Chapter 2

In that instant, the memories came rushing back, bringing me back to that summer I spent in high school.

I was in my first year of high school back then. I had been admitted to the best school in the city, Centraxis High School, as the top student from Ridgeview Middle School. I had been excited to start high school, only to get a harsh welcome from my homeroom teacher, Henry Hudson, on the first day.

Mom, Dad, and I got off the bus holding worn burlap feed sacks.

I located the tenth-grade Class 12 registration area using the signs by the school gate, then happily brought my paperwork to sign in and get my textbooks. Mom and Dad walked behind me, beaming with pride, since I was the very first kid from our village to be admitted to Centraxis High School.

Yet, as soon as I reached the classroom, Henry blocked my path.

He was wearing designer clothes, a sweater draped over his dress shirt, and gold-rimmed glasses. He opened his thermos, took a sip of coffee, then spat it out onto Dad's boots and looked at me sideways.

"You're Timothy Tucker from Ridgeview, right?" he asked.

I nodded with a smile, not noticing at all that Mom and Dad were already looking pale.

Henry pointed at Mom and Dad and spoke in a deliberately nasty tone. "Do you not see how we had just cleaned the entrance today? Your parents are covered in dirt, so they shouldn't be walking around here."

Henry's shrill, loud voice made everyone—students and parents alike—stop and look in our direction.

Having grown up in the village, I didn't catch his subtext. I just grinned naively and said, "My parents' clothes are just a little worn out. These are the cleanest clothes they have. How could they be dirty?"

Henry scoffed faintly a moment later. He turned his head away and muttered under his breath, "What a bunch of hicks! My dog wears cleaner clothes than them!"

I froze on the spot, while Mom and Dad missed Henry's sneering remark. He had used "hick", a term commonly used nowadays to refer to uneducated people living in rural areas.

I had never expected that a teacher whose job was to educate students at the best high school in the city would speak that way.

Mom and Dad started bowing submissively before I even had the chance to speak. They quickly handed the worn burlap sacks to Henry and backed up repeatedly, worried that their shoes would stain the school grounds.

"Y-You're absolutely right, Mr. Hudson! We're just uneducated folks from the countryside, so we'll leave right now to avoid dirtying this fine school! Please take good care of Timothy for us, Mr. Hudson!"

Mom and Dad were honest country folks who held teachers in high regard.

I couldn't help but feel a lump in my throat as I watched them hurry to the bus station with hunched backs.

Henry opened the burlap sacks, his expression softening when he noticed a few jars of homemade preserves and fresh-picked produce inside.

"Oh, well, these are actually decent. Go stand in line."

Henry pinched his nose, turned around with a smile on his face, and walked over to talk to the other parents.

I couldn't understand why Henry acted that way back then. He joked around with the other parents but treated Mom and Dad with contempt.

I only found out later that this was merely the beginning. In my first term, I gradually figured out that people like Henry were just snobs. Every student received over 30 books at the start of the term, which included textbooks and supplementary reading materials.

Henry confiscated my supplementary reading materials. "Why do you need all these supplementary reading materials? Do you even understand them? Your family doesn't have highly educated parents like the others. You'll just get more confused if you read these. I'm doing this for your own good, Timothy."

I already had bloodshot eyes from suppressing my rage, but I still spoke up carefully. "I don't think that's fair to say, Mr. Hudson.

"I know that my parents might not have gone to school, but they're amazing parents. They cut back on everything just to buy me supplementary reading materials, which is how I got to where I am today—"

Henry's harsh laughter cut me off. He looked at me like I was a total idiot. "You only got into Centraxis High School because of a rural admission quota. Do you really think you're that smart? You've read so much, Timothy. Haven't you heard that excessive pride leads to failure?"

Henry completely cast me aside, but I was determined to prove him wrong.

I did that during the first school-wide mock exam, when I ranked first in the entire grade. I assumed Henry would look at me with new respect, but I had no idea I was actually stepping straight into another nightmare.