Fable (on hiatsu)

29. Puppet

Walking to school was a chore. It wasn't as bad as Saturday, when I had trouble turning pages, but it was still pretty weird. I felt as if my body was a remote-controlled bubble. My steps were too wide or too short, my fingers were clumsy and my expressions were awkward.

I met up with Toby and Jo and after both minutes they told me I was acting like an old robot. Well, I sure felt like one! It was already much easier for me to do things since T'Ko was just laying walking in circles around my room, but he stubbed his toes several times on my bed corner. When that happened, I grimaced, all of a sudden in class. The teacher even asked me if I was feeling ill. All the while I was cursing on the inside "OWWWWWW!!! That ***** bed should just go to ***, ******!" and so on.

But around lunch time, T'Ko had to go to work, and that's when the going went tough. It would have been way easier for him to fly to work, but the finer mechanics of 'not crashing' 'keeping altitude' and 'dodging treetops' aren't really the things to work on while you're dodging students, keeping your plate steady and holding a conversation. So T'Ko walked like a zombie, crashing into trees a couple times, all the way to Issa-san's.

"What the? Are you okay?!" Issa asked me, getting up in a hurry when I tumbled in. My nose was bleeding, my clothes were dirty and torn, one of my sandals had broken a strap, my hair was frizzing and I had a multitude of minor scrapes here and there. I get the shivers just thinking about what would have happened if I had flown.

"Yes." I waited for a lull in Craft's conversation before continuing, "It's hard to talk to you and to Jo at once."

The day was as weird as one would expect. Then the last period rolled around the corner. Phys Ed. Jo smacked my back, nearly toppling me to the ground, with a grin on his face.

"Don't you love this? We can play games, fight each other's teams and check out girls!" He raved.

"Huh. Yeah." I was concentrating all my being to be able to move correctly. Who cared about what Jo was ranting about?

"You sure sound enthusiastic," he replied joyfully. "We're both going to be team captains again, this time round. I am so going to beat ya, dude!"

I grinned and smacked him in the back. With more confidence than I actually felt, I replied,

"Say that again when I cream your team, Cryme. We'll see who's gonna win this, and I bet on myself. You've got no chance!"

Useless bravado. It didn't matter anyway since we both were equally matched for the whole hour. So, sweaty and tired, we left the gym. It felt as if it was a dream that the place had been turned into a ballroom, just three days prior. Just before we left the school, someone walked in front of us, barring our way.

Jo stopped, looking a bit confused. He had the same expression one has when they recognise someone's face, but can't associate a name. Except I could.

"Plum?"