The Joining: The Cycle of the Shards Book One

16: Shanna 101

     It was no use, she thought. There was no way she could get through this assignment today. Every time her mind wandered, it went back to Kyle's fight and she got worried again. For the first time she wondered if she had led him on yesterday somehow. Could this have been her fault? She didn't know anything about his home life, or really, himself, but she did know that boys had done stupid, stupid things for girls, and getting into a fight to try and impress her, and ending up getting kicked out for it would just be horrible, even if it was a little bit impressive to her.

The relief that flooded over her when she saw Kyle enter the room couldn't be quantified. It was like a weight was lifted from her when he strode in, and his walk seemed more confident. He walked straight to the teacher, handing her a slip of paper. Once she nodded, he returned to his desk, and smiled at Shanna. She smiled back, trying to rein in her happiness slightly, unwilling to share her relief that he was still there.

As much as Shanna was inwardly happy, it seemed Jim was just as much outwardly, and he wanted to share his excitement with the whole class. "Kyle! Dude! Where the hell have you been!" The teacher gave him a stern look, and there was a shooshing chorus, but Shanna just laughed, as there were few things funnier than Jim when he got excited. Or agitated. Or anything, really. Kyle just smiled as he settled into his seat. Her curiosity immediately got the better of her as she leaned over, a little closer than she intended to, and whispered in his ear. "I'm with him. What the hell happened to you?"

Kyles mind was in overdrive, and Critock had to struggle to contain it. He mentally tried to tell him to settle down, but it was no use, the old hormones were activated and there was no stopping them, he would just have to deal with a overexcited teenager bouncing around. Hopefully the girl didn't do anything else, otherwise he wasn't sure if he could maintain his control on the consciousness. Speaking out loud to both of them, though quiet enough to not disturb anyone else, he answered, coolly aware that there were other eyes on him throughout the classroom. "Had to take care of some things, Phelps wanted to make sure I wasn't going to get kicked out."

Jim's smile disappeared. "Are you? Going to get kicked out?"

Critock rolled his eyes. "I'm here, aren't I? What's the assignment?"

Shanna slid her paper over so that Critock could read it, albeit where both of their heads would have to come close together to do so. It was a fact that wasn't lost on him, but he mentally shrugged. He was sure Kyle wouldn't mind at least. Jim, for his part, knew when to get out of the way, noticing how Shanna was looking at Kyle. He lost himself in his own assignment as Critock glanced over at the paper, and looked at the screen in front of him. It was completely black. He realized that he was in big trouble.

Tom flew over from where he was investigating the room, and whispered. "What is this? I knew they were behind the times, but..."

Critock shrugged. With such tight quarters and Shanna keeping an eye on him ever since he entered the room, he couldn't risk any verbal communication with his partner. Unfortunately he was being no help with the computer, and Shanna was starting to stare at him.

"Here, let me help. The on button is right here..." She meant it as a joke, but he thanked her for the pointer, as he hit the button and waited for the login information. He tried in vain to access any information about the program in Kyle's mind, but either Kyle was deliberately blocking any help because of what was happening with Shanna, or Kyle himself was as bad with computers as Critock was. Somehow he knew it was the former though, and was thinking as hard as he could to try and convince him of the urgency. While he was able to get the login and password, that was the entirety of the result before Kyle simply shut down completely and refused to answer in any way. Peering at the keyboard to try and decipher the language, and with the help of Tom nudging towards the proper keys, he was able to log in, but at that point he was stuck.