9. Lessons
History was taught by Ida Ilino. Up in the twisting corridors near the Dining Hall, they followed the rest of the class hoping desperately not to be left behind and get lost. Stopping outside a door that looked just like any of the others they had seen, they filed into the classroom.
It was an unassuming room, with simple red walls and wooden floor boards. At the front was an oak desk, behind which a blackboard hung on the wall. If it hadn't been for the colourful flames flickering in the various candles and the yellow orbs of light drifting around the ceiling, it would have looked like an old school room.
Chattering happily, the class sat down at the Victorian-style sloping desks. Charlie was between Peter and Jason, behind Phoenix and Emma. The girls were laughing and talking freely, but Charlie felt a slight tension between Jason and Peter that numbed the boys' conversation a little.
Professor Ilino was seated in an armchair at the front of the class. Staying in her chair, she told them to 'listen carefully and make mental notes', which Charlie thought was completely pointless given his personal lack in ability to memorise anything. Then she suddenly rocketed off into a speech that lost Charlie from the first sentence.
He stared blankly at Ilino, trying to make any sense of what she was saying, but no matter how hard he tried it was impossible to grasp more than a few sentences of what she was saying, partly because many of the words she used were not ones Charlie understood - such as Koji and Transphere - and partly because she was speaking at such a speed that it was incredibly taxing to try to make out what she was saying.
From catching the odd word and conversing with Joshua silently across the classroom, Charlie found out that she was talking about past rivalries between Foundlings mostly. Occasionally, she would ask a question of the class, and would be met by blank stares, apart from, surprisingly, Phoenix, who had somehow managed to follow everything Ilino had said.
However, Terry Nixon, a boy Charlie recalled Hamish and Joshua hadn't thought much of (and hadn't had any reservations about sharing their opinions on), was annoyingly eager to put his opinion forward, despite the fact he didn't seem to always have followed what was said. At each question Ilino asked, when Phoenix answered he would speak over the top of her, when he thought she had gotten something wrong. Which she rarely had. She glared daggers at him every time, but he didn't seem to notice.
Charlie decided after several episodes of this, that it was because he was so arrogant he thought his thoughts were more important than that of those around him. That or he just liked the sound of his own voice.
Charlie found himself leaning back in his chair with his eyes half closed as Ilino spoke on. Hamish and Joshua were throwing a paper plane backwards and forwards. Joshua could no longer keep Charlie informed as to what was being said as he didn't have a clue himself anymore. Emma was staring at Ilino with glazed eyes, mind clearly elsewhere. Peter was tapping rhythms on the desk with some of his fingers, whilst also fiddling with his glasses and curly blonde hair. Jason was trying in vain to look interested, but despite the fact he came from the Founded world he hadn't seemed to be able to follow what was being said. Even Phoenix was wavering, one hand supporting her head whilst she stared at Ilino. Charlie could almost hear her brain slowing down as she took less and less in.
About half way through the lesson, Ilino began to slow down her speech until it just tapered out. Charlie snapped out of his reverie when he realised she had stopped speaking. Looking up at her desk and chair, he realised that Ilino had droned off and had fallen asleep in her soft armchair. She was snoozing gently, chest heaving slowly in a smooth rhythm. A faint smile played upon her lips.
