Exploring

At Heris's words, they looked toward Class A. When they saw that it indeed had no number after it, they immediately realized that the class labels were probably differentiated in some way.

Before they could say anything more, though, the warning bell rang. They didn't dare delay and hurried off to their respective classrooms.

Moberi had barely made it into the classroom when the bell rang. Seeing the stern look on the teacher's face, he felt a little guilty, but still hurried to his seat.

Fortunately, this time the teacher didn't say anything about not running in the hallways. Instead, he picked up a booklet that looked more like a collection of essays than a textbook and said:

"Today we'll continue practicing reading comprehension. Turn to page 47. There isn't much to say about the passage itself, but remember: reading comprehension isn't about actually thinking about what the author meant. It's about figuring out what the question setter wants you to think the author meant. So don't worry about 'overinterpreting.' If you can think of an interpretation, the more far-fetched, the better..."

Normally, Moberi would have tuned out this sort of tired old lecture, but now he listened more attentively than he had the first time he'd heard this advice, afraid that if his attention slipped for even a moment, he'd experience what it felt like to be chewed to pieces.

The ordeal lasted 45 minutes. Fortunately, the Chinese teacher didn't keep them late. After assigning homework, he left the classroom. Moberi immediately got up and headed for the restroom, only to find that no one else had arrived except Paril.

"Why is it only Paril?" Moberi stopped abruptly, unsure whether he should approach. Paril seemed to realize how awkward the situation was, too. She simply stood there in silence