The girl with the mysterious song

The old man with the snow-white hair bowed slightly under the weight of years. His voice was calm and gentle, but a little weak.

“Come on in, Neo.”

The voices of several students whispering seemed to create a barrier that prevented Neo from entering. His eyes were drawn to the teacher's small desk in the corner of the wall, especially to a small cushion that stood out for its uneven colors. Suddenly, THE PILLOW MOVED!

The teacher noticed his curiosity directed towards the object.

“That's Lenny, my companion, he's really very nice.” Said the teacher as he pointed to what was on top of the mostly white cushion with details like black ears.

To get a closer look at the cat, Neo closed his eyes, took a deep breath and entered the room. He ended up bumping into the teacher, who handed him a pen. His other finger indicated an empty space that had just been erased, where the formulas had been before. He didn't even look at the students, but he could feel their curious eyes focused on him.

“Write your name and age on the blackboard.”

“Now that I was in front of the whiteboard, the idea of introducing myself wasn't a good one. I didn't want to do that, I'd rather remain anonymous. You can't trust humans. People are synonymous with problems, the less you know the better.”

He looked at the teacher, who gestured for him to continue.

“Neo was ill and ended up having to go to the infirmary, he missed his first lessons, so I asked him to introduce himself now.” Explained the teacher as the boy wrote on the board, “Neo, 17”.

“Now it was time to turn around and face the room. I didn't want to. But I couldn't just stand there either. I'll turn around quickly, then I won't have time to feel anything. I was going to overcome fear with brute force.”

In front of him were thirty chairs arranged in five rows of six, twenty-nine of which were occupied by students.

Neo looked around for the girl who had saved him from hitting his head earlier. There were a few suggestions of girls who could be her, but none of them could be pointed out with certainty: 'THAT'S HER!’

Overall, it was a normal room. There were some stronger, stockier boys, some skinnier ones. Some girls seemed to be more outgoing, others more shy. There were people who seemed snobbish, others who seemed nicer and more friendly.

A superficial analysis that could be made in this short space of time.

Their faces didn't express surprise, but other emotions. All of them negative: pain, contempt, rejection, sadness. It was difficult to say.

“My name is Neo, I'm seventeen, nice to meet you.”

“That's it?” Asked the curious teacher “You can talk about what you like or don't like, I think that's how it's normally done, it's been a while since I last introduced myself to the class as you can imagine.” He smiled, lightening the mood.

“Yes, that's all.” He answered as briefly as possible.

Neo's eyes met the students, who continued to have the same expressions; the situation was awkward. The teacher couldn't lighten the mood.

“Was that normal? It couldn't be.”

The boy began to feel as if he wasn't welcome there. He looked at the door and it was so inviting.

“I want to get out of this suffocating place. There has to be a way out.”

“Nice to meet you Neo.” Said a familiar voice, startling and paralyzing him.

He turned his attention back to the room and his eyes met with a girl standing there.

“IT'S HER!“

“She's the girl who held me!”

He was so sure that even he was surprised.

The girl was smiling, her blonde hair shining in the sunlight, just like when Neo had fainted. It was straight, long and silky, adding a touch of softness to her appearance. The girl looked delicate, but her posture was confident.

Neo felt as if that encounter with her earlier had created a connection, as if his body was weak. Was he going to faint again? Or was he hypnotized by her ocean blue eyes?

Everyone in the room was confused. But they seemed to have been captivated by her energy.

One by one they stood up.

“Welcome, Neo.” They said almost at the same time. Deep, thin voices all together. The cat Lenny was startled.

Before Neo had been feeling rejected, now he was embarrassed. His face was red.

“Thanks, I guess.” His voice came out weaker than he wanted.

The teacher was perplexed beside him, but soon returned to normal and remembered the assignment.

“We'll continue with the lesson if everyone will sit down, you too Neo.”

Neo walked slowly between the desks while the other students sat back down, going to the end of the room in the last row on the right where it was free, near the windows. He felt that at least he could look out when he was bored.

The teacher asked everyone to open the workbook to page 8 to continue with the subject he was teaching before. Neo looked in his bag for his notebook and tried to follow along when he found it.

The lesson went by fairly quickly. Although his head was boiling. It was a lot of content and he didn't know how he had managed to absorb it all. For some reason those numbers and formulas seemed familiar. Even if he had always been a cat.

In the end, he just wanted to talk to Saya. I think he needed to thank her for what she'd done.

“Neo can you come here for a minute.” The teacher asked, stopping him from leaving the room.

He walked over to the teacher's desk and a question popped into his mind.

“What's your name, professor?”

“Haven't I introduced myself to you before?”

“Unless your name is Lenny.” He joked lightly.

The teacher was embarrassed and laughed lightly.

“Wow. It must be the age. My name is Antonio.”

“Why did you call me? Antonio.”

“If you have any trouble with my subject, you can come and ask me after class and I'll set aside some time to help you.”

“Thanks, Professor.”

Neo said goodbye and headed in the direction he had seen Saya go. Something told him she hadn't left yet. He searched the whole school until he came to the library, behind the reception desk, a girl with short, straight light brown hair was adjusting her circular-framed glasses while talking to Saya.

Neo rehearsed a little before approaching, thinking about the questions and what he was going to answer. It was easy. All he had to do was say thank you.

As he got closer, his body stopped working. His heart beat faster, he felt his head get hotter and the rest of his body colder, his hands got cold and he felt chills run through his whole body. Then everything began to spin slowly and his thoughts became jumbled.

When he reached her side, he couldn't speak a word. Until she turned to him. Which immediately startled him.

“Thanks for earlier, you know!” He thanked her, avoiding looking at her directly.

It seemed that his lack of explanation had left Saya a little confused.

“Are you better? I got scared when you fell on me. I'm glad I managed to hold you.” She smiled.

“Yeah, sorry about that.” He laughed lightly. “I don't think it'll happen again.”

“If I'm around, I can hold you.” She said, laughing as she showed him the muscle in her arm.

“Please.”

They both laughed a little louder than usual. The girl at reception looked at them with a frown.

“Sorry.” Neo whispered. “I don't want to get in your way. So, I'll see you tomorrow, Saya.”

“I'll see you tomorrow, Neo.”

Saya smiled and was so beautiful, Neo went to walk backwards and ended up tripping over a person who was entering the library and almost fell. Which made him laugh.

When he was outside, he realized that it was late afternoon and the sky was dark with clouds. And the best thing to do was to go back to the tree garden and sleep. He was looking forward to the next day.

When he had almost reached his destination, he felt light drops of rain wetting his face.

He tried to turn into a cat and couldn't.

He had lost his powers.

“What now?” He thought.