She hated Mondays, and it wasn't because they were Mondays.
Her father was there for breakfast, lunch and dinner, she had a double period in Literature at 8 AM, and math at 2PM.
It was a nightmare of a day.
She left her room after her morning routine and went to the dining hall. Mrs Álvarez had arranged a breakfast spread as her father liked and she was first to get to the table.
She could probably take something for the road and hightail it out of there, tell them Rose drove her to School.
"What is that you're wearing?" Her father's booming voice came from behind her, and she winced at the lost opportunity. She should have gone straight to the door.
Stupid spread.
"The uniform." She answered putting her bag down and heading to the table.
"Those are tennis shoes not part of your uniform". He continued looking disgustedly at her feet.
"We're allowed to wear any type of flat footwear we want." She tried to keep her voice even.
"Well I don't allow it, I guess I'll have to speak to Michael." He said with a frown that deepened as he watched her move to her seat.
"Have you forgotten something?" He said, raising his eyebrow.
She sighed and moved to his side, leaned down and kissed both his cheeks. "Good morning", She whispered. He held her arm and pulled her closer, "Good morning what?"
"Good morning dad"
He let her hand go and patted the left side of the table. "Your mom will be here in a second."
He looked at the hallway as if he expected her to appear when he said, and frowned again, he was about to call for her, when she appeared hurried and fixing up one of her earrings.
"Sorry darling." She kissed them both Good morning and sat down in front of her, at her father's right side.
The delicious spread was a mixture of things they liked. Her mother and her loved Turkish breakfast so there were various types of cheese, virgin olive oil, spicy green red and black olives, fresh tomatoes, cucumber, homemade orange marmalade and spicy eggs, prosciutto and sliced turkey. Her father on the other hand liked french and so, there was always petit-pain au chocolat Croissants and Shnecks present.
They ate in silence, the threat of him talking to the head teacher looming over her head like an invisible monster. He'd do it, it wasn't just a threat.
He liked everything to be the way he liked it to be and that's what mattered in the end, his generous annual donation to the school only made everything fall into place, whatever place he chose.
She said goodbye and left hurriedly with the excuse that Rose was driving her today.
Rose never drove her, she wouldn't drive her even if she could. They hadn't spoken for weeks now and it didn't look like she would ever speak to her again.
She arrived twenty minutes later, in perfect timing with the bell. Everyone was already inside.
"Good morning everyone, how was your weekend?"
Michael Terra positioned himself directly in front of her as he received the onslaught of weekend plans of fifteen students.
He tilted his head down to lock eyes with her and asked again, "What about you Mia?". He always made his questions feel personal even if he had just asked the same to an entire class. His hands lingered on her too much, he always found an excuse to touch her, he always had her directly in front of him, and he had become besties with her parents in the span of weeks.
She didn't know how to explain it and she'd tried. Changing classes was impossible since he was Head teacher and she'd have to ask him directly, the only option was to trust the school counselor to do the right thing, but then her words didn't quite paint what she saw of him. The final picture was flat, it had no dimension, no life, and the counselor didn't believe it.
The results were disastrous, but welcome nonetheless. It was the first time she had a glimpse of who he really was. She counted her blessings because at least she wasn't blind anymore.
He was so mad, his rage barely held together, she had made the error of speaking to the counselor a Friday evening. Michael was one of the last teachers to leave on Fridays, and the counselor asked him to come speak with her after she shared her worries. And of course, like a good counselor, he left the room to give them privacy as he went for a coffee on the other side of the building.
She had never seen anyone flatten their expression so quickly before, it felt ominous. His voice was a mere whisper but the strength in it came from deep within, somewhere she couldn't see, or rather didn't want to see.
He cornered her, away from the door, putting himself directly between her and the only exit. She never wanted to experience that kind of fear again, it had messed her breathing, fogged her mind, blurred her eyes and made her limbs as useless as jelly.
She was terrified and she had been feeling it growing and ignoring it for months until he dropped the mask he held to the world.
She didn't remember much after that. But she didn't see the counselor again that night, Michael had come closer to calm her down or threaten her she couldn't tell, only a distant part of her was present. He took her out from the staff door to the parking lot, placed her in the passenger's seat and drove her around until it was dark. He stopped somewhere, with thick tall trees and few roads.
She didn't remember what he said, but he had taken her on his lap and caressed her hair and arms as if trying to move them for her.
At that point she had closed her eyes, while her breathing went to hell in a pretty basket.
She remembered the burn of his kiss on her forehead, then came the piece of cloth with the sickly sweet scent pressed on her mouth and nose.
She woke up in her room hours later.
It took weeks for her memory to sew itself back together, and still to this day she didn't know what he said.
It was the first time she felt such a paralyzing fear, and the memory of it raised ugly feelings.
"Not much, I stayed home." She answered trying to look at his shoulder instead of his eyes. There was too much there she didn't want to see.
"Oh I think I saw you on Friday at Carlos III Campus. Did you attend the strike?"
"It wasn't held there, Mr. Terra." A girl behind her intervened.
"Yeah, what were you doing in Campus Mia?" Asked one of the boys in a teasing tone.
"Mia tiene novio, Mia tiene novio, Mia tiene novio..."
The chant made her cheeks burn and her heart speed in absolute fear as the man's face twitched dangerously.
He moved behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders, caressing the side of her neck with one of his fingers.
"Okay stop it guys, this is your Senior year maybe you should all stop thinking about Campus parties and more about Campus Lectures."
He must have felt her tense under his touch because he gave a last squeeze and moved the conversation along. He gave her the minimal attention he usually did when she was tense until class finished, at times it felt like he was fighting himself, and that scared her even more.
She got her things in her bag in record time and reached the door before he called her name. She pretended she didn't hear him and went to her next class.
The thought of him knowing she was attending Lectures on Criminal Psychology made the most terrible scenarios run through her head.
God she fucking hated Mondays.
