My second chance in a strange reverse world!

I looked at Peyton and Kevin in confusion, half confused as to why they were here and half at the way they both shot murderous glances at Mrs. Smith as they pulled me into a protective hug.

"You're safe now Alex." Peyton whispered in my ear and stroked my hair like a loving mother.

I heard the teacher in question sigh in exasperation. "Again?"

This is not the first time you have been in this situation? That's sad...but I can relate. Annoyed by the way Peyton was stroking my hair, I pulled away from them and sighed at how these two guys seemed to think I was made of glass. "Guys, she was just showing me my qualifications, she wasn't harassing me, threatening me, blackmailing me or anything like that."

Kevin gave Peyton a confused look and then spoke hesitantly.... "But, uh, in the cafeteria we heard how teacher Smith brought you in here with a scary sick look on her face..."

"It's probably my normal look." Teacher Smith said with a flat stare.

They both grimaced. "Oh..."

I rubbed the bridge of my nose, "Please guys, apologize to your teacher, this is embarrassing.

Both looked genuinely sorry and gave hesitantly shy glances at the teacher. "We're sorry..."

Smith just waved them off, "Whatever, get out of here before security comes and arrests me or something."

The guys took notice and quickly left the office, but I stayed a little longer, sympathetically giving her an apologetic look that she didn't get because she was busy doing something on the computer, so I sighed and left, thinking about how I could apologize to her later.

(***)

Kevin played with his food with his fork, stealing glances at me every few moments. I didn't have to use my peripheral vision to know that Peyton was doing the same to my left.

"Are you still angry?... "Kevin dared to ask under his breath.

“No.”

Peyton on my other side said worriedly, "Come on Alex, we apologize, can we please forget about this?"

Sigh. "Look, guys, I appreciate your concern, but I just don't like being treated like I'm too naive."

"But you are." Kevin pointed out, to which he received a flat look from me. He raised his hands. "Okay, I'm sorry, we won't do it again..." He said, when I nodded he asked again. "Are we okay?..."

As they both seemed to expect some sort of verbal response from me I nodded a simple "Yes."

"Yay! The cute pancakes are coming together again!" Payton exclaimed embarrassingly loudly before giving me a surprisingly tight hug.

I couldn't help but want to die of embarrassment. Although I couldn't see it because Kevin had joined in and I was smothered in a group hug, I was sure we had attracted a lot of attention.

And try as I might, I couldn't keep them away. How did these skinny kids have so much strength!

(***)

I walked through the halls of the school after classes were finally over. The students were practically bursting with joy as they walked out, and I won't lie, I was a little relieved too. So I picked up my pace until I got to the exit, but before I could cross the threshold that separated this school from freedom, I saw a crumpled brochure on the floor.

Curious because I found something familiar in the design, I picked it up and found myself smiling slightly because it was one of the brochures Ada had shown me she was making for her club. However, I felt a little sad because the way it was lying there, it looked like someone had crumpled it up and thrown it away.

At that moment, I also remembered that I had promised to go to her club on Monday. I debated for a moment whether I should go or not, but I had already made a promise, so I took my phone out of my pocket and wrote a quick message to Luna that I was going to a club today and not to wait for me, and with that done I turned around and started walking back to where I remembered Ada's dingy club was.

As I walked, ignoring the stares of the girls around me, I wondered how I could help Ada improve her club, or at least make it minimally inviting so that someone would want to approach it.

Unfortunately, I couldn't come up with anything, so I decided to improvise, as usual.

When I got to the door, I was slightly surprised to hear a muffled conversation through the door. But it was definitely a conversation, well, maybe not so much. Rather than a conversation, I would say that Ada was talking to someone. Well, I didn't know if it was someone else because I didn't hear any other voices, but I assumed it was someone else because if Ada was talking to herself that would be very scary.

I knocked on the door and Ada's voice stopped. The footsteps that I assumed were Ada's approached the door before she opened it slightly to poke her little head in and see me and immediately burst into a fit of joy.

"Alex!" She said, before opening the door fully and inviting me in with infectious enthusiasm. "Please come in!"

I gave an amused smile to the girl who was practically jumping up and down as I entered the room, before that smile faded and gave way to confusion for the person who was sitting uncomfortably in a chair in front of a computer with a lot of coded text that I honestly didn't even want to begin to understand.

She didn't seem to see me, because she sighed as she closed her eyelashes and spoke in a tired voice. "Thanks Ada for the tour, but I don't think this is for me..." She turned slightly before freezing when she saw me. "A-a-a-a-a-alex."

I waved her off with one hand. "Hi Lineth."

Harvier

Hmmm, hello? Well, I'm kind of back, so I hope you're all well, it's been a while....