WARNING: This story contains elements which may be interpreted by some as unpleasant, so if you're weak hearted, now is the time to leave.
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The day had finally come when Rakshit was making his first visit to his high school ever since he graduated. Due to his recent success in his academic and career endeavours of initiating his own nano-technology company, his school's principal Mrs. Ritika had invited him as the chief guest for the high school graduation day. Even though his memories of his alma mater were not as much on the positive side, due to a lot of bullying by the students and teachers alike, he was curious as to how their attitudes towards him might've changed.
As far as his teachers were concerned, the only devastating problems he encountered were with his physics teacher Mrs. Sujatha. The rest were also contemptful of him but didn't go out of their way to mentally torture him the way Mrs. Sujatha did. They just didn't pay as much attention to him but weren't supportive of him in any way either. However, Sujatha almost had a grudge against him and took every chance she got to make him miserable, be it in the form of writing a formula 500 times in class when he couldn't answer it, using him as an example of a person not to be like, or yelling at him and embarrassing him in front of the whole class for the pettiest of issues.
All of this mistreatment, along with the residual emotional turmoil was well cemented in Rakshit's memories, and even at present he would have certain horrible nightmares that he had back then. The most horrifying memory that gave him goosebumps even now was that of Mrs. Sujatha slapping him as hard as she could on his face in front of the whole class when he forgot to take his assignment to class and this was considered as a lie and an excuse despite being true.
"You think I'm a fool to believe that? You pathetic idiot," these harsh words echoed in his mind over and over again as he then remembered turning back and looking at the rest of the class look at him with utter disappointment, patronizing concern, and could hear soft giggles around the corner.
Such instances shattered his self-confidence and wrecked his self-esteem and sense of fairness to the point that he used to think that he was not the victim of such mental abuse rather deserved it well for what he thought were his "misdoings".
It wasn't until after he graduated from college and started his company that the memories of these incidents caused a paradigm shift in his perception of it, and he no longer viewed himself as the guilty party but the cunningly deceived and mistreated.
It filled his blood with boiling rage and he suffered the consequences of not being able to express his anger in whichever form. When he finally got the email from his principal, inviting him as a chief guest, he only hoped that Mrs. Sujatha wouldn't have changed schools, as he would finally be able to get his sought, justified revenge.
All these thoughts crossed his mind as he was sitting in his car for a moment just before entering the school premises. He didn't have a plan for revenge and couldn't think of one soon either. He shrugged in his indecisiveness and took off hoping that he would figure out what to do eventually as the moment arises.
He was welcomed by the principal and escorted to the main auditorium where the event was taking place. He was made to sit beside two of his old teachers Mrs. Sriya and Mrs. Vidya, and he was absolutely disgusted by the way their mannerisms and attitude towards him had changed. They spoke with him in a jovial and pleasant manner, as if that's how they always had spoken to him and he couldn't help but think "these bitches are just gold-digging whores, treating me like shit when I was a kid and now all this crap just cause I'm rich".
He just played along in their conversations and pretended to give a fuck as they were not as much a concern for him as his primary target Mrs. Sujatha. He looked around in the room to try and get a glimpse of her, but to his unfortunacy, he wasn't able to.
"Does Sujatha ma'am still teach here?" he asked.
"Yeah she still teaches here, don't worry. She's in charge of catering dear," replied Mrs. Vidya.
"Ah, okay," he said, pretending to be cool about it even though it mattered a lot to him.
In a few minutes, it was time for him to give his inauguration speech. He spoke along the lines of inspiration, innovation, responsibility, and that kind of mainstream crap. He pulled it right off of a Steve Jobs speech but just paraphrased it thinking it would be good enough a speech for the occasion. It was a high school after all, and he thought none of the students would even be as interested in what he had to say anyway. As expected, he received good applause after completion and it was satisfactory for him.
"That was a very nice speech sir," said one of the students as she escorted him off the stage.
He thought to himself "yeah of course she has to flatter me as part of her pathetic role," but smiled and nodded anyway.
"Where's the catering section?" he asked her.
"Oh, it's in the second-floor main hall sir."
"Okay thanks," he said as he walked out of the closed auditorium.
He stood in front of the elevator, looking at the floor display board, waiting for it to reach the 4th floor. The lift finally arrived, and the doors opened gradually.
"Hello ma'am," he said to the woman inside.
"Oh Rakshit! how are you dear? it's been such a long time," Mrs. Sujatha said to him, being genuinely delighted to see him.
"Yeah, I've been fine," he said as she walked out of the elevator.
