Beyond The Know

Binary

Flora sat at her desk, every night between Sunday and the following Wednesday. She had a make-shift ritual; get home, change clothes, make some hot chocolate and take her ever-lasting tub of Ben&Jerry's Karamel Sutra upstairs. It was her fuel, for getting through two projects. Her friends had bailed out on her. Again. She had two projects on her shoulders, weighing her down along with the burden of Conrad's 17th, and buying Alexa a present for the week after. She'd known it would happen, they'd rely on her commitment and inability to refuse a pout to get their way through graded work without actually doing any of it themselves.

She should have told a teacher, but what could they possibly do? Teachers are either oblivious or purposefully ignorant towards the social aspect of Wicker Hall; they sat on the tip of the iceberg. She couldn't cross her friends, they'd ruin her with a few screenshots of previous conversations, and rough scatterings of deceitful falseties. She wished she could be more like Alexa, who didn't allow herself to be sucked into a void of sticky situations. She never involved herself in potential danger, she was rational. Although the notion was blowing Alexa out of proportion- not being friends with her friends wasn't exactly a feat, it was simply ignoring teenage hierarchy and making friends with people whom she had actual common interests with. But Flora admired her physical ability to protect herself; if someone attempted to attack her, she'd most likely be able to defend herself. Flora didn't want to be feeble and over-reliant. She'd enrolled in the local gym, where she had a personal trainer, Sonya. The feeling of building up her strength, even by a little bit, was reassuring. She'd heard stories of girls just like her being harassed, and she most likely did not want to be seen as a target.

There was one thing, a solitary, insurmountable trip during the summer that was keeping her going. Her mother had promised her that she'd be allowed to visit her father in Switzerland for two weeks in July if she tried hard in class. So far, summer school wasn't looking like a possibility; with what she'd already achieved that very semester, the trip was guaranteed. She hadn't seen him since two Christmases ago, where she had travelled there via plane, and spent a week skiing with him at a resort. Switzerland was the highlight of every year, and in July she'd be staying at a coastal village, with a scenic tarn lying in the dip of the mountains. Her cousins would be there, and two weeks away from America, from school, from stress and lack of sleep.

She smiled at the thought, as she finally finished the presentations on the Wednesday and sent it to all of her friends, a sigh of relief as the 'Sent' icon popped up on the screen. She scooped out the last spoonful of ice-cream entwined in sweet caramel.

"Make sure you bring the presentation to the class on Friday in case I forget, and write a basic script for what we're going to say." She whispered as she read her touch-typed email out loud. She sent it to her partner, sitting back in her swivel chair. She spun it around and ended up catching sight of Alexa mid-smile, lying on her bed on her stomach, and holding herself up by her elbows. She had her phone in her hands, texting away rapidly.

"Who you textin'?" Flora asked as she rolled on the wheels of her chair instead of physically standing up and walking towards her friend. Alexa looked up, her large green eyes crinkled in a grin. There were strands of hazelnut brown and caramel hair floating in delicate wisps around her face.

"Just Blake." She replied as she looked at the reply on her phone, as signalled by the vibrate-and-ding-ding. Alexa had exchanged numbers with him on her way home from his house, and they'd been texting ever since. He was currently sending her virtual I'm-upset-so-I'm-pouting-at-you faces because she wouldn't tell him what she'd ordered for his present. She'd found the perfect present, and she'd also found more than enough money to buy it on the debit card she'd brought with her from The Know. The currency was actually accepted in New York- well, at least on the computer. Dollars and Pounds...there were only the latter where she came from.