I walked to the acdemy, just like I used to.
Seeing the familiar streets brought back a strange wave of nostalgia. It felt odd being nostalgic for a time I had technically already lived through.
Vegetable vendors were out front, washing their produce with buckets of water. Shop owners swept the dust from the front of their stores. The morning air was cool, and the streets were still quiet.
It was pretty early, so there weren't many students out yet.
Soon I reached the academy gates and made my way to my classroom.
Surprisingly, I wasn't the first one there.
Two people were already inside.
One of them was a guy—Brad Evans, if I remembered correctly. He was short and very skinny, almost skeletal. Despite having a buzz cut, he was strangely hairy. The hair on his forehead almost reached his eyebrows.
The other person was a girl.
Niara Haley.
I remembered her clearly because she was the top student in our class.
She was very pretty—straight black hair, fair skin, and dark brown eyes behind a pair of glasses that sat neatly on her shapely nose. Her face was soft and slightly squarish, with thin pink lips. She had a plump, healthy figure that made her stand out even more.
I used to like her, actually.
Not just because she was pretty, but because she was smart.
But she also had the personality of a classic overachieving student.
Always asking the teacher about homework. Always reminding them about tests. Always trying to compete with everyone.
Most people didn't like her much.
Maybe they would have, if she didn't shut people down every time they asked her for help. She had a habit of rejecting people rather bluntly.
Quite a personality.
Our classroom had five rows of desks facing the front.
My seat was in the fourth row from the door, three desks from the back.
Brad was sitting in the same row as me.
Niara, as expected, was sitting at the very first desk in the middle row.
As I walked past Niara, I suddenly remembered another reason I liked her. She had big boobs, the kind that filled out her shirt while her tie hung loosely over them.
Man, how could I forget about those? I thought to myself as I passed Brad
I sat down at my desk.
None of us said anything to each other.
Brad and I weren't that familiar yet, and Niara… Well, she wasn't exactly the easiest person to approach.
So I just sat quietly and checked my schedule again.
I had already looked at it last night, but I wanted to make sure I hadn't missed anything.
The first lecture today was Ms. Steven's science class.
She had given us some homework the previous week and said she would check it today.
Luckily, my past self had already completed it, so I didn't have to worry about that.
In fact, most of the work had already been done.
The old me was a pretty responsible student.
Soon the other students started arriving. The classroom slowly filled with conversation as people greeted each other and caught up.
Our class had forty students, and only seven of them were boys. The rest were girls. Most of our class was 18 years or older and odd one 19. I think when they made our section they put the oldest kid in this section.
Even with a class like that, I had somehow managed to stay single the entire year.
I had been quite the loser back then.
Hopefully, things will be different this time.
The first bell rang soon after.
A moment later, Miss Steven walked into the classroom.
She was wearing one of her usual casual dresses. Today it was dark blue with a light pattern on it. The dress was loose, and with her slim figure it was hard to tell much about her shape underneath. But that didn't stop anyone from imagining.
Her blonde hair fell to her shoulders, parted neatly to the sides. She had the composed charm of a mature working woman. I didn't know her exact age, but she was probably somewhere in her late thirties.
Her face was sharp and attractive, with light blue eyes and pouty lips. Most of the dresses she wore left her forearms visible, and the muscles there were surprisingly well defined. It was pretty clear she worked out regularly.
I wondered if I might get to see her naked in this world.
The classroom gradually quieted as she placed her books on the desk and looked around at us.
First, she took attendance.
All forty students were present.
"Did everyone complete the homework given last week?" Miss Steven said. "If you did, pass it forward now."
Notebooks started moving from desk to desk toward the front. I passed mine along with the rest.
After the pile settled on her desk, she looked up again.
"Is there anybody who hasn't submitted their homework or didn't do it?" she asked.
Two girls slowly stood up.
One was in the center row and the other near the front.
I winced a little.
They were in trouble.
Our academy technically didn't allow corporal punishment anymore… but that didn't mean teachers had completely stopped punishing students.
Miss Steven had her own way of doing it.
She never hit students herself.
Instead, she made other students do it.
Her gaze moved from the two girls to the rest of the class.
"This class has forty students," Miss Steven said calmly. "And I currently have thirty-six notebooks."
She gestured slightly toward the two girls who were still standing.
"Two of them belong to these two."
Then her eyes moved slowly across the classroom.
"So who do the other two belong to?"
The room went quiet.
"Anyone who hasn't submitted their homework can stand up now," she continued after a brief pause. "Or I can find out on my own."