IN PERSEVERANCE

The book barely peeked out from under the desk. Frisk could no longer hear what was going on around her, but she looked up a few seconds after the bell rang and her classmates scrambled around in chaos to leave. Once the paths were clear, Frisk marked her place, slung her backpack over her shoulder and grabbed her notebook off her desk. The page was half filled with notes. Though it had the days date on it, and was much more than seemed the rest of the class had learned the entire lesson, somehow the teacher failed to see the hard work.

"Frisk, back here."

"What?" Frisk was at the doorway now. She pushed her glasses up her nose and caught sight of Mrs. English scowling across the room. At her. "Y-yes?"

"I need you to take this detention slip."

"Wh-what? B-but I- I did my work, and I took notes?" she held up her book. "I wasn't loud, or anything!"

"Take the detention slip."

"At least look at my notes, please." Frisk hurried to the desk in the back of the room.

Mrs. English deftly looked over the page, and her scowl became even more squiggly. It looked as if she'd just tasted a lemon. "I can't even read this chicken scratch." She squinted, and then thrust back the notebook. "Well, someone's got to take the blame. And I already filled it out. Go tell all your friends you got in trouble because of them."

Frisk dropped her book, and took the detention slip. "For not paying attention in class…" it read. The teacher knelt and took the white book, waving it at Frisk. "I'll be taking this." She frowned at the book. "This title isn't even for releasing out of the library… how'd you get this?"

Without saying anything, Frisk wove her way between the desks and then stopped at the doorway, before looking back at the teacher, pausing, just staring into space for a moment. Being someone who read books a lot, she'd learned not to judge a book by its cover. But she couldn't get over how confusing it was that Mrs. English taught mathematics instead of English.

"What is it?" Mrs. Notmath snapped.

Looking into her eyes, Frisk said firmly: "Your class will be just as loud."

"Why is that?" she raised her chin and a curious eyebrow.

"No one will ever know." She let that sink in before going out into the hall.

"Well, I'm not going to make it in time for class, so I might as well just go to the office. Library isn't too far…" in spite of the detention slip, she wrinkled it in her fist, stuffed the detention slip into her pocket without a second glance. It always felt so weird hearing her feet tap all alone… sometimes you could hear lonely footsteps all across the school if the doors of the classrooms were open, and often times you wouldn't even see the person making the sound.

"Like a ghost, in a way…" she thought, and the strangeness of it made her grin.

The bell rang, and Frisks' feet lost the motivation to keep walking some four doors down the hall. Doors closed, and one boy skidded into the doorway, and ran inside while the teacher wasn't looking, but some were unlucky enough to be pointed out.

"But it was just a literal second!"

"Office."

"I'm failing to see how this helps me with learning anything in class. You know, this is kinda just an excuse for me to skip class?" the door closed in his face. "Ugh." Slouching, he walked some pace behind Frisk.

Casting a glance back, Frisk realized this was the new kid. Wilson. He'd been here for a month now. She thought he might be nice, even smart when she'd first met him. They sat together in first period. But shortly after the bullies of the school started inviting him to their table… well… he didn't exactly fit in with the brutes, but… Frisk preferred to keep her distance for safety reasons.

Unfortunately, shortly after turning her gaze away, footsteps hurried beside her. She made sure not to panic and speed up her own walk.

"Hey, you're Frisk, right?"

"Yesss… Wilson?"

Wilson grinned, "Yeah! What are you doing late to class?"

"Taking the blame." she held up a detention slip.

"Really?" he gawked. "Wow. What class?"

"Mrs. Notmath."

"Who?"

Frisk sighed, "Her name is Mrs. English, but she teaches math."

"But if she teaches math…?" he looked so confused.

Frisk shrugged with a smirk. "It's just her name. People call her that."

"I guess it's still funny, but…" he laughed. "Oh, is it that loud class where there's something that sounds like a crow screeching?"

"That would be us."

"Our whole class laughs so much because of you guys. Even our teacher. It's really fun."

"So glad my class could make it fun for you. Notmath was hoping I could discourage the class from being so loud with this thing when I complained…" she laughed, but didn't say anything more. "Hah."

"You're not going to?"

"Let her suffer."

"Ouch."

Frisk shrugged. "I was doing what I was supposed to. This is getting even. Heck, she should be thankful I was able to get half a page of notes through all that chaos." She held up her notebook.

"What is that?" he laughed.

Frisk "Chicken scratch, apparently…" she mumbled gloomily.

"Eh, it's okay. Their just notes, right? Not homework? You can read it, can't you?"

"Yeah." She said in a chipper tone. But then she frowned, and looked hard and long at the notebook as they walked. "I think…? Sometimes I'm not looking where I'm writing…. Agh… dang it two sentences got jumbled…" she shoved her glasses up her nose with the notebook and continued deciphering.

"Maybe it would be easier to get a laptop?"

Frisk blanched. "Nope. That'd go down the drain in an instant. Literally."

"Why?"

"I'll give you a good piece of advice. Keep your electronics secret when you're in public."

"… Oh…"

"… Also… I can tell you're not… a bad dude, but uh… those guys you're hanging out with right now… be careful, and don't do anything to get on their bad side."

"Yeah… I got that hint… I was thinking maybe I could just start avoiding them…"

"Don't do that, man," Frisk groaned. "They're dangerous."

"But I don't want to hurt anyone!" he hissed, looking around them.

"Yeah, but they do. They've got their eye on you."

Wilson looked distraught. "I don't really know what I can do, then… do you think they'll make me hurt people?"

It took her a moment to respond. "I… wouldn't put it past them."

Wilson got to the office door first, and let Frisk inside. "Hello?" Frisk tapped at the counter that stood as tall as her, and caught the gaze of a woman with a blindingly red shirt, short cut hair, reading glasses on a chain, and a gaze so blank and cold she could compete with a skeleton for a staring contest. There were scowl lines beside her lips that deepened as she flicked her gaze between the two kids. "Late?"

"Yeah…" they said awkwardly.

The woman huffed, swiveling on her chair to flop her arm at a drawer and swing it open. "Huh. I need to get more… Hey, Sally, you got any more late notes?" she called behind her to another desk lady with long auburn hair and a green shirt and slack pants. She was staring at her computer monitor intently, brows furrowed, and hand clamped over mouth in concentration. "Sally!"

Sally jerked upright. "Huh…?!" she blinked rapidly before she realized what had been asked for her. "Oh…" she looked in a drawer, closed it, stared for a moment, absently began to lift and look under stacks of papers. "Uh…" she looked up and shrugged. "You might need to print more." Her voice was so quiet, and her eyes were wide.

"Agh… take a seat." the first desk lady groaned as she stood.

Frisk and Wilson sat on the green padded chairs lined up on the wall. The air was stiff and cold, the room smelled like perfume, and the printer was humming loudly over the counter somewhere. and Wilson shifted bored and uncomfortably, but somehow Frisk was able to open up a thick green book from her backpack and start pouring over it. She seemed perfectly calm, quiet, still, with her legs crossed in the chair. Someone noticed and called her to sit right. Twice. She never did. Had she even heard?

"Here." The lady hobbled back with an even deeper gloomy expression, and flopped the notes and a pen down on the counter. "Hurry up."

"Hate to waste your time…" Frisk muttered beneath her breath.

Wilson blinked. She had been listening.

Frisk pressed the bookmark down into her book and flipped the pages closed before unfolding herself, standing up, going to the counter and signing her sheet. She glanced at the clock on her wrist, and wrote the time. Wilson got up, and signed his, but asked the desk lady the time. "Can't you read the clock?"

"Not from this distance…"

"Get some glasses kid. Or a watch. 2:15."

"Heck, class will be over in 30 minutes."

"What's that?"

"Uh…" he finished scribbling, and went to the door, surprised to see Frisk holding the door for him. "Thanks," he walked on, but Frisk caught him.

"Hey, the clock was pretty close. How do you see anything in class?"

"Uh… well…"

"The only weakness is not being able to see. Put on your glasses, alright?"

"Yeah…" he scratched the back of his head as Frisk turned and walked away- not towards next period. She was for the library. "Where you 'goin?"

"I have to ask Mrs. Anne something."

"Okay. See you later?" he looked worried.

Frisk waved a notebook. "See ya."

Mrs. Anne was just barely visible behind a book case, but Frisk saw her hand reaching for a higher book case on the wall. After a few moments, she was standing right behind the librarian. She waited patiently for her to finish filing away a book, and climb down the stool.

"Eeep!" she jumped back when she saw Frisk. "Frisk!" she exclaimed, and laughed. "You scared me, that time."

Frisk grinned, "I'm a ninja."

A suspicious smirk crossed Ms. Anne's face. "Is that how you got here this period?"

"Uh… yeah…" she clicked her tongue, "So, uhm, I told dad about going to the park. He said it was okay!"

"Great! Actually, I have time after school today. Would you like to go today?"

"That would be awesome!" Frisk jumped in joy. "I gotta phone my dad and let him know though."

"And I have to tell the office I'll be driving you. And unless you have a pass, you had better get back to class."

"Heeeeeeey," Frisk laughed. "Yeah, I'll be going. See you here?"

"See you here," Ms. Anne smiled.

There was a copy machine by the counter, and Frisk opened it up and put out the waded piece of math homework. She flattened it to the best of her ability, and then a few button presses later, the machine whirred and out popped a perfectly smooth piece of paper covered in printed wrinkles and mathematical chicken scratch.

A genuine smile crossed Frisks' face then, and she said wistfully: "Beautiful." Bubbling with joy, Frisk skipped her way to the exit, fished the detention slip from her pocket which read: "Detention this afternoon at 3:00" and once she found a trashcan, she wadded the paper up and threw it inside.