Winged

1: Ester Erstwhyl

"Ester! Is that a phone?" Miss Jeffery pointed at my hands, which were currently hidden by my desk.

"No ma'am, I'm sorry," I held up the book that was sitting on my lap, "I was reading."

My English teacher sighed. "Please pay attention. This is very important work for the exams."

I didn't really need to listen, and she knew that. We had already covered this work multiple times, and I had caught on after the first five minutes of the very first lesson. I was pretty sure we were up to the eighth period dedicated to it by now, if not more. All the repetition was getting boring.

The teacher returned to her lesson, and I returned to my book. This time I tried to make it less obvious, flicking my gaze up to the board every so often. Finally the bell rang, and we stood, waiting to be dismissed.

"Goodbye, class. Enjoy the rest of your day!" I started to follow the crowd in the race to the doorway, but was stopped by a hand on my shoulder. I turned to face my teacher.

"Can I talk to you for a minute, Ester?"

I tilted my head, beckoning her to continue.

"I have a proposal for you. I've noticed you're becoming more and more unsatisfied by the work you're presented with in my class. Your attention drifts easily, and it's beginning to become a bit of a distraction to the other students. So I was wondering if you would mind me giving you an extra challenge to engage your mind more?" I nodded in response, eager to hear what she had in store for me.

"Toby Parsard." I sighed, my heart sinking to the pits of my stomach. I could see where this was going. "He really needs help. He concentrates just about as much as you, just without the same results. Would you...?"

"Listen, ma'am I don't want to sound rude, but I can't work with other people. I've never been able to, and I never will be able to. I just-- I can't. Sorry." I turned to leave.

"Well, it's either that, or I'm going to have to forbid you to read in my class."

"What?!" I spun back around to face her again. "You wouldn't!"

"I'm afraid I would have to, Ester. Even you'll admit you're not really leaving me with a choice." She must have seen the frustration boiling up in me, and reached out to rub my shoulder. "I'm sorry. I really am. But it's for your own best." She picked up a paper from her desk and held it out to me. She must have been planning this, because I could see the

dreaded numbers already displayed on its surface. I snatched it from her hand and sped out of the room, tears stinging my eyes.

***

My feet thudded with each step as I walked the path home. The paper was crumpled in my hand, my fingers numb from clenching my fist around it. I'd have to call him when I got home. Goodness, why did it have to be a boy? It's always a boy! My mind rushed through hundreds of scenarios in all the books I've read how it's when the main characters start spending too much time together that they fall in love. I refused to let that happen to me. So far I'd done pretty well, distancing myself from everyone and everything, but now this just had to happen.

Beep! Beep! Ba-beep!

"Hey girlie! You want a lift home?" My dad pulled up in his old truck with a straw hat perched like a bird's nest on his balding head. He bought the truck years ago at a junk yard, determined to fix it up. He got it running alright, but all he's ever done since then is fix it. One day it's the spark plug, the next the wheels, but he's always working on that truck of his.

I smiled, but shook my head no. I needed to get this out of my system; to have time to myself to think and sort stuff out. He waved before pulling off, the truck sputtering to keep up with itself.

I decided to walk past the Roseau's barn and see if the kittens would come out to play yet. I found them a couple weeks ago under a couple of hay bales and asked Mrs Roseau if I could put them in the barn. She took them in and said I could visit them whenever I wanted, although I hadn't found time to stop by yet. I figured it would be a good excuse to put off calling Toby.

I swung open the gate and made my way to the barn. I found the kittens in the tack room, in the middle of a game of 'who can sound the most like a lion'. I sat down on the dusty floor to watch them. After a couple minutes they noticed me sitting there and came over to see what I was. I stretched out my hand and stroked the pumpkin-orange head of one of the precious creatures. I played with them for a little while before deciding I had probably wasted as much time as I could get by with.

I walked the rest of the way back home, thoughts of how much more I would rather tutor kittens than Toby Parsard.

I sighed.

***

A/N- Okay, every chapter is NOT going to be this long. Like, ever. And I know it's not even that long. Oh well. And I can make no promises on how often I'll update. I really don't even care if anyone actually reads this, I just felt like I wanted something to make sure I actually finish a story for once. Hopefully this'll help, but who knows? I'm also going to be in Israel for two weeks, so I definitely won't be able to update soon, but hopefully I'll still be able to keep writing.

Also, I'm completely a pantser. I literally only came up with the main plot as I was writing the last paragraph of this chapter. I know, right?

So, here goes.

*throws cake at reader*

*watches as cake falls on ground*

Whoops.

I forgot to tell you, I'm a terrible aim.