Naia's POV

The weather was warm now and the days were getting longer and longer which meant one thing.

Summer break was almost here.

"Are you kidding me? Summer is the best season," Nate said but I shook my head.

"Summer's way too hot, but Spring means allergies and Winter's too cold," I pointed out, "Fall is the best season."

Nate snorted, "You can totally get allergies in Fall."

"Yeah, but Spring is all flowers blooming and that means pollen," I made a face, "And pollen means sneezing and itchy eyes, so Fall is the best season."

Nate shrugged, "Whatever. Fall can be the best season for you but for me, it's Summer all the way."

I nodded, "Deal."

The moment I walked into the firehouse, I knew something was up. There was this tension in the air that made me want to turn around and walk right back out but I didn't so. Instead, I kept walking.

"Is everything okay?" I asked Gabby who was sitting at the table with a mug of coffee in her hand. "Is everybody okay?"

"Everybody's fine," Gabby reassured me and I nodded slowly.

"So then what's wrong?" I asked, taking a seat next to her. "And don't tell me it's nothing because obviously, something's up."

I felt my stomach twist and turn as I waited for Gabby to say something.

"Foster has decided to return to med school," Gabby finally said.

I felt a flush of relief go through me before smiling.

"That's great!" I exclaimed and then saw that Gabby wasn't matching my mood. "Right?"

Gabby nodded, "It is! I mean, good for her and all, it's just creating some tension."

I furrowed my eyebrows, "Why?"

"Shay's a little bit upset that she Foster didn't give her any heads up, I mean, she found out on a call through one of the doctors at Med," Gabby explained, "And Brett, Kidd and I are caught in the middle of it so it's a little bit awkward."

I nodded, "I see."

I didn't really see, to be honest. I couldn't understand why something like this would cause such a stir up.

"Where are they now?" I looked around, the firehouse seemed rather empty.

"Everybody's on a call," Gabby replied, "And Brett's taking a shower. Someone threw up on her last call."

I laughed, "That's not good."

"Better her than me," Gabby joked and started tickling me, making me squirm and giggle.

"Wait, no, I have homework I have to do," I said, trying to get out of this and started tugging my textbooks and folders out of my backpack. Gabby stopped but gave me a quick kiss on the forehead first.

I felt like there were two directions that the homework load teachers gave could turn. One could be a significant increase which would be because your teacher has to cram in everything they couldn't get in like in science. It could also be a significant decrease which would be because your teacher crammed in everything at the start of the year, like in history.

"Did you know homework was invented as a punishment for students?" I told Gabby as I started flipping through my science textbook, looking for the right page. "By some Roberto guy, I think."

"Oh really?" Gabby asked.

I nodded, "Yup, well I mean, it was also because he wanted to ensure that his students fully understood the lesson."

"Which way do you take homework?" Gabby looked over at me.

"What do you mean?" I fumbled around my pencil case, looking for a sharp pencil.

"Do you think homework's a punishment or some learning enforcement?" Gabby clarified.

I made a face, "I think it's a waste of time."

"So a punishment?"

I shook my head, "No, not a punishment. I just think it's rather redundant. I don't ever really learn anything from homework because everything in it I've already learned from school. I think it's redundant."

"Interesting...very interesting," Gabby said, "That's another way to look at it."

I heard some commotion coming from the app floor and it wasn't long before everyone else started piling into the common room.

"There's our girl!" Herrmann pointed at me as he walked in and came over to give me a hug, "How was school?"

"Boring," I replied, thinking about how my science teacher droned on the whole class, "It was boring but I still got homework."

"What are they teaching now anyways?" Severide joined the conversation, "School's almost over."

"You know, I question school sometimes," Capp said, he was flipping through my history textbook, "What's the point of going?"

Matt came over and pointed a finger at Capp warningly, "Hey, don't give her any ideas."

I laughed before assuring Matt I was sticking with school, no matter how redundant it seemed at times.

It wasn't long before people started clearing out, some wanting to take showers to wash off the soot and ash, others having to fill out paperwork. When I looked around next, I saw that it was only Shay and Foster in the room apart from me.

Oh, shoot.

Not the best time to be here.

I wanted to gather my stuff and find a different room to do homework but then I realized that if I left, then it would only be them in the room and that would not be good, so to spare them the awkwardness, I stayed.

"What was your favourite subject in school?" I blurted out randomly before internally smacking my forehead.

Nice going, Naia.

"Wait no," I went on, "Don't answer that."

Shay and Foster looked at me, both had very confused expressions on their face.

I couldn't blame them.

"You can't be mad at her, you can't be doing this," I blabbered, "Neither of you can. I mean, I know you're partners and all but Foster's an amazing paramedic and I mean, of course, Shay you are too, but Foster's going back to med school and you need to be supportive."

Both of them stared at me blankly so I took that opportunity to keep talking.

"Obviously I'm surprised you didn't tell Shay sooner but come on, we all know any med school would be lucky to have Foster," I finally shut up, having run out of air.

Shay and Foster looked at each other.

"I'm sorry," They both said at the same time before bursting into laughter.

I smiled, glad that my blabbering self had managed to get something done in this situation. I then realized that they were probably going to have a good talk now that I didn't want to be apart of and quickly grabbed everything I needed before scurrying out of the room.