Can't Go Home

Working

It was a Friday night, Koriand'r and Raven had just arrived at Garfield's house to begin working on a project for their class. Garfield took the class without going in person, so often times the two would work with him and credit what he did specifically. He did his part and though it took a little time, he did submit before deadlines.

Kori walked in first, greeting Rita Farr- Garfield's primary guardian -with a friendly handshake and hug. Raven followed afterwards, nodding to Miss Farr and giving and awkward smile. The two young girls then went to Garfield's room to begin the work.

"Come on in, door's not locked!" a voice called out from inside.
Once coming in, Raven noticed Gar scrambling to clean up his pile of floor-clothes.

"Maybe you should invest in a hamper," she commented, looking him over with glossy eyes. Kori laughed at the remark but didn't entirely understand.

"... Yeah so, if you'll just ignore those for a bit, let's get the outline done. Raven, you can write up a paper. Kori, if you could make some visuals for the presentation, maybe PowerPoint or a collage poster. I'm going to do the research and citations."

It was surprising to see Gar so focused, Raven stood in silence before being invited into the room again.

They all sat down in a circle, Gar with his laptop, Kori with hers as well as some construction paper and craft supplies and Raven with her notebook.

"Why didn't you bring your laptop, Rae?" Gar questioned, learning over her shoulder to see what she was scribbling down.

Raven felt oddly warm, like a fever. She fidgeted with her sleeve as she tried to get the words right. She doesn't usually allow people this close.

"I don't have a laptop, I borrow one from the library at school." Her eyes cast downward on her notebook.

"This would be a really good time for them to let you take it out of school grounds," he shifted towards Kori to check on her work. "You have a computer at home, right?" he added.

"Yeah, I have one at home in my room but it's not a portable thing. I'm on it almost all the time too, ." Raven's retort was playful but her tone made it seem sarcastic. It's often hard to control snarkiness.

In the awkward silence, Raven decided to move further back towards the side of his bed and continue working with the hood of her sweatshirt up. For a while, she watched Kori and Gar working just fine together and she thought about asking to join in some how but quickly dismissed the idea. Her draft was nearly finished, all it needed was some statistics and sourcing. She'd brushed up on some research beforehand which she neglected to tell Gar about. It wasn't that she didn't want to communicate with her other group members,-she wanted to desperately-just that she wanted Gar to have something to do in the project. He'd feel left out if she took over like that.

"Uh, Rae? You wanna get over here and look at the research or are you just winging it on the historical relevance of Franz Kafka?" He offered his hand in a friendly gesture but he really couldn't help feeling spurned by her and more than a little creeped out by the way that she acted around him.

"Oh, well I... I read a lot of Kafka's short stories and I really liked some of his earlier poems and general style, Kafkaesque types of work, like Murakami's. I sort of have a first-hand to this thing, I guess I just figured you'd read it afterwards and fill in the citations."

"If you knew all of this, why did not you tell us? You could have debriefed us and it would be easier for our completion! Even if it seems silly, it would have saved us the troubles. You could be advising our work!" Kori slammed her hand down in her abrasive retort. She huffed at the two and crossed her arms in anger.

"Sorry, I just thought you wouldn't want to hear me geek out on you, that's all." Raven shrugged her shoulders before Gar furrowed his dark green brows.

"She's right, you should have told us. It would save a lot of time!"

"I could tell you now, if you want."

Kori slowly put her arms back down, scooting closer to Raven in curiosity, Gar following suit. They gathered around her like children at storytime and Raven quickly choked up at so much attention but swollowed the fear down as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"So the first thing you should know about Kafka's historical relevence is that his surrealist tragic comedies are based in identity and transformation. The best example is The Metamorphosis because it transcends time in the way everyone feels dread and the inescapability of a situation..."