St. Văduva's School for Prestigious Girls

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕿𝖜𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖞-𝕺𝖓𝖊

The next day brought with it a steadily growing sense of fatigue. It would seem that her feel-good miracle had run its course. Pity. She entered her painting class, seeing JJ already setting up the easel. She inhaled and readied herself for a round of innocent questioning. She grabbed her old, withered easel and set it up beside JJ, who smiled at her in return.

"Morning," she greeted, smiling. "How's your head? Zhanna told me about yesterday. Seems like Kanani's taken a liking to you."

Temperance grumbled. "It's one hell of a welcoming, that's for sure. Sorry about not showing up to movie night, by the way. How was it?"

JJ waved it off. "No worries, and I didn't have very much fun anyways."

Temperance placed a small canvas on the easel, furrowing her brow at JJ's words as she strapped the canvas into place. "Why not?"

JJ pointed to her hearing aid. "These little bastards started acting up and squealing in my ears. It was very distracting and very painful. Ended up having to spend the evening in the nurse's sleeping off my migraine."

Temperance nodded, taking in the information. So JJ was asleep during the murder, and Zhanna was with her. But was she with her the entire time? Something to look into tomorrow.

"Sounds exhausting. I'm not entirely sure how hearing aids work, but could it be a battery thing?"

"They're charged, I checked. But they just glitched, I guess. They're Bluetooth-powered, so I have them hooked up to my phone. The nurse even checked them out but couldn't find anything wrong. I had Zhanna take a look at my phone to see if it was something with the Bluetooth, but I guess everything looks up to date. I hope it doesn't happen again."

"Strange," Temperance replied. "Have they done it before?"

"Not really. Well, I mean, they already kind of do it whenever Zhanna tucks my hair behind my ear, but this was on a whole other level."

Temperance opened her mouth to inquire more, but Florida entered the room, bright and beaming. "Good morning, everyone! Let's go ahead and get started on our ten-minute warm-up!"

She glanced at JJ but the woman was already pulling out her paints and getting to work. Temperance followed suit, keeping that information tucked away for later.

☽☼☾

Nausea is no one's friend. She sat in the library, a large haven filled with the mustiness of old books and the faint, calming glowing from fairy lights lining the endless bookshelves. It was beyond relaxing as she sat in a padded chair beside a tall bookshelf full of books in different languages. She was toward the edges of the middle of the room, a wide open spot full of tables and bean-bag chairs and surrounded by skyscraper-sized shelves that lined the walls. Shorter ones filled up most of the floor space like dominoes, and there was an area at the very back where students could fire up the ancient, cube-like computers. Surprise, surprise — they were not very popular among students.

Her head felt like it was splitting in two, both where her most recent injury was, and where the tumor lie deep within. Her mouth filled with saliva as she swallowed back bile. Her short-lived time of a blissful pain-free existence was fleeting, unfortunately. All the pain was starting to move back in, making itself right at home as Temperance struggled to resist the urge to fly off the top of the building.

The rest of her classes for the day had let out, thankfully. For a Tuesday, everyone was rather animated, except in the library, where she could hole herself away and enjoy the solitude. The evening sun shone in through a large, decorated stained glass window, casting warm-toned hues all across the room. It was mesmerizing.