All Of Us - Part 1: Summer

Chapter 25 - Pidgeons

- Evangeline -

"Here yah go," Aline sings as she slides a bowl of soup over to me. The green liquid sloshes around in the container, and though it does not seem at all appetizing, I bounce on the excuse to look at something. Grabbing my spoon, I begin to gulp it down, all whilst not looking up. It's officially the first time I'm with the others. Keiti and Aline thought it was alright for me to try it out. I, somehow, didn't get a say in the matter. And I'm not certain I want to do this. I know I cannot stay isolated forever, but they... They are simply so many. When I opened the training room doors and saw a true sea of faces turning around to face me, I can't say that I didn't panic. Thank Sheso that Aline had saved me a spot by her and Keiti. I don't know what I would do without her. I glance upwards and our gazes meet.

"Why yah lookin' at me like dat ? I got some soup on my nose or somethin' ?" she asks, perplexed. I go red and mumble, blatantly lying: "No, it's just good soup."

She notices my embarrassment and quickly changes the subject. "Yah was really good out there, earlier."

"Huh ?" It's my turn to be puzzled, and her turn to blush.

"With, yah know, yer sword. Don't react like that when I give yah a compliment," she chides, spooning an overflowing serving of soup into her mouth.

"Oh," I answer, chuckling. "Thank you. I still haven't seen you with daggers, by the way," I realize aloud.

"That's cause my pure talent'll blind yah." She says so with a blank face. There is a moment of silence before I erupt into an undignified fit of giggles - my mouth full of soup. The green slop splurts out of my mouth and flies in every direction, including Aline's face.

At first, she doesn't react. Her mouth hangs open with shock as she stares at me with wide eyes. To the sound of her silence and of my uncontrollable giggles which only seem to be getting louder, she wipes the goop of her face in one clean, smooth movement. Then she grabs her bowl, and ignoring me, begins to eat again. Or pretends to - all of a sudden, her arm snaps up and all, absolutely all, of the soup in her bowl lands on my face with a splash.

There's silence. I'm stunned. Aline must be smirking, but I can't tell. My eyes are lathered with moss-colored glop. I can only hear.

And so I do notice when slowly, very slowly, someone starts laughing. But it isn't Aline's frank and honest laugh, a laugh that's as contagious as a virus and as happy as a lark. It's a mean, sharp laugh, and it occurs to me that this person is not laughing with, but rather at me. The sound begins to echo around the room. Not one person, or two, or even three; it sounds as if the entire room is alight with mocking laughter. Through the noise, I can feel Aline tense up. Someone gets up and walks up to us. "Are you alright ?" Keiti asks, crouching down next to me.

"I'm fine," I answer, somewhat curtly, wiping the soup from my face. "It's a joke, that's all it was." I bat my eyes twice and my vision clears. The laughter has subdued, yet it still lingers around the room, hovering over me like a menacing cloud. Not wanting to get rained on, I push my chair back with a scrape and get up. "Let's go, since your bowl is empty," I try to joke to Aline, but it falls flat.

"Yah not hungry ?" She scrambles to her feet as I begin to walk towards the exit.

"No," I reply over my shoulder. "I seem to have lost my appetite."

*****

"So."

Gail looks at me in the eyes. "You're going to have these classes everyday. In this cave, at this time. Everyday. Got it ?"I nod, not daring to open my mouth.

"Alright. We're going to start with the basics." She places her two forearms on the table at which I'm sitting and lowers herself till her eyes are leveled with mine. Somehow, she becomes even more intense.