I was getting transferred to another school for getting bad grades. I had failed a few subjects. It didn't make sense because the new school was very prestigious. When I reached there for admission, it was full of rich kids and their parents.
All the parents of transfer students like me were standing in a queue. They were being interviewed together, asked basic education-related questions. One of them was an old college professor with glasses, and he couldn't answer a single question. A lady standing next to me asked if I was also getting transferred. I said yes. When she asked me why, I lied and said I didn't know. She was being very sweet to me. While standing there, I kept thinking about what I would say if they asked about my mom. I also noticed that the transfer required a huge donation, and I knew I didn't have any money with me.
After that, I walked away from the admission block and ran into a girl who looked familiar. She was already a student there. She asked me if I knew a girl from my old school who everyone said was assaulted by a classmate. I said I didn't. She told me the name, but I still didn't recognize her, and we started arguing and almost got into a fight. Then, in the middle of the argument,I said something and became very friendly, like she was happy to see me.
A boy then came up to me and we talked like old friends even though we weren't . It was the same boy she had just mentioned. Soon after, we were taken to a hostel to live. The arrangement was strange - everyone was paired as one boy and one girl. I was paired with that boy.
At night, we were made to sleep next to each other, just like every other pair, without really knowing why.
The next morning, I woke up and saw that everyone had been moved into one big room. And that's when I saw the changes. Some people had actual thorns and gorgeous blooming roses growing out of their arms I could faintly smell the scent. And some had a literal, sharp-toothed mouth on their knees that could open and close. I was the only one who had no changes at all. It was disturbing. Yet everyone behaved as if it was normal.
I soon realized the reason I had no changes was that I hadn't done anything physical. I hadn't even held hands or gotten slightly even close because I wasn't that comfortable with him. Everyone had done something I didn't know and looked messy. One girl who was wearing a kimono had her shoulders completely exposed, and she was the one with the sharp, toothed mouth right on her knee.
