So it is done

House of cards

Cinder watched the teacher babble something that is very uninteresting for a few seconds, before twisting her face in disgust and looking away, sighing.

The book on accounting that she had used to read during this class rested at the bottom of her bag, unused. Not because she had given up on helping Jonathan, but simply because how many times Cinder had read it, she no longer needed a text in front of her eyes. Nor does she need any reminder of what she had read in order to recall any page from the book with photographic accuracy.

Something that barely made Cinder happy. Because, even after she had thoroughly studied the entire book, Cinder still didn't understand the material. Even if she could remember and regurgitate the abbreviations and forms of accounting to pass a test, she still couldn't understand the gist of the matter. Namely, on the general logic of managing finances.

It seemed that there was no logic at all in dozens of intricate forms and records that could teach her how to do the job. Formulas, numbers and coefficients appeared out of nowhere and disappeared into nowhere, the rules for filling and counting were clearly invented by the most brain-dead of brain-dead officials. Idiots who want to see people in agony and torment, as they try in vain trying to remember all the dozens of columns of expenses and income and hundreds of numbers and percentages...

Cinder exhaled noisily, ignoring the children around her, before lowering her head in her hands.

This is definitely not helping Jonathan in any way!

The teacher, whatever her name was, Cinder had already forgotten, it looked disapprovingly at Cinder... Although, no, it would be more correct to say that Cinder never remembered her name instead. The teacher, instead of commenting on Cinder's behavior, preferred to look away instead.

Cinder did not pay attention to what the other students were doing in the class at the moment nor what the teacher was teaching. But, given that they were currently going through only the simplest of arithmetic, something that Cinder had learned a long time ago, any attempt by the teacher to catch Cinder by a surprise question was doomed to failure from the very beginning.

So, after the first few attempts to make Cinder pay attention, and perhaps reprimand her, the teacher was forced to give up. Maybe, after looking at the fact that Cinder was not bothering the rest of the students, and was spending her time reading a book, the teacher decided to leave her alone.

The rest of the kids also did not pay attention to the newcomer.

On the first day, especially after her 'unique' introduction, Cinder was a hot topic for discussion. Many of the children walked up to her bothering her about useless things like her hobbies or her favorite TV show. It didn't last long.

When the next day, one of the class 'leaders' returned to class with a huge black eye, and was mum to all questions, he was the next 'hot' thing to talk about. And when the class needled him enough to talk, the only thing he said was to warn everyone that Cinder Fall, the new student, was a girl who should not be approached. The class quickly put two and two together and quite quickly came to a tacit agreement to ignore Cinder.

For an ordinary child, this would be a very strong blow and would ruin their days. Indifference and alienation from an entire class was too much for an ordinary child to bear.

Cinder was not an 'ordinary' child.

Cinder, when she realized that the whole class was keeping their distance, welcomed it instead. She didn't want to interact with the snot-nosed brats anyway. So, during the course of the classes she ignored them all in turn. And, when school was done, she immediately returned to Jonathan.