones she just answered were okay. It does look like the rest of the class is taking their time answering the questions but Selene managed to finish it in a little less than half an hour.
Selene feels great, she know she did great on the exam so she just sat back and relaxed. Time passed and the teacher now finished scoring their papers. The teacher with the papers in his hand proceeded to make his announcement.
“Everyone passed.” With this, everyone cheered. “Except one.” Cheer turned into fear, who could it be? The sole failure. “Miss Selene, you failed the examination.”