Stuck together - Book One of Meehric's Tales

Chapter 5: Her training

Day 6,191

Abby adds a last number to her paper. She glances at the teacher sitting at his desk, his full attention on a book open in front of him. She closes her eyes. She finds herself in the black space, Lilea's back facing her.

"Okay, I've done everything I know. Your turn."

"I am not helping you." says Lilea, adamant.

"Come on!"

"You should have studied more for the test."

"I studied, and you know it."

"You read it twice."

"Please! I can't have a bad grade again!"

"No. You should have asked for help from your father."

"You know I can't. He doesn't help, he teaches."

"He's a math teacher."

"That's the entire problem." retorts Abby.

"Miss Johnson?"

Abby opens her eyes and sees her math teacher standing next to her table.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes sorry, I was focusing on this problem."

The teacher nods and goes back to his chair, his eyes wandering on his students. Abby leans on her table, staring at her last calculation. She takes a glance around her and rubs her eyes with her index and thumb, giving herself an excuse to close them.

"You know that if I have a bad grade, Dad will cut off our fencing training again, right?"

"You are not playing fair, young girl." says Lilea in a warning tone.

Abby opens her eyes as they turn purple. Lilea continues to argue with her inner voice.

What are you going to do once I'm gone?

I'll have bad grades and stop fencing. But for now, I need an A, thank you! replies Abby's voice inside her head.

The purple eyes roll in their sockets before focusing on the math problems in front of them.

A bell signals the end of class. The high school's hallways fill up with teenagers going in every direction. Abby comes out of the classroom and goes to her locker. She opens it and puts in a biology book, and takes out a notebook. Inside the locker's door hangs a dreamcatcher, pictures of her parents and a picture of her and Jason smiling at each other. She closes the door and walks towards the front door. She sees Jason and his grey backpack further away, getting something from his locker. She accelerates her pace.

"Hey!"

Jason turns towards her and smiles. "Hey!"

"How was your last period?"

Jason starts snoring.

"That bad, huh?" smirks Abby.

"Well the only good thing about this class is the teacher's cleavage." He closes his locker and locks it.

Abby rolls her eyes. "I still can't believe you took Russian just for her looks."

"I still can't believe you took drawing classes when you're clearly terrible at it."

Abby raises her hands.

"I think it's just a coordination problem."

"Between your hands and the pencil?" grins Jason.