Xavier Community College.
"Did Kingsley take the day off again?"
Teacher Hank McCoy stood at the podium, staring at the empty seat in the back row with a deeply furrowed brow.
Another child had not come.
After thinking for a moment, Hank asked the others, "He didn't tell me anything either. Does any of you know what happened?"
The classroom fell silent.
After a while, a girl sitting in the front row spoke up. "Kingsley and his mother both caught Sleeping Sickness... When I passed by this morning, I saw them sleeping on the sofa in the outer room."
"Is that so?" Hank murmured. Looking at the sparse classroom, with fewer than ten children left, he took a deep breath and forced himself to pull himself together.
"All right, then let's begin today's lesson..."
"First, take out your math textbooks. Today, we'll be covering algebraic equations..."
Perhaps because there were so few people in class today and the atmosphere was somewhat oppressive, the children had none of their usual enthusiasm for playing around. They quietly opened their textbooks and read in silence, barely interrupting while Hank taught.
Hank lectured without pause for more than twenty minutes. Sensing the strange atmosphere in the classroom, he considered it and decided that he needed some interaction with the students to ease the gloom.
"So, regarding coefficient b, what should its range of values be?" Hank said as he turned to the students. Then he picked one of them. "Koala, answer this question..."
Before he could finish speaking, the child named Koala slowly lowered his head onto his arms and fell asleep.
"...Koala?"
Hank's heart suddenly sank, and an ominous premonition instantly seized his chest.
He hurried down from the podium, came to Koala's side, and gently shook him a few times. "Koala? Wake