"Luke, this is ridiculous."
"Ah, but Nat, you haven't even gotten to the hard stuff yet."
"I don't see why you're asking me what the flip a triangle is when you just gave me the answer."
"It helps exercise your cognitive memory Nat. I know what I'm doing."
"What you're doing is reviewing me for the math test."
"Killing two birds with one stone isn't a bad hobby."
"If you really wanted to test my cognition, you should have just let me play Pong."
The teenaged boy in the blue cap laughed at the red head with braids.
. . .
Many years have passed for Luke Triton since departing from Professor Layton in England. A lot has happened too. Almost simultaneous to his arrival, another family was moving in next door. This family had a girl with them that was a few months younger than Luke. She was a red-haired American menace. But docile, once he got to know her and she settled down a bit. Apparently, she had not taken her family's move very kindly but once she knew someone in the new town (which happened to be Luke) she calmed down quite a bit. She still wasn't a Flora though. Not that Luke expected her to be, but some times it would have been nice...
But today, though, he was making her review for their math test. He enjoyed how much it mad her mad. What he saw as a large puzzle, she saw as an abomination to nature to mix letters and numbers in the same calculation. She wasn't the only one in their class to think that way, but she was the only one he cared about. Nat's mind was rather brilliant too. It was like nesting boxes, wherein one thought hid inside another in a very organized way. But, like a box, her mind only carried so much at a time. Luke's mind was more open, and nearly just as organized. Sure, a wandering thought would enter his mind with no way out, but more often than none it was used in some way. In Nat's mind, if there was a wandering thought, if she didn't like it, she disposed of it quickly. No more thoughts for her if she couldn't stand it.
She refused to have any thoughts on math. Unfortunately for him. Nat was very, very, very stubborn.
"Luke, I am finished!" Nat declared with anger, picking up her math book and forcing it to slam onto the table. Being in the town's library, it only seemed natural that someone had turned around to silence them. Nat, quite riled up by now, growled at their silencer then turned back to Luke.
"We can pack up." Luke agreed. "But be aware that we're going to continue this at home."
"Not that I'll do it there either." Nat mumbled. Luke chose to ignore her and started to pack up their books into his canvas satchel. Nat helped him and once their stuff was cleared from their workspace, the duo began to leave the library.
On their way out, Luke let Nat go through the revolving doors first. Waiting for her to go through, he looked up at the door frame above and he stood there. Nat noticed that he wasn't following her and went back through the revolving door to him.
"What are you looking at?" Nat asked him, looking up at the door frame as well.
"Nat..." Luke said, his voice sounding slightly distant, "Here's a puzzle for you, what used to hang right there on the door frame where the nail is?"
Nat looked at the spot for awhile, thinking back to an object hardly anyone looked at.
"A key." she finally said.
"What kind of key?"
"A brass one. You could tell how old it was because it was collecting dust and stuff on it since it was placed in that exact door frame. Why?"
"That's what I thought..." Luke said, still sounding rather distant. Then, slowly, his face started to show an expression of delight and excitement. Nat groaned when she recognized that face.
"I know that look." Nat bemoaned. "And it means nothing good for the rest of us."
Luke looked at her and smiled.
"We're going on a key quest!" he told her with zeal.