—What are you saying, kid! —Sofía yelled angrily, kicking Achilles in the groin.

"Ahhh!" Achilles screamed, falling to the ground.

—So you learn your lesson, useless! —Sofía laughed, looking at the professor rolling on the floor.

Adam was terrified watching the scene unfold. He remembered the words his father told him before enrolling in school: 'No matter what happens, don't draw attention at school,' and this was the complete opposite.

Adam wanted to escape, but that might be worse than not pretending to be a normal kid like Sofía.

—Now I'm your teacher, Sofía! —Achilles shouted, struggling to get up— You're supposed to respect me! I respected you when you were my teacher!

—Yes, but I deserved respect, brat! —Sofía proudly said, tossing a red card above Achilles with contempt— I didn't skip all my classes like you! Do you think slackers can become young again? When you want to remember, you'll end up just another old dying man if you don't take your work seriously, you useless piece!

Achilles tried to respond, but a giant wooden face emerged from one of the school walls, looking at the three people with some doubt.

The face appeared to be of an old man, with a somewhat wrinkled forehead; it had no mouth and only one eye with a monocle, while the other eye socket was empty. The giant wooden face stared fixedly at the three people through its monocle, as if contemplating a difficult decision.

Seeing the giant face, Sofía ran away in fear and helped the professor to get up, speaking with a voice she had never used before, very childish:

—I'm sorry, Professor Achilles. My parents are making me check the shelves to comply with their rules, and I suppose one of the shelves affected me. I would never do anything bad to such a good teacher like you.

The wooden face looked even more suspiciously at the girl in front of it, and a mouth began to form on its face. Terrified, Sofía stammered:

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—I... I was forced by another shelf... I mean, my parents... I swear... I would never do anything bad to a teacher... I'm just a girl: a real girl, I'm only 12 years old... with a long life ahead.

Adam didn't understand the sudden change in Sofía's attitude. But it seemed that both of them were quite frightened of this colossal face, which appeared to belong to a giant bookshelf. The boy got nervous and cursed himself for not following his father's advice.

Achilles didn't say anything and seemed to want to speak, but his trembling mouth couldn't form words. When he saw the mouth forming on the giant face, tears began to stream down his cheeks, and he fell to the floor, crying in desperation.

The mouth finally formed on the giant face, revealing very neat teeth. Then, the wooden face looked at Sofía and said in a refined voice:

—You're not a child, but you study in my hexagon: Who do you think you are, you scoundrel?!

Sofía burst into tears and fell to her knees, pleading through tears:

—Please, Professor Achilles! Tell this bookshelf the truth, I beg you! Tell them I'm just a girl and your best student!

Adam watched the scene with bewilderment, not understanding what was happening, but feeling a bit scared seeing his teacher and the first girl who had ever spoken to him with such fear.

Yet, Adam didn't turn away to run from the problem. The young hero recalled his father's words: 'Every bookshelf has rules,' and to help Sofía, Adam wanted to understand the rules of this bookshelf.

----------------------------[But then the world suddenly stopped]--------------------------

I remember this scene. I would never forget it.

Should I allow the reader to read it, or should I censor and hide it from their awareness? I suppose I can give the reader the option to imagine their truth.

If you, the reader, want to know the truth, you can read the following page. But you can also skip the page and imagine your own story, which may result in a very interesting reading experience.

All I care about is that you help me find 'The Story.'

That you know how my world worked; I don't know to what extent it may be crucial to the investigation.

But my second day of classes was somewhat bitter to many tastes... (but real).