The White Mark

1. The City of Glory

A loud huff of annoyance was heard in the room as a frustrated Thea threw her pencil across the room. She slammed the maths book closed with a loud clash.

"I refuse to do this any longer. I'm finished. I do not care," she groaned whilst hiding her face in her hands. A low chuckle was heard from the small device sitting on her desk as the smaller version of her friend's face was grinning at her own picture, blocking off her face from his view.

She didn't bother to lift her head up from her hands as she groaned, "Stop it, Chris. You can't laugh at me when I'm having a crisis."

"You call that a crisis?" The person at the other side of the video chat smiled, "Come on Thea it's not that bad."

Not that bad? She couldn't believe his words. So much that she finally looked up to glare at him through the screen. "It-is-impossible," She insisted with a dramatic pause between each word.

"Here, I tell you what," the boy suggested with a grin still adorning his handsome face, highly amused by Thea's dramatic behaviour. "We'll finish for tonight and get back to this tomorrow. It's not due until Friday. I could come down to yours for a few hours tomorrow after the school trip if you'd like?"

Thea crossed her arms, letting out yet another exaggerated huff. She then stayed put in her chair, almost completely motionless as she continued to throw daggers at the young man.

Another round of laughter filled the room as Chris swept a large hand through his dirty blonde hair. "I'll take that as a yes." He glanced down at the silver watch on his wrist and his eyes widened as he read the time.
"Fuck. It's pretty late and I haven't even showered yet. I'm gonna go now. You go get some rest for tomorrow, alright Thea?"

Thea finally dropped her half-pretend glare as she read the time on the top of her phone screen herself. 11:49.

"Yeah, you're right I'm gonna have to get to bed soon. Thank you for wasting your time on doing this with me again. You are truly the best," she replied truthfully with a small yet genuine smile gracing her lips. "Good night Chris."

"I'll talk to you tomorrow T. Sweet dreams." With that the screen went black for the shortest time, right before the call duration appeared in the centre of the screen. 3:22:04.

Thea couldn't believe how much time she had just spent on maths. No wonder she was so exhausted. 3 hours on this subject surely created by satan himself. Appalled, she quickly exited the app and locked her phone.

She headed towards her bed where her bag lay open, with half the books sprawled all over her bed. She emptied all leftover contents out of her bag and collected the books swiftly before bringing them over to her desk where she dropped them with a loud thud. She cringed at the volume of the noise in contrast with the late time. She then filled her bag with all essentials required for tomorrow's trip to that same lilac, patterned bag.

She worked quickly, impatient to get some sleep. Lastly, she threw in her bottle of water and zipped up the bag, dropping it next to her bed. She was delighted that unlike Chris she had already showered and changed before they began the call.

Christopher Hammot was one of her closest friends, also one she's known the longest. Their parents were friends even before they were both born, so naturally that incorporated countless play dates between the two. They were both only children and therefore the closest thing that either had to a sibling. Although they had drifted apart when they first entered their teenage years, they had quickly rebuild their friendship after maturing. Now Chris has become Thea's official maths buddy, donating a lot of his time to help her comprehend what his brain absorbs so easily.

Thea plugged her phone into the charger on the side of her bed and slipped under her warm duvet, letting out a soft sigh of delight. She snuggled into the comfort of the blankets and almost immediately fell into a deep sleep. The numbers and shapes clouding her mind only moments earlier, gradually faded away as she entered the world of dreams.