August 2nd 2014
"What's photosynthesis?" Jayden quizzed, looking up at the ceiling from the filthy floor.
"Where plants create food. Easy, give me a harder one." Curls nudged her smaller frame.
She yawned, stretching. "I gotta make sure. You know what'll happen if we fail this test."
"Yeah, yeah, as all the doctors keep saying," she groaned. "Just give me the next question."
"I'm giving you an ultra-hard one," Jayden warned, and she smirked after some thought. "What's the Raman effect?"
Her friend sat up, brows creased. "It's- it's food, and the effect is that... it makes people less hungry."
"Not ramen, Raman! Totally different."
"Oh yeah! Totally different!" Curls exclaimed, throwing her hands up. "But now you've gotten me hungry."
"Well, it's not my fault you always think with your stomach," she teased. "Do you give up?"
"How do you remember stuff like this? I remember Doctor Ria talking about it, but she's as dull as rocks."
"I just do," she shrugged. "The answer is that it's the change in the wavelength of light when molecules deflect a light beam."
"What does that even mean?"
"No idea." She admitted. "I'm just repeating it."
"This is impossible. They expect too much."
"I think that's the point," she shrugged, her fingers carding through Theo's fur as he lay docile on her chest. "They want us to struggle."
"How bad do you think the punishment will be this time?" she questioned, her voice going quiet in the way Jayden didn't like at all.
"Stop it," she said. "You're not going to fail. You worry every time, and it's always stupid because you always scrape by."
"There'll be a day when I won't," she squeezed as Jayden uncoiled, sitting cross-legged, their hands joined. "But not if we don't get out."
Her lips pressed together as she released the hand and brought Theo, who had fallen to her lap, into a cradle against her chest. "Can we not do this again? It's your turn to ask questions."
Curls looked like she wanted to interject, but instead, exhaled her frustrations as a noisy huff. "Fine, what's 6x6?"
"36, but why maths? I'm good at math. You know I'm good at math."
"Exactly! The quicker you answer, the quicker we finish."
"Don't do that. You should ask me questions I don't know, so I can learn from you."
"The only thing I know more than you is how to stay optimistic."
The brunette huffed and slid back until the tiled wall was against her back. "I call it realistic."
"Like any of us know what real is," Theo suddenly snarked. "We don't even know what civilisation looks like."
"I don't need to. I already know our chances of seeing it before they turn us into... things like the Winter Soldier. They aren't very high," Jayden countered, soured. "We'll be husks. I doubt we'll enjoy the fresh air, or care if it's as fresh as in the name. Next question, Curls."
"I hate it when you talk like that," she murmured, shuffling to rest beside her.
"I know. I-I'm sorry," Jayden sighed, staring at the faint bruises littering her knuckles. "Just... next question, please?"
YOU ARE READING
Unforeseen¹
FanfictionJYD2641 had enough. In her seven years, she's only ever known the cruel hands of her doctors, who were determined to make her the next Winter Soldier. All she'd ever known was death, pain, and fear. Instead of a parent's loving embrace, she had the...
