Christie wanted to do something for Agatha, but she was well aware that she wasn’t the best at problem-solving or the most resourceful person, so she sought the help of someone else to do so. In a way, that was the outright solution to the problem as her roommate really seemed to have difficulties asking for help, so what better way to do but doing it for her?
“Where are we going?” Agatha asked meekly.
“To study,” Christie responded with a grin as she guided the petite girl by the hand.
Agatha looked so cute when she was this sheepish and small, but that made Christie feel bad. You should not look forward to this state when she is feeling bad, she told herself. Yet it was hard to constantly tell herself that when her roommate looked so adorable as she let herself be led by the hand. Perhaps that was why she had taken so much time to help her, because – in the most awful of ways – she was enjoying that look. The redhead had been doing so subconsciously, of course, so she didn’t try to blame herself much, yet a part of her shrank when she thought of not being able to see that small Agatha again. She was always so radiant that perhaps… it was okay to have it dulled and protected.
No, Christie. You cannot think like that. It is okay to protect, but not to… she bit her lip as memories flowed into her, those of her childhood that only now she became able to interpret. Protecting is one thing, but overprotecting is another. If I do like dearest father did with me, Agatha is going to wither. And she didn’t want that. Perhaps it runs in the blood, Christie joked, if just to dissipate that foul taste on her mouth. She didn’t hate her dearest father, but she definitely didn’t want to become like him.
The nouveau riche guided the villager to the Skyscraper Academy’s library, the whole wing empty this early on a weekend. It didn’t take long to find the person she had asked for counsel, and she was accompanied.
“Jersova yalacabasca!” Shayla greeted them, or at least Christie thought she did. It could well be a curse.
“Shayla, you know that we do not speak Salosa,” the redhead reprimanded her with her arms crossed.
“And that is precisely why I do it,” the bronze-skinned brunette smiled. “Well, I have done what you have said and brought a guest with me. Here, Mateo Librar,” she pointed at the boy sitting next to her.
“Er… hi…” Their classmate saluted with a pompous amount of doubt and nervousness.
Not even Christie had done that poorly in her worst moments, and she was able to recall that not even the boy himself had done that poorly during the first day of class.
“So…” Agatha interjected weakly. “Why have we gathered?”
“I already told you, mock sapphire. To study!” Christie smiled at her roommate, completely oblivious to the arched brow Shayla was giving her and the squint of Mateo’s. “But I was not confident of helping you in my lonesome, so I assembled a study group!”
“Were you not the best graded examinee in the written test of the statal examination back in the barony?”
“Well, yes, but Shayla is not a pushover either, and Mateo here is the best of the whole country, so least to say, you are in good and capable hands.”
The chubby boy slightly blushed at Christie's words.
“Miss V-Valasela is correct,” Mateo started.
“Christina is fine,” Christie interjected. She didn’t want to be addressed formally by a classmate, but she didn’t want to get too cozy with a boy. At least not from the very beginning. That was one of the dubious lessons from her dearest father that she still believed in.
“Christina is correct,” he corrected, “we are your best chance for these midterms. Though at the same time, there is no need to worry about them. I asked all the teachers and all have stated – several times – that these midterms do not have an effect on our score and that is just to evaluate our current performance. Having said so, this means that the final evaluation of the year weighs way more as it is the only source of a score.”
Christie threw the boy a nasty gaze, whilst Shayla was satisfied with an amused one. In the case of Agatha, the petite girl paled ever-so-slightly, whilst the boy was completely oblivious to the effect of his words.
Perhaps it was not that great of an idea to bring him here… Christie wanted to contradict those teachings of her father about all boys beings pests, but every time she tried to give them an opportunity, they would do something moronic. At least moronic is not nefarious, she told herself. Without saying anything, Christie grabbed the backrest of a chair and pushed it backwards, offering the seat to Agatha, which she gladly accepted.
“Now,” she sat herself in another chair at the end of the library’s table, “what subjects do you believe are the worst, Agatha?”
“We would end sooner if we talked about the ones that are not my worst,” the sapphire-eyed girl chuckled grimly as she caressed her little sapphire.
‘Little’ felt now more appropriate than ever as an epithet. After her roommate had reached the Second Stratum, she had been unable to fit her lone agate on her necklace, but thankfully, the series of Control Compact allowed her to masterfully manipulate the size of her agate and therefore made it able to fit into the socket. It was a queer sight as the perfectly spherical gemstone conserved its dimensions, only that it became slightly opaquer and bluer with the transparent layer becoming translucent.
“Is it going that badly?” Christie asked with a hint of worry.
“I am afraid it is,” Agatha replied with her head facing downwards.
“At the very least, we know you will ace the physical and Agatecraft examination,” she tried to comfort her.
“If the only student on the Second Stratum does not pass the Agatecraft examination, I am going to jump out of the island,” Shayla laxly said as she supported her head with her arms behind her back.
“You are not helping, Shayla,” Christie scowled at her ex-roommate.
“Eh, I would say otherwise,” the Intaksolfani responded nonchalantly as she eyed Agatha.
And somehow, she was right. The blonde gained a bit more color as she raised her head, almost a hint of pride pouring out of her. “Yes,” she said, “at least I have that. No one will beat me in those subjects.” Christie could see the embers of confidence starting to light up in those sapphire eyes.
“I… agree there,” Mateo said softly, hesitatingly, as if she was testing the waters. He waited a second before continuing. “But we still have to go over a handful of subjects. And there is only around a week before the midterms. So let us start by identifying your issues. Where do you struggle, Miss Malachite?”
“Agatha is fine,” her roommate smiled, yet there was no energy behind that expression. “But if I had to say what my issue is… I would say memorization. I severely struggle with retaining information. Practically everything that they have taught us here has been new for me and… I do not have the capacity to process it all.”
“Yes, I understand the root of the issue now,” the boy said analytically. His nervousness was gone, and he almost felt like an adult, or even more accurately, a scholar. “If every subject has been new to you, it makes sense you have not had the time to digest it correctly. Information can be a fickle thing, and our own minds can betray us. The Preserver tells us that we should maintain a clear and fed mind, well-balanced so it does not suffer from starvation but also not from a metaphorical overweight.”
Christie shared a gaze with Shayla, and even though no words were spoken, they had exchanged a whole conversation. The contents could be summarized in a single word: scholarites.
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“Would you say that only your memory is taxed, Agatha?” The young scholarite asked.
“I… would say so, yes,” the villager responded with a bit of doubt.
“Then what about subjects like arithmetic? Do you struggle with them? It is more logic than memorization-based, after all.”
“I… uhm… do not struggle with it as much.”
“But you still struggle with it?”
“Trigonometry is a bit confusing…” She admitted in defeat, a hint of blush on her cheeks.
“No issues with geometry?”
“None that I know.”
“We should test that, but it is good to know, nonetheless. Also queer, considering that it is more memorization-based than trigonometry.”
“Eh, I would say that the trigonometry formulae are far more difficult to memorize.”
“That much is true. It can get confusing.”
Christie couldn’t help but be amazed. Not only was this the longest conversation Agatha had had in a while, but also… this was perhaps the most fluid conversation she had heard since arriving at the academy. Between the fact that she stuttered a lot of the time, she tended to make a lot of uncomfortable pauses, and that she had only had meaningful conversations with Agatha, well… conversations didn’t exactly tend to be fluid. And it would seem that nervousness, stutters, and pauses were contagious, for Agatha was more fluid when she wasn’t talking with her.
Maybe I should work with my own diction and cadence, I would not like to infect her with my subpar speech skills. If there was one ability that Christie lacked, it was definitely charm.
“Christina,” she snapped out of her thoughts the moment the scholarite directed at her. “Is there any subject you would call your forte?”
“I would like to say that I am equally competent in all academics. But I fear that is not the answer you are seeking. Let me think for a second,” she placed a finger on her chin as she pondered what she could highlight at. “I would dare to say History. I am moderately interested in the field, so I read a book or two on the subject here and there.”
“Then I will delegate that subject to you for whenever you two are alone. It actually works perfectly for this study group as history is a memorization-based subject, so they do not exactly work nicely for shared study sessions. They mostly depend on the time dedicated by the person themselves and not much else.”
“So, what are we going to do during this time?” It was Shayla who asked.
“Fortunately for us first-years,” Mateo continued, “there are not many subjects this year, and with History, Agatecraft, and physical education removed, I believe we can tackle the rest of the subjects. They are only there, so there should be no issue. Considering we are three ‘teachers’, who wants to tackle each subject?”
“Oh, I want arithmetic!” Shayla said with glee.
“Shayla, I do not…” The Intaksolfani pointed at the scholarite as he talked.
“It is Miss Belkadi for you,” she expressed with utmost arrogance.
“I see, Miss Belkadi…” It seemed like Mateo wanted to say to a handful of things to her, and Christie didn’t blame him for being irritated by Shayla’s hijinks, but he was able to continue without bursting. “I do not think you should tackle arithmetic, considering it is such a complex subject; either Christina or I would be more suited for the task.”
“I would not be so sure,” Christie interjected, and a moment later, Shayla took out an abacus. Did she just take it out of…? The redhead blushed as she saw the opening in the dark-skinned girl’s uniform blouse.
“Christie is right. I may even be more qualified than you, Librar. You are talking to the daughter of one of the biggest merchants in both Intak Solfan and Crocheta!” Her voice had a ‘kneel before me’ tone. Shayla liked to badmouth nobles – and especially her roommate Veronica – but the truth was that she wasn’t much better. In the badmouthing aspects, her academics were definitely better.
“Right…” The boy decided not to comment on it and just sighed. “Well, that is a teacher assigned. Do you have any preference, Christina?”
“Not at all,” the nouveau riche shook her head.
“Alright then, we will look into it later, though I would prefer it if you tackled Language and Etiquette, as that is my worst subject.” Christie didn’t know what had possessed her, but she nearly commented on how the boy’s worst subject was physical education considering his chubby silhouette. Everyone has offensive and dark thoughts, she told herself. “For now, let us quiz Agatha on her knowledge so we can see what we are working with.”
What followed was a series of improvised questions as the three teachers of the study group questioned the mock sapphire. Well, apparently, only Christie improvised. Mateo was carrying books with him and eyed them for questions whenever it wasn’t his turn, and Shayla assaulted Agatha with some of the most vile and complex questions Christie had ever heard as if the merchant’s daughter was always ready to go for someone’s throat.
Which she likely was.
“Whoa, girl, you are awful,” Shayla said without a hint of remorse.
“Do not let her demotivate you!” Christie instantly corrected. “She is asking you impossible questions!”
“What? No~” The Intaksolfani denied melodiously and started humming.
“Do not worry, Christie,” Agatha smiled at her. It was a soft smile, but it was a veritable one and not a facade. That was more than enough for the redhead. “I am quite aware that she is trying to ravage me. I am not that oblivious.”
It calmed Christie that Shayla’s crass sense of humor hadn’t gotten her roommate down, but… She could do with a little better wording… Perhaps it was because she was slowly getting into the more… indecorous books of Miss Granite’s collection, but Christie imagined something she shouldn’t have imagined, and her cheeks heated up against her wishes.
“But I will not deny that I have missed a lot of those questions, regardless. So… what is my score?” Agatha looked at Mateo.
“Not great, but not terrible either,” the scholarite responded as he fondled his amber agates. A bit of skinship, like René Dago had suggested, to get to the Second Stratum.
That action started a chain reaction as Christie started rubbing her agate bracelets, whilst Shayla toyed with her abacus which beads were her own agates. As for Agatha, she had been coping a feel of her spherical agate all this time. She tended to do so when she was nervous, and unfortunately, her roommate had been doing so all this session.
Yet what caught her attention was that her classmates would have more than one agate summoned when Teacher Dago had advised against it. Either way, she didn’t raise concerns over it as they were intelligent people and they would have probably snapped at her if she mentioned the agates…
“Ahem,” Mateo cleared his throat, and the students stopped rubbing their agates. Shayla was the only one who wasn’t blushing by the end of it. “Like I was saying, it is not terrible. Truth is, you are not the first to ask for my help, and you are not doing that poorly. A lot of people are struggling to retain information like you, but unlike them, you are making an effort. Most nobles are not,” he added that last part in a whisper. “So, regardless of the difficulties you are suffering, you are actually somewhat in the median of the class.”
Agatha jumped out of her chair – pushing it backwards with force – and she slammed her hands against the table. “Really?”
Her eyes shone powerfully, illuminated by the greatest of joys, but most importantly, beautifully. Ah, Christie forgot to breathe for a moment as she saw that expression. It was one that she had been looking for a long time. It was the same that the blonde boasted when she had gotten the Second Stratum, but more notably, the one she boasted when they met for the first time in the statal examination.
In Christie’s honest and objective opinion, it was the most beautiful expression anyone could make.
“Y-you are rather content for being average,” Mateo pushed his back a little, as if he was intimidated by the villager’s burning brightness.
“Content? Try ecstatic!” Agatha giggled in a manner that melted hearts. “You know not how much this means to me! I was always less than average. I was the worst of the worst. Even in my own remote village, I was a pariah, but now I am average. Average! Average here! In the Skyscraper Academy! Average against the best of the best!”
The words were cruel, and they hurt Christie as she heard them, but… oh, the tone. It was so bright… so dazzling… It is always the tone that matters, not the words…
“I s-see…” The chubby boy was shaking a bit, his hands trembling. Was he also dazzled by Agatha? “I prefer to dowse your humor a bit, as unfortunately, the Skyscraper Academy is not the best of the best. The bottom of the class is rather atrocious, even compared to a lot of well-standing academies, and the students only got here through connections. The Royal Academy has overall a more curated selection of students and syllabus as they are not worried about image but results.”
“The average person is stupid,” Agatha countered with still a smile drawn in her visage, her eyes shining as if commanded by Light. “Yet I stand in the superior percentile! I am the smartest of the dumbest!”
“I… yes…” Mateo affirmed, perhaps taking issue with the percentile statement. “I would not personally be proud of it. But yes. You are not the worst, not by a long shot, so you can take pride in that.”
“Yes!” The mock sapphire fist-pumped.
“Regardless of your apparent success, would you not prefer standing on the top rather than the middle of the bell curve?” The scholarite offered, and yet again, he stopped looking like the nervous boy and more like a hardened researcher. Scholarites did that, as if something possessed them every time knowledge was on the line.
Well, Christie hadn’t personally seen it until now, but novels were always quite explicit when scholarite characters appeared. They described them as an unnatural calmness and the greatest of lusts that possessed the practitioners. A faith as strong as their thirst for knowledge, for it was one and the same. They did not pray to a god, but respected them for their ideals. The Preserver, the one that stood atop the one truth.
And the next moment it was gone. Mateo no longer shone, even as his posture and his offer remained in place. Christie didn’t know why, but unlike Agatha’s own shine, that one unsettled her.
“I…” Her roommate mouthed. “I do not know if I am capable of standing on the top,” she revealed softly, yet the shine in her eyes didn’t dim. “Yet I would like to try.”
Ah, forget about breathing; Christie’s heart had forgotten about beating. Yes, that is the shine that I need. Fiction seemed insufficient and irrelevant when she stood next to Agatha, and she wanted to see how far the single-agate lithorist could reach. She craved to see her success.
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