“I see, then I will look around for the school for a while to familiarize myself here,” Carolle said as she headed to the door. Before she could open it, Ms. Gina called out to her.

“Ah wait! Then have this card. It’s a visitor card! If some school personnel or teacher ask about you, you can show this to them and they will understand it right away.” Ms. Gina said as she handed the card to Carolle.

“Alright. See you later,” Carolle put it in the pocket of her white hoody and headed outside.

There were no students in the hallway now since lunchtime was already over, and Carolle just walked aimlessly wherever her feet would bring her. Though some things and places remained the same, there were a lot of changes that she didn’t recognize anymore like some of the classroom and the huge tree that was in the middle of the school front that was gone now. It became a perfect place now for a  complete parking lot. There were also no drinking fountains but it was replaced now with some vending machines. It was like a lot of things had upgraded to a certain degree. Well, that was to be expected.

It has been almost fifteen years since she returned again from this place. As Carolle Linette, her high school life was just your typical high school life. She strived to join some extracurricular activities and maintained her grades. However, she didn’t really have a close circle of friends. It was just no matter what she tried, she never got herself from getting close to anyone closer to her age during high school. Other than casual talks, and some group activities with her classmates and schoolmates, there was nothing much memorable. 

If she would tell something that stuck to her mind during high school, it was probably Ms. Gina. Carolle was a bookworm and back then, as an English and Literature teacher, they really always talked about so many things with Ms. Gina when it came to Literature. Though sometimes, she just really got tired of all those long essays and book reviews that Ms. Gina loved her students to do as their projects and school activities, especially to Carolle. Ms. Gina was always the one who recommended to Carolle what book she needed for her to read for her book review. And that was also how she got her hand in the Fate of the Stars. 

Carolle faintly smiled as memories of her high school life were appearing left and right. Being in this place surely brought a lot of nostalgia for her. As Carolle continued to walk, some teachers and school staff in the hallway asked who she was, and after showing her visitor card, they simply greeted her as they hurried through their class. All of the teacher’s faces were not familiar with her.

“Who might you be, young lady?” Before Carolle turned a corner, she stopped when a soft but old man’s voice called her. When she turned around, she immediately recognized who it was.

Principal Alberto Buendia, the school principal. He was a man with a gentle elderly expression on his face. But his eyes were sharp and one could see that it reflected his wisdom with age. Right now, he must be around his sixties. And yet, he was still here serving the school.

“Good Afternoon, Mr. Buendia. I am Carolle Linette, one of the students who studied here before, and I was brought here by Ms. Gina Toress to be a sub teacher.”

“Oh, you are the one that Ms. Toress brought. Her office is that way…”

“Ah, I already met her. For now, I am familiarizing myself with the school again. There are so many changes in the school that even I, myself, am not familiar with anymore. Fifteen years is a long time after all.” Carolle said with a faint smile. 

“Yes, that is a very long time indeed.” Mr. Buendia said as he chuckled lightly. “I have seen a lot of students that went in and out of the school for almost three decades now. But no matter how much time passed, I also found myself surprised as well with many changes. So what do you think of the school now from before?”

“I passed by one of the classrooms and I was very surprised to see that the classrooms are already air-conditioned.” Carolle chuckled. “Back in my time, fifteen years ago, there were only ceiling and standing fans. I remembered how most of my classmates back there were trying to solo the fans for themselves.”

“Ah, that’s right.” The principal also chuckled lightly. “It has only been seven years since some of the alumni helped the school to have air conditioning in every classroom. I am really great even if the students already graduated here, they still love the school and help it in every way to improve.” He then looked at his watch. “I have some meeting to attend to, Ms. Linette, if you need something, feel free to ask the teachers and staff here. Welcome back again here and I hope your time will be more fruitful here.”

“Yes, Mr. Buendia,” Carolle answered with a polite smile and bowed curtly. The principal started in the opposite direction and Carolle waited for him until he turned to another corner. Carolle continued her stroll again to the school. “Mr. Buendia surely is the same person as before.”

She went to see the canteen, where there were far more tables now and it became quite huge with lots of stalls compared to before. The library was still the same, as well as the clinic, only the paint from white to green wall changed. She continued to walk more.

After a few times of strolling, she was surprised that she found herself on the rooftop of the school. Well, as cliche as it sounds, the rooftop was her second favorite spot in her high school life here. The first one was the library.

As she stepped out of the rooftop, the gentle breeze of the air blew. She held her jacket closer to her since she felt slightly cold. As she looked around, it still had the same botanical rooftop garden before. And there were a lot of beautiful flowers in different flower beds and pots. And the small fish pond where some koi fish of different colors were swimming.

‘It is still the same as ever.’ Carolle could only sigh to herself when a bugging feeling build inside her. ‘But what is this feeling? Why do I feel like something cliche will happen here? I have seen enough already, I will go back now to Ms. Gina so that I can go back home.’

At the mention of that from her thoughts…

“Kyahh! Please stop!” A scream of the girl resounded at the other side of the wall. Carolle slowly turned her back, since she didn’t want to trouble herself with whatever it was. And it was not like, it could be a case of someone jumping out the rooftop. The whole rooftop was covered with metal fencing with a metallic net-like structure that overarched and could be considered as an entire roof for the rooftop. It was impossible for anyone to climb it up.

However, she stopped when someone held her hands. “Please help me, teacher!’

As Carolle turned around, she saw a girl in two braided ponytails, down her hair. She was wearing glasses and seemed to be like some meek and nerd type of student. However, her hands that were grabbing the left hand of Carolle were trembling. No, not only her hands but her entire body. As if she was scared of something.

“Sorry, but I’m not a teacher here, yet,” Carolle said. That was when the girl seemed to realize that indeed, Carolle was not wearing any uniform of a teacher. Her clothes were too casual for a teacher.

But before the girl could even speak, she immediately went behind Carolle.

“So this is where you are? Trying to run away from me? Don’t even think about it.” Three girls that looked sassy and mean appeared from the other side of the wall.

“The-they are bullying someone.” The girl in glasses said behind Carolle.

“Bullying?” Carolle’s right brow rose. ‘Oh, good Lord. Why is my gut feeling always right? I don’t know that I will really meet such mean girls in real life. Ah, well, it’s not that I don’t meet people back in that world.’

“And who might be this loser?” The leader of the mean girl sized Carolle up and down. And she was quite annoyed, though she was wearing casual clothes, and no accessories or make-up, her figure was perfect and her face was naturally pretty.  “If you don’t want to have trouble, don’t get in our way.”

“You said, they are bullying someone?” Carolle completely ignored the mean girls.

“Yes,” the glasses girl said.

“Where is that student?”

“She-she is behind that wall.”

“I see, just go down and tell everything to Ms. Gina. She is in her office right now.” Carolle said and the glasses girl nodded her head and hurried downstairs.

“Hey! Are you ignoring me?!” The leader of the mean girls was already exploding in anger.