Court of Elites

Classes

Jaziline and Sam found their way to a room labeled Linguistics. Inside were seventeen desks with numbers on each one.

Jaziline found the one marked 34 and sat down. Inside the desk was a quill, bottle of ink, and a folder of paper.

She looked at Sam in confusion. He shrugged and held up the quill, mouthing maybe they're punishing us.

Jaziline stifled a laugh as a woman with skin that was too white and hair that was entirely too black entered the room.

She looked at the children blankly, before smiling widely. "Welcome to Linguistics class. I am Ms. Dian and I am your teacher."

She turned to a large whiteboard that covered one wall of the plain room.

"In the court there are three official languages: English, Spanish, and French. The members of the court will all speak at least one of these languages, but some will be more partial to other, non official languages so you might also learn these."

"Any questions?"

"Yes," said a dark haired girl, "What if we speak other languages already?"

"You will be split up in this class based off how well you speak these languages and you will all learn these three to fluency in this class. Those who are selected as leaders or spies will learn other languages in advanced linguistics."

She then handed everyone a piece of test. "Answer these questions and then you will be separated by your ability in each language."

Jaziline looked at the test, the first question read:

translate the following sentences into your preferred language.
1. Bienvenido, como puedo ayudarte?
2. Do you speak English?
3. Pardonnez-moi, êtes-vous...
4. Lo siento, es mi culpa.
5. Where are you from?
6. Puis-je vous aider avec ça.

Jaziline translated the sentences in Spanish and English. Leaving the French alone, she silently thanked her father you always speaking Spanish with her and her siblings.

She blinked and shook her head, refusing to lose herself to memories. Samuel, watching her from his desk, noted the way she lost herself in her thoughts before shoving them away.

He had noted that some of the subjects were depressed and miserable, barely making it through the day. Yet Jaziline had seemed perfectly fine until now.

Only now did he realize her problem, Jaziline Grace was in denial. She still believed that her family was alive, even if she wouldn't admit it. It hadn't quite hit her that they were never coming back.

Sam thought back on his family, he didn't regret or miss them at all. His foster parents had never hurt him, but they hadn't cared for him, so he felt no emotional connection to them.

He could tell both Jaziline and Calypsa were coping better than most. If pushing all your emotions away counts as coping.

Jaziline walked over to the blonde boy, waving her hand in front of his face. "Sam! You with me?"

"Uh, yeah, sorry. What's up?"

"Class finished, we'll see how we did on the test tomorrow."

"Oh, ok. What class do we have now?"

She scoffed, "Come back to this planet and I'll tell you."

"We're on a spaceship, princess."

"Whatever."

A/N- Ok, another short chapter, sorry about that. Sam and Jaziline's friendship is cute and Jaziline is in denial, surprise. Actually though, if any of you know how to write a character in denial please help me because I'm a bit lost.

Don't forget to vote and comment.

-Azhari