Rebirth: Let the Spoiled Teacher Ruin Everything

"Are you questioning my abilities? I spent ages picking out the prettiest shade of pink. How could it possibly not work?"

"That's not what I meant."

"If it's printed on it, it's an admission ticket. Who cares what color it is?" Caelum shot a glare at the student who had spoken up.

"Ms. Ashby went out of her way to prepare these for us, and instead of saying thank you, you're nitpicking?"

"Exactly. She put so much thought into it."

"Pink is great. It's a lucky color. We're definitely going to ace this."

I watched the whole thing play out and tapped my desk twice with a quiet laugh. The departure bell rang, and Ms. Ashby dabbed at the corners of her eyes.

"Alright, alright, it's time to head to the exam hall. I'll take you all there myself, but no roughhousing on the bus, okay? I need everyone to be on their best behavior."

The whole class stood up in a clatter of chairs and grabbed their bags. Students passed their admission tickets around to compare, some snapping photos for social media, others holding their tickets up to the sunlight to admire the watermark pattern.

"These are seriously gorgeous."

"Our teacher is the best. Every other class got plain black and white, and we're the only ones with color."

"Having a homeroom teacher like her is honestly a blessing."

I followed the crowd onto the bus, closed my eyes, and let the corner of my mouth curl upward.

Pink, huh? I wondered what the exam proctors outside the hall would have to say about this "lovingly selected" pink admission ticket.

Once everyone was on the bus, Ms. Ashby suddenly walked over to me. "Sienna, let me take a quick look at your admission ticket, okay?"

Her voice was syrupy and sweet, but her hand was already reaching out before I could respond. She snatched the ticket right out of my grip.

A sharp ripping sound followed half a second later. My admission ticket was now missing a corner.

"Oh no, I didn't mean to do that!"

She clapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide and innocent. I stared at the little scrap of paper on the floor and let out a dry laugh. Out of every admission ticket on this bus, she had zeroed in on mine and managed to tear off a piece.

Two lifetimes' worth of resentment crystallized in that moment, and I looked at her coldly. "Did you do that on purpose?"

The bus went silent.

Ms. Ashby's tears spilled over instantly. "How could you say something like that? You're accusing me for no reason… "I was only trying to help you check it…"

Before I could respond, Caelum was already on his feet beside me. "Sienna, that's enough. She already said it was an accident. Do you really have to make a scene and embarrass her in front of everyone like this? When did you become so heartless?"

"Heartless?" I let out a cold laugh. "Caelum, are you really this blind, or are you just pretending? There are 39 admission tickets on this bus. She didn't ask to check anyone else's. She came straight for mine, and she tore it."

I didn't wait for him to argue back before I kept going.

"These past three years, did all of you honestly think this class just ran itself? The pretty decorations, the fun events, how every other class was jealous of ours? None of you ever realized that I was the one doing all of it.

"Sophomore year, during the school sports festival, she insisted on some fairy tale theme for our marching formation. She didn't tell me until the night before that I needed to find costumes.

"I ran to every costume rental shop in the city and couldn't find 39 sets anywhere. In the end, a friend of mine outside of school had to pull stock from a shop in the next town over and drive them here overnight."