The alarm rings. It's Monday.

Maya wakes up and quickly turns it off.

School days. The bane of Maya's existence. There was nothing worse to Maya than being forced to interact with people who don't understand her, bully her behind her back, and show zero respect for her many boundaries. Not to mention, nothing it ever teaches interests her, so, to top it all off, it's as boring as it can get. She wishes she could just tell school to go fuck itself and spend the rest of her life all alone, but she knew that she had to go through it.

So, she grabs the bottle of wine she had opened two days ago. It was about half-full, and, despite this being a huge amount, Maya gulped it all down without thinking. There was no other way for her to tolerate the nuisance of going to school.

She clumsily got herself ready and got on her bicycle. It was hard to keep balance, and pedaling was a huge chore. It felt as if she was going up a steep hill. When she arrived at school, she was hyperventilating and had to drink some water from one of the school's drinking fountains. In class, she sat down and started thinking about her life.

Meanwhile, Mymy was carefully observing every step of Maya's, from home up until the very moment she sat on her chair. Mymy then leaned over to Coco and asked:

"Pssst, Coco!"

"Hoi, Mymy!", Coco whispered back.

"Remember our agreement from Friday?"

"The thing about watching over Maya?"

"Yes. Keep that in mind today. I already see some red flags!"

"Ok, Mymy, will do!"

Then, Teacher Vera arrived.

"Good morning, class.", she said unexcitedly.

"Good morning, teacher!", everyone else replied in unison.

"Today's lesson is about..." Vera checked her notes and sighed. "...the French Revolution."

While she was giving her lesson, Maya had her face rested on the table, her arm blocking away all light. What was initially just thinking about life very quickly turned into thinking about random memes, which made her giggle. She forced herself to be more quiet, but she was struggling hard, and, after holding it for so long, she started actually laughing out loud.

"What's so funny, Maya?", Vera asked her angrily.

"Ah!", Maya said as she quickly lifted her head up. "N-nothing, teacher, I sw-"

"Does the concept of nothingness entertain you or something?"

This comment was so funny to Maya that she started laughing even harder and banging on her table.

"THAT'S IT, MAYA, AFTER MY CLASS YOU'LL BE GOING STRAIGHT TO MY OFFICE!", Vera yelled.

Maya then swallowed her laughter and went back to resting her face on the table. She felt sleepy so she had a quick nap without even realizing it. She then woke up to the sound of the school alarm, with Vera looking at her dead in the eyes and gesturing her to follow her. Maya then got up and clumsily followed her.

"Did you see that, Coco?", Mymy whispered to Coco.

"Yes I did, Mymy.", Coco replied. "She's definitely acting very bold and weird for sure, it's very unusual of her."

"Precisely! Judging by the way she talked and especially the way she walked, I suspect that Maya's been consuming something that's making her be like this."

"Like what?"

Mymy took a deep breath.

"Drugs and alcohol."

"Oh, no! Drugs and alcohol? I'm very concerned now, Mymy!"

"I see where you're coming from, Coco, but we still need to observe her a little more before making a conclusion."

Meanwhile, Maya and Vera reached the office.

"What in God's name has gotten into you, Maya?", Vera asked. "Laughing fits right in front of everyone? Your stumbling around everything? You better tell me what's going on or else I'm calling your parents."

Maya froze. Even though she was boozed out of her mind, this moment still felt extremely tense and she didn't know what to do. Did she lie? Deflect? Just tell the truth and be done with it?

"I-I have a disease!", Maya said impulsively.

"A disease?", Vera asked. "Which one?"

Maya still didn't know what to answer and was unknowingly slipping off her chair.

"Oh, let me guess.", Vera said. "It's the one that begins with an A and ends with holism, right?"

"...what?", Maya asked.

"AL-CO-HO-LISM, Maya! I have enough experience to tell that you're heavily intoxicated just about now."

Maya froze again. She discovered it! What is she going to do? She seriously thought that her life was over.

"Well, Maya, I'll let you off under one specific condition."

"What is it?"

"If you pay me enough cash, I can keep supplying you with the finest alcohol I have."

Maya was visibly surprised yet happy about this.

"So, is this a deal?", Vera asked.

"It's a deal.", Maya replied.

"Good. Just don't bullshit me nor be a snitch and I'll not ruin your life."

Maya was then dismissed and sent back to class, and the day went by as usual.

Late at night, in her room, Maya was searching for any amount of cash that she could give to Vera in case her current stock runs out. Luckily, she found her lost wallet, and it had a good €400 in it. She put it in her backpack, grabbed some water, dripped vodka inside the same glass, gulped it all down as her nightcap, and went to sleep.