First Day of School (Pt. 3)

--- Maya ---

“I have math too.”

“So, another year of being second best.” Ying chuckled in self-depreciation.

“Well, you’re better than me in History and English.” She tried to console.

Ying rolled her eyes with an amused grin. “I was joking Maya. I know everyone has their strengths and weaknesses.”

“Oh…” (She used to be really touchy about that kind of thing.)

(Something must have happened over her break to get her to change.) Her inner logic agreed.

(Something she won’t tell us about.)

She shook those jealous thoughts from her head. “Yeah, everyone’s got their strengths and weaknesses.” She repeated with a touch less excitement than before.

“Quite. Though I’d rather tardiness be neither of ours.” Ying prodded.

“Oh, crap, right.”

---

(You know, I’m just now realizing that we’re not just ‘good’ at math.) She couldn’t help but realize as she stared at the review test her teacher had given out to see where they all stood after a summer off from school. Or rather the review test she’d finished in barely five minutes, with most of that time being taken up by her needing to flip through the pages and write down her answers.

(Hm, I suppose this is a logical side effect of spending our summer writing reality hacking programs.) Her inner reason concluded.

(Yeah, but I always figured it was the whispers doing all of the work!)

(Maybe you’re picking it up through osmosis?)

(What do you mean?)

(Well, you’re listening to the whispers tell you what to do and if they explain a few bits and pieces while they do so, maybe you’re picking those up. Sort of like when we picked up a lot of our Spanish from mamá talking rather than her giving us actual lessons.) Her inner madness explained with surprising insight. (Pfft, we both know insight will drive you mad.)

(Bloodborne references aside, that idea does hold a certain merit.) Her inner logic acknowledged.

(Yeah, but that doesn’t explain how I was reading so fast or doing all of the math so quickly in my head.) She tried to argue.

(Because we’re a genius, and just naturally smarter than everybody?) Her inner child offered; her moment of intelligence having passed. (Hey!)

(Mm, perhaps -in a vein similar to our previous discovery- our powers have similarly expanded our mental faculties to above the norm.) Her inner reason tried. (After all, our mind expanding to compensate for the whisper’s flood of information, would explain away our ability to process information faster than most.)

(I guess that fits…) She admitted, though reluctantly. (Though doesn’t that bring up questions about how else the whispers are affecting my mind? I mean everyone’s heard stories about the M.A.D.s who go off the deep end. Is that something we should be worried about?)

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

(Bit late to be worrying about that.) The voice in her head scoffed pointedly.

(Okay, I get what you’re doing there, but my point stands too. I mean is using my powers slowly going to drive me insane?)

(There are a fair number of M.A.D. heroes who are perfectly sane, if mildly eccentric, and they’ve been using their powers regularly for years.) Her inner logic tried to rationalize. (While our mental issues are likely a resultant of our powers, it is more than likely they won’t actually grow any worse than they already are.)

(Still…) She wasn’t sure why this was bothering her now of all times or (no that’s not right…)

Her eyes drifted around the room to all of the other kids her age who were still scribbling away on the first couple of pages to the test that was supposed to take them all well near an hour to finish.

(I’ve just got a large enough sample size to realize it.)

---

“You alright?” Ying asked once their classes broke for lunch. “You’ve seemed a little out of it for our last few classes.”

“No, uh, I…” She blinked trying to come up with an excuse. “I’ve just got a couple things on my mind is all.”

“Anything I should know about?” Ying checked with some concern. “I mean it’s the first day of school, so it must be something else if it’s bothering you this much.”

She shook head. “No, like I said it’s nothing.”

“If you’re sure.” Ying relented as they started towards the cafeteria. “Though this does leave me wondering if you’ll be able to stay focused throughout the school day.”

“It’s the first day of school.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s not like anything actually happens beyond reading syllabi and reviews.”

“True, though that’s only from the scholastic standpoint.” Ying pointed out, before continuing at her confused stare. “For instance, look around and what do you see?”

She looked around the school yard, noting the handful of cliques gathering together now that they’ve been given an hour to themselves.

“Uh, what am I supposed to be seeing?”

Now Ying rolled her eyes, before pointing out several younger students in the crowd walking by themselves with their heads held surprisingly high. “New year, new blood. What’s more given the fact half of these students run in…” Ying seemed to work her jaw for a moment before saying, “the same social circles, they either already have friends or are working to establish their place in the hierarchy.”

She gave Ying a look. “Okay, I know some of these kids are rich snobs and everything, but I very much doubt our school has that much of a hierarchy. I mean maybe there’s a rich clique and a popular clique, but I don’t see it being cutthroat elites and everything.”

“To an extent you’re right.” Ying admitted. “Though the fact that you typically ignore such things, and I have no desire for them, makes us as something of an outlier on that front. So, we may both be suffering from something of a bias given our upbringings.”

(Meaning her mom is a rich bitch so she expects everyone to be.) Her inner passion clarified unnecessarily.

“If you say so.” She shrugged, not sure how much of all of this she believed. “But since we’ve got a few minutes before our next class, explain this whole hierarchy you’re seeing.”

Ying immediately pointed to a pair of girls in their year talking to a freshman. “Over there the Smithson sisters -mid tier on the hierarchy- are talking to the younger brother of one of the school’s athletes, who also happen to come from a fairly well-off family.”

“Okay, high school gold diggers, yuck.”

Ying’s finger moved to a boy in their year wearing just a little too much jewelry on his hands, who was talking to a group of kids both younger and older than him. “Noah Delacroix seems to be the new head of the Arcane club.”

“There’s an Arcane club?!” She jumped.

“Suspected.” Ying admitted. “But at the very least they have an interest in magic and would try it if able.”

(Who wouldn’t want to throw around magic?)

(Us. We wouldn’t. We’d rather throw around science!)

(You totally would’ve joined if you knew they were a thing last year.)

“Though it should be noted that despite being a fan-club, they don’t have anything on a true magic user.” Ying continued after a moment, seemingly amused by something.

“Well of course not.” (After all, only an idiot would publicly out themselves like that.) “Still keep going, this is starting to get interesting.”

“Very well, let’s see who else… oh.” Ying frowned.

“What?” Maya asked, before noticing one Nyssa Salvador mocking a girl in their year who’d had a deck of cards laid out across her lunch table. “Oh.”

“Pardon. I have something to take care of.” Ying told her before standing and making her way over.

“Wait, what?!”