The Vast Struggle

[Juusho]

As the day broke in and sunlight poured into his room, Raeyn was already awake and dressed for the day.

"Today should be a good day.. no exams for me today" he said as he stretched, and went downstairs to begin his day. As he took the last two steps down, he smelt breakfast.

"Ready for today, Raeyn?" his master asked.
"Well, yes, Im always ready to take on the day." he said, as he entered the kitchen, taking his seat at the table.
"I meant for your exams."
"..Oh! I didn't tell you, but I don't have any exams today. I was gonna spend the day training, and then studying later at school, and talk with Ellie..." he said, with the last part of his sentence having this hanging feeling.
"Well, dont get yourself down, Your almost done." his master said, placing his plate of food down resting his hand on Raeyn's shoulder.
"Thank you, Master." he said as he waited for his master to sit, and they could eat.

As the day proceeded, Raeyn noticed the little things. His mind was out of focus, something bothering him. But he knew what it was. He needed to speak to Ellie, and soon. As such, he took out his phone, and dialed her number.
"Hello?" Ellie answered.
"Hey, its Raeyn, how are ya?" he answered back.
"Im good, thanks. What's up?" she responded, with a hint of a question in her voice.
"Eh, just wanted to talk with ya if ya dont mind?" he said, his voice a little more quizzical then usual.
"Sure, now or..?" she replied, with her sentence hanging.
"No, no, doesnt have to be now it can be when you want. Just lemme know when your free." he said, putting his free hand, behind his head, scratching an itch.
"How about 2, this afternoon at the library. Im going to study there, so I suppose you could do the same." she said, reminding him of his schooling.
"Mmmmmrh, kaaay." he said, with a chuckle. "Ill be there for two, see ya then."
"Yep! Laters!" she said, as she hung up.

Raeyn looked up towards the sky, clear, except for the odd cloud here and there. His mind was a little more eased now, he knew what he had to do, but at least the biggest part; setting up the meeting, was done. After that, he was able to get on with his day, getting the nessecary things done, and training went alot smoother with a clearer mind. He could approach different areas of focus, training on different aspects of his element, physical, and mental portions of his body.

Time passed, and Raeyn watched the clouds stream by, as his training continued, and then, when his phone's alarm began to ring, he remembered his previous appointment with Ellie.

Grabbing his phone, he headed home at a running pace to take a shower and meet up with Ellie. He needed to resolve this situation, and damn it all he was going to do so today.

[Zeiven]

New morning, same routine.

5 o'clock, Zeiven's alarm goes off. The blond man's body stirs come 5:01 and he gets off and tosses off the pants that he had worn overnight. Off those pants flew into the waiting laundry basket across the room. His underwear soon followed as he walked into the shower. He turned on the water to a mildly warm setting and stepped in. As the water rushed over him he began contemplating the past day, an usual activity out of place in his routine. 'That boy...the fast one,' he said as he began washing himself, 'his ability is disturbing". He leaned against the wall and shut off the water using his magnetic control, 'It's a little far-fetched to consider, but is there a relation between his speed and my own ability?' Still wrapped up in thought, Zeiven stepped out of the shower and moved on in his routine.

Once he was dressed in a clean outfit, he moved to the kitchen. As he entered, he noticed that he was 15 minutes behind his usual breakfast time. He frowned as he walked to his fridge. He noticed then that he didn't have any fruits left. His eyebrows furrowed deeply. With a little tension in his arm, he closed the fridge and headed out immediately with his usual pack. He walked up to his usual bus stop and looked at the bus times. He almost growled as he saw that the next was 10 minutes off. He waited out the time impatiently, looked up the street constantly.

Once he got to the hill, he noticed that students were already beginning to crowd the hill. With an aura of frustration around him, he joined the crowd and made his way to the school. He knew that his rotten mood was causing his usual electromagnetic aura to expand. He put effort into restraining this field, but he heard a student complain about his phone going to static mid-call as he walked by. Had he not been enclosed within a crowd, he would have started sprinting to get to the school as quickly as he could.

He rushed through that halls and unceremoniously swung open the library door just short of slamming it open. The entire staff was already in place and at work at this point and Semyon looked at him as he walked by. "Hey Zeiven," he said surprised, "it isn't usual for you to be late". Zeiven stopped for second and blurted out his reasoning, "Long morning, missed my bus, a lot on my mind". Semyon turned his head and looked at him inquisitively, "Something wrong?". Zeiven shook his head and blurted out in a low voice, "No, its fine". Semyon shrugged and patted his shoulders as he went by to the back desk. Zeiven set himself up at one of the info and check-out desks and opened his bag of cereal. He munched on it with a vengeance, trying to put his day back in order by satisfying his hunger.

[Zanibas]

    A sign hung on a certain store today...

   Closed for event preparations.

   The only sign of life from the store was an occasional curl of smoke from the chimney. The drapes were drawn, the windows shut, and the morning paper: still outside. It would be quite easy for passerby to assume the manager was simply out shopping in the outdoor markets today, but, if one were to peek inside, through a tiny crack within the drapes, another story was happening inside.

   The kitchen was populated with used pots and pans cooking various ingredients, giving off various scents, and undoubtedly leaving various methods in the process. The stove boiled a sugary substance while the oven was raising some sort of breaded base. A blender mixing five eggs and a cup of melted butter while a mold was setting in 5 cups of jelly. It was impossible to see the bottom of the sink, covered both by the grimy residue and dirty utensils that accompany all kitchens. A timer rang every minute or so, ordering the next step be done or to face failure.

    For the little kid who decided to peep inside, he was amazed that the person managing this all wasn't breaking a sweat. A man twirled around, traveling around the kitchen with grace. His balance surpassed that of an experienced waiter, often balancing 3 dishes in his busy arms, taking them from one side of the arena to the other. There was no panic in this seeming disarray, but instead a subtle order that comes only from experience. The boy saw the man's face, and saw not one of fret, but one of smiles and enjoyment. Every step the man took, every pot and pan he grabbed, he did it in style.

    "Jay, what are you doing? We've been looking for you!" called out a fellow boy to the peeper.

    He responded with bluntness, his eyes glued to the window, darting around the small crack. "Just watching the person I want to be like when I grow up."

     Eventually, a small crowd of boys and girls were vying to see more of the intense culinary master, pushing and shoving to see through, causing a small ruckus. It came to a point where the window itself flew open...with Jiji and a flurry of scents greeting...

     "If you wanted to watch, you could've just asked."

     The kids settled down, but the peeper spoke up and said, "Hey old man, what's that stick doing over there?" The boy gestured towards a gnarled wooden staff that stood out from the rest of the kitchen. It seemed to be shaking a bit of it's own accord inside the bin it resided in.

     "Oh that!" Jiji responded quickly, "Don't mind that, it's a little magic toy I have. Thank you for reminding me, I should put it back before I trip on it!"

     "Can I see it Jiji? Can I?"

     Again with a quick response, "Nono boy, it's a toy not for kids, however strange that may sound." His joyful mood flinched for a second, but rebounded as he quickly changed the subject. "If you want to still watch, just wait a moment as I put it away! I might even give you guys a taste if you all behave!" In the course of ten seconds the "toy" staff was put away, and Jiji went back to cooking, educating a small audience on the joys of baked goods. The thought of the staff melted away from the children's minds, instead focused on the free treats they might be getting soon.

[Juusho]

Raeyn arrived at the school, entering into the library, 5 minutes prior to their meeting time. He went and sat at his regular spot, took out a couple of books and his stuff, set them out, and sat down, waiting. He was anxious, and a little nervous. They needed to talk. That never bode well. But he wasnt about to let it get the best of his mind, he was going to find out what was going on. Right as the hand on the clock struck 2, Ellie, like clockwork, entered into the library, and walked over to the spot.

"Hey. So, how was your day so far?" Raeyn started, as he watched Ellie take her usual seat, and pop out a couple of books, papers and pencils, tools and needed equipment.
"Its been alright, just worried about tomorrow, exams, prom, everything.." she said, as she looked at her bag, grabbing one more thing. An Envelope. "I want you to take this, and read it later tonight. Itll answer all your questions regarding everything involving Prom and me.. Its kinda hard to talk about, because it was so last minute.. so at least this way, I was able to express everything I needed to say, properly." she said, handing over the envelope.
"Uhh.. okay?" he replied, taking the envelope, and putting it in his bag. Unsure why she couldnt talk, he didnt press matters, and instead, tried to shift the talk off the subject and put her back at ease. "so, ready for tomorrow's exam?"
"I suppose, Im just really nervous.. I want exams to be over with and then I can really relax." she said, opening up her books, and notebooks, getting notes ready to study.
"I agree, then we get to have fun during the summer break. Speaking of that, got any big plans?" he said, writing something down in his notebook.
"No.. not yet. Why, have something in mind?" she asked, looking up.
"Not yet, but if things go well, we may have a really cool trip with my master to the next province." he said "we'd be going for about a week, so it'd be cool to sight-see and things."
"Well! I hope things work out, that sounds pretty awesome to me." she said, smiling once again.

Suddenly, Ellie's phone rang. "Hello? Oh hi Mom. Yeah im at school studying. Oh? Okay, no problem, ill be home in an hour.. See you then, bye!" she said, hanging up.
"The usual demons?" Raeyn poked.
"No, family just arrived in town.. they are here for the AAC and to see me off to Prom." she said, kind of embarrased.
"Alright, no problem. Lets go get some food, and ill walk you home" he said, as they started to pack up their things and leave the library. "Anywhere in particular you wish to eat?" he asked.
"Nope, just something quick to give me energy till I get home." she said, opening the door to the library so they could leave.
"Alright well, we could go to Jiji's shop, since its close by... or we could go to that new place just past the park." Raeyn suggested.
"Mmm, I walked by Jiji's today, he's been in a cooking rush, probably preparing for the AAC and Prom. Best to leave him to his work." she said, crossing the street and walking into the park. "That new place will have to do, come on." as Raeyn followed quick.

Once they had crossed the park, aquired their snacks and walked the distance from the new shop to Ellie's house, they had said their goodbyes, and parted ways. As soon as she entered her home, and he had exited the archway, he pulled out the letter, and read it. It stated everything regarding Prom, how the guy (Who's name was left out) approached her, awkwardly bombarded her with his words, and how she found it somewhat hard to turn down what he had said. He understood, dissapointed still, but he understood. There was nothing he could do, her mind was set on it. At least now, he knew the full story. She still urged him to come, and though he had no real reason to anymore, he thought to himself..
"Well, if im not going to Prom, like I had planned, I could use the time to work on my sword techniques with Master in the forest, and then make a sort of after-prom party for everyone.." he kept spinning ideas, but somewhere, in the back of his mind, he couldnt shake the fact that he was dissapointed that he wasnt going to Prom, especially with Ellie. The prospect of going with Ellie made the idea so much better, and he couldnt shake it.
"My mind, oh how you are devious." he whispered to himself, sighing as he walked into town, headed home. " I guess I will be going to Prom, if not to more then see the safety of her night, and make sure she has fun." he said, slinging his bag over his shoulder, and walking past a few people, towards the sunset.

[Gail Carrington]

She stood up, carefully, after finishing her lunch. She hated the process of getting up, a complicated series of impulses that forced her to use her hands on the damn grass, instead of just rising more conveniently, like a zombie from the grave, with her powerful legs. Highschool gym class had taught her, however, that that was not okay, and so she planted her hands, curled into fists to hold the plastic packaging remnants of her lunch, into the ground to help push herself up.

Once standing, she gathered her bag and began walking leisurely towards the other end of the campus for other exam of the day, Nanotech. No rush to get there; the exam didn’t start for another few hours. Maybe she’d stop back at her room first, and catch a quick nap before her test. Or maybe study. She could always use more time studying Zeto. She glanced around at the happy couples cuddling together on the grass, the gangs of students huddling over textbooks, the quiet readers and the lunchers, the group of jocks staring and waving enthusiastically at her…

…at her…

“Finally! Man, you blondes always have your heads up in the clouds!” the one closest to her said, laughing. She laughed back, clearly nervous, as he approached her. His face was recognizable, but she couldn’t place him. She tried to think while processing his questions.

“How’ve you been, Cheerleader? You haven’t been to any of the games in a while.”

Cheerleader? I was never a Cheerleader, though.

“...N...No, I’ve been busy with schoolwork. You know...classes...eating up all your time!” She half-laughed and made a jovial little hand gesture. It amounted to nothing more than an awkward wave of her hand, and she let it fall, reddening.

And games? I haven’t been to a school game in…

“Yeah, me and the boys missed you,” he said, with a grin. She looked in mild horror at the group he had come from, all eyeing her with looks she didn’t like.

“I...Um…”

“Say, we’re having a party, around nine tonight. You wouldn’t want to join us, would you? We’ve got booze and rooms aplenty. You could stay the night, if you-”

“No, I’m sorry! Th-Thank you, sorry - bye!” Abigail said in a rush. She turned and quickly strode away, too fast to be polite. A mix of disappointed groans and cackles followed her as she put distance between them.

“Come on, babe, I’d give you a great time!”

She broke into a run, back to her dorm. Her head was bowed, her hand on her hat to keep it from flying off.

You’re better than that now. That was just a mistake last time. You’ve got someone now. You are a person, not an object. I am a person. I am a person. I am…

But that “someone” was barely speaking to her now. Brief answers, a tinge to his voice. Always trying to get away from her as fast as politely possible.

Despite herself, she slowed down, pulling her hat off her head subconsciously and twisting it between her hands as she ambled towards her building.

Could he have noticed something about her that had made him dislike her? Had she reacted out of line at the SD exam?

“What did I do…”

Her hands pushed at the doors leading from the outside to the interior of her building. She blinked up at the lights; the inside was much darker than the bright outdoors. She saw spots as her hand moved to the railing as she walked up the stairs slowly, thinking.

When did I say something? Was it during the exam? She thought hard to remember. She had muttered something when Jin had struck him, but surely that hadn’t been it. It couldn’t have, it was so small, insignificant, just a little sound from her…

Did that throw him off? Is that why he’s mad at me? Because I made him freak out and lose the match?

She walked down her dorm hall. There were girls shrieking and giggling running ahead of her, laden with shopping bags. She caught snippets of their normal conversations and worries.

“Do you think he’ll like this dress?”

“I think I have just enough time to study for my exam tomorrow AND go to the Environmental Leaders group dinner tonight!”

“Oh my god, do I have shoes that I can dance in?”

“What’s up with her? She looks sad.”

“Should we say something?”

“Is she crying?”

“Nah. She’s probably off on her own little world, like usual. Just leave her. I thought you said you had to study.”

“Right…Abigail?”

She turned, surprised, at being directly spoken to. The key she’d been trying to fit into her lock slipped and scratched the metal. She turned to face the girl, whose name was Emmy Clarance, according to the nametag on the door of the room she lived in.

“Hi…yes?”

“I was just wondering. You know. Rachel here, she asked that boy you hang around with, Mathios, out to Prom, but he turned her down. She was pretty upset.”

“I’m sorry to hea-”

“Well no, it’s fine, another boy asked her so she’s fine now, but I was just wondering, did he ever pick a date?”

“I…No, he’s not going.”

“So he didn’t ask you?”

Her heart fluttered. She couldn’t lie to herself and say she hadn’t wanted him to, absent mindedly fantasized a variety of Prom proposals, ranging from the normal, nonchalant, ‘Say, do you want to go to Prom with me as my friend?’ after a nano class, to great sweeping invitations where he handed her a rose, admitting he was actually an alien, and wanted her to participate in his latest social experiment involving the human race at Prom as his date.

Her answer was much simpler, however, and strained.

“No. He didn’t.”

She spun quickly on her heels and fumbled with the key again, quickly opening the door and disappearing inside. She flung herself onto her bed, lying face-down in her pillow, eyes shut. She lay there a while, steadying her breathing. Finally, she rolled over and grabbed her Nanotech textbook. Blinking slowly to adjust to the light, she read the words in the diagram of a cluster of nanobots that could be injected into a person’s blood stream to help unclog arteries.

“If only everything could be solved by tiny robots,” she said aloud to the empty room. She waved a hand, and the small helicopter-like flashlight robot whirred to life, flying over to her and hovering with a peaceful whirring sound above her book. It swung its flashlight on its axis to grant her optimal reading light.

Her ability to control mechanical objects with her mind was always something she’d found useful, but been ashamed of. As if she needed something else to separate her more from normal people. As if her legs weren’t enough to make people wary of her, or curious of her from a scientific standpoint, she’d been able to control things like robot toys and lights and fans and even computers and cell phones for as long as she had been walking, and kept it a guarded secret ever since. Well, until yesterday, when her teacher had suddenly exposed that she wasn't completely alone in the universe.

She traced a long, thin finger over a schematic of a nanobot’s arm as she read about how scientists had developed the technology small enough to make nanobots possible. She thought about trying to make an even smaller one herself, once she’d been working at Terra Ward for a while. Surely they’d let her play around with their equipment and materials; she always delivered results. Her ability to control the machines she played with also gave her a clear image of them, almost an emotion, an empathy with them, a connection that made them infinitely easier to understand. She’d been building things with moving parts since she was four, simple, geared mechanisms, and had graduated to circuits and the realm of computer chips at eight. Her creation was bound only by her creativity, which was why Terra Ward knew they had something special on their hands when they’d found her at a science fair, boasting a fully functioning, if simplistic, robot arm and hand that responded to radio wave commands. They’d given her a station at their building, a guide to watch her, and any reasonable materials she’d asked for. The result had enabled her to walk again, and for that she owed Terra Ward her life.

She said affectionately beckoned the whizzing robot towards her and made it settle in the palm of her hand. She looked at it lovingly, then set on the bedside table. She laid on her stomach, flipping through chapters of the textbook, remembering the coursework from throughout the year, her mind finally free of her human troubles, content in the world of the machine.

Eventually, though, she had to rise and re-enter the world once more, but heading towards and exam she was confident about helped greatly. Her pace was very relaxed as she strolled out onto the campus. She had always been very strong in Nanotech, but never as strong as Mathios. He’d always had an uncanny affinity with the microbots, which she had always envied him for; she couldn’t remember him ever having trouble grasping a concept, or executing it.

Her confidence building as she strode into the classroom, she decided she would suck it up and try talking to him to find out what was wrong. She’d challenge him to a friendly competition on their last exam, promising to actually beat him for once, to which he would (hopefully) give her a smile and shake his head. She would lose, of course, but after he would have to talk to her…

Her secret smile faded a little as she walked in and noticed that Mathios was absent. Instead, she was greeted with a rush from a girl and two desperate looking boys, clutching their textbooks and looking at her like she was a divine being put on earth to save them.

“U...Um…?” Abigail half asked. The taller of the two boys answered in a rush:

“Please you gotta help me I seriously can’t figure out what the textbook means by this do you think you could explain it to me if I fail my mom is going to kill me and seriously take away all my stuff and this my GPA is riding on this class and-”

“Could you…show me the part you’re confused about?” she cut in. The boy fumbled open his text book to show her; nearly the entire page was highlighted in blinding orange. Carefully, she walked him through the key points of the chapter, covering everything she guessed they’d be tested on. As soon as she was finished, the boy blinked, looked up to the sky and, not even directing his ‘thank you’ at her, walked back to his seat.

They always do that… she thought, her spirits sinking a little as she turned to the girl next. This one at least squeaked a ‘Thanks!’ to her face before she ran off to find a seat in the now almost full classroom, and she barely had time to cover what the last boy wanted to know before the supervisor was clearing her throat and asking everyone to sit down and stay silent.

A spark of panic flared in her: she’d completely forgotten about her bet with Mathios. She quickly looked around for him, and found him staring down at the pencils on his desk. She took one of the few available seats left, two desks away from him, and tried to catch his attention silently with a wave.

Her heart fell like a stone. She thought she saw his eye flick to her for half a second before going back to his pencils, which he rearranged.

He didn’t even stop to say hi when he came in…

Was he really ignoring her?

Maybe she’d just imagined it. She couldn’t be sure. Maybe her mind was just going from stressing out all the time. She pulled out her own pencils from her bag, twirling one between her fingers, putting Mathios out of her mind and waiting for the exam to start.

The exam was a combination of written theory and practical execution using the microscopes and specialty tools set up at each station. She picked up her pencil, mind still fixed on whether he was ignoring her or not, despite her best efforts. She read the instructions for the bots they were supposed to create. It was complicated, but not unmanageable, and she set to it.

Writing lethargically at first, then moving into a moderate scribble, and finally into a scratching madness of lead on paper, she planned out and outlined the necessary mechanics and programming required to make the nanobots fulfill their assigned purpose. She was just getting to the good part, about the communication the bots needed between each other to function as a cohesive, evolving group, when her lead finally protested all the abuse and broke. Fumbling with her pencil sharpener, she paused to use it, and caught something out of the corner of her eye.

No.

He couldn’t have...

She looked. There he was, slightly hunched over his paper, then moving up to look into the microscope. But, a second ago, she could have sworn she’d seen him looking in her direction, and that she’d caught his eye.

Slowly, she put her pencil to the page and pretended to write, focusing as hard as she could on her peripheral vision. After five minutes of nothing, she slowly began to write again, when she heard the scratching pencils of a couple other people cease, and the squeaks of a few chairs.

She looked up and around to see what the source of the distraction was.

There, two seats away to her left, Mathios Adamiante was pressing the unblemished, pure white end of his pencil’s eraser onto the page, moving it back and forth.

Erasing.

Mathios was erasing.

In his entire career at the school, she could never recall him once putting the opposite end of the pencil to the paper. Ever. He had never made a mistake.

Yet there he was, putting pressure on the paper with the now grey rubber, sweeping the crumbs off his desk, turning the pencil over in his hand to be able to write again.

And he glanced at her. This time, for sure, their eyes met. Hers silently pleaded with him to make some motion of what was on his mind; his simply lingered on her for a moment, before turning back to his paper, as if bored.

“Mathio-!”

“No talking!” came the sharp cut from the front of the class. Abigail jumped in her seat and sent one of her pencils rolling off the desk. It hit the tile with little force, but the sound it made in the suddenly silent room could have been a gunshot. Shakily, she picked it up, and went back to her exam.

He looked at me. And he made a mistake. He miscalculated. He never does that. Ever. Did I make him do that? How could I have made him do that? What did I do now? What is he thinking?

She peeked a glance over at him. He looked norm-

“Miss Carrington, if you do not keep your eyes to your own paper, I will be forced to remove it from you and fail you in this exam. Please don’t make me do this…” The professor smiled at her a little, “…as you are helping the class average stay at a passing grade.”

Abigail nodded, blushing, and sank her head back down obediently, and kept her gaze to her work for the remainder of the exam.

Her mind, however, spent most of the rest of the exam four feet away with the black haired, blue eyed boy, obsessing. It was only when he finally stood up, handed in his papers, and left the room without a word was she freed from the grip of his presence, and she rapidly finished the remainder of the test in just under five minutes.

Grabbing her bag, forgetting her pencils, and almost tossing her papers at the teacher, she bolted out the door, desperate to catch him. The shocks in her knees took the abuse well as she followed the invisible trail of his normal route at a barely human speed. Then, near the doors to the entrance hall, she found him.

“Mathios!”

He slowed. She wasn’t sure if he would turn to face her, it took so long for him to turn around. His expression made her slow. She felt, emanating from him, a mixture confusion and something like...frustration?

She walked closer to him, until they were a few feet apart. The sun was setting, casting wavering shadows across the ground as the wind pushed the trees back and forth. A few blossom petals broke free and were caught in a wind, creating a tiny white tornado for a few moments on the asphalt beside them. Then the wind died down, the petals floated to the ground, and they looked at each other in silence.

“How...did your exam go?” she managed to ask, rubbing one arm with her hand, her eyes sinking below the gaze of his blue eyes.

“Adequately.” The response was crisp, short, and unfeeling.

“That’s...good to hear. I was worried-”

“Worried?” he asked. This time, it was more than crisp; it was sharp, cutting. He radiated tension. His eyes wandered away from her as she quailed.

“Well...after…”

“It was just a mistake.” There was a slight pause, then, “I suppose it really must happen to everyone.”

“Oh! Of course!” she said, looking back up. She had expected forgiveness in those words, but his face was cold, and, somewhere, behind his eyes, he looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here.

She tried to force out the real question.

“M…”

He looked at her. At her few moments’ silence, he began to turn away.

“Mathios, why won’t you talk to me?!” She finally burst.

He stopped, but did not reply.

“You’ve been...acting strange. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I wouldn’t normally be bothered, or say anything, but you’ve been avoiding me, and acting abnormal, and now this-”

“What does that matter?”

“I just, this, you’ve never been like this before. What happened?”

“Happened to what?”

“To you…to me? To us?”

“When has there been an “us”, Abigail? There has always been simply a you and an I. That is all there ever was. I’m deeply sorry if you believed there was anything more to our conversations than what there actually was.”

“…Mathios, I don’t understand-”

“Yes? Understand what? You’re an intelligent person. I can’t believe there’s something you wouldn’t understand.”

“That’s what I thought about you, until you made that mistake!” Her voice was rising. Now she was angry.

“As I said, I suppose mistakes, like today’s, must happen to-”

“I meant me!”

There was a silence. He looked at her levelly, but the detachment flittered from his face for just a moment to reveal confusion, a touch of curiosity.

“You…what, exactly?” he asked. She raised her eyes to meet his, but even their slight softening couldn’t bring her to say anymore. She mouthed ‘forget it’, tears blurring her vision, and turned around to run. Away from him, away from his presence, away from those eyes and that voice and that picture of everything that had gotten her through the last years by just being stable and accessible, by being nothing more than honest and polite, and having that honesty backfire in her face.

“When has there been an “us”, Miss Carrington?”

She fled through one of the doors to the front hall, dropping her bag in her haste. It fell hard to the ground, slumping onto its side, as she disappeared into the school. She did not turn back to see Mathios stand there, as if paused, looking at her backpack. By the time he walked over to where it had fallen, she’d run up three flights of stairs, turned into the hallway, and ducked into an empty classroom. She collapsed at a desk, not bothering to turn the lights on or even close the door. She buried her head in her arms, shaking.

“There has always simply been a you and an I.”

She let herself cry silently, cursing herself for it, for that weakness, for her misconception, for letting herself become dependant on anyone other than family or technology. His words echoed around and around her head, fueling the burning pressure behind her eyes, until at last she had nothing left in her but a feeling of exhaustion and stillness.

“That is all there ever was.”

She stayed in her slowly darkening room for over an hour, as the students came and went from their last exam of the day. They rushed past her open, eager to get out into the world to celebrate or study, and no one stopped for more than a moment to glance at the girl in the classroom. Perhaps because it was out of the way, or looked like she had just fallen asleep, or just because they themselves were too euphoric to deal with another person’s problems, but Abigail stayed alone as they passed, tucked into herself.

When the corridors had been quiet for several minutes, she finally roused herself to her feet. She was stiff; her bed would be more comfortable than the plastic chair, and perhaps she could fall asleep and escape the endless circle of thinking she’d looped herself into.

“That is all there ever was…”

To her surprise, when she reached the door of the classroom, her bag was sitting there, in the hallway, just next to the doorframe. She stared at it, confused, and picked it up carefully. She checked its contents: nothing was disturbed. Momentarily distracted by the mystery of how it had gotten itself there, she continued to rifle through it as she made her way out of the building. As she stepped out onto the concrete path outside, surprised by how late it was, by how long she’d been hiding in that classroom, her night got even worse.

“Cheerleader!”

She froze.

“No…”

There they were, carrying cases of beer and bags of chips under their arms. The guy from before smirked at her, and jogged forward to greet her, handing his case of beer to a friend as he did.

“This must be fate, seeing you twice in one day!” he said. He eyed her, and she hugged herself, nervous, wishing, at that moment, that she could teleport, instead of talk to machines.

“It is a...strange coincidence, yes,” she said. She started backing away slowly, but the group followed her movement.

“Why you running? We just want you to come to our party,” he said, innocently. His hands revealed him, however; they were twitchy, as if ready to grab her if she did run.

“I have to study,” she said. She risked a faster pace, walking backwards, not daring to turn her back on them. She could run, but these were athletes; they stood a fair shot of catching her before she built up enough momentum.

“Study, study... that’s no fun. Why don’t you come with us?”

A few of the boys started to move to each of her sides. She realized she was quickly becoming trapped, and turned to risk a bolt. The boy’s hand caught her wrist and pulled her back, hard.

“I promise, we’ll be a lot more fun than studying,” he finished, a sick grin sweeping his face, twisting his features, catching the shadows cast by the lights on the outside of the building beside them. It made him look demonic.

Fear struck her. She looked around, paralyzed. She’d thought she’d seen a shadow of a person off by the gates, but it was gone now. Her hope died with the disappearance of that shadow; everyone would be gone studying or partying. She was alone, and to get out of this, she had to do something. She had to try.

She risked it. She bolted, suddenly springing off in a random directly, hoping to catch them off guard. The leader cried out; for a moment, she thought she’d made it.

But she was wrong. One of them dropped his bag of cheese puffs and grabbed her, hard, and stopped her dead. She struggled for a second or two, but he was brutally strong.

That was it. That was her one chance, she'd miscalculated, and she’d lost.