Gifted Academy: The Perfect Student

Sometimes, one person is all you need to change everything forever.

***

Everyone else is out having fun. That\'s fine. I\'m happy for them. However, despite what the carer says, I really am fine, sitting here on the grass. The soft breeze against my face, the slightly salty taste in my mouth, the fluffy, loose dirt between my fingers—I am enjoying myself. Like everyone else, this was my first time truly being free by myself.

Anyways, this wasn\'t the first time I\'d been let outside—there was also that one chess competition a while ago.

Suddenly, I heard a soft, gentle voice right beside my ears.

"Hey, who are you~?"

"Huh?"

It was a young girl, no older than I was. Swaying in the wind was light, chestnut-like hair flashing the glares of the sun. Glimmering through the individual strands of hair, the bright sun peeked its way through. I wouldn\'t realise it at the time, but it was the first time that the world appeared with colour through my eyes.

"I said, who are you~"

"Me...? I\'m no one, really."

Looking down at me with a disappointed pout, she angrily pointed at my face.

"I meant, what\'s your name!"

Looking away, I hoped that she\'d just give up. Suddenly, I heard her voice in my ear again.

"Why are you sitting all by yourself?"

"No reason, really."

All of a sudden, the girl rolled her fingers into a fist. Taking a step forward, she slammed me straight in the head. With a dense thump, I felt a slight pain run through my skull. What was this... did I do something wrong? The pain quickly went away, but I was confused.

"Aah... Why did you hit me."

"I want you to stop acting so stuck up! Speak normally to me."

"But, this is how I usually speak."

I felt another pain in my head. With her supposedly-delicate hand, she formed another fist, conking me once again. This was the first time I had seen a girl act in this way. I wasn\'t sure whether I should\'ve been worried or scared.

"You know, speaking like that doesn\'t make you cool!"

"Um, I\'m sorry."

"Just say you\'re lonely if you\'re lonely."

"I\'m... not really lonely?"

Taking a seat next to me, she had a somewhat empathetic expression on her face. Like she was looking down on me in some way.

"It\'s fine, you know~ I\'m lonely as well."

"No, but I\'m not re—"

"I said it\'s fine! I\'ll hang out with you since you\'re lonely!"

"Uh."

Suddenly picking herself up off of the grass, she grabbed me by the arm and violently pulled me up. Stomping away, I was dragged behind her like some sort of doll. With no reason to fight back, I just let it happen. It wasn\'t like there was anything else I wanted to do. I decided just to follow her, in case she brought me somewhere interesting.

Making our way down the street, she seemed to already have something in mind. Like she was on a mission, she was completely focused, pulling me towards a large building on the outside of the main shopping centre.

"Here, we\'re going to play this."

Looking at a very vibrantly illuminated sign, it didn\'t take long to see where I was. The words Horror Escape Room were quite crudely plastered onto the wall. She tried to drag me in, but I hesitated a little.

"Come on, what\'s wrong?"

"I don\'t really want to do this."

"Aw~ don\'t tell me you\'re scared!"

"That\'s not really it."

"Sure~ I know you\'re just scared. Don\'t be a little baby. I\'ll be here to protect you~"

"Um... it\'s not really that. I just don\'t want you to see who I really am."

She crinkled her eyebrows and looked down at me again.

"Stop with that weird talk! If you\'re scared, just say you\'re scared!"

I guess I could just hide who I was. Escape rooms were puzzles, but they were boring to me since they were so easy to solve. Still, I could just hide my abilities. The only thing was, I didn\'t want to make anyone else scared of me. Whenever someone saw who I really was, their reactions were always fear.

The only place that accepted me was the walls of the Ideal Human Project.

"Gaa! Just come inside already. If you\'re that scared, just close your eyes, and I\'ll hold your hand," she insisted.

"Eh?"

Ignoring my opinion, she grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the centre. She seemed to have purposely picked out one of the staff members. After buying some tickets for the two of us, we were led into a dark, enclosed room.

It was hard to see, but the theme was quite clearly an abandoned hospital. In the middle of the room was a large hospital bed with something underneath the covers. Around the side were various pieces of hospital equipment, from iv drips to surgical instruments.

All of a sudden, I felt a warm sensation in my hand.

"D-don\'t get me w-wrong... I\'m not scared... I-I\'m just making sure you\'re not scared..."

What was this now... you\'re the one who brought me here.

With her fingers wrapped around mine, I could feel the subtle shaking in her hand. As the two of us explored the room, she stuck extremely close to me, not letting go of my hand for a second. A loud thump echoed through the room.

She jumped in fear and wrapped her arms around me.

"Aah! What was that?!"

After waiting a few moments, she slowly pulled her body off of mine, still tightly grabbing my hand. We continued to look around, searching for clues that could help. After a few moments, I had already solved the entire puzzle in my head.

There was a note awkwardly placed underneath the bed. However, that wasn\'t even necessary since there was obviously something in the weirdly positioned surgical equipment on the tray. Underneath the blankets was a skeleton. Judging by its posture, it was clear that it was signalling toward the wall, which had a picture crudely taped on. Underneath that was some blood with a message which pointed to the location of the key.

Whilst I already saw through the puzzle, she was still frantically looking around. I decided to just keep it to myself and let her enjoy herself...

"Hey, um... can you help..." she whispered in a shaky voice.

There were tears forming in her eyes.

[Continued]