It is now morning and Ajax and Shaula walk together, wearing their school uniforms.
Ajax is tall and a bit dull in terms of his overall look, but Shaula is quite stylish. He wears a uniform shirt, khaki pants and a tie. Aside from his uniform combo, Ajax has a crucifix around his neck and a watch on his left wrist. His medium length hair is parted in the middle.
His build is fairly average, six feet in height, but he is conscious of how people view him. He makes it a point to watch out for acne and keep his face out of the sun for too long. He’s begun working out recently to some effect.
“You know, I noticed that you’re still wearing that crucifix. What’s the story behind that?” Shaula asks, quite bored with the scenery she sees everyday on their walk to the subway.
“Eh. Not much of a story. My mom got it for my birthday some years back. Still hasn’t broken, so I keep wearing it.”
“But, you’re, like, an atheist, aren’t you?”
“Basically, but it’s not something I’m going to tell mom, you know? It’s just a habit too, Before I leave the house, it’s always ‘do I have my wallet, my watch, my crucifix?’”
“Makes sense…”
Shaula has her hair in a ponytail with a red wolf earring on one ear and a musical note on the other. She has an athletic, voluptuous physique and is about as tall as Ajax is. Her skin is soft and properly moisturized. Her blouse, tie and skirt combo fills her with confidence.
Shaula, unlike Ajax, is quite a bit more naturally gifted in terms of both looks and intelligence. While Ajax might be one to study for hours before an important test and ace it, she can study an hour or two in between school and a part time job, show up late on test day and still ace it.
Although, she doesn’t have the same aspirations as Ajax. She wishes to make money as quickly as possible, which is why she chose a 4 year paid industrial electrician apprenticeship to complete after high school.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“...I’m curious. Do you have to maintain a GPA in order to not get kicked out of Nor Rasmussen?” Ajax asks.
“Sort of, I guess, more like a minimum average. I still have to graduate high school. About… mid-70 average I think.” Shaula smiles, sneering a bit at Ajax. She can tell exactly why he’s worried about GPA right now, obviously having to do with today’s test.
“I couldn’t imagine you getting less than a 90 on this thing. I’m not like you, you know?” Ajax pouts a bit. “I mean, I get why you didn’t pick a university, but… well, I hope this is what you want to do with your life?”
“Making a comfortable life is really all I want to do, the way to do that almost doesn’t matter. It’ll eventually end up the same way whether I become an engineer, a Ph.D holder or an industrial electrician. No point in not getting paid right off the bat, right?”
Taking a student loan with her lack of financial resources or support would be extremely difficult, but luckily, the field she picked at Nor Rasmussen, a skilled trades college, is currently in high projected demand for the foreseeable future.
Her classes should also be close to Lower Dietrich’s main STEM campus which would allow her to eventually find a cheap off-campus place to share with Ajax in their second or third years.
She would like to pay for his room and board too if possible in order to pay him back for living with him and his family. He would never accept something like that, so she can compromise by just sharing a place with him and taking care of him. But, she will find a way to pay him back in full.
She looks over at his face, worried for him. His expression is aimless, focused on the future he has not yet reached. If he focuses this much on the perfect future for himself, he won’t be able to experience his life right now. These are the years when his brain finishes fully developing, so she doesn’t want him to live his life a machine man.
I’m going to have to check in on him a lot to make sure he isn’t a recluse during his first year. I can just imagine him sitting in a dark room doing nothing but studying. She thinks to herself, biting her lip.
Ajax has done a lot for her so Shaula is protective of him. She wants what’s best for him, just like he wants for her. One of the things they do share in common are their introverted tendencies. Neither of them made many friends at school, and perhaps gravitated towards each other at first because they were similarly alone.
Their deep friendship started with them being placed in the same two person team on a class project, or so she believes. Shaula looks over at Ajax and asks another question of him.
"So… what was up with Rita earlier?"