Why me?
Rishan Almeida liked classrooms best when nobody was in them.
Not because he hated people.
People were fine.
They were just considerably louder when present.
Unfortunately, classrooms had the annoying habit of eventually filling with students.
Rishan sat at his desk, one hand resting against his cheek as he looked around the mostly empty room. A few bags had already claimed their seats despite their owners being nowhere to be seen. Someone had left a water bottle on the teacher’s desk. Two boys near the back were talking loudly enough to compensate for everyone who hadn’t arrived yet.
A normal morning.
Exactly how Rishan liked it.
He glanced at the empty seat beside him.
Ren was late.
Again.
Not that Rishan cared much. He had gotten used to spending the first few minutes of school alone. Sometimes he preferred it that way.
He opened his notebook and looked at the work he’d completed the previous evening.
Everything seemed fine. Probably.
The classroom door opened. Rishan barely looked up. Mrs. Fernandes had entered.
That wasn’t particularly unusual. What was unusual was that instead of walking toward the teacher’s desk, she turned and began walking between the rows.
Toward him.
Rishan looked behind himself. Nobody.
He looked back at her. She was definitely coming toward him.
What did I do?
His mind immediately began checking possibilities.
Homework?
Done.
Notebook?
Brought it.
Uniform?
He glanced down.
Fine.
Some assignment he’d completely forgotten existed?
…Possible.
Mrs. Fernandes stopped beside his desk.
“Rishan.”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“I’m making you the class monitor.”
Rishan stared at her.
For a moment, he genuinely wondered whether he had heard her correctly.
“Sorry, ma’am?”
“You’ll be the new boy monitor.”
Oh.
He had heard her correctly.
That was worse.
“Me?”
Mrs. Fernandes gave him a look that suggested there wasn’t another Rishan hiding underneath the desk.
“Yes, you.”
Rishan glanced around the classroom. There were more than thirty students in his class. Surely she had skipped a few desks.
“What about Rohan, ma’am?”
“He hasn’t been doing his duties properly. I’ve already decided.”
That explained why they needed another monitor.
It did absolutely nothing to explain why that monitor had to be him.
Rishan wasn’t exactly known for commanding a room.
He wasn’t even known for speaking particularly loudly in one.
“Ma’am, I—”
“You are sincere,” Mrs. Fernandes continued. “You do your work, you don’t create unnecessary problems, and I trust you to take the responsibility seriously.”
Rishan went quiet.
Well, that wasn’t exactly something he could argue against.
“Okay, ma’am.”
Mrs. Fernandes gave a small nod.
“Meera will continue as the girl monitor. She already knows most of the responsibilities, so you can ask her if you don’t understand something.”
Rishan glanced toward Meera’s empty seat.
Great.
He didn’t even know what those responsibilities were yet.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Mrs. Fernandes walked away toward the teacher’s desk, leaving Rishan staring at the notebook in front of him.
He looked down at the page.
Then back at Mrs. Fernandes.
Then at the classroom.
I’m the monitor now.
That sounded weird.
He tried it again.
I’m the class monitor.
Nope.
Still weird.
It wasn’t that Rishan hated responsibility. His parents had trusted him with plenty of freedom for years, and he had never really felt the need to misuse it. If someone trusted him with something, he tried his best not to give them a reason to regret it.
But this was different.
Being responsible for himself was easy. Being responsible for a classroom full of students?
Rishan looked toward the back.
The same two boys were still talking.
One of them suddenly burst out laughing.
Yeah.
This was going to be interesting.
The classroom door opened again.
Ren finally walked in.
His bag hung loosely from one shoulder as he made his way toward their desk.
“Morning.”
“Morning.”
Ren dropped his bag beside the chair and sat down.
Rishan said nothing.
Ren began taking his books out.
For about five seconds, everything was normal again.
Then Rishan spoke.
“I’m the monitor now.”
Ren stopped.
He slowly turned toward him.
“What?”
“Class monitor.”
Ren stared at him.
Rishan stared back.
And then Ren started laughing.
Rishan sighed.
“I don’t see what’s funny.”
“No, wait.” Ren tried to control himself. “You?”
“That’s roughly what I said.”
“Why?”
“Apparently I’m sincere.”
Ren nodded as if that explained everything.
“You’re finished.”
“What does that mean?”
“You’ll find out.”
That was the second vaguely threatening thing Rishan had heard that morning, and school hadn’t even properly started yet.
More students began entering the classroom. The quiet Rishan had been enjoying disappeared within minutes, replaced by chairs scraping against the floor, bags being dropped onto desks, and conversations coming from almost every direction.
Rishan rested his cheek against his hand again.
So much for a normal morning.
It didn’t take long for the classroom to become completely full.
By the time the first bell rang, almost every seat was occupied. Conversations overlapped with one another until Rishan could barely make out what Ren was saying beside him.
Meera had arrived a few minutes earlier.
Rishan had considered asking her what exactly he was supposed to do.
He hadn’t.
There was still time.
Probably.
Mrs. Fernandes stood from her chair.
“Everyone, settle down.”
The noise dropped.
Not completely, but enough.
She looked around the classroom before her eyes landed on Rishan.
He immediately knew what was coming.
“As some of you already know, there has been a change in the class monitors.”
Several heads turned.
Rishan suddenly became very interested in the notebook on his desk.
“Rohan will no longer be the boy monitor. From today onward, Rishan will take his place.”
And there it was.
A few students looked toward him.
Someone whispered something from the back.
Rishan couldn’t hear what it was.
Good.
He didn’t particularly want to.
“Meera and Rishan will be responsible for maintaining discipline when a teacher isn’t present, along with the other duties assigned to them.”
Rishan looked toward Meera.
She happened to look at him at the same time.
She gave him a small nod.
He returned it.
That was apparently their first official act as co-monitors.
Very productive.
Mrs. Fernandes began taking attendance.
Rishan relaxed slightly.
At least nothing had actually changed yet.
He was still sitting in the same seat, beside the same person, in the same classroom.
Maybe being a monitor wouldn’t be that different.
“Rishan.”
Ren’s voice interrupted his thoughts.
“What?”
Ren pointed toward the back of the classroom.
Haruto was talking to Lucas while Mrs. Fernandes was taking attendance.
Rishan looked at them.
Then at Ren.
“So?”
“Monitor.”
Rishan stared at him.
“You want me to tell them to stop talking while the teacher is already standing right there?”
Ren shrugged.
“You’re the monitor.”
“I’ve been a monitor for about fifteen minutes.”
“Responsibility never sleeps.”
Rishan looked at him for a moment.
“Please never say that again.”
Ren grinned.
Mrs. Fernandes continued down the attendance list.
“Aira Nakamura?”
“Present, ma’am.”
Rishan barely registered that name.
Mrs. Fernandes continued.
“Lucas Rao?”
“Present.”
“Meera Tanaka?”
“Present.”
“Noah Patel?”
“Present.”
“Rishan Almeida?”
“Present, ma’am.”
And just like that, the morning moved on.
Class began. Teachers came and went.
Notes filled pages. Questions were asked. Homework was given.
For most of the day, being the class monitor turned out to be surprisingly uneventful.
Until the final period.
The teacher hadn’t arrived yet. Which meant there was no teacher in the classroom.
Which apparently meant everyone had collectively decided that volume limits no longer existed.
Rishan looked up from his notebook.
The classroom was loud. Very loud.
He looked toward Meera. She was already standing.
For a second, Rishan assumed she was about to tell everyone to quiet down.
Instead, she picked up her water bottle and took a sip.
Then she sat back down.
Rishan stared at her.
That was it?
He looked around the classroom again.
Haruto and Lucas were arguing about something near the back. A few students had gathered around another desk, while everyone else seemed perfectly happy contributing to the noise in their own way.
Ren was calmly flipping through his notebook beside him.
“Aren’t we supposed to do something?” Rishan asked.
Ren looked up.
“We?”
Rishan gave him a look.
“You know what I mean.”
Ren glanced around the classroom.
“Probably.”
“Helpful.”
Rishan looked toward Meera again.
She didn’t seem particularly concerned.
If the person who had been monitoring longer than him wasn’t doing anything, Rishan wasn’t going to be the one to suddenly stand up.
So he didn’t.
He went back to his notebook.
A few minutes passed.
The classroom remained loud.
Nobody died.
Good enough.
Eventually, the teacher walked in.
The change was almost immediate.
Students returned to their seats. Conversations disappeared. The classroom that had been impossible to control thirty seconds earlier somehow became perfectly normal without either monitor saying a word.
Rishan watched it happen.
Interesting.
Maybe being a monitor wasn’t going to require as much effort as he’d thought.
The final period passed without anything else worth remembering.
Then the last bell rang.
Rishan packed his books into his bag while Ren stood beside him.
“So,” Ren said. “How was your first day as monitor?”
Rishan zipped his bag shut.
“I did absolutely nothing.”
Ren nodded.
“Successful first day, then.”
Rishan smiled slightly.
“Apparently.”
He lifted his bag onto his shoulder and followed the others out of the classroom.
That morning, he’d walked in expecting another ordinary day.
He walked out as the class monitor.
Rishan still wasn’t sure why Mrs. Fernandes had chosen him.
Maybe he’d figure it out eventually.
For now, he just wanted to go home.
And walk.
A lot.
