Anna
Anna sighed as she saw Jim and Jack running out of the classroom like the two full-fledged idiots they were. It was almost kind of cute... almost. She used her right hand to readjust her clothing, made sure her shoulder long blonde ponytail was still in shape. It was a reflex, something she did out of habit. If she didn’t do it for too long, it almost felt like she could hear someone criticizing her.
The other children had started preparing for break, were now fetching their lunches out of their school-bags, observing what their parents had made for them. The air inside of the room started to clear up a little – probably because of less fifth-graders per m².
“Why did we befriend them again?” she asked, looked at Hendrick who was currently staring into blank space. “It really feels like taking care of toddlers sometimes.”
“Huh? Oh yea… probably because they share all of our interests. Also, someone needs to make sure they won’t kill themselves by accident, right?” Hendrick pulled his lunch box out of his backpack, sighed after he opened it. “Did I ever mention that I hate strawberries?” he said with narrowed eyes.
Wait, what did he just say? she thought.
“You... don’t like strawberries?” Anna raised a brow. “Alright, who are you and what did you do to Hendrick?” she added in a set up serious voice.
“Ha Ha, very funny Ann,” Hendrick returned with ironic pacing. “I just ate too many of them lately, that’s all.”
It was odd for Hendrick to not go into raptures about his strawberries for once. He usually exterminated every single one within 100 meters range as soon as he spotted them.
“Imagine you would have to eat one food for the rest of your life, which one would you choose?” Hendrick asked.
Anna tapped her chin. She liked a lot of food, but settle for one?
“That really sounds terrible, but I think I would pick ice cream. I could change the flavour every day this way.”
“Nah, not allowed. One flavour only.”
“Well, definitely not strawberry then.”
They both chuckled, then picked up their stuff and left the classroom. Around 200 meters of boring hallway later, they left through the side exit. The hot summer sun glared down upon them, not a single cloud visible in the broad sky.
---
Jack
The four of them were sitting in the sandpit, protected from the sun by the shadows of the tall birch trees nearby, as a light breeze brushed the leaves around. Jack had spent the last 15 minutes explaining ‘Dungeons and Dwagons’ combat to the rest of the group. His eyes were sunken and close to falling shut.
Maybe he shouldn’t have spent the last night staying awake and inhaling the entire book, but he hadn’t been able to stop himself. It was like a whole new world had opened up in front of his imagination, and he could already see what it would be like to dive into it with his friends.
“So you can move whenever and wherever you want, but you only have your walking speed. For example: you can move for half the duration, use your action, and then move again,” he said while drawing stuff on the dry sand with a stick he found, used his other hand to gesture around.
He pointed his stick weapon at Anna, who had raised her hand. “Question?”
Anna was the only one not sitting in the sand. She was squatting, probably to keep her clothes clean. Jack wasn’t sure if she would care about if they would get dirty, but he knew her parents would.
“Uh… so can I move while performing an action?”
“You can? You can! I at least think that…” Jack scratched himself on his forehead with the back end of his stick. “I’m not sure. Maybe I fell asleep on that page... I'll reread it as soon as I get home.”
His glance swept over to Hendrick, who was staring into the void… again. “Hey Hen, are you even listening? I promise to not warn you before you get jumped on by a horde of hungry goblins!”
Hendrick’s reaction was around 2 seconds delayed. He raised his chin an inch, then responded, “Huh? Oh sorry, I was thinking about stuff.” He then picked up a stick and started drawing as well.
“What mere stuff would be more important than our glorious conquest?” Jack proclaimed proudly.
“Your mom.” Hendrick’s mimic lightened.
“Very funny... shut up.” Jack pouted as Jim started exploding in laughter. Anna facepalmed quietly.
“A-Anyway.” He fixed his buttoned shirt while recovering from the groundbreaking insult he had just received. “I will start working on our first campaign today. It would be nice if you would send me pictures of your characters as well as a brief explanation of how they act, what they do and so on. This will be our biggest adventure so far, I promise.” He smirked, then added while pushing his glasses up his nose with one finger, “Besides Hendrick’s mom of course.”
Hendrick punched Jack’s shoulder lightly, then started smirking as well, “Goo-”
Jim’s uncontrollable laughter – which was now even louder than before – drowned out Hendrick’s voice with ease. After Jim had calmed down, he looked at the things Hendrick had drawn into the sand with his stick.
“What even is that supposed to mean, Hen?”
So far, Jim had been the only one who had spent attention on Hendrick’s doodles. Jack saw two separate, rather simple drawings, but before he could get a closer look at what they showed, Hendrick had already wiped them away. “Just random stuff, I suppose.”
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“Didn’t know you like butterflies that much. You should play one in our campaign,” Jim said, his face painted in a glint of red from holding back more laughter.
“Very funny,” Hendrick returned.
A detail caught Jack’s attention. Hendrick appeared to be holding the stick with his right hand, which was weird since he was certain that he was left-handed. Jack frowned.
The school bell rung and children all over begun to plot slowly towards the entrance like an annoyed swarm of bees. The group of four turned their heads simultaneously, then sighed in unison.
“Looks like it’s time for more boredom for now,” Jack said while patting some sand off his shorts.
“I’ll be looking forward to seeing your character sheets.”
---
Anna
The quiet, consistent squeaking of the ceiling fan. Pens dancing over paper. Muffled sighs, clicking ballpoints, paper being scrupled up. Even though the fan was there, the air seemed to stand still, much like the time, which was creeping forward at a snail’s pace. Anna leaned back against the oak chair which was probably older than her.
This was fifth-grader hell. Two hours of English grammar... great. The taste of her chewing gum had turned from strawberry to chemistry around 20 minutes ago. She mechanically turned her head to the side, a careful glance. Hendrick’s sheet was almost empty. He had, in fact, flipped it around and was sketching something close to a football coach’s game plan on it. Fast lines taken without any care were spread across the paper in hectic fashion. He turned his head towards the row of tall closets on one side of the classroom, then back to the paper.
An old, clammy voice got raised: “Anna, would you please mind your own test? English grammar is nothing you can learn by copying it. You need to practice it.”
“Yes, miss Chester.” Anna replied.
“If I catch you cheating one more time, I will need to let you fail the test. Your parents wouldn’t be happy about that, would they?”
“No, miss Chester.”
Something about Hendrick’s behaviour was weird today. Maybe something at home? An argument with his parents, perhaps? Nearly impossible, since they always treated him like a kindergartener. They were all about: ‘let’s make your life as easy as possible with no challenges. Yea, that won’t backfire at all’.
She was certain he must be annoyed by them, but that alone wouldn’t bother him enough to not participate in the test at all. Hendrick had always tried to at least do his best at school.
But what was bothering him this much then?
Anna shook her head, decided to just finish her test and ask Hen about it later. She needed to at least score a B- so no one would shout at her at home. She brought back her focus to filling the gaps on the paper.
Perhaps, if she somehow managed to get an A, she would be told that she did something good for once.
Yea… like that would ever happen, she thought.
And if all of that wouldn’t work, she could still try to win the archery tournament, which was coming up soon. She had trained hard to improve her aim. Perhaps that would make her parents proud?
She could most certainly try.
Like all the times before.
---
Jack
Jack’s mind swept across the ideas and plans he had made for the next couple of weeks. He mentally dotted down all the tabletop stuff, imagined it inside of his head and put it at different places so he could remember it faster later on.
He looked at the clock once again. Ten minutes till 12.
If only school went by faster, he thought.
Jack had already finished the test 5 minutes ago. Sometimes he forgot that others actually had to learn for school, since it had never been one of his problems in the past. School time was more or less just sitting around and waiting until it was over. While others struggled, he simply passed every test without much effort, which lead to him spending most of the time at school screwing around with Jim or doodling random things on exercises.
The teachers didn’t really care what he did as long as he wouldn't bother the other kids, which encouraged his habit of writing or sketching while he was forced to stay inside of this hell-hole even more. Well, at least he was able to see his friends. Without them, it would be a lot worse.
He took a glance to the side. It was unlikely anyone would expect him to copy anything from Jim anyways. His theory was confirmed. The person sharing his bench was currently drawing dragons… if you could even call it that. He was around 45% sure. It seemed like Jim had given up after 2 questions and had decided drawing would be a better way of spending his time.
Well, it’s not like his parents would care about his grades anyway, he thought.
Jim was a good friend. He could be kind of a dumbass sometimes, but that was actually one of the things Jack liked the most about him. He had a carefree, creative mind, which more or less made up for his lack of drawing talent and non-existing ability to tie his shoes himself.
An old voice broke the silence which had grasped the room for the last 15 minutes, “3… 2… 1… ze-ro.“
The sound of squeaking wheels against wooden flooring, then high heels clacking across the room. “Alright kids, put your pens away! Whoever writes now will get a big fat F. Please hand your papers to the right so I can collect them. Also, don’t forget to write down the date and your name.”
“Ah fuck,” Jim whispered.
“March second,” Jack returned.
“Ah, thanks man.”
The teacher collected the tests and shuffled them into a stack. Jack had noticed Hendrick keeping his one, folding it with fast hands before putting it inside of his pocket. It was an odd sight, to say at least. Grammar wasn’t Hendrick’s strength, that was for sure, but it wasn’t bad enough to provoke this kind of reaction. Jack decided to ask him about it later.
After the teacher had put the tests inside of her old leather bag, the teaching continued. The old woman strode in a ticked off manner from the left side of the school board to the right while scrambling exercises on it with a white piece of chalk. Her old, wrinkly fingers created more uncomfortable sounds than the chalk.
Jack’s view glided over to Jim’s bored face, which he preferred over beholding the old witch’s rear by a lot. The bored fellow’s left hand saved his chin from smacking into the school bench in front of him, his elbow being the pillar of his balance against the worn off wood.
Jack’s curiosity had won. The oddities had piled up enough for him to ask a question: “Jim, did you notice something… weird about Hendrick today? You walk with him to school every day, right? Did anything suspicious happen there?”
“He wanted to steal my berserker privilege, but besides that, nothing noticeable.”
“I meant something like… I don’t know… him not talking at all during break. Or him folding his test and putting it away without the teacher noticing.”
“Maybe he wanted to keep the drawings he put on its back.”
“He did what? But… you never look at minor details like that.” Jack didn’t know if he was supposed to be surprised or disappointed.
“I would never miss someone creating a piece of art.” Jim’s voice sounded proud and nostalgic.
“Yea, right…” Jack decided to never ask Jim about serious matters again.
The clock kept ticking forward, almost reaching its long awaited positioning with both hands pointing upwards.
5 minutes till salvation, he thought.
The words of the chalk witch had already blurred into a weary mess inside of Jack’s head. She almost sounded like a crow, hitting her beak against the chalkboard to get a shiny rock out of it.
Jack’s mind shifted to the campaign he was planning. He got the idea for a giant crow boss, threatening the party with grammar lessons while throwing chalk at them.
He stuck to this idea for now, as it was more comforting than his current reality.
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