Chapter 18 Principal's List
A month passed. Both Celia and Roy tried their best to put the awful, unwanted experiences behind them, which was much easier for the former than it was for the latter. In Celia's case, she mostly just stuck herself within the confines of Ms. Tish's classroom, essentially isolating herself from any humans or Toads that wanted to hurt or insult her. Unfortunately, that didn't stop her from getting hurt every time she visited Roy after school and found out what sort of hell he had gone through throughout the day. Toads made fun of him, humans picked fights with him. The one silver lining in his circumstances was the fact that the amount of swirlies he received lessened exponentially. But still, it was obvious to Celia that this school was not the best place for her boyfriend to be.
A fact that, in all honesty, made her feel extremely guilty. Sure, Roy had volunteered himself to go to school with Celia. But if the girl in question knew what sort of shit show awaited him inside the school's walls, she would have refused to let him come. She hated knowing that someone was getting hurt because of her. Never before did she wish she could go back in time and undo the incident with Bert so badly. If she never got fired, she wouldn't have to be here. And if she didn't have to be here, Roy didn't have to be here either.
"Celia?"
Celia snapped out of her daze. Ms. Tish looked at her with a furrowed brow, which made Celia do a double take. How long had she been zoned out? How much time had the clock eaten away; how much of today's lecture had she missed?
"Sorry!" Celia said, readjusting the papers on her desk. "I am so, so, so sorry!"
Ms. Tish chuckled a little bit. "It's okay. Just try to actually pay attention to the lecture instead of…you know, sleeping through it."
Celia's face grew warm. Even though technically she hadn't slept through anything, she still got the message that her teacher was delivering. "I'll do better."
Ms. Tish smiled and turned back to the board. One thing that Celia would freely and happily admit was that her time being educated by Ms. Tish had actually done her a service, a service that was arguably equal to the one Iggy had provided her. Reading came much easier to her now. Sure, she hadn't been terrible at it; she had been competent enough to send texts and read received ones. But now? Now, she was actually getting a handle on longer words. As an example, before she returned to school, she couldn't spell out the word "dictionary" to save her life. Same could be said about words like "cacophony" and "hypothesize." But now, not only could she read them, she could read them with ease. This was something that her twelve year old self, stuck deep within the disgusting, slimy sewers, would never have dreamed that she was capable of. And it was all thanks to Ms. Tish.
"Now, there are many theories regarding the origin of the universe that scientists hypothesize." Ha, there was one of the words Celia could read now! "One of the most popular is that the universe was created by the god named King Borealis as a gift to his wife, Queen Aurora. Of course, the Star Spirits are also seen as possible creators as well. And, of course, there is the ever so popular 'Big Bang Theory,' which states that the universe came about through no creative external force." Ms. Tish smiled. "We will go more in depth about these various theories sometime next month. If we have time, that is."
Celia nodded, writing down the three most popular theories into her notes. "That sounds cool." She looked back up at Ms. Tish as she put down her pencil. "So, nobody knows for sure which theory is correct?"
"That's right." Ms. Tish giggled. "They're called 'theories' after all, and not 'facts.'"
"Hmm." Celia leaned forward against her knuckles. "So, I would imagine that whatever theory you personally believe in impacts the way you look at the word."
"Oh, without a doubt," Ms. Tish replied. "Many different philosophies, like nihilism, existentialism, and hedonism can all have their roots traced back to one of these three theories, along with other, less popular theories that I unfortunately don't have time to cover over the course of this year."
Celia nodded. "I see." She sat up straight. "Are there any pieces of evidence…real, tangible evidence…that people use to back up these theories?"
Ms. Tish smiled. "Many scientist dedicate their lives to finding evidence that supports their theory of choice." She chuckled. "If you're personally interested in that, a scientist could be the job that you talk about in your end of year project."
Celia's heart sank. The project. She still had no idea how to even approach it. She hadn't gotten any ideas of what she wanted to do when she was older; none whatsoever. Her life was as directionless as a Mario Kart race without a lakitu. And what's worse? She didn't mind that. Sure, she didn't like it, but she also wasn't about to jump on the bandwagon of people who blindly believed in and followed their dreams.
"O…okay."
Right as she said that, the end of the day bell rang. Thankful she had an excuse not to think about the dreaded project anymore, she packed up her things. "See you tomorrow, Ms. Tish.'
"Of course." Celia slung her backpack over her back. She was just about to exit the classroom when Ms. Tish stopped her. "Wait."
Celia blinked as she turned around. "What?"
Ms. Tish smiled, although what emotion was attached to the smile, Celia had trouble placing. It kind of looked like embarrassment, but at the same time, it didn't dip far enough into that category for her to call it that. Curious, Celia took a few steps back into the classroom.
"What's the matter?"
Ms. Tish scratched the back of her head. "Well…" Before she said anymore, she went over to her desk. Celia followed, still not one hundred percent certain what was going to happen or be said. Before she could even fully process what was happening, Ms. Tish slipped a paper into her hand.
"What is this?" Celia asked with yet another blink.
"It's a permission slip."
Celia did a double take and looked into her teacher's eyes. "For what?"
Ms. Tish chuckled (again, the emotion attached to the action was near impossible to place). "Well…that's kind of complicated."
Celia raised an eyebrow. "Okay…"
Ms. Tish took a deep breath. "Back when I was in school Celia, there used to be this thing called the Principal's List."
"The Principal's List?" Celia's face fell. "That doesn't sound good."
"Oh no, it actually was!" Ms. Tish grinned. "If you were on the Principal's List, that meant you got straight As in every class during that semester. It was more or less an even regaler version of the Honor Roll."
"Oh." Celia smiled. "Cool. But…um…what's that have to do with me?"
"Well, for starters, if you got on the Principal's List when I was in high school, that meant that the principal personally took you out for lunch at a nice restaurant." Ms. Tish scratched the back of her head again. "That was a tradition I liked so much that I actually adapted it into my own class."
"Okay…" Celia cleared her throat. "But I haven't gotten straight As in anything…"
Ms. Tish's eyes sparkled. "You clearly haven't seen your grades." She twirled her laptop around and showed Celia a rundown of all the assignments she had done in the month since she was here. At the bottom of the screen was a number: 94.50.
Celia's eyes grew wide. "Wait. That's my grade?" She looked back up at her teacher. "Holy crap, I thought I sucked!"
Ms. Tish laughed. "Oh no; you are far far far from sucking, my dear." She twirled the laptop back around. "Now, I am aware that it's not the end of the quarter yet. However, I think now would be a good time to take you out to lunch, mostly because this is the last quarter in the school year and you wouldn't get much of an opportunity to enjoy lunch with me otherwise." She gestured toward the paper. "Hence the permission slip."
Now that she actually knew what was happening, Celia managed to grin. "That sounds like it would be awesome!"
"That's the hope! All I need is your parents' permission and you'll be all set."
The grin was nowhere close to leaving Celia's face. "Wow! Thank you!" She turned, about to leave the classroom. Before she did, she gasped. "Wait. I know he's not in my class, but is it okay if my boyfriend can come along?"
Ms. Tish hesitated for a second. "Um…" the smile returned to her face. "Sure. Why not." She walked up to Celia and took the permission slip back. "Just let me make an extra copy of this, okay?"
Ms. Tish left the room. As she waited for her to return, Celia felt an emotion that could only be described as jovial (yes, another word she had learned over the course of the year). Sure, the bad things that had happened during this school year were still bad. But this small little gesture of kindness from her teacher actually helped her feel a little better.
Soon enough, Ms. Tish returned and handed Celia both permission slips. "Make sure your boyfriend gets it, okay?"
"Okay." Celia beamed at her teacher. "Thank you."
"You are very much welcome." Celia could feel Ms. Tish smiling at her even as she left the room. If felt so good; so very good indeed.
Hopefully the dinner itself would be just as great…
