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There was something about the girl that made her seem oddly out-of-place in the neat classroom. Coralline Jade Smith worked diligently, her head bent over her desk, solving her arithmetic and occasionally using a small red rubber to oust any mistakes. That was supposed to be normal, wasn’t it?
No, it wasn’t. While the other children’s faces were screwed up in concentration, Professor Dawk saw Coralline completely at peace with her still math opponent. She thought she was finished at first, but then saw her pencil rhythmically tapping her forehead. She bent over to check on her paper, and, instead of looking up at her expectantly, waiting for Professor Dawk to praise her flawless work, only inched away for her to see. “Well done, dear- solve that last one-“she pointed at a vertical sum at the end of the second page. Then she immediately felt silly. She was solving it- there were the rubber marks. But Coralline didn’t protest: she only nodded obediently and proceeded to solving it again.
Nearly half an hour later she collected her students’ papers and began correcting them with her special red-ink quill, a gift from a friend in the military. She gave passive orders to a chubby-cheeked redhead, telling him to fetch the art supplies from the overhead cupboard above his desk. Professor Dawk was so caught up with her thoughts, staring at Sarah’s –sigh- mortifying papers that she didn’t hear the class go noticeably silent. At first she thought that they were just in the ‘Art Spirit’ and that they were in separate trances, but at the back of her mind she sensed something wrong.
She nearly spilled red ink from her inkwell when she heard the sudden uproar of laughter. She looked up abruptly, catching the inkwell in time and looking like she had blood on her palm. “What’s going o- AUGH!”
Professor Dawk got up, running towards Coralline Jade Smith’s desk.
The girl’s eyes at that moment were the widest that Professor Dawk had ever seen in her entire teaching career- no, her life. But her carmine-coloured lips were firmly shut. Her shaky fingers traveled back to touch the back of her loose, long maroon hair, and found the ends of it sticky with grimy glue and bits of paper.
Even when her hand wrapped around the mess, Coralline did not say anything. If anything, her eyelids went back to their usual pose. But her hand squirmed over the mess and Coralline grabbed hold of the area above the glue, bringing the lock of hair back over her shoulder and examining it.
Professor Dawk stared in horror at the sniggering children behind her, their hands smeared with sticking paste. “Augustus!” she yelled. “How dare you do this to your friend’s-“
She was cut off with a huge collective gasp from the class, whose students were all pointing at a desk in the front row.
Professor Dawk followed their shocked gazes to see Coralline, who held a huge yank of sticky brown hair in one hand and a pair of safety scissors in another.
“Oh, darling, it was terrible,” whimpered Professor Dawk later that night to her husband over supper. “They stuck glue up her hair and she just cut it off...”
“Hmm,” mused Nile, his mouth filled with gravy and stew. Swallowing, he replied: “well, that was pretty brave of her, don’t you think, Marie?”
“Brave?” thought aloud a horrified Marie. “It was the scariest thing I have ever seen in my life! Girls her age would have cried, they would have begged me to wash it out for them, would have at least gotten angry- no, livid- but Coralline only went all wide-eyed and- and-“
“Calm down, dear, you’ll get your blood pressure high,” Nile tried in vain to reassure his wife. But she was beyond reason.
“She didn’t even open her mouth,” she sobbed. “What am I going to tell her parents?”
“It’s all right, darling; you can tell them you were out of the classroom at the time.”
Marie shook her head. “No, a girl smart like that, she’d have geniuses for parents...”
“Have you ever met her parents? or even heard about them?” he asked with a sigh, cutting a potato on his plate to bite-sized portions. “Maybe I have. What’s her last name?”
“Smith or something...”
Nile gasped. “Smith?”
“Yes, dear, why are you acting up? D-darling-?”
Her husband glared at his plate, frowning disapprovingly at his gravy. “Never mind... Smith is a pretty popular name anyway... probably just a coincidence...”
Still as confused as she was when she began, Marie commenced to eating in silence, not able to help but notice how the shade of the gravy matched the hue to Coralline Jade’s poor, chopped hair.
After a long night of uneasy sleep by her snoring husband’s side, Professor Marie Dawk wobbled out of her horse-drawn carriage in her high heels, careful not to get any mud on her dress. She pushed the back of her hat up so that it perched delicately on her head, giving her an enhanced sense of sight. It was fated to be a hot afternoon, and the sun was fierce against her head. She naturally worried for her students’ safety- what if one of them caught sunstroke?
Despite her drowsy head and anxious thoughts, Marie did not fail to notice the cluster of students by the school gates. Her eyebrows knitted over pale green eyes, and she decided to watch before intervening.
Two boys had their backs against the school building, cowering in fear. The girl facing them was not touching them. In fact, she wasn’t even that close to them. She was a tall, lanky girl. From the back of her head, her strange hairline, it was almost like she let a toddler chop her maroon brown hair off...
Coralline Jade Smith was making the boys panic and cower.
Marie bit her lip. Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord, oh, Lord, oh, Lord- she took a deep breath and walked over bravely to the trio, trying to ignore her irrational fear of the intimidating eleven year-old. Her tired mind raced, and her heart thudded anxiously. Oh, what a morning!
The boys gave huge sighs of relief when they saw their teacher coming to their rescue. “P-Professor, we-!” they began simultaneously. Marie cut them off. She was looking at Coralline, who still didn’t turn around.
“Coralline Jade,” she ordered. “Look at me.”
When she did, Professor Dawk could have flinched at her expression like did the boys.
Instead of showing remorse or guilt or fear on her facial expressions, Coralline only stared up at her blankly, fearlessly. It was like she didn’t see her, but Marie knew better: her blue eyes bored through her as would have a hungry wolf’s. She wore her hair neatly parted to one side today. Her eyebrows were not arched up in a look of innocence, nor were they crossed in anger. They stayed neutral, not moving, giving her a very, very familiar glare.
That glare almost reminded Marie of...
“Young lady,” she explained calmly, “you are going to explain to me what happened, and you are going to apologize to the two boys-“she moved her hands around to touch their heads, but felt nothing. Blinking in confusion, she craned her neck backwards to see the two boys, Augustus and James, running away from them both.
Marie gave a long sigh, which was interrupted. “Do you wish for me to explain inside the building, Professor?” the small student piped up.
“Y-yes-“she stammered in reply, surprised at her courtesy. Of course, it certainly wasn’t surprising that she was courteous, as she always was, but most girls her age- oh, never mind most girls her age.
“Come along then,” Coralline said not unkindly, though her expression remained the same. “Do you wish for me to hold your hand, Professor?”
Marie couldn’t tell whether she was joking or not, but she passed the offer in fear of suffering from embarrassment. It seems the teacher was more flustered than the student, she thought to herself. I’m surprised the Sina teachers’ union didn’t kick me out yet.
Together they walked in, escaping the hot sun, Coralline casually taking the lead. It was as though it were her punishing Marie.
None of the other passing teachers and uniformed students gave them a second glance. They weren’t looking closely enough.
Coralline began already. “These two boys, Augustus and James, were tormenting me.”
“Hush, Coralline, dear, you can tell me when we get to-“
“In all due respect, Professor, I would mind it if we get to class and find them there. I wouldn’t want to tell you in front of them. I’m unpopular enough, see.”
“I see.”
Marie’s gaze traveled down to the pointy front tips of her high heels. But Coralline didn’t seem to sense her discomfort. “You will have to apologize to them, Miss Smith. Your behavior is unacceptable.”
“I apologize to you, Professor Dawk. The things they told me and did to my hair are unacceptable. Why aren’t they being punished? So I decided to take matters into my own hands and accept the consequences as it is my responsibility what happens to them.”
“Your responsibility? It’s mine, dear; I’m the teacher of your class.”
“Anyway,” she waved her off, “they made horrid jokes about my hair and my parents. So I decided to show them a few things my mother taught me.”
That last line sent a shiver up Marie’s corseted spine. “Things like..?” she tried to sound formal, but her voice croaked from last night’s uneasy cup of tea.
“Information,” she said brightly. “About the Titans outside the walls.”
Marie gasped. “Titans! Outside our walls!”
“The ones outside Wall Rose, to be precise. They broke down Wall Maria a few years back, when I was six. Anyway, I told them some of their eating habits and how my mother assumes they first originated- from the cannibal Sawney Bean. My mom kept Titans- Albert, Shikashoni, Kim, Sawney and Bean. The latter were my mother’s favorite Titans, but I’ve never seen them. Daddy never let me near them when I went to visit them whenever they were back from expeditions.”
“E-expeditions? Titans?” Marie spluttered, pressing a hand to her heart. “Coralline Jade, a-are your parents in the Scouting Legion?”
“Yes,” she turned to look at her. Her eyebrows were now furrowed, and Marie realized she’d never seen her that way before- confused. “Didn’t you know, Professor? Commander Nile Dawk was very close with my father when they were younger. Daddy thought he’d know right away.”
Coralline Jade’s cool tone, her perfect grades, her lanky physique, and her icy cold eyes... she could sense the familiarity.
“Your father? What is his name?”
They stopped by the classroom, not entering yet. It was too early for the other students to come filing in, so they had some minutes of privacy together.
“I think you know him, Professor Marie,” Coralline Jade said. Marie noticed something: Coralline’s face reddened, as though she was bashful or shameful. The first option definitely was not the issue. But could it be that she was ashamed? She doubted that the reason was her terrifying her classmates a few minutes ago.
“His... he’s Commander Erwin Smith.” She finally said, looking up. For the first time since a very long time, Marie saw her uncharacteristically cold look falter, revealing the true innocent eleven year-old inside her. It was incredible how her blue eyes could look so menacing one second and so innocent another.
“Yes, I suppose...” Marie murmured, tucking a lock of Coralline’s hair behind her ear. She seemed to be in the slight surprised at Marie’s affection, like she expected something else. “I can see the likeness. You look just like him.” She took a deep breath. “Oh Lord above, what will they say when they see your hair...?”
Shockingly, Coralline smiled a small, carmine smile. “My aunt fretted too much when she saw it, but I don’t think Maman will be too angry. She wants to give me a haircut when she comes back anyway. Daddy likes my hair long, but he’ll understand when I tell him. He’s bound to. He cut his own right arm off when a Titan bit him, didn’t he?”
She looked positively proud of this news, while Marie only felt sad. Poor, poor Coralline Jade Smith. “I’m so sorry, Coralline Jade.”
But Coralline cocked her head to one side. “Why do you look sad so, Professor Dawk? Daddy said that I don’t have to worry about him and Maman. When they die, they are going to die for humanity. It’s not something to be sorry for. It’s an honor! My hair is a small price to pay for all my not joining the Scouting Legion myself. I want to when I grow up, you know. I am going to help humanity- just like Maman and Daddy. Anyway, for how long do I need to stay after school? Need I bring my own quill and inkwell to write lines? Can I send a message to my Aunty Minerva because I’m coming home late?” she babbled on, asking also if she’d sit at the back of the class today, or in the corner, or if she’d force her to apologize, which, please, she didn’t want to. It would be humiliating.
Here she was, Coralline Jade Smith: beautiful, clever, fearless, young- and parroting her father’s promises of honour, glory, and dying a hero. No wonder they decided to leave her alone in Sina. Her faith in them was too great, and that was dangerous for her. Marie knew that when she turned twelve next year, she would apply for the Training Corps. Whether her parents would allow it, she didn’t know. Maybe even the powerful commander of the Scouting Legion and the clever researcher that had kept Titans for experiments wouldn’t be able to reject her signing up. She was going to prepare herself, training and fighting, like a lamb to the slaughter. And Marie was powerless against it. She knew nothing about honour and glory herself, so why in the name of all that was great under the endless sky would she intervene with this little girl’s goals?
When she said she could see the likeness between her and her father, she realized she didn’t just mean her looks and name. Coralline Jade was trying her best to imitate her father, Erwin Smith, and she was not failing. She wanted to be like him, and she already was. They would both be willing to do anything for humanity. They were both ruthless and unforgiving. They were both willing to accept the consequences, no matter how harsh they were.
Marie doubted she would understand, though, why her eyes filled with tears and she declared that she will not face detention and that all she had to do was smile more, because then maybe her classmates would be warmer towards her. But can you believe what she replied with?
“Maybe so, Professor, but it’s just so much better to be venerated than loved.”
Marie came home tired and stressed half a day later. When her husband and children came back home she tried to tell them what happened, tried to open her mouth and say something, anything, but nothing came out.
The likeness was that jarring, and Marie, wife of the Military Police commander and elementary schoolteacher, was powerless against it.