mikrokosmos

5: JUSTIN TAKES JADE'S BREATH AWAY

"She still needs rest, young man. Should I call her dad or..?"

It's the school nurse. Someone brought her to the clinic.

How long have I passed out? What did Reverie mean with the flour suddenly falling on Jeremiah's face?

Jade opened her eyes, causing the nurse to immediately sit by her side and ask her if she's okay. "I'm feeling okay now. Thank you for taking care of me," she told her, "What time is it, Mrs. Bishop?"

"It's past 5 already." A familiar voice answered her.

She looked at where the voice came from, only to see Justin Hastings sitting on the bed beside hers.

"Mr. Hastings, you can take her home now." Mrs. Bishop said, "Get home safe, students."

The walk home was totally awkward. Most of the time, Jade tends to start conversations with the people she's with but this time, she couldn't seem to think of a topic to talk about. She couldn't even remember all of what just happened in their room a while ago and the fact that she missed one subject when she was brought to the clinic.

"Don't I deserve a thank you from you?" the boy walking beside her said so sudden that she almost jumped.

"You're the one who brought me to the clinic then?" Jade asked, looking up at him since the guy is just too tall for her. He nodded without looking at her. Even so, she still smiled at him and said, "Thanks, Hastings."

He still didn't look at her, "Your friend said she needed to go home early because she still needs to study."

Rev? Study? That's very unlike Reverie. "She's lying. For all I know, that girl's already sleeping in her room." Hastings didn't respond so Jade tried to open another topic. "I've been walking with you since we're at school but I never managed to ask you this question," she looked at him expectantly, "Where exactly do you live?"

"None of your business." He answered nonchalantly, still not sparing her a glance.

Jade pouted, but brushed it off because she understood why he said that – they're not that close. "What happened again?" she asked instead, just to make sure what she heard a while ago was clear

"The flour didn't fall on Delacroix when it was on top of her but as soon as JP checked it, all the flour fell on his face," he said, not even sounding amazed with what happened.

"How did that happen?"

Hastings finally looked at her with his neutral face expression. "Of course, no one knows, Thompson."

"I was just curious," she rolled her eyes.

"JP was brought to the clinic with you. He was coughing badly and got flour on his eyes, nose and mouth."

She raised her head to look at him, surprised that he continued their conversation. "What about Lilith?"

"Her shoes got some flour but she's ok overall." he said, and shrugged.

"Good." She nodded, satisfied, "Did Mrs. Montgomery say she'll give me another set of her quiz?"

He nodded once. "De Villiers got a perfect score."

"As usual," She smiled to herself, proud of Gus. "It's a good thing I passed out though. I still have to study about those damned archetypes."

"If it helps, you could think of JP as the Explorer since these kinds of people love to discover new things. You do know he recently joined our group of friends, right?" She nodded, in awe that he's already talking to her voluntarily and is actually teaching her. "Then Delacroix's the Innocent.  Mrs. Bishop is the Caregiver since she's the school nurse – understandable."