The sun beamed in through the windows of the classroom. It was an intense heat that was entering the room, the sun was irritating the eyes of Saten Ruiko, who sat with an irritated expression on her face with her hand raised, chewing lazily on the end of her pencil.
Saten was once again in extra classes for her inability to gain her ability.
She gazed down at the words "Personal Reality" for the umpteenth time and screwed up her face in a confused-annoyed expression. It was a word she half got, as she thought back to Uiharu's words about personal reality. "Saten?" The teacher spoke with an irritated tone as he extended an arm in her direction and waved patronizingly. She snapped out of her daydream and replied promptly: "Yes, sensei?" "What were we just talking about?" "I, uh, don't know?" She retorted as she scratched the back of her head in embarrassment, called out in front of the entire class, again.
"Saten can you wait there?" The teacher called out after he drew a conclusion to the class. "Y-Yes sir!" Saten nervously spoke, as she knew exactly what it was about.
"It seems like you have problems focussing, Saten-san" Terada-sensei spoke softly, he was the teacher who offered the continued extra classes for the struggling students, he was a kind man and he seemed to be taking some empathy in the student's situation and so offered these classes. "Do you have problems with motivation?" He followed up after Saten stood in silence. "It's not like that, I really want to at least become a level 1" She spoke, diverting her gaze as she though back to her family expecting to her to have an ability. "Why don't you try thinking of whatever drives you in class and try to maintain some focus" Terada began, "If you do that you're sure to succeed, you aren't unintelligent Saten" He finished as he left a pause to let her collect a few thoughts.
The sun was setting by now and Saten was walking alongside the river that ran through Academy city and a large, domineering bridge ran over the river. She felt a vibration in her bag and reached in to pull out her phone and to see Uiharu's name up on the display. "Moshi moshi? Uiharu?" She spoke in an upbeat fashion, despite what could only be described as a depressing evening lesson. After a casual chit chat with Uiharu, Saten snapped her phone shut and tossed it back in her bag, she took a deep breath out and carried on walking, it was like an effort to provide a pretence that she was her usual upbeat self, when infact she was quite downtrodden about not being able to be alongside Misata and the others. She then had a flashback of when she was able to aid them by breaking the capacity down and allowing them to fight on even terms, but what if it was Saten that was the one doing the butt-kicking? Why couldn't she?
All the self-probing questions made Saten's head ache as she pulled her door open and feel around for the light switch and flick it on and rub her eyes in her tiredness. She stood in her kitchen lonely, wondering why she hadn't ushered Uiharu to move into her room after remembering that she was still living with Erii, despite her still being in hospital. She shrugged off her thought train and pulled her kettle up as she poured some hot water into her cup of instant ramen and watched the noodles float to the top.
Saten distinctly heard a bird chirping as she shot wide awake and her eyes flipped open quickly. It was Friday now, and she realised that it was her final bout of extra lessons before the weekend would arrive and she could hang out with her friends.
She pulled herself out of her bed and walked over to her mirror and saw her hair poking out on all sides and her tired expression staring back at her. She yawned as she reached over for a brush and evened out her hair before stumbling out of her pyjamas and into her school gear. She had too go in for extra lessons, despite it being the school holidays, she felt left out, though granted, Uihara and Kuroko were out on Judgment the majority of the time anyway.
The door made a satisfying thud as it closed behind her and she stepped out down the steps that led up to the group of dorms that were in a hallway behind hers, the accommodation was very basic, and the building was comprised of a large block of dorms with two floors and a large roof overhanging the entrance to each door, there was no receptions for these basic accommodation, rather the doors led straight outdoors, granted the area was in a more urban area and closer to the school than in the luxurious dorms of Tokiwadai, but obviously lacked the charms that were found in the more expensive dorms of Tokiwadai. Saten liked her dorm though, it was a little piece of home for her, as she had completely customised the place out to her tastes and had all her personal shortcuts of having the right things in the right places for her morning routine, but this just reminded her of herself prior to becoming friends with Misata and Shirai, she was obviously the same person, but she had no motivation to have any ability prior to meeting them, and thought that maybe it could've been easier than being depressed about her inability, but then cursed herself as she showed no motivation back then and had at least grown that much, all she had too do now was turn that emotion into results of her having an ability.
Having arrived in class, she felt slightly more energised due to her earlier thoughts from her journey to school and did her best to stay focussed, dwelling on the words of her sensei also, in retrospect, he had told her she wasn't unintelligent, that was more than the other kids around her "look at these guys" she thought to herself as she shot a quick glance around the room at the other dunce's. She could definitely conclude she wasn't in the same league as them: she was better than that.
Her focus improved, for the start of the lesson anyway, she started to get lost around the middle of the lesson when she had quickly lost attention and didn't pick up one of the key pieces of information that Terada-sensei was about to follow up with, which threw her off. She figured she could just go hang out with Uiharu later and ask her to go over it quickly, but then realised what a huge chunk she was missing as Terada continued to cram the chalkboard full of more spider-diagrams and large words she couldn't make head or tail of. "Pah, it's all or nothing" She though as she raised her hand.
"Yes, Saten?" "I don't, I don't get it, sir" She followed up in a nervous tone, she wanted to get it. She couldn't just sit there and essentially waste her time watching confusing things scrawled across the board like there was. "Which part?" He eventually replied. Saten explained and eventually Terada went from the top and she felt her own personal growth as she felt the joy of learning once again, something that had only really happened when she was a child, learning about putting numbers together, and other things of the like. She had not realised she was pulling a wide grin as the lesson continued and she was scribbling notes into her notebook, this time genuine notes, not just pointless doodles of her speculation on the pattern of Uiharu's underwear. Though that did still cross her mind.
She smiled inwardly as she began her own small learning curve into what she believed would eventually lead to her finally gaining her ability.