After my gay internal crisis we entered the classroom with only a minute to spare before the next and final class of the day began.

“How did the talk go?” Claire stopped me when I walked by.

“F-fine, I guess…”

Luckily Emma had already taken back her place next to her sister so she didn’t overhear our conversation.

“Did she confess to you?” She whispered.

“Uh, nah, it was nothing like that…”

“Do you wish she had?”

My face shot red immediately.

“S-shut up, Claire…”

She smirked. “Hehe. Sorry, I couldn't help myself.”

“We just cleared some things up…”

“Mhmm, I’m happy to hear that. So no more awkwardness?”

“Mostly.”

“At least there’s that.”

The bell rang in the next lesson, with our teacher still not present.

“Pres, is Miss Kant also not at school?” I asked. Maybe we could go home a bit earlier than usual then. That prospect always excited me.

“She should be here - I saw her earlier today.” Pres sipped from a freshly made cup of tea.

“Hmm, she’s generally not this late for the start of the lesson though…”

Right on cue Miss Kant walked into the classroom in her usual red plaid shirt which often made you wonder if she had any other shirts in her wardrobe. “A teacher never is late, nor is she early, Miss Beaumont.” She tapped her finger on my head.

“Ouch.”

“Huh…” She stopped for a second. “Something seems different about you today, Miss Beaumont, did anything change in your life? Maybe some sort of revelation?”

“Uh… N-n-nothing in particular…” I lied with Claire smiling incredibly contentedly at me.

“And is it me or did you get some dental work done?”

Emma started choking on her drink right when she said that, pulling the teacher’s attention away from me.

“Oh, my, Miss Meier, are you okay?”

“I’m f-fine.” Karin patted Emma on her back to help her breathe. “I just drank a bit too much at once…”

“Please watch out for that. Always remember to pace yourself correctly.”

“I’ll try…”

“Good, anyway, where was I? Ah, right, today’s lesson plan.” She moved to the front of the classroom, making me let out a sigh of relief. The inquisition was over, for now.

“Today we are going to talk about ethics by posing certain questions and seeing where the class stands on them and having a discussion, in group, about the stances. So if everyone would please come to the front of the class.”

Ria-chan immediately jumped upright and clapped her hands, she really liked these kind class activities a lot. Can’t blame her, everything that changes up the monotone nature of school is a big plus in my books too, just like the flag of Switzerland.

The rest of our row followed our enthusiastic Ria-chan to the front of the class. When we were all together it was quite obvious just how many people we had, though I only spoke regularly with about a sixth of them. -Maybe I should make an effort to talk with our other classmates too…-

“Okay, so,” Miss Kant started. “The window side of the class symbolizes ‘I totally agree’, the other side of the class symbolizes ‘I don’t agree at all’, with the center of the class being the neutral position.”

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Everyone nodded.

“Try to follow your own opinion without getting affected by your classmates. I know it is hard because of group pressure and such but we can’t hold a discussion if you don’t hold that position yourself. Although we will practice that another day.”

“What do you mean with that last part, Miss?” Ria-chan asked.

“Ah, let me explain.” Miss Kant sat down on the desks of the second row, swinging her legs while explaining. “When you are forming opinions it’s also important to be able to see potential arguments of the people you will be discussing with, and it will be an exercise in that. But again, that’s not important right now, we’ll do that some other time.”

Ria nodded.

“Ok, no more questions?”

The class stayed silent.

“Alright, let’s start with the first thesis: wisdom is more important than knowledge. Everyone, take your pick.” Miss Kant smiled and clapped her hand, setting the entire class in motion.”

Thirty-five minutes later Miss Kant collected the class for the last thesis of the day.

“And one last thesis for old times’ sake: the study of philosophy only leads to more questions and is therefore unnecessary.” After giving us a couple of seconds to think she clapped her hands again and the class moved, with a couple of students changing their minds in the last second, swiftly walking across the room.

“Interesting.” Miss Kant hopped off her desk. Most students had stayed in the middle of the classroom while there were a couple of people, myself and all of my friends included, who had chosen the disagreeing path.

“Okay, first off, someone from the center who wants to clarify their answer?”

One of the smaller girls lifted her hand.

“Yes, Miss Cieszkowski?”

She lowered her hand and started speaking. “I think that while some questions definitely should be asked, not coming up with meaningful answers is just a waste of time.”

A lot of the students in the center group nodded in agreement to which Claire almost immediately lifted her hand in our group.

“A reply from this group?”

Claire nodded and started speaking. “I think, in my honest, humble opinion,” she said that with a bow, making quite a few girls giggle, including Miss Kant “Philosophy isn’t necessarily about finding answers but about finding the right questions to ask. So while the study of philosophy does lead to more questions I don’t think that it’s an unnecessary or useless endeavor at all.”

“That’s indeed pretty much the core of what philosophy is.” Miss Kant agreed. “But obviously philosophy and the philosophical method aren’t for everyone and that is valid too.” She smiled at the center group.

“It is true that some questions can indeed feel very floaty, and if you prefer to look at clear defined problems that’s perfectly fine. That’s what science is for after all.” Miss Kant clapped her hands one last time. “That was it for today, I wish you all a lovely relaxing afternoon. I for one have a movie date with my wife. See you all tomorrow.” She quickly grabbed her bag and left the classroom.

The rest of the class went back to their seats to gather their stuff to leave for the day, while our group slowly did the same.

“Do you still have to do something at school, Rora?” Ria-chan asked me, having packed her course material already.

“Not really. We finished our card game already so we can leave whenever we please.”

“Okay, great!” She enthusiastically jumped a little. “I want to see Shima as fast as possible.”

“I think that feeling is mutual.” I smiled.

Pres was standing next to our row, finishing her cup of tea while she was waiting for us to leave so she could lock the door behind us.

“Hey Pres,” Emma asked as she also was done packing.

“Hmm, is something the matter?” She took the cup away from her lips.

“I was wondering, what do you do for your free time in the dorms?”

Claire nodded as well. “Oh! I would like to know that too, you never talk to us about it after all.”

I was kinda curious too. After all, our entire friends group except for Pres did go home every day so all of us had no clue how after school life was over here.

“Apart from drinking tea of course.” Emma joked.

“Hmm, that’s making it hard for me…” Her face was straight as an arrow.

-Surely she didn’t drink tea all day long, right…?-

“I am joking of course. Let me think.”

-Phew-

“I mostly do flower arranging on days where there’s good weather or help in the school’s greenhouse.”

“Our school has a greenhouse?” I asked. I hadn’t seen a greenhouse when we were on top of the resto...

“Mhmm.” Karin nodded. “It’s on the roof of the laboratory building.”

“What? Really? Why does no one ever tell me these things.”

“Auro, it was said on the school orientation day, remember?”

“Heh? I can’t remember that at all.”

“Aurora not having paid attention? I’m very surprised.” Pres’s deadly sarcasm almost killed me.

“Pres, you wound me…” I clenched my heart dramatically which got applauded by Claire.

“Maybe you should try acting too.”

The group laughed to which Emma continued her questioning. “And when you’re not doing that?”

“Baking, tea ceremony club and occasionally a table tennis tournament.”

“Oh, now I want to eat something Pres baked!” Ria was probably already imagining some freshly baked scones as I saw she was slightly drooling.

“And I want to win a game of table tennis against her.” Emma got pumped.

“I stand yet undefeated, so you may certainly try.” She smugly looked at Emma who got even more fired up because of it.

“You’re on!”

“And maybe I’ll bring some raspberry cookies for Corelia next time.”

“Yay! Did you hear that, Rora? Freshly baked cookies from Pres!”

“Yes, good for you.” I gently patted her head and picked my bag up from the desk. “Anyway, let’s go so Pres can lock up and do some flower arranging.”

“Much obliged.”

We left the classroom and each headed our way.

Outside Ria-chan immediately attached herself to my arm. “Shimaaaaa!”

“Shima indeed.” I smiled as we left the school grounds. Now was no time to get blushy, the only thing that mattered was making Ria-chan happy.

-Wait… that sounded wrong…-

(I got blushy anyway.)