"Nobody loves Juliana Aoi Ikishira more than I do! Nobody!"
A pen drops down to the floor with a clang and slowly rolls to the edge of the main desk in the centre of the examination hall.
Everybody turns deathly quiet.
"Miss Nemona." The voice in the centre of the room calls her, calmly, coldly, and everybody in the room (a few others with their hands drawn over their face to avoid the same fate) look towards the doomed perpetrator.
So does Juliana. Except she's looking at her best friend.
And she's sure that right now both her and her best friend's palms are sweating.
"This is an examination room, may I remind you." Miss Rika remarks, only slightly lifting up her glasses as her gaze still remains nonchalantly trained on the stack of exam papers in front of her.
Nemona starts to tremble. "B-but Miss Rika-" Juliana shakes her head.
"I thought... The examination only s-starts half an hour from now."
The examiner sighs and tugs on her tie to release it. Her disappointed sigh is infamous for slowly bringing eternal damnation upon the students, because Miss Rika follows it up by resolutely pointing to the whiteboard with her metal stick where it's written-
Disciplinary Actions:
Speaking: Deduct fifteen marks.
Nemona's usually bright eyes and face go completely lax. "I-I..."
"Just say you're sorry." Juliana elbows her friend and mutters underneath her breath.
"I'm sorry..."
Their examiner was an asshole.
That much Juliana knew.
She had been conducting their last two yearly examinations with a horrendous adherence to overwhelming rules.
And that was the only place where she was known.
A half an hour later, exactly on the dot, their exam begins.
In the middle of the exam, Juliana begins struggling.
She's not sure why, but her vision begins to get really hazy and her stomach twists, almost knocking her sideways in pain.
Did she eat something weird? Or why-
The head examiner seems to be looking at her right as she's struggling- oh why oh why oh why- and she tilts her face sideways to glance at Juliana right when it seems to be getting worse.
"Miss Juliana, can I help you?" Miss Rika enquires curiously.
"No-no it's fine." The pain is not fine. She's not sure why, but her throat is closing in.
But she feels too uncomfortable to talk about it, to the cruel and cold examiner.
"It's fine? Then I'm not sure why you're disturbing the peace. If this is an attempt at cheating-"
The pain claws and digs at her stomach and reaches to her chest, almost as if pulling out something from within it, but Miss Rika only continues her tirade, and Juliana can't even focus on the pain because-
"If you move from your seat you will face stern disciplinary action so-"
Before she even knows it-
Before she's even fallen to the ground-
"Asshole." She chokes out thanks to the pain before she can even help it, heavy against the impact of the floor as all the faces turn around to her, horrified.
As all fades to darkness.
"Where... Am... I?"
The scenery around her almost ripples out in front of her eyes as Juliana blinks, eyes slowly creaking open as she spots slightly off-white walls, a bookshelf and more as she turns her head to the side.
Is this... the school nursery?
When had it been redecorated so quickly? How does it look different?
As she moves her head slightly and lifts herself up against the pillows to look at everything properly-
She finds a pretty face in front of her.
The examiner?!
But- she looks so different, her skin is somehow more taut, and the examiner isn't wearing her usual glasses-
Miss Rika's daughter?!
And wait-
The finals.
"I'm sorry-" Juliana stammers, quickly attempting to get up from the bed despite her body feeling so heavy, "I have to get to my exam now! I'm all better-"
But before she can move, the green-haired girl grabs her wrists and pushes Juliana gently back onto the bed, "Wait, wait- are you sure you're okay? You've been saying weird things." Her examiner's lookalike mutters awfully gently.
So different...
"Who are you?" Juliana questions, heart beating extremely fast almost as if it was going to jump out.
Something about this felt extremely weird.
Where was she, exactly?