Smoke

22: After Class

I was getting less and less convinced that Skill Management was the best class, and that it was the reason I was in this school.

I was flipping through the pages of one of the fiction books.
I skipped to the end, seeing a moral of 'be yourself' shown obviously. I didn't need a second English class.
I rolled my eyes and looked up, around.

I didn't understand how everyone else in the class was reading their books as if their lives depended on it. The room was so still, everyone else staring down at their books, and I felt like time had froze. I continued looking around, slightly freaked out, and my eyes caught with the teacher's.
The bell rang for the end of class, finally, and she motioned for me to come over there.

I scooted out of my chair, hearing it skid against the floor along with everyone else's. I grabbed my stuff and put it away, and walked quietly over to her desk, bringing my book. I sat in the chair next to her's and stared at her.

She took everyone's books, and I waited, seeing every student put down a stack of fiction books and then leave. I would probably be late for math.

She finally finished taking all of the books, and we were the only ones left in the settling classroom.

I heard her intake a breath, and I looked at her again.
"I have a feeling," she paused, rearranging and re-stacking some of the books the students had returned.

She glanced at me again, "that you aren't using this class to your full advantage." She nodded at me, and I met her eyes. "Every student comes in here, seeing this as another English class, or history class, or whatever they want to see."

She took one of my books, showing me the cover. "But you can learn more about your power from these books. You can take these morals, these struggles and how they control themselves and their own skills and powers," she glanced at me then flipped through the book. She talked confidently, "and you can use it to control your own power and your life." She looked at me as if I was supposed to get it. I obviously wasn't, and she shook her head.

"You need to analyze these books more. I will talk more about this with you later." She put the book on the stack with all of the others, and wrote out a slip for me. "We'll discuss your power and what you learned from these books. For now, go to class." She handed me the slip, and I took it, pulling myself out of the chair and slinging my backpack across my shoulders.

I left the room silently, hearing my own breaths and shuffles, and walked through the mostly-empty halls. I walked to class alongside a few lingering students, and tried to make my heart not race when the bell rang. I gripped the slip of paper tightly until I got to math class.