Three:
Chloe was now successfully bundled into her uniform! Miss Bustier stood calmly at the front of the room, ignoring Chloe's desperate, half-baked pleas.
"I-I'll give you a jet! A yacht! Money! Anything! JUST MAKE THE TORTURE STOP!"
Miss Bustier smiled as if there was no-one attempting to claw their way accross their desk, which was ruining their three-hundred dollar manicure.
"So, now that that's out of the way, everyone has read the book I assigned two weeks ago, correct? At least the first few chapters?"
Nearly everyone nodded. Chloe kept her head on her desk. Crying her makeup off meant it was not moving. Miss Bustier went to the board and wrote up a few basic comprehension questions. Most of the class got started right away. Chloe lifted her head and stared at the board, seeming shocked. Miss Bustier went over to the blonde girl and placed herself in her line of vision.
"Chloe, do you need some help?"
The girl nodded like a bobblehead. Miss Bustier slowly read the first question aloud.
"Who is the main character of this book? Write a brief description."
"Uhhhh..."
Sabrina tried to lean over to whisper to Chloe. Miss Bustier smiled at her calmly. Sabrina stopped.
"Well, is the main character a boy or a girl, Chloe?"
Chloe's now blotchy, red, unmasked face seemed frozen.
"I-I don't remember. I read the book immediately after you assigned it and I've forgotten the details."
Chloe seemed mildly proud of her excuse.
"Well, perhaps we should get your memory checked. After all, I only assigned this book a week ago."
Chloe's face crumpled.
"O-okay! I didn't read it! I was just going to get Sabrina to summarise all the important stuff! I only read fashion magazines, not fiction trash!"
Miss Bustier shook her head.
"Well, I suppose you're going to be reading it during this lesson."
Miss Bustier turned around and strode back to her desk. Chloe started pretending to be violently sick. Miss Bustier spun on her heel and caught Chloe mid-puke.
"Or maybe you should spend this lesson in... THE NURSE'S OFFICE?"
Chloe recoiled and pulled the book out of her bag. The nurse's office was a nightmare zone. The nurse was ridiculously paranoid about germs and contagious things, and she insisted that every student she inspected was one hundred percent clean. Passing her pre-inspection inspection was almost impossible, and you managed to, it was not an easy way to get out of class and have a rest. No matter what you were ailing from, the nurse gave you an in-depth talk complete with presentation, about the goriest diseases known to man. No-one wanted to go to the nurse's office. If you were throwing up repeatedly, you just kept going to a trash can or the bathroom. Chloe herself had been to the nurse once, and had actually called the army in the next time she got sick, disturbing the school day so she could sneak back into her limo and drive back to her home, where a doctor who should have been tending to an extremely sick, very important, old woman was called in to look at the mayor's darling daughter's ghastly cough. Ridiculous.
The bell rang for lunch. The entire class rushed out of the room at top speed. Chloe stayed where she was, only occasionally moving to turn pages. Miss Bustier looked up from the test she was currently marking.
"Chloe?"
The girl did not respond.
"Lunchtime."
"What? It's been like, three seconds! Why has time passed so quickly?"
"Maybe you got wrapped up in the story?"
Chloe ran out of the room as fast as she could, clearly embarrassed. Miss Bustier leaned back in her chair and grinned. The book she had assigned had a bit for everyone in her class. Chloe probably loved the girl the book mainly focused on, and possibly the romantic side of the story, which Rose also adored. It also had a good share of sword fights, and good comedy in the author's fourth wall breaking and almost a second story hidden in footnotes. It was one of her own favourites. She was trying to make it so her students actually enjoyed the work she was assigning, and this was the first time it was working on Chloe. Chloe usually spend assigned reading time touching up her immaculate make-up. Wait, what if she... The teacher bolted out of the room. The principal needed to hear this.