Chapter 10: Trial by School
A younger Que was balancing on one of many round, wooden post, scattered in a pit. The posts stood roughly twelve feet in the air and had a diameter no bigger than eight inches. Another figure could be seen on a post ten feet away, and both children had yolks bearing weights on each end. The pair hadn't spoken since they were first placed there over an hour before. The humidity and still silence of the pit were grueling enough, but the girl and boy knew to give in would lead to dire consequences. Que also knew if either fell before they were released, they would be doing the exercise again in a few days, not to mention with possibly some mending bones from the fall. She could tell Akeno was getting worn down. Though he was older by four years, Que was stronger and more balanced. She had been here longer than him and thus gained more endurance. Suddenly, a cacophony of noise came from somewhere not far off from the pit. It sounded like gunfire and was it people screaming? What was going on? At that moment, Akeno, distracted by the commotion lost his balance. Que watched in horror as he tumbled to the ground.
Que woke with a start. It was 4:30 in the morning. This was not a great way to start the first day of school.Though Que's first class didn't start until 8:00 AM, she knew going back to sleep was pointless, so she threw on some running gear and climbed out her window. Windows were not her usual exit, but she didn't feel like running into anybody in the hall. She doubted anyone was up, but who knows when it comes to first day jitters and sleep walkers. Que conjured up her little light sphere to guide her to the lake. A few laps around courtyard from there should be enough to take her mind off things.
After over an hour of jogging, she headed back to her room nice and sweaty. She might have gone a lap to many she thought as she scaled up the vine covered walls to her window. It was definitely not this hard going down. Once she had showered and dressed for the day, it was 6:45 AM. She headed down to grab some breakfast and was quite surprised to see Raven and the Professor already there enjoying some coffee, eggs, beans, and sausage.
Before she could sneak away unnoticed, she should have known better, she heard "Good morning Que, you're up early." It was Raven who greeted her first.
"Come join us Que. I dare say we got a little over zealous while cooking," the Professor laughed.
Que stood for a moment then awkwardly walked into the room and grabbed a plate. She forgot that these two were like brother and sister, and she felt uncomfortable and intrusive.
"Thanks," she mumbled. She was quite hungry, but she still found it strange at times to be eating with others. Definitely a big change since she'd left her table for one at the cottage.
As Que piled food on her plate by the counter, the two adults continued their conversation until she joined them at the table.
"So, first day of classes for you Que. Are you dreading it?" Raven asked teasing.
"Do you really want an answer?" Que quipped back.
"It will be fine," the Professor reassured her, hearing the tense undertone in her remark.
Que threw him a grateful half smile, and quickly changed the subject. She got Raven chattering about the upcoming combat training session she would be holding for different groups of students for the week.
Once Raven had finished her breakfast, she excused herself from the table and headed upstairs to get ready for her morning combat session.
Charles continued to read his newspaper, but he kept watch on Que from the side. He knew she had been up early. He was use to feeling the tail ends of sudden emotions that nightmares ensued, if they were strong enough. Que's nightmares, however, were quite frequent and always quite intense. He was concerned for the girl. The dark circles under her eyes were always present, but today they really showed how restless her sleep had been.
"Que," he said as he folder up his newspaper. "Why are you up so early? It's going to be a long day, and you really should have been sleeping a little longer. Is everything alright?"
"Nightmare. Couldn't sleep." She replied, surprising him with her honest answer.
"Would you like to talk about it?" he waited, seeing if she would elaborate.
She looked up slowly about to reply when Sam and Roberto burst in and obnoxiously rushed toward the refrigerator and left over food. Que quickly scarfed down the rest of her eggs and hurried out the kitchen.
He was so close Charles thought, but he couldn't expect much more from living in a house with several dozen teenagers. She might have been about to open up and share, but there was also a fair chance she was about to say no.
"Good morning boys," Charles said with a slight exasperated smile. He laughed as the two shoveled down the food as fast as they could make it. Even though the mood of the kitchen lightened, Charles' couldn't stop from thinking about what the steely eyed girl had been about to say.
Que's first history class went well. Storm went over what they would be studying that semester. Then, she split them into groups of three for their first research project they'd be working on this month. Each group was assigned a different ancient civilization in South America. Her next class was Biology with Hank. Que actually remembered almost all of the content he said the course would go over. She knew there was no convincing Prof. X, but she contemplated if she could convince Hank to let her spend the time in his lab working with some of his research instead. After Biology and just before lunch was her literature class. She had read a lot of advance nonfictional literature from a multitude of scientific journals, but this really threw her. The Professor gave a general overview stating the students would be exploring more fictional and inferential pieces. This would help them gain a better understanding of how literature could be a form of expression. They would begin by reading a book called The Giver for the first few months. During this time, they would need to be able to analyze the events and characters, and draw inferencial parallels to today's society. Why was any of this important? Que was more than ready for lunch when class was dismissed. The classes were definitely starting to feel like a waste of time. She had completed online university courses for goodness sake! In her frustration, she decided to grab a sandwich and head outdoors.
Shop class wasn't bad, and she was able to have her own workstation. There were lots of different tools for students to use. They would be building things Que knew she could have done by herself, but it was nice to have a specific time in the day that was a bit more relaxing and less structured. She had actually forgotten what it was like to create non-electronic things. Plus, it was only their first day and Scott was showing them how to use all the different machines. She didn't know how the other classes would go, but maybe shop wouldn't be so bad.
By Friday, Que was over it and ready for the weekend. She hadn't realized how hard this was going to be. By Wednesday, she had gotten into at least one argument in every class and lost her temper in one and stormed out. She figured out her best strategy was to not speak unless absolutely necessary, but people could be so ignorant sometimes. Her literature class was the only class that troubled her academically. There was so much reading into what characters didn't say or do that was frustrating.
After breakfast, history and biology went by without a hitch. Then, it was time for lit. with the Professor. It definitely didn't help that she had not slept well again. It made her incredibly irritable, and it was truly a miracle she hadn't made a mess in her other two classes. She did however have a slight breeze that was tailing her. She could not shake it and just let it be. If she worried about it too much, it would just get worse. She contemplated skipping the class, but then she'd not only get into trouble but draw more attention to herself than she wanted.
Que dragged all the way to class, was one of the last to scurry in, and sat as far away from Professor Xavier as possible. There was no keeping a secret from this guy, especially when it involved unchecked powers, but she could always try the next best thing. Avoid him like the plague.
As the class settled down, the Professor spoke up.
"Good morning everyone! I hope you are ready to talk about chapters one through three of The Giver. Today, all of you will be assigned a partner for the rest of your book discussions.You will act as a sounding board for each other's thoughts on the book before bringing them to the class as a whole."
The Professor started pairing them up, and Que anxiously waited to see what poor soul she would be placed with.
"Aasir, why don't you be with Que," the Professor said.
Que looked up. "Who?" She wondered. A tall, lanky, dark skinned boy, maybe a year older than Que, stood up and made his way over to her. He sat down in the vacant seat to her left.
"Hi, I guess we are going to be literature partners for a while," he said, staring at her with expectant deep brown eyes.
"Sure," she replied turning away. She couldn't tell if his lack of expression was just his thing or if he wasn't thrilled to be her partner.
Once the Professor finished, he instructed the students to get to know their partner and discuss what they had read so far. Aasir led most of what little discussion they had, and they spent the majority of their time rereading the chapters. Que had admitted to him early on that she only skimmed the chapters in the first place.
She did have to admit that he really seemed to know what he was talking about on a deeper level, but this made her just a tad resentful. She knew it wasn't his fault that he was good at this stuff, and she was all but atrocious. Probably would have helped if she had put a bit more effort into reading the book.She was a little too use to being the smartest person in the room. Not to mention the one with the most inflated head.
Aasir was patient for the most part with her even though she was a complete dud of a partner.
At the end of class, Que rushed out for her lunch break by the lake.
Three weeks of school had passed and Que was cruising through her history, bio, and shop class. She had more sleepless nights this week than before, and she was ready to hit the trees for lunch. Literature with the Prof. seemed to really drag some days. She was also contemplating skipping shop to get a head start on some recharge time. However, her plans this Friday would have to wait. As Que left class, what she didn't realize, or possibly just ignored, was Aasir calling after her.
She had already started up her favorite elm by the lake when she was startled by a voice calling to her.
"Que wait! Didn't you hear me? I need to talk to you about our class," Aasir called. She fell from the branch she was on, landing hard on the ground.
"Did it ever occur to you that I might have ignored you for a reason? Class is over. Can't it wait until next time?" she snarled testily. She didn't realized he had followed her all the way out here. This was her personal hiding spot and now he blew it.
"You don't have to be so rude. What's your deal?" Aasir said in an exasperated tone.
"Currently you're at the top of the list man. Leave me alone. I want to eat my lunch in peace," Que knew very well how rude she was being, but she hoped it would make him leave faster. If she had just been polite and answered his silly questions, she probably could have saved them the trouble to follow.
"Wow, I thought you just needed time to settle in, but people are right. You are a total ass," Aasir said. "No wonder you get into so much trouble.You don't get along with anyone do you? I bet that is why the Prof won't let you train with anyone."
Some other students had broken out for lunch and started drawing closer when they heard the two teens arguing. For some reason his comments struck a nerve, and she began to feel embarrassed with all the people watching. "That's not true! Take it back!" she replied hotly followed by several expletives. More students gathered to watch the heated exchange.
"Why should I? Truth hurts, doesn't it! That might even be why you're here. You think you're so much better than everyone else! What? Your parents dumped you off because they couldn't stand you?" he yelled back, angry now as well.
Before Que could stop and think, she lunged at him, knocking him to the ground. They rolled through the grass punching and kicking amidst a circle of jeering students. Naturally a gale force wind had picked up, but no one cared. They were too enthralled by the fight taking place.There were many chanting, "Fight! Fight! Fight!"
Que got several good jabs at his face, when Scott, Storm, and Hank ran into the circle of teens. Aasir was more than willing to get away, but Que was screaming at him while the to teachers attempted to pry her away. She clawed at his clothes and fought against the strong hands pulling her away. The wind was whipping about, the ground shook, and water sloshed out of the lake in waves, but Que was so angry at the boy she couldn't stop it.
"That's enough! " A voice echoed inside her head. "You both will report to my study immediately!"
Oh crap Que thought. She let go of Aasir's shirt and stopped struggling against Scott and Hank. The two teachers restrained her arms and Storm helped guide the bloody faced boy to his feet. Both students were drenched from the excess lake water.
The adults led the soggy teens back to the mansion. No students were left on the grounds outside. When had all the students watching left Que wondered? Had the Professor yelled at them too?
When they finally reached the mansion, Que glanced over at Aasir. He had a rag covering part of his face trying to stop the blood running out his nose, but underneath he looked utterly mortified.
As they neared the Professor's open study doors, Que could see him, and she knew they were in deep trouble.