Hard Work
"It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail."
- Gore Vidal
She looked straight ahead, staring hard at the white of the wall, the soft fur of her Cubbo plush in her arms, a familiar reassurance she had brought from home. These moments of restlessness, these moments in which she was consumed solely by thoughts of impending change, the threat of the future and the need she felt to live up to the faith that had been placed in her—these moments, and the terrible frustration she felt when that faith was challenged, weighed too heavily.
In many ways, it was easy for her to understand China Riot. She did not think of the girl as a rival, she did not think of her even as being worth her time, not as an opponent, not as someone to talk to, but she understood what it was to be an outsider, to be struggling to process feelings as chaotic as the very storms of elemental energy that now plagued the world.
When she had been Riot's age, she had first attended one of Marlowe Faustus's lectures, watching with awe from her seat amongst college age students so much older than her, rushing up to him at the end of the event, hearing his belief for the first time that children such as she might be the ones to change the future, to mend the damage done by elemental energy.
Before that point, she had been restless, talented, her teachers had explained to her parents, yet unfocused. The doctors had told her parents that it was a result of the improved dosage of her medication, but Athena Monde had known better; purpose had given her something to work towards, a focus, the knowledge that she could make a difference. Yet now, at the whim of some internet clown, that purpose had been betrayed.
She knew that there were things that she did not understand, that the school was a school after all, and having prestigious brawlers such as Dan Kuso enrol garnered a certain amount of publicity, and yet she could not forgive the arrogance of the boy, the smugness with which he assumed that everything revolved around him.
In her grasp, she held her Cubbo tighter, her brow narrowing in a scowl, her teeth ground together, a bad habit her mother had often told her to avoid.
She had worked so hard to get where she was, and now her place was threatened by the selfishness, the stupidity of a boy who had ever worked in his life, who had simply waltzed into every situation and expected luck to carry him through, ignorant of the sacrifices of others around him.
It wasn't fair. Hard work should be rewarded, she should be rewarded. Instead, Dan Kuso and those who enabled him had become whom everyone thought of when they considered the academy.
Her resentment smouldered within her, her jaw aching as she sat there in the bright light of her room.
'This was the way they are,' she had overheard Riot say aloud to Callie shortly after the arrival of the Awesome Brawlers. 'They come along and they think it's all about them regardless of who has top billing.'
Her cheeks burnt, and for the first time in a long time, she realised she was crying.
Since childhood, she had had difficultly regulating emotional responses, understanding what was appropriate in given situations. That was what the medication was for, her parents had insisted, but this new slight, this insult cut through all that, and revealed how fragile the balance she had worked for truly was.
The far wall at which she had stared for the last hour lost shape as she felt tears run down her cheeks, and still she sat there, unblinking, teeth ground tightly together, wordlessly trembling with emotion, Cubbo held tight.
No mattered how hard it was, she would not be eclipsed. There had been meaning in those words Mr Faustus had spoken to her all those years ago, and she would not let her hard work be for nothing. At the side of the teacher she admired so, she would help put a stop to the elemental storms, and then idiots like Dan Kuso, with all their internet clout from Lia Venegas produced videos, would be forced to accept that it was not chance or luck that made a difference, but hard work.
Atop his head, the smooth fur of her Cubbo soon dampened with tears.