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"Can you tell me what we were discussing?"
"Yes," Noelle nodded, but didn't comment further.
All eyes were on her and she could detect the little sneers and mocking smiles.
"Well? Please share with the class," Miss Lawson added drily, clearly not appreciating having to repeat herself.
Noelle licked her lips, her hands tightening over her notebook.
Why now? Why was she asking her a question when she was wearing pink?
She could have answered it much better if she'd worn black.
Taking a deep breath, she struggled to compose herself, moisture accumulating on her forehead. She raised her gaze to her teacher, her head held high.
Pink might have rattled her. But she wouldn't give them the satisfaction of seeing her flounder.
"We were discussing the nineteenth chapter ofThe Little Prince," she replied in an even, confident tone.
"Go on," Miss Lawson urged, the corner of her mouth twitching while her eyes crinkled—almost in frustration. "Please continue the discussion."
Noelle noted the disparity in facial cues. The teacher was annoyed she'd gotten the topic right, but was still waiting for her to fail, ready to smile in satisfaction.
Everyone underestimated Noelle, and they mistook her lack of interest for a lack of intelligence. In the past, she'd done her best to answer questions accordingly and had even put effort in her homework. But no matter how much she'd tried, her words had always been misconstrued, and her enthusiasm at getting something right would often turn into bitterness. At some point, seeing that all her effort was in vain, she'd stopped trying.
Smoothing her hands over her bright pink shirt, Noelle returned the smile.
"Inflexibility," she stated, watching a frown descend upon her teacher's face.
"Inflexibility?"
There was a low choir of voices repeating the same word, the other students as confused as the teacher.
"The little prince was in a new place but applied the same rules as in the old one. Instead of trying to understand the new planet, he judged it by the rules of his old one."
Miss Lawson tilted her head, frowning at Noelle.
"The little prince shows his lack of awareness of his surroundings. If he had observed more, he would have known that the echo was his own voice," Noelle continued, pinning the teacher with her gaze.
"That is enough, Noelle. You've already shown us that you weren't paying attention," Miss Lawson dismissed her with a wave of a hand, her lip twitching again in amusement.
Noelle narrowed her eyes.
She'd been at the receiving end of that type of behavior since the school year had started. She would be asked a question and then be put down because her answer wasn't therightone. It had happened one too many times that Noelle had become suspicious.
Why was she always the target?
And so she'd put her mind to do someresearchinto the eminent figures of the respected establishment they called a school. What made Miss Lawson so special to emphatically declare her answers aswrongevery time, especially since literature was supposed to havenowrong answer?
"You might learn a thing or two from the little prince, Miss Lawson," Noelle continued sweetly—toosweetly, which indicated something decidedlynotsweet was not coming. "You're not an English instructor, are you?"
"W—what?"
Maybe if it had been any other day, Noelle wouldn't have gone as hard on the instructor. But because it was abright pinkday, she couldn't help but feel her body tense up, little intruders marching inside her brain and causing a deadly itch—one that wouldn't be satisfied unless she did something. Unless she brought the class to an end faster. Unless she got out of the stupidly pink shirt she was wearing.
"Your resume said you finished a Masters degree in English literature from Pepperdine University, but you did not, did you?"
It was becoming increasingly harder to control herself, but she would do this. If she was correct, Miss Lawson would send her to the principal's office, who would in turn call her mother and then she would be taken home to remove the dreaded pink shirt from her body—hopefully she might even get some days of suspension, and she could sleep in.
