Nerd Squared

02: studying

    A/N: SURPRISE BITCH IM BACK AND SO IS LOUISE. GET HYPE

"Spell pulchritude," Luke said, looking up from the flash cards he held in his hands.

    With a groan, I shook my head, burying my face into my arms. "Can we take a break?" I ask, my voice muffled.

    "Just five more words and we're done," he answered impatiently, letting out an annoyed sigh. "This is to help you, Louise. I don't want you not studying and showing up to the bee not knowing how to spell anything."

    "I don't need to study," I argue, looking up and narrowing my eyes. "I'll just need to read more advanced books, and they'll have more advanced words in there for sure."

    God, I'm not gonna stay inside, cooped up, studying with my weirdo brother. No way. I have things to do and people to see. I'm not wasting my time doing this.

    "Fine, five more words, and then you let me out. Got it?"

    He rolled his eyes, unfazed by my attempt at being intimidating. It usually worked on everyone else. I guess it didn't work on him since he always saw me as his kid sister who broke his Lego castle when I was 3.

    "Pulchritude," he repeated, not paying any mind to what I just said. "Spell it."

    "Fine. P-U-L-C-H-R-I-T-U-D-E. Pulchritude."

    "How did you know that?" He asked, looking over the set of cards in his hand. "Can you see through the paper?"

    "No, dumbass, we watched Akeelah and the Bee the other night," I replied, earning a loud, 'shhhh' from a panicky Luke.

    "Mom and Dad are right next door, don't cuss right now!" He whispered frantically, eyes constantly flickering to the doorway.

    "Yeah, sure thing, big bro," I answered harshly, standing up and leaving. "I'm hungry. Let's continue this later."

    "But-"

    "I don't care, Luke. Let me eat."

----

    I ended up not studying anymore later that day, instead grabbing my laptop and climbing up to the attic, turning on the lights and moving to sit down on the small couch we have set up there.

    It didn't take me long to adjust, and before you know it, I was already scrolling through Tumblr, idly reblogging the occasional sarcastic text post and picture of a cat.

    This place was my secret little getaway. Kind of. Sure, the family knew about the attic, but none of them really thought to look up here for me when they needed my assistance.

    Which was great, because at last, I could have privacy without my parents or Luke barging into my room. And without them storming in and disrupting my alone time, that also meant I was free from studying until someone in the family noticed, but I don't think of any of them will become aware of my disappearance until dinner, and that was four hours from now.

    I can do anything I want.

---

    Blinking slowly, I glanced about the surroundings, my throat dry and my eyes stinging slightly, not to mention, everything was blurred.

    Oh yeah, my glasses. I squint at the ground, looking for the fuzzy, black outline of my frames. It doesn't take too long for me to locate them, fortunately, and soon I'm back to seeing the world clearly again. At this point my laptop was long dead, still pretty warm from several hours of use earlier.

I close it gently after I stretch and yawn, soon picking myself up off the ground and scratching my head. Time? Who knows at this point. If I was lucky, I slept through spelling practices with Luke and I was free to sleep for the rest of the day.

That's right. I want to sleep for another couple hours. Or days. Weeks. Years. Yeah, that sounded good.

Quietly, I left, going back down and retreating back to my peaceful bedroom. By now, Luke probably ran off to hang out with a couple of his friends, and mom and dad were most likely hanging around on the porch swing, acting like two lovesick teenagers. Gross.

Shutting my bedroom door gently behind me, I put my laptop on my desk, plugging it in before moving to my bed, crawling underneath the covers and shutting my eyes. Visions of words and roots and definitions floated through my mind, and they didn't fade as I drifted off to sleep.