Chapter 36

"I was just so desperate for a relationship that I jumped on the first one that came and I tried too hard." Calm Heart Lynx sighed as she lay on Love Heart's couch.

"You know I'm not a therapist right?" Love Heart replied.

"I know but I'd rather talk to a close friend, Love Heart," Calm Heart replied.

"Well, thanks." Love Heart smiled.

"Tenderheart and Perfect are jsut so...perfect for each other and it's not just them. You and Confidence, Bright and Gentle, almost everyone up here has their perfect match and I feel so lonely, even with friends up here." Calm Heart sighed again.

"Not everyone up here is committed to someone yet," Love Heart pointed out.

"Well Indy and I tried to have a relationship once, but it didn't go anywhere," Calm Heart replied.

"OK, but I'm not going to do the whole 'run down the list of bachelors while you say what's wrong with them' thing," Love Heart replied. "Maybe just use this finals week to ask around and try to find someone, or just go to earth and relax for a while," he suggested.

Calm Heart smiled, "thanks, I think I'll do that Love Heart." She sat up, "What are you going to be doing this week?" she asked.

Love Heart sighed, "True Heart insisted that we magi take a placement test to determine if we're up to their standards of education, and if not either go to school next year or take summer school if our grades are high enough."

"Oh, right I forgot about that," Calm Heart's face fell, "When do we do that?"

"Today, and hope we pass and get this over with," Love Heart replied.

On the first day of exams Funshine walked towards the place where the chemistry final was being held. They were told they would have to conduct an experiment and then explain the reactions they got. They had no idea beforehand which one it would be but it would be one they had performed in class. So to study for it she had read over all her lab notes. Approaching the building she saw Swift Heart sitting on a bench, leg wiggling nervously as she frantically looked over her notebook.

"Are you really spazzing out over the Chemistry final? You've been solid all year in this class."

Startled she looked up at the yellow bear, "Huh? Oh no. I feel fine about this one. I have math right after this and I've been up all night freaking out."

"Maybe you should stop then. Freaking out will only stress you more and when you stress you forget things." She offered Swift Heart.

Swifty shook her head, "I just have to read over one more page. I'll be right in. Promise." She smiled at Funshine before looking back at her notes and was lost in them once more.

"She has a point you know, Swift Heart," Birthday said as he approached the classroom, "Just relax and you'll do fine."

"Ha. You know you are the 4th person to tell me that?" She didn't even bother to look up from her notes. "Math makes my brain blank. So I'm going to use every spare moment I have."

"And then after that you'll relax?" Birthday asked.

Swift Heart nodded, "Yeah yeah yeah, after math is over I will relax." Sighing she closed her notes and stood up, "However now I have to blow away my chem exam."

"Is everyone here?" Birthday asked.

"Cozy and Friend are inside, I haven't seen Valiant yet," Swift Heart replied.

Together they walked in to join their class mates. Cozy was calmly sitting at her lab bench, not trying to cram last minute stuff into her brain. "I wonder what is keeping him." Swift Heart said as she moved to her bench.

Bright Heart was staring at his watch, "Well I can't wait forever. I guess I'll have to fai-"

A sudden whoosh was heard outside and Valiant slammed the door open, "made it!" he shouted.

"By the skin of your teeth much?" Swift Heart teased as she slipped on her goggles.

Funshine was holding out a coat to him, "You just can't resist an entrance."

Valiant slipped on his lab coat, "I was at Take Care's clinic so I had to flash step to get here in time," he retorted, "But I'm more than ready to take this exam and get this over with."

That gave Swift Heart an idea, "So Bright Heart...say I inhale something harmful. Or burn my hand accidentally. Do you think Take Care would write me a note to miss my Math exam?"

"No, he'd just write you a note to reschedule it, and if you did that here I'd have to dock your grade for unsafe conduct," Bright Heart replied.

"Yeah, I don't think you should agonize about your math exam any longer than you already are," Birthday added.

Swiveling her ears back she scowled at both of them. "Fine. Then just give me the paper with my experiment so I can get out of here." She demanded of Bright Heart. Cozy and Friend agreed with her later sentiment.

"Alright." Bright Heart picked up his stack of exam papers. "Now I was worried about giving each of you an experiment that was just right so I decided to make a dozen experiments for you to choose at random. You can pick twice and choose between the two you get." He held out the papers as he passed to their stations.

Cozy took hers and almost trilled in excitement when she saw the experiment she had done the best on. Putting the paper down she began to set up her apparatus.

"How did you come up with this?" Valiant Heart asked as he picked one paper, grimaced, then chose and second and sighed in slight relief as he set it on his table and started.

"It was Gentle Heart's idea. She saw I was having trouble making just the right experiment, or even 22 different ones, and suggested this idea," Bright Heart answered.

"It's a really good idea." Friend said as she too took a moment to choose which of the two she wanted. Swift Heart chose the harder of the two she had picked, always ready to show off when she could.

Birthday and Funshine grabbed their two assignments and chose the one they felt more comfortable with as Bright Heart returned to his desk. "Alright, you'll have a maximum of three hours to finish the experiment and write your report on it. I'll be standing by just in case there's an accident."

In the language arts exam, Champ was reading over the passage they had to analyze and writing notes in the margin as he went. It was a pretty straightforward and actually enjoyable to read. After that he would have to answer questions on it and then write some essay responses. All in all not too hard of an exam, considering the inconsistency the class had had.

Loyal Heart was already halfway through his exam, not wanting to waste any time on his exams. Snowy was just staring at his test, as much fun as it was to read he had been struggling in this class for some time.

Grumpy too was ready to be done with this class, and the whole school thing in general. He was going to prove to True Heart he didn't have to be in school and he should have been allowed to retake the test. Putting the last sentence in his analysis he started on the essay questions.

Brave Heart looked over his class, Share, Wish, Playful, Gentle, Lotsa and Cheer doing their warm up stretches. "Alright everyone, I have an obstacle course set up throughout the Forest of Feelings. You shouldn't take too long to run it, just make sure when you get to the end to hit the stop button on the timer with your name. I can't tell you what the optimal time is but I will say that there is a minimum amount of time you must take to finish the course, since rushing something like this can be dangerous."

From her starting point, Cheer could see a 12 foot rock wall in front of them. She assumed their first obstacle would be to climb that. "Sounds good to me. I'm morally opposed to causing myself harm."

"As you should be," Brave Heart commented. "Now are there any questions before we begin?"

"Are we allowed to help each other if we see someone struggling on an obstacle?" Share asked. While she was okay with most things, she wasn't a total fan of dark spaces so she hoped they wouldn't have to crawl through something.

"Yes, unlike every other class helping each other is allowed here because I don't expect all of you to be good at every challenge along the way," Brave Heart affirmed.

Lotsa exhaled, "Whew that's a relief." Turning to his classmates he grinned, "I will be more then happy to toss you all over any large walls we can't climb over.

"Thank you." Gentle Heart sighed in relief.

"Alright everyone, ready?" Brave Heart hovered his hand over the start button on the timer button.

They all crouched down. And as Brave Heart hit the button the all took off in a group to start the course.

As the first round of exams ended, couples and friends gathered to eat lunch and compare notes. Valiant immediately sought out Love-a-Lot, emerging from Illusion's cooking test.

"Hi Love," he gave the pink bear a kiss, "So how was your test?"

"Really hard to get through. The recipe Illusion had us make smelled really good and took forever to cook. I was glad he only needed a little of it to grade us. We were all starving at the end," she said with a giggle.

"I bet you were." Valiant smiled and gave her a kiss, "Want some lunch then?"

Kissing him back she nodded, "Yes please." Smiling at him she took his hand and walked with him to the Hall.

Anger Heart sighed as he stirred the soup he'd been served. "One down seven to go," he muttered.

Champ sat next to him. "Well jeeze when you put it that way my happy buzz at finishing the one is over."

"At least you have a chance to pass some of these. I know I'm going to be back in school next year," Anger Heart replied.

"I absolutely refuse to do school again. If I fail I'm just not going. This was a ridiculous waste of time." Grumpy voiced joining them as well.

"You're not gonna fail, sports fan. I think it's stupid that they didn't let you retake the test," Champ said.

"That's what I've been saying all year. Glad to know I'm not alone in that." Grumpy agreed. Opening his juice he took a long swig of it. "And I'm sure you're as good as done too Champ."

Champ sighed, "I wish. I don't think I can pass the chemistry test, m y last experiment blew up in my face."

"Literally. I saw it," Anger Heart chipped in.

"Just follow the instructions per betum. It's not hard. If you skip steps that's when things go wrong." Grumpy said with a scowl. "See if you can get some pointers from Swift Heart last minute. She's good at that sort of stuff."

"I might..." Champ turned to see Swift Heart still pouring over her math notes, "when she's stopped acting crazy about her math test."

Grumpy rolled his eyes, "Hah. Good luck with that. She's not letting up until Tenderheart tells them to begin." Glancing at his girlfriend he shook his head before calling over, "Swift eat something at least." She waved a hand in acknowledgement.

"She's in a zone alright," Anger Heart commented. "Are you going to help her relax once she's done that test?" he asked Grumpy.

"Of course. If she's not relaxed then by default I'm not relaxed."

Champ laughed, "Which is code for she makes his life hell unless she is relaxed so he is going to make it happen."

"Sounds about right," Anger Heart agreed.

After the lunch break was over, students headed to their second exam of the day. Illusion beamed at the boys as they entered his home, "Bonjour hommes. Who ready to be done wid dis class?"

Champ smirked, "Oddly not me dude. It's been great learning how to cook for Cheer. You know other than burgers and hot dogs."

"Merci homme. Happy to be o' service."

"At least I'm ending the first exam day on a high note." Anger Heart smiled.

Standing before them Illusion gave them their instructions. "You have trois hours to complete le recipe. Den I take a bit an grade you on it. You get de rest so use dat as motivation to make it taste bon."

"I just hope I don't cause any problems this time," Snowy said.

"Here's a hint, when it starts to smell burnt it has probably already started burning." Grumpy grumbled to him.

Anger Heart had already started on his exam. Loyal Heart started more slowly, "I can do this," he said to himself. Champ and Grumpy too began to confidently start the recipe. Illusion settled down at his table and began reading through some cooking magazines of his own.

In the Hall of Hearts, Love Heart, Confidence, Calm Heart and Independent Bear were just finishing up the same placement test that had started the whole Care Bear School project. Confidence was the first to finish and she strode up to True Heart and Grams and handed her test in before going back to sit with Love Heart. True Heart began looking the test over and grading. Grams would take the next one that came in. That way the Magi could have their scores right then and there.

Calm Heart was next, handing her test to Grams Bear before going back to her spot.

"How do you think you did?" Calm Heart asked Confidence.

"I'm sure I did fine, you?" Confidence asked back.

"I think I did alright."

Overhearing the two Grams glanced up briefly before whispering to her daughter, "I'm afraid Calm didn't do as well as she thinks she did."

True Heart glanced at the test and frowned, "Oh dear. Well it's not horrible. I'm interested to see the others."

Love Heart and Independent Bear finished shortly thereafter, handing in their tests and taking their seats, waiting to be graded.

After 20 short minutes True Heart stood to tell them their results. "Alrighty gang, looks like I have good news and bad news for you. Calm you got 67, Indy 70, and Love 73,"

Love Heart groaned, "Just great, now we have to go to school."

"What's the good news?" Calm Heart asked, looking over at Confidence, who was smiling.

"Well good for Confidence mostly. She scored a 92 and won't need to go to summer school." True Heart announced, smiling at Confidence.

"Yup, beauty brains and brawn. I'm the total package," Confidence spoke up.

"No one likes a braggart," Calm Heart chided her.

"What's this about summer school?" Indy asked.

"Well we decided that if anyone gets over 60 but under 80 in their courses, or this test, can choose to attend summer school so they can attempt to bring their grades up and not go back to school next year," True Heart explained.

"So we have a choice?" Love Heart asked.

Grams nodded "Yes, you can either do summer school or attend regular classes in the fall."

Love Heart, Calm Heart and Indy replied simultaneously, "Summer School!"

Laughing Grams nodded, "I thought as much. Well we will be giving you all a week off after finals week to let the others recover from the school year and then those who need summer classes will start them."

"Then I'm going down to Earth for a vacation," Calm Heart said as she stood up.

"But you'll miss prom." True Heart called after her.

"I'll be back before the prom!" Calm Heart called back.

"Well at least we can get this over with in two or three months," Indy commented as he, Love Heart and Confidence headed out.

"I imagine that will be the popular option." Grams mentioned to her daughter and True Heart nodded. "Well now that that's done I'm going to check on Noble and the kids."

"I'll come too. I love to visit the little darlings," Grams said as she followed her daughter out of the hall.

As she answered the last question on her math test Swift Heart threw it onto Tenderhearts desk with a huge sigh of relief, "Done! Finally!" She was the last one in the room and was out of there before Tenderheart could say anything. Outside she threw her hands in the air and yelled, "Free at last! I'm free at last!"

"Feeling much better now?" Grumpy asked.

"Soooo much better!" relaxing her posture and placing her hands on her hips she smiled at him, "Where you waiting for lil' old me?"

"I wanted to see how relieved you were when you didn't have to study for what you kept describing as your worst nightmare," Grumpy replied, smiling.

"Let me tell you it's a dream come true," she told him while moving to stand next to him. "How'd the cooking one go? Did you have to make something spicy?"

"No, just southern fried chicken, mashed potatoes and cornbread," Grumpy answered. I finished it a while ago though so I already finished it, sorry."

Swift Heart shook her head, wrapping her arms around his neck. "I'm not even surprised. Although I could really go for some cornbread. Maybe you'll just have to make some for me." Leaning forward she kissed him.

Once they broke the kiss Grumpy answered, "Well I guess that's what I'm doing this afternoon then."

"Why, did you have something better to do?" she joked with him tapping his nose playfully.

"Nah," Grumpy answered as they headed away from the test room. "Let's hope we both get this stupid school thing over with."

"If I have to take summer school, I am quitting the family and going back to Wonderland. I didn't need school as the white rabbit."

"You're not serious are you?" Grumpy asked, sounding a bit worried.

"Oh please. You know I'm not." Reaching out she took his hand, "But I figure it expresses exactly how much I hate math."

"So you've mentioned." Grumpy put an arm around Swift Heart, "Tell you what, if you have to take summer school I'll help you study everything so you can get it over with as fast as possible."

"I do like fast. It's a deal. And to thank you I will..." Standing on tip toe she whispered something in his ear. "But that's only if I need it and I don't think I will."

~~~

Calm Heart found herself driving towards a small town nearing the start of winter, coming in for a landing in the brush outside of the town and walking in after creating some cold weather clothes for herself with her tummy symbol. It was a rather quiet town and she got a few looks but most of the citizens pretty much ignored her as she took a stroll through the streets.

After leaving his new comrades, Glacial Heart Polar Bear had retreated for the northern cold temperatures he felt most at home in. At the moment his services had not been needed and he had been told they would contact him when he was. With his hood up against the looks of town's people he strolled through the streets no problem. From experience he had learned people did not take kindly to a polar bear walking through town, even if as far as his kind went he was a midget.

Calm Heart stopped to sit down on a bench, the cold being more draining than she had expected. "I just can't get that ski vacation out of my mind," she said quietly.

Glacial had been looking in a window at some books when he saw Calm Hearts reflection in the glass. He watched her sit on the bench and appear to be talking to herself. "Interesting. What is she doing zis far north?" Turning from the window he watched her, waiting to see if anyone else joined her.

Calm Heart just leaned back and stared up at the clouds, "Probably gonna start snowing soon," she commented again. The cool air was clearing her head but at the same time she just wasn't sure what kind of "vacation" she wanted now.

When it began to snow and she still didn't move Glacial assumed no one would be coming. Slowly he made his way across the street and stood behind her bench. "Et es going to be colder out soon baryshnya. You shouldn't stay unsheltered."

"Baryshnya?" Calm Heart lowered her gaze towards the speaker. "Oh, hi there," she said. "I guess I should. Do you know some place?" she asked.

"It means young lady in my native tongue. And dah. There are several places to stay in this town. Are you waiting on someone or hear by yourself?" Glacial looked up and down the street.

"I'm alone, I'm just kind of lost right now," Calm Heart said.

He nodded, "I know ze feeling." Removing a white furred paw from his pocket he pointed a large black claw down to the left. "Ze nicer of ze hotels lies that way. I vwas not kidding about being out at night here. It gets cold."

"I guess I should get a room then," Calm Heart stood up. "What's your name?" she asked.

He shrugged, "I have only ever had one name and that was given to me recently. It's Glacial."

"You can call me Calm, or Layla if you want," Calm Heart replied.

A small smile pulled up the corner of his lips, "I think Layla fits you." When he said it, his accent made it sound more like "Lee-lah".

"Thanks, Glacial," Calm Heart said as they headed towards the hotel.

When they had begun moving again, Glacial had made sure the hood on his jacket was securely around his head and his claws were shoved in his pockets. "Vere are you vacationing from Layla? And vhy here of all places."

"I don't know why I came here. I just wanted to go someplace cold," Calm Heart said. "As for where I came from... I guess you could say from a world of fantasy. I just got out of a complicated relationship that I tried too hard to make work. IT ended with a ski trip so, I guess I just had my mind on cold places."

She didn't mention the "others" so he didn't bother asking. "Vell it doesn't get much colder than here. Unfortunatley ze skiing is not so good."

"I don't think I'm going to want to ski for a long time after this." Layla sighed, "I've got to stop dwelling."

"I am told broken hearts take a while to heal." Reaching the midtown sector the hotel loomed before them. "This is it. Do you need help getting a room or are you alright?"

"I'd appreciate some help, if you have time Glacial," Layla said.

He nodded and walked ahead of her into the hotel. Going to the desk he kept his head down and began speaking in fast Russian to the woman behind it. She didn't seem too bothered by the fact he wouldn't make eye contact with her. Layla just stood aside and listened to Glacial as he spoke to the clerk.

A minute later he was returning to her with a key card. "Zis is your key. Room 300. She says you can pay later ven it suits you."

"What's the currency here?" Layla asked.

"Rubles. But they are used to international guests so they take all sorts," he told her.

"I can pay now," Layla pulled out her wallet, "All I have is a credit card."

The woman smiled and said in heavily accented English, "That es no problem. Ve accept all major credit cards."

"Thanks." Layla paid and took her card back, "Are you going to stay, Galcial?" she asked.

He shook his head, "Nyet. I do not stay in town." He looked nervously to the side.

"Not well liked by the locals?" Layla guessed.

His covered shoulders shrugged, "Who knows what kind of day it will be. I leave them alone, they leave me alone. I don't choose to provoke them."

"I understand. I hope I see you again," Layla replied.

He smiled at her "YA uveren, chto vy budete. Or how you say, I'm sure you will." Turning he quickly left the hotel.

"It was nice to talk to someone who didn't try so had to make me feel better," Layla said to herself before heading up to her room.