The humans really like me. It must've been an honour for them to see someone like me in a place so dull like this. I've seen many students being drawn out of joy and unambitious with the learning here, until their faces turned jovial when they saw me standing by the door and sitting here.
They wanted to know more about me. Just when I started to sit comfortably on my chair, I found their eyes met mine with such wonder that they couldn't stay in their seats. I could tell that these eyes had never seen something so lovely. But I couldn't tell if they knew something more than just a cookie here.
"So, Doorwell. What is it like being a star there? Is it a pleasure like every adult says?" Stan asked.
"Oh, it was! So many cookies get the heavenly treatment in the Lovebloom Park every day! When we're not starring a show, we play by the river, nurture flowers from the garden, and even...if possible...helped some two blooming Joylings to match."
"Blooming? As in...love?"
"Yeah! It's what I could do best for the other Joylings in the studio. We're the matchmakers who gave the happiest bloomers a future worth loving! We're so good at doing so that we can tell from the eyes that someone is falling in love."
My eyes first peeked at Anna. She looks nervous, having her gaze somewhere but on me. That flower growing on her thought is telling me everything I need to know about her sudden nervousness. I approached her to confirm the very person she was crushing on.
"You there..." I called on Anna.
"Me? W-what is it, Doorwell?"
"Someone's is in passion for love now."
"W-what?"
"Ooh..."
"I can tell from the eyes, Anna. And it seems you're into someone here..."
"Pfft! Doorwell, you're being ridiculous! I'm just...exhausted! It wasn't easy handling a stable all day, you know?"
"Really? Then why are your fingers tapping like that?"
"Huh? Oh! Aww..."
She was surprised when I mentioned her crush. Not only was I right about it, but she even looked away to the window just to be distracted from the love she's having. I couldn't let that love slip away, so I had to help her push that bloom out for us!
But when I got closer, she was dismissing it with a brush on my hand. She was too embarrassed to think about it, and she decided to walk out of the class with a rose-coloured face. Poor me! I almost found out whose her crush is.
The whole class were laughing about it. But I didn't see what's funny about someone who was blushing with embarrassment. Anna was just having a feeling worth talking about, but I only wished she couldn't be so scared of it. Stan suddenly appeared to me when I was looking at her.
"Shame." The boy muttered. Stan was being nonchalant about her. "Don't mind her. Anna just have a crush on the boy from the other class."
"Name's Andrew if you're wondering."
"Thank you, Stan! That helps this cookie alot with her job." I am grateful for his words.
"I'm curious. Did you get paid doing all of that? Looks like you'll get tired so easily from just looking into people's eyes..."
"Yeah! With candies, obviously!"
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"See? I told you she was here. Oh, my class is about to have a lot of attention for the rest of the semester." Bernard was staring sharply at Doorwell with concern by the doorframe.
'Hey, at least you got an amazing student. Just think of how much she could advertise this school for us. Doorwell Lovemore is a star of a show, and girls would like to know her."
Teachers are standing by the doorway, mesmerized by the view of a cookie like me. I choose not to care for them being there, since I was drawn to Stan's conversation about his collections of stones and something he called 'antique coins'.
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"You fancy with coins before?"
"No. I'm not a banker. Doorwell didn't like to keep metal..."
"Yeah, that explains a lot. Maybe you should! There's some coins that only exist by 7 across the world and I have one of them in mine."
I can see Stan's passion and love for the coin as big as two bloomers' eyes. But he looks down on me for not knowing much about coins like him. He was surprised that someone like me didn't get to know much about his collections. But I do understand the feeling of keeping something personal, too.
He was a huge collector, but he showed me how much effort he had put into keeping every antique in his backpack. To him, these precious minerals were sacred. But for me, it all looks the same and beautiful to the eyes of the all-loving. After all, why should I value one love better than another?
"Hey, everyone's looking sad now..." I muttered.
"Not me! Doorwell, I think you should see my stashes of treasure!" Stan invited me.
Though his stone-looking face didn't seem to make much conversation, I am driven by the will to understand him more for the love of the friendship we've made. After all, who could say no to a pinch of caramel in the studio before? I knew I won't.
Stan was quite stoic with his passion for collecting shiny things. But as a friend of humans, I could only care for the chance of impressing myself before him. If I had a lyre here, I would've set the place much brighter for him to see me.
"Do you like sweets, Stan? I knew many children would never resist such a thing before!" I sweet-talked with him.
"Why would I? Sweet ruined my tooth!"
"Oh...I see..."
It surprises me that he does not look as awed or nostalgic as I thought he would. Maybe his love for the nickels and coppers was an extraordinary bond. His demeanour rarely changes when the two of us are talking, except whenever I mention something like a coin.
Stan was difficult to talk to as a friend, but I had a feeling not to give up and went to sit like many others. I noticed his way of looking at these 'antiques' he's holding was unusual, as if he was trying to keep them clean all the time.
"You sure love those nickels so much, don't you? I have a friend who likes to collect stuff too! His name is Kolecta, and he was a crazy collector with antiques like treasure."
"Sadly, I don't think he's ready to leave the Institute yet until he is well with his...another thing..."
He wasn't too drawn to the talking of a Joyling. But the more I kept talking about something outside of pennies and golds, his eyes were drawn sharply with an unsatisfied face. The way he looked at me was really strange and hurtful. How could he look upon me with such a gaze?
"What do you know about a penny? Do you even have one, cookieface?" He sneered at me. "I bet your momma got that penny from the fake chocolate coin."
"No, my mom's not a cookie. But I do have this!"
"Is it possible if I use it here?"
Being friendly wasn't easy with Stan unless I had something shiny to offer him. When he sees my caramel token that I have carried from the studio and home, his hostile face suddenly turns friendly and playful for the talks. But instead of talking, he just snatched my only caramel token from my grip.
"What is this? *Sniff* *Sniff* Yep, that's a pure caramel...yuck..."
"Don't you know how valuable this thing is over your hand? And yet you smeared it on your pocket like that?"
"It isn't smelly! Besides, don't you want it?"
These tokens were used to be the cookies' treat for anything in the studio, but since the downfall of the Great Frown Outbreak, having one almost means nothing to us. Now it was lying on his hand, serving as nothing more than a remnant of the past and an antique for Stan.
He had every tool for it, but it all looked blurry for me. The thing that a human would do to feel loved is through the value, the passion of collecting, and the desire for culmination. Love can also learn to be collective, too. But it didn't make us get any closer.
"Caramels are precious around here, Ms Valentine. People like you are fortunate enough to have one. With a right hand, this school might accept this token as worth £25,000."
"Wow, that's so many for a token! Are you sure it was really that expensive?"
"Yeah. Don't you know? Caramel is so expensive nowadays. Only rich people can afford one in this town. Sweets here are expensive, cookie girl."
He started talking about the caramel token of mine. I was quite interested in his words when he began to talk about how possible it could be for Doorwell to earn Doorwellion with just a token. That makes me so happy that I couldn't hold myself back with joy.
But he was still mean to me. Stan finds it ridiculous that I wasn't as addicted to these caramels as he was. He didn't even return the token to me, so I wasn't sure if I was about to be rich, as he had promised me before.
"Too bad it has to be held by someone like you. Haha..."
"Hey, that's mean! I am sweet, you know? Not silly..."
"Sweet as in toothache, you mean."
I noticed that Stan's collections are always glossy but mostly rock. None of these rocks looks colourful or interesting to me, but Stan seems to love them so much to have them around. I wanted to take a closer look at the stone in my hands, reaching for the specially yellow one.
"What's good with this stone, anyway...? Can you even trade it?"
"Don't touch it!" He yelled.
My hand was touching the soft, glass-like yellow, I could feel an odd coarse but sandy-like feeling on my finger. It felt familiarly like something from the ocean, something that has been taken out directly from there before being washed and slightly polished.
But when Stan sees my hand holding that thing, he quickly snatches it away from me with an angry face, which I had never seen from him before. It was a sudden burst of rage for me.
"Eh...?" I backed off in fear.
"That's mine! You can't just touch anything around this place like that. Who do you think you are?"
"I'm sorry, I thought I could have a look on them. You have so many, and I think you could share some for us to play?"
"It's not for a play, Doorwell. These rocks are rare and only found on the coast in different seasons. They belong to the dead mollusc and minerals resurfacing from the deep sea during a tide."
"Ooh, are they precious? Can you tell me more?"
"Sorry, that would be...another day. Looks like class has even pass an hour for us to have fun."
"Oh, but we can always have fun every hour! Don't you think?"
"Agreed. But it would be more fun if we can get out of this class and get some fresh air, don't we? Mr. Bernard's sure a slacker to be this long for a basket..."
"I'm pretty sure he was still looking for it!"
We get along just fine. An hour had already passed in this class without my knowing, while Stan and I were busy looking at his collections. Yep, it was all precious despite the bland colour he picked. Maybe tomorrow, I should give him more of my caramel tokens so he doesn't have to bring all of this. Or maybe I shouldn't if he's not going to return it.
I'd say he was charismatic. But if I could get a closer look at his eyes, then I'd say that Mr. Collector is just a collector. I would love to be his friend after school, collecting more of these stones together wherever he finds them. I can see that pink is his favourite colour.
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Mr. Teacher is not coming back to the class, yet Anna has already returned with a happy face. I was thinking of talking to her, but she quickly brushes me off, still clinging to that boy she fell in love with. She looks much happier, too.
"Anna? Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah! I'm fine! Doorwell, thank you for being my friend." She returned to her seat beside me. Something was different about her.
"Oh, you're welcome!"
I returned to my seat and prepared for the first class with my books out. Yet I noticed how bland the cover was with that blue, so I decided to sprinkle some sugar to make it as bright as a noon sky. Sadly, I couldn't get rid of the Frowling looks out of it. Even Stan thinks it still looks as ugly as it is cheap.
"Aww..."
"That's not a good sign for us, isn't it? A child like Ms.Valentine here could only mean that we're about to be flooded by more of these 'creatures' from Sebastian's hideous lab."
"Could you imagine what kind of student we would have to deal with every day from now on? This isn't a daycare...and we're not paid to aid the students."
"But we would be paid a lot if we do. Think about it. Not only Coldham is getting more fame, but we're also getting more money from all these new students."
"We're a private school, Bernard."
"I'm just saying."
"Well, that explains why the Valentine's registration comes with this confidential file. I think those people aren't her parents..." That teacher is pulling out a document.
"What does it say?"
"Just some recommendations for Ms. Valentine on what to do and not to do. Do they think we're a daycare?"
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The teacher was arriving late for the class. He didn't even bring the basket of fun he promised for me and the kids. But he looks different, as if he had something in his eyes when he's catching me. Maybe he was also surprised to have a Dorwellion pounds worth of student.
"Alright, class! We're back! Sorry for being late!"
"Teacher, where's the bowl? Thought we're going to have fun...?" I asked the man.
"Well...I couldn't find the bowl."
"See?" Stan uttered arrogantly to me. "It's okay, teacher. All of us had already get to know with Doorwell."
"Is that so...? Well, then. We'll start the class, then."
We started off with a math class. Sweet, I'm good at this! I've been practicing counting since I was working as a janitor, measuring how much boredom I've had from carrying too many crumbs and trash on the floor. I'm so good at it that I can't wait for my turn to demonstrate.
Not many students seem to enjoy it. The class went a bit sad with the name 'algebra'. I'm not sure why, but it sounds fun. I mean, who wouldn't want to learn something that started with 'a' and ends with 'a'?
"Alright, kids. Today, we'll start with algebra. Now please help Dorriel with this material, because she would need a lot of assistance about almost every subject in this class. Isn't that right, Ms. Valentine." The teacher is picking up that white chalk. I remember that chalk from the Institute.
"Yes, sir! Uh...what is algebra?" I asked.
"Just something boring you didn't want to learn with that name."
"Oh, Mr. Stan. Trust me, that hurt me less than my time spent here in the morning with you."
"I don't like where this conversation is going..." I pause. Suddenly, it felt like the class was hostile.