Chapter 1 – Mandatory

I suddenly found myself in a classroom, surrounded by other students. Disoriented, it took me a long while to understand what was happening. I turned my head left and right, taking in the sights around me. Everyone was doing their things, whether it was playing on their phone, discreetly chatting with their neighbors, or listening to the lesson seriously.

What the heck is going on?

As far as I could remember, I was sleeping in my bed, not looking forward to another lame day of school. I had no memories of waking up, commuting, or starting another school day. Trembling in incomprehension, my mind was running at full speed to try to understand the current situation.

Did someone prank me? But who? And why? No one seems to pay any particular attention to me. Then what? A hidden camera? An act of God? A supernatural event?

I tried to rack my brain to remember something, anything. However, no matter what, my last memory was of going to bed - nothing in between then and now. Panicked, I wasn’t sure what to do. If this was a hidden camera event or a prank, I didn’t want to humiliate myself in front of my classmates.

But what if it isn’t? Should I interrupt the class? Everyone is behaving normally. They’ll think I’m crazy or some attention seeker.

Nervously, I kept sending glances around. My attitude didn’t go completely unnoticed, as some other classmates sent me interrogative looks. After around ten minutes of panic, I finally had the brilliant idea of checking my phone. Tuesday the 18th of September, the third week after going back to school. The date was… correct. I remember going to sleep on the 17th.

Since this was the third week of being a freshman in high school, I already had time to make a couple of friends and get to know my classmates. My old friend Callan from elementary school was still with me even in high school while Remy was a new friend from this year. The two of them were watching me with worry, bothered by my weird demeanor. A bespectacled girl, Jarah, was scowling at me from time to time. She was a serious one and didn’t like anything that disturbed the class. She wasn’t just frowning at me either but at everyone who wasn’t following the lesson diligently, which was a lot of people. She was a busy girl.

Calm down, calm down. Acting like a paranoiac hamster isn’t going to solve anything. Use your brain, Wade!

I tried to scold myself into composure but it didn’t work that well. Eventually, the current first period of math ended when the bell rang and the teacher left the room. Callan and Remy immediately came to my desk. The three of us were like traffic lights with the wrong colors. Callan was tall and had blonde hair with green eyes. He had always been quite popular with the ladies, something I envied of him. I was neither tall nor small and my physique wasn’t particularly special. With my brown hair and brown eyes, no one gave me a second look, for better or for worse. As for Remy, he was small for a boy but had fiery red hair and blue eyes, making him hard to miss. When standing together in the correct order, looking at us was like stairs on a kid’s playground, with a lot of different colors.

“What’s up, Wade? Did you eat something wrong this morning?”

Callan asked, mainly in jest but with a tint of worry.

“I… I’m not sure. Say, did you see me arrive this morning?”

“What do you mean? I was there when you came in. Of course, I saw you.”

“Huh… Was there anything special about me?”

“Not really. Same old boring Wade.”

“Hey! Darn it. What about you, Remy?”

“Did you lose some part of your memories? I barely made it in time before the bell rang.”

Seeing my expression, he added.

“Wait, did you seriously lose your memory?”

“I… I don’t know. I only remember going to sleep last night and then I was here suddenly.”

“Huh… Are you for real?”

“Yeah.”

“That doesn’t sound good. Temporary loss of memory? But if it’s just from yesterday to this morning, it’s not too long. Could it be you were just on automatic mode and didn’t pay much attention?”

“I don’t know…”

“Is it the first time it happens to you?”

“Yeah.”

“Hm… Do you want to go to the infirmary, just in case?”

“No, I’m not feeling bad or anything. It’s just…super weird.”

“You bet. I’d be troubled too if that happened to me.”

“Yeah. Anyway, I’m fine. It’s strange but I guess it’s not a big deal. I didn’t listen to anything Mrs. Violet said, though.”

“That’s not different from usual! Hahaha!”

“Pfff. True. Damn math, how could such torture exist?”

“You said it!”

Callan then added.

“Too bad for you two. She’s coming back right away.”

Mrs. Violet was our homeroom teacher. In our school, homeroom teachers had to teach one additional subject: civic education, which was what our next period was. Remy answered.

“Ah right. Darn sexual education. What a drag.”

“Yea… wait, what?”

Callan and Remy looked at me in surprise and Remy responded.

“What what?”

“What did you say?”

“What a drag?”

“No, before that.”

“Darn sexual education?”

“Yeah, that. It’s not ci…”

At that moment, the door of the classroom opened and Mrs. Violet entered again.

“Sit down, everyone.”

My friends scrambled back to their seats and the not “civic education” lesson started.

“Alright. Today’s topic is blowjobs. Find a partner and practice.”

Huh? What? Blowjobs? What the hell? Did I hear that right? Am I seriously getting crazy?

My classmates' reaction was the exact opposite of my own.

“Not again…”

“Sigh…”

“What a pain.”

“Come on, Mrs., can’t we just skip sexual education?”

“This is a mandatory topic. Don’t forget that it’ll reflect on your global average score. There’ll be tests at the end of each trimester.”