She stood in front of the administration building taking in the enormity of the place. She took one deep breath and exhaled as she made her entrance. She made a quick look at the signage that would lead her to the principal’s office. She glanced at her watch while hastening her pace trying to meet the appointed time. She was feeling nervous because it’s been quite a while since she last entered a school compound much less a principal’s office. She felt optimistic about what her future holds since in the past, she was left with no choice because of the cards of life that she was dealt with.

She cleared before greeting the receptionist at the office.

“Erm… Hi. Good morning. I have an appointment with the principal,” as she awkwardly uttered the words.

“Your name?”

“I’m Wanfahmai.”

“Last name?” as the receptionist gave her an exasperated look as though it is common sense to give one’s full name when queried.

“Oh. Sorry. Last name’s Warawit… Wanfahmai Warawit.”

“Let me take a look at the schedule,” as she began scrolling through the data in her computer. “Okay your appointment is at 9am sharp and it’s already 9:15,” emphasising Wanfahmai’s lateness.

“My apologies,” came a sombre reply from her. “I miscalculated the journey to school and did not expect that traffic would be that bad on the way here.”

“Well… Save your explanation. Aren’t explanation just as good as an excuse?”

“Pardon me?”

“Oh never mind. Just take a seat over there,” pointing to the chair at the corner of the room with her lips, showing the utmost lack of respect to Wanfahmai. “Principal Surasak is engaged at the moment.”

“Oh okay,” came a reply from Wanfahmai before turning away and mumbled under her breath, “Oh wow… What a great start to my day.” As soon as she took a seat, another student walked in and she immediately noticed the striking difference the receptionist was acting towards him. She was not only polite but gentle in her voice, as though she was talking to a lover.

“I guess having a phallus always works on a straight-up ill-mannered woman. And of course, vice versa, having a vajayjay works on a boy, no discrimination in this day and age I must say,” before breaking into a smirk at her own thoughts. She then took out a book and began to catch up on her reading not realising that the male student came to sit beside her few minutes later. He took notice and gave a friendly greeting, “Hi there. I’ve never seen you around before.”

Wanfahmai, a self-proclaimed lone wolf, hates social interaction with people her age, though she knew ignoring him right at that point of time would be too obvious and snobbish since she was the only person there in the office besides the receptionist, “Oh hi. Neither have I actually,” but at the same time, she never promised that she was going to be polite either as she quickly dived back into her book.

The student who was quite oblivious to Wanfahmai’s subtle sarcasm continued, “Erm… So, are you a new student of this school?”

Wanfahmai remained silent as she thought to herself,

Quite obvious ain’t it? I’m not in a school uniform…

The male student made another attempt to get to know her; “By the way my name is Arthit. And yours?”

She was definitely irritated by then and decided to crank up her earlier cold stance, “Pardon me. But my mother told me not to speak to strangers even after they reveal their names. So could you please excuse me as I’m in a middle of my reading?”

“Wow, you’re feisty, and prickly if I may add. Usually, people don’t treat me the way you do, particularly girls.”

“Am I supposed to be impressed by that? And yeah, anyone who gets in between me and my passionate love affair with my book gets me prickly. It’s kind of like walking into a bedroom while a couple was being intimate,” said Wanfahmai in a monotonous tone, trying her hardest to keep him away from her.

Arthit could only let out a smile after hearing what she had to say as he was left speechless. This was the first time that a girl ever outrightly rejected his friendliness because girls would usually flock around him due to his exceptional good looks. There was no lie in his statement, but Wanfahmai was the first to not only break that cycle but in an unprecedented way which left him feeling slightly bruised in all honesty.

The silence in the room was broken when the principal finally came round to the office walking side by side with a staff of the school. As soon as the principal saw Arthit, he extended his hand for a handshake,

“Congratulations on the win over the weekend, Arthit.”

“Thank you principal Surasak.”

“No, no. We should thank you. You make our school proud. Your parents must be proud. You are a great captain of the rugby team and our student body president with a perfect GPA. You are simply amazing. Isn’t he amazing?” as the principal look to his staff who was on his right side to agree with him. The staff could only nod in agreement though his eyes were still on Wanfahmai. While the principal continued his little chat with Arthit, the staff approached Wanfahmai who was still reading her book even though she heard what the principal had to say about the boy whom she had just snubbed.

“Wanfahmai?”

She looked up to finally see a familiar face, which she willingly greeted, “Hi kroo (teacher).”

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

Wanfahmai replied in a hush voice, “Don’t worry kroo. I did not wait for long. To tell you the truth I was actually late today, and the receptionist definitely took the chance to highlight it to me,” as both of them broke into a smile which Arthit took notice of even though he was still in a conversation with the principal. When the conversation between Principal Surasak and Arthit ended, he took his leave, taking a last glance at Wanfahmai before walking back to his classroom and it was finally Wanfahmai’s turn to meet with the principal.

“So, you’re Wanfahmai,” this time Principal Surasak stated as a matter of fact without extending a handshake to her.

“Yes I am.”

“Oh, I heard a lot about you. And I guess you already knew Mr Danurut over here. Anyways let’s have a talk in my office,” as he