The Soul Traveler

Chapter 5

Kyna's first period class was History with Mr. Haimish. A puritanical, goody-goody opposite to his fictional namesake from the Suzanne Collins trilogy.

If she had to choose between a live boring drone of a teacher who was dryer than burnt toast and a non-living alcoholic, she'd much prefer Haymitch. So Kyna was glad she made a slight detour to the corner grocery store that morning. Because between fourth period gym and fifth period math, her eyes had begun to feel like burning coals the size of boulders. Now it was her final period, seventh period English, and the back of her eyes were itching so damn much she'd wish she bought three of those energy drinks, instead of two.

She wanted to sleep so badly. It didn't help that some of the words on the pop quiz Mrs. S sprung on the class started to blur together. Plus the desks were arranged in an U kitchen layout and Kyna sat in the first row on the right side of the room. There was no one she could hide behind to catch some sleep and not get caught.

Kyna rubbed her eyes and followed the double image of her English teacher as she sat back down at her desk and said, "Begin."

The quiz were split into two parts. Part A were ten multiple choice questions. Part B, a short essay question, 'Discuss the role of love in The Giver.' And on the very bottom, a bonus question, 'What was the name of previously chosen receiver of memories? Explain their relationship to the giver.'

Damn. Kyna knew she wasn't going to score her usual of 90 and above. Not with her erratic sleeping pattern making it impossible to finish the current reading material. Damn, that weird meadow and shit. She'd heard of recurring dreams but to constantly visit the same image over and over until she was too tired to finish a book, a good book, was ridiculous.

She couldn't even live up to Shandrea's digs of how Merriam-Webster should update their dictionary with a picture of her under book lover. Her reading super powers are useless if she can't even keep her eyes open long enough to read the whole book. Or at least not reread the same passage five times. It was so unlike her, the sun might've well rise from the west.

Tap. Tap.

Despite the coming headache starting to pound behind her eyes, Kyna's lips quirked up in a small smile. Of course Shandrea hadn't bothered to read it either, thought Kyna as she looked down at question number two. Mrs. S really should've rethought reassigning Shandrea's seat from next to her to across the room.

What color did Jonah first identify?

A) Blue    B) Red

C) Green D) Black

Too easy. Kyna circled B and rubbed her forehead.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Question 5: How does one become a family in The Giver?

A) Sexual reproduction    B) adoption

C) appeal to the elders    D) approving one's application

Kyna circled D and tucked a curl behind her left ear.

Shandrea tapped her pen seven times. Kyna glanced down the seventh question when her temple throbbed so hard her eyes watered. Rubbing her forehead, she wished to god she'd also bought some Advil when went an odd burning smell wafted to her nose. Was someone smoking or something? It was so strong, the smoker had to be in the room. But what kind of fool would actually take a smoke during class? That kind of thing was usually done in stairwells or bathrooms in between breaks.

She lifted her head, ignoring Shandrea's WTF look as she let her nose guide her to the smoker. But aside from her and Shandrea, everyone else had their heads bent on their quizzes. With each passing second Kyna realized that the smell smoke permeated the entire room that she began to fear that the reason for the smoke was because there was a fire.