Rebel Red Hope

18

     Ashton gives a scoff at the sight of me skidding and crashing into a stack of chairs while running down the stairs a bit too fast while attempting to grab my bag from the empty kitchen,

     "You're going to damage something important if you keep being this reckless," he scolds with a raised brow,

     "You know what," I point at him from the floor before pausing and dropping my hand, "actually, fair point. But I figured I didn't want to deal with isolation for being late again," flashing him a small smile before finally getting up with a grunt, I grab my bag after putting the chairs back,

     "Shall we?" Ashton starts walking towards the door causing me to scurry after him as he makes his way out the door.

     The city seems more dead than usual; the soft buzz and light of neon, the off smell coming from the towers in the distance, the praising statue which Ashton and I quickly bow to on our way to Reisdro's lesson house.

     "What's today's lesson? Do you know?" I ask, nudging Ashton slightly,

     "Something about the dangers of the outside I think and we are also finishing our study of the trash dragon story today," he recalls, and my hand flies to my head,

     "Oh shit, I don't think I was there for the reading. Fuck this is going to be terrible," shaking my head, my mind starts to race before Ashton elbows me,

     "Don't worry, you can copy my notes and borrow my reading page during class," he smirks causing me to let out a sigh of relief, 

     "What would I do without you?" I chuckle while throwing my arm around his shoulders,

     "I don't know, probably something stupid," he shoots a look down at the badge, eyebrow raised while pushing my arm off his shoulders.

     The rest of the walk is quiet between us as we silently make our way to the lesson house just as the buzzer goes off,

     "Perfect timing you two," Reisdro announces from the front of the room, blackened hands clasped in front of him, "take your seats, the lesson is starting now," he gestures to our seats which we both take hastily.

     Kneeling at my desk and placing my bag next to me, I unzip it and pull out my notebook and pencils, and set them on my desk as Ashton does the same, sliding the papers he promised over to me the second Reisdro turns his back. Mouthing a quick 'thanks', while opening my notebook to take notes on the reading, something catches my eye in my notebook:

     The sketch of Clancy laying on the floor of his very vacant room, unconscious. Frowning, I quickly turn the page, but I'm met with another sketch which causes me to immediately turn to the next one and the next one and the next one before finally reaching a blank page,

     "What was that about?" Ashton leans in to whisper, causing me to jump,

     "Nothing," I lie through my teeth, but he simply shrugs before tapping the reading,

     "Better make quick work of this, we have at least 2 minutes until lessons take place," he tells me while looking back over his notes.

     Somehow managing to read through the somewhat short poem and finish taking notes in time, Reisdro starts his lesson aggressively hitting the board in front of the room with his rolled-up Vialism pamphlet as he starts. We all take in his words as he explains the dangers of Trench and the people out there. How disgusting and disappointing it is that they turned from their bishop and Vialism and how easily forgotten they are once they die, but also how each bishop does their best to save them from their chaotic and contaminated minds. Something in the back of my mind tells me that Reisdro was staring at me while he explained it all, but I'm sure it's just in my head. Right?