Maturinus: School Days

Break

"Until the docs throw us out" turned out to be an hour of sitting around and eating chocolate while swapping stories and observations about other Adepts and the rest of the races. Sabrina had promised to punch Arc so hard her face went concave, Katie had promised to stop worrying, while Cherri had shown where she'd summoned the tree from, revealing a couple of acorns that Alexander had given to her before the race as heavy-duty power outlets. They'd been pre-charged for her as a last resort, and it was easy to see why. Even with the help, the power usage had exhausted her so much that she'd thought she was going to die there on the spot. She wouldn't hear Katie's apologies one way or the other, claiming that smashing the cage to pieces was a good enough reason to use one. And that had been the long and short of the evening before a nurse had thrown Sabrina out for disturbing other patients, Cherri going with her so that Katie could get some sleep. Despite the evening's events, she actually managed to get a decent night's rest.

Awaking up was the rougher experience, as she was roused the next morning by a nurse come in to give her the all-clear, pushing her out the door after the morning sermon on the hospital radio. She thought about visiting Dr Schwartz but decided against it in the end, knowing that bothering her would just be an inconvenience to everyone involved as she would only get more of the same answers her friends had given her last night. If she was completely honest with herself, the scales of decision were tipped over less by her morality and more by the complaints of her stomach, rebelling against the meagre provisions it had been provided the night before. And so she went out into the world hoping that Sabrina would be able to get up by herself and not sleep in until midday as she was normally wont to do. Which admittedly wasn't too much of a problem on a Sunday, but it still wasn't a good thing to do. In the end she decided that if she wasn't in the food hall she'd swing by her friend's apartment after she'd eaten. It wasn't like she had any plans for the day. Her arms and legs still felt more like deadweight than actual limbs, so another day of rest was in order.

"I have enough credits for luxuries now, maybe I'll check out the advanced television packages."

Having the news twenty-four – seven was nice, but she had no interest in watching the Adapt Games, even with Sabrina's constant needling to get into the show. If she struggled for entertainment, the fifty point set of documentary channels would be her first port of call.

"Katie!"

The voice that drew her out her thoughts wasn't a familiar one, and it came from an unfamiliar girl, waiting for her outside the Medical Centre. It was only when Katie blinked the sun out of her eyes that she recognised her.

"G-G-Godiva?"

"Hey! How ya doing?"

And so Katie found herself with an unusual breakfast partner, watching as the other girl more or less inhaled a Full English while rambling nineteen to the dozen. Just as Cherri had said, she seemed to be nice enough despite how unnatural she looked in a school uniform as opposed to howling like a madwoman.

"So yeah, sorry about holding up your friends and all that palaver. Gemma pays pretty good you know? Although she was real butthurt about what your friend did to her. Still paid out though, but I think she shaved a little off my payment. Makes sense though you know, considering she came last in her race. Hey, you want another pot of tea? You look like you're running dry."

"Umm..."

In the time it took her to collect anything vaguely resembling a thought, Godiva had gone halfway across the dining hall, retrieved a new pot of tea and was already pouring five sugar packets into her coffee.

"So where was I? Oh yeah, real sorry that I had to try and throw your friends off. I mean, I'm kinda glad you weren't on the same path as me, I don't want to think what it would have been like if I had to fight you all the way down the course. Don't worry about me by the way, it's not like I was pretty anyway."