Talitha dressed for school, grabbed her bag, and headed for the door. Her father said goodbye to her as he brushed past on his way to work. Talitha watched him go, but didn't reply.
She couldn't tell if he meant it, or if the words were just automatic, an aside made like clockwork as he wound his way through the day.
Talitha crossed the way to Bernadette's house, where the doors was opened by the girl's mother, Lady Vatusia.
She was a proper Time Lady, an almost regal figure who held some odd job in the Gallifreyan government.
She turned and called up the stairs. "Bernadettevanya, Angelowryredred, it's time to go!"
Both children ran down the stairs, books in hand.
Angelo's parents were out of town, but Lady Vatusia had been kind enough to take him in for a time. It was either that or send him off to the Academy to live, something that the boy had never done before.
They gathered their belongings and went down the road together as always, talking and laughing down its winding length. At its end, they parted ways.
Bernadette read the bland texts of her forefathers, trying to remember the antiqued vocabulary and diction. She read and waited for the world to end, or the day to end, whichever came first. With the throbbing headache she had, she couldn't tell which one she would prefer. She tried to remember the fundamental forces up to the strong nuclear force, which held protons and neutrons together. What came after, she couldn't remember.
At the end of the day they ambled home with Angelo trailing behind as always, working away on his assignments before he even got home.
Bernadette kept him from running into anything or tripping over loose paving stones, at least until Talitha stole his bag and forced him to chase her down the street, and a little farther, his short legs no match for her longer ones. Eventually, he caught her, sending them both tumbling to the ground, tangled together and screaming with laughter.