Uncertain future
Prompt: "In the near future, he was starting school."
Emil was going to have to finish his education in public school, there was no way around it. His former private tutor had suggested that he simply go to school in Östersund, but he saw no reason not to go in Mora, where at least, the level wouldn't be that much lower than what he was used to. It would also be a better place to find a job paying well enough to start rebuilding the family fortune. Torbjörn and Siv had young children to provide for, so their priority had been to find a job at all. Come to think of it, he wasn't quite sure what kind of job he was going to take now that working for his father was no longer an option. After thinking for a few moments, he figured it out. It was perfect for him! He was going to be a private tutor! As long as the child was younger that he currently was, he would be able to provide him or her with a better education than what the public system had to offer. He was going to need to find out how one got hired as a private tutor, however. Maybe Torbjörn and Siv knew people who would be interested in hiring him once he graduated.
The train Emil was riding got close enough to Mora that he could see the outer walls. He'd have the rest of the week-end to unpack, then he'd start taking classes the next Monday. Soon enough, the train came into the station and Emil got off, went through decontamination, then went looking for the person from the school who was supposed to be waiting for him. He eventually saw a young man around his age holding a piece of apparently used cardboard with his name on it. If it weren't for the seldom seen black hair and glasses, he would have completely blended into the crowd. Emil walked up to him and they shook hands:
-I'm Sven, your roommate.
-My what?
-Roommate. We'll be living in the same boarding room.
Emil was outraged:
-I wasn't told I'd have to share!
-I'm not happy about it either. The only reason I've been alone in the room so far is that there was an uneven number of boarders this year, and I preferred being alone if I could. Now, try not losing sight of me. I'm not holding your hand and Mora has twenty-two times your hometown's population.
Sven started walking and Emil followed as much as he could. They went right past the horse-drawn carriages lined up in front of the station.
-Isn't there a carriage waiting for us?
Sven didn't turn back to answer:
-The school isn't that far, and walking is good.
After about ten minutes of following Sven, Emil decided that they probably had very different ideas of what "not that far" meant, and that by "twenty-two", Sven had probably meant something closer to "twenty-two hundred". By the time they reached the school, Emil was winded and the arm with which he had been carrying his suitcase hurt horribly.
Sven brought him to a two-floor building:
-This is where the boarding rooms are.
Emil followed him inside, only to find out that their room was actually on the upper floor. Fortunately, Sven finally realized he'd been carrying a suitcase the entire time and helped him take it upstairs.
However, as soon as they got inside the room, Sven went to sit at one of the two small desks in the room, opened a book and told him to not make too much noise while unpacking. Emil found some uniforms in the closet on his side of the room. He protested at the "large" label still on them, but Sven's only reply was to tell him to try them on and inform him that the medium would be even tighter on him. Large turned out to be fine after all. Once he was done unpacking, he looked over Sven's shoulder, and noticed the book he was reading was in Icelandic.
-Studying Icelandic?
-No, this is material for one of the assignments that happens to be in Icelandic.
Emil's response was to quickly look through the pile of school books that had been left for him on his own desk, and let out a sigh of relief when they turned out to all have titles in Swedish. However, upon a second look, one of them seemed to be a Swedish-Icelandic dictionary. He suddenly had a memory of his tutor, a few years back, trying get him interested in learning Icelandic.
-Uh… how much Icelandic are we expected to know?
-The usual one of publicly-educated academics. It shouldn't be too hard for you. Someone told me you had private tutor.
-Actually, I had a very personalized curriculum, and I didn't see the use of learning Icelandic when it was offered to me, so I don't know any. Is… this going to be a problem?
Sven rolled his eyes.
xxxx
-I'd quit academia if I were you.
Emil sighed at Sven's comment, that was too close to what he been hearing from some teachers for comfort:
-Not you too.
-It is precisely because of the little loyalty I owe you by sharing a room with you that I'm telling you that. You only needing to catch up on the subjects you didn't study during your childhood would have been one thing. But you are also dismal at picking up Icelandic and you keep insisting that you know better than the teachers concerning the subjects you did study.
-But I do know better than the teachers.
-You don't. You think so only because your family used to be able to afford you that illusion. You no longer have money. You'll have to be either likable or useful for anyone to want to keep you around. This gives you two solutions, as far as I see it. The first is that you at least start showing the teachers some respect. The second is that you leave and find yourself a profession that is of better use of the talents that you actually have.
-But I need to stay in academia. I won't be taken seriously as a private tutor if I don't graduate, and I need a job in which I'll make a lot of money with little effort.
-That's your idea of a private tutor's job? Whichever child you would have ended up teaching is probably better off if you give up on that career.
-So what do you suggest I do? Killing trolls and tending the fields are commoner jobs.
-And the mere fact that you need to come here to finish your schooling means that you are a "commoner" now. If you haven't gotten used to that, I suggest you get started right now. It will make your life easier.
How did he dare? Why was he even listening to him? Emil stormed out of the room.
On second thought, he should have probably taken a coat with him. It was still fall, but it was getting late. He didn't feel like going back to the school quite yet, but he decided to keep moving to avoid freezing. After a while, he started feeling tired, and decided to try heading back. He realized he didn't know where he was, which meant he had no idea whether he was getting closer to the school or further away from it. He decided to try finding Torbjörn and Siv's house, in case it was closer to where he was. He could always go back to the school in the morning.
When he regained awareness, he was sleeping in a bed, and he vaguely recognized the ceiling of Torbjörn and Siv's guest room. He quickly realized that Siv was in the room as well, relived to see him awake. She told him he had knocked at the house's door and collapsed almost as soon as he had been invited in. Emil didn't remember any of it. After a few questions concerning how he was feeling, he had a meal in bed while telling Siv about what had happened earlier in the day. She listened while he told her how bad things were currently going at school. Unfortunately, she joined the ranks of those suggesting that he was the one who needed to change his attitude. Concerning Sven and the teachers, all she acknowledged was that they could have been "a little" gentler in expressing their thoughts about him. At one point, she let out a sigh of frustration:
-You say you want to become a private tutor. Did your private tutor choose what he was teaching you?
-Of course not, I did.
-So, if the child you were teaching or the child's parents wished for a curriculum you didn't approve of, what would you do?
-I'd just tell them it's a bad idea and do things my way.
-They'd probably fire you if you did that. Whichever job you'll take, you'll need to follow other people's wishes to an extent, whether you actually want to do so or not. That roommate of yours has a point about you showing a little respect to your teachers. If you can't listen to the people teaching you, you won't last long in any job, even if you otherwise have the skills for it. It's getting late. How about you sleep on this and we talk again about this tomorrow, when both of us are rested?
-But tomorrow is a school day. I'll have to wake up early and go back.
-Do you have any idea of what being out in the cold without a coat as long you were can do to your mind and body? You should stay in bed at least one day before going back.
-But I feel fine now. Just a little tired because it's late.
-You told me you didn't remember coming here just a few minutes ago. This means you need much more rest than you realize. Don't worry about the school, I called them after you came here.
She did know more than him about medical matters. He was too tired to continue protesting anyway.
xxxx
A couple days later, Sven looked up from the book he had been reading as Emil finished getting dressed:
-You're already better? You may actually be fit for the army if you recover this fast from wandering around in the cold without a coat.
-And whose fault was that?
-I checked outside for you when it started getting cold and told the people who needed to know of your absence. The dorm supervisor a got a call from your aunt a little before curfew and told me where you were. I don't see anything I could have done after that. I'm not going to apologize for what I told you the other day. I've heard plenty of other people speak words along those lines. They think they are doing you a favor by not telling them in front of you for some reason. It's just a lighter version of the illusion your parents used to be able to pay for as far as I'm concerned, and I don't get how they expect you to change your attitude to match the situation if you're not fully aware of it. If you don't like hearing this, proving them wrong is your responsibility and nobody else's. Do you think you can do that?
Emil thought of the answer for longer than he expected to, but decided to go with a faint "Yes". Sven opened the door to their room:
-In that case, start by not showing up in class late with an empty stomach, which will likely happen if you leave this room too long after I do.
Emil grabbed his books for the day and went out with him. He was going to give academia one last try, and maybe consider that career change idea if it ended up not working out.