Jiwa

Chapter Thirty-Four

~one month later~

"Kelly, I need the answer to page seventy-five in the Arithmetic textbook!" I shouted. It had been a month since I had gotten the grand news - I was able to continue my schooling, homophobic mothers be darned. Now I was cramming with Kelly and Joan in our dorm. I had around fifteen minutes before Devi picked me up for our date.

"I think it's the square root of thirteen...what about page eighty-two?" she shouted back, her paintbrush flying over the page.

"Stop yelling! Jesus" muttered Joan. I giggled and whispered, "Sorry, I got excited..." She scoffed good-naturally and flipped her now-green hair back.

"Well anyways, I need number sixteen for the History & Humanities work?" she said, flipping through pages in her textbook.

I grimaced, and said, "I didn't do it yet! Argh!" In my angst, a clump of clay went splat against the wall. I glanced over and sighed, then waved my hand and said, "Menetapkan." The clay unstuck itself from the wall with a loud thwick and squished itself back into the box.

"Have you had any practice with...that?" asked Kelly, in reference to the issue of my clay responding to my unchecked emotions in manners I couldn't control.

"Nope," I said, shaking my head. "No practice. Zip. Zed. Nada, goose egg, no." It was times like this I wish I still had the apartment, my own personal place to crash. Some private, personal space. Not that I didn't love sharing a dorm with Kelly, Joan, and Devi, of course, I did. It was especially helpful when I hadn't finished the homework...

"Sorry if that sounded snappish, Kells. By the way, did you finish the H&H?" I sat up straighter, pen poised.

She sighed. "A monarchy is a system run by a king or a queen. An oligarchy is a system run by a small group of powerful, privileged individuals. A democracy is a system with a leader, but decisions are made by the people." Joan and I dutifully wrote these down, changing a few words so we weren't literally copying her.

"Alright guys, I gotta get out of these uniforms, so I don't look like an eejit on my date." I smiled and put my stuff in my cubby, then donned a pair of green leggings and a yellow blouse. I tucked my hair away in a green scarf and tugged on a pair of black boots.

"How do I look?" I said, hands on my hips in front of Joan and Kelly. They turned and surveyed my outfit, nodding and smiling.

"Try something to draw attention to the eyes," suggested Kelly.

"And something to brighten up the feet! Green leggings and black boots? Snore" added Joan. She raised her hand and a pair of green and yellow striped jeans appeared.

I shook my head fervently, and Joan sighed, then made a striped green-and-yellow skirt. I sighed and nodded.

"It's a special occasion, I guess," I said. I snapped my fingers and my leggings were a pile at my feet, my striped skirt belted around my waist.

"Lookin' good, girl!" they praised, clapping. I giggled and slung my purse over my shoulder.

Just then, there was a knocking at the door. I ran my fingers nervously through my hair as I opened the door to see Devi standing there, equally nervous.

"Looking shining, sunshine," I said with a smile.

Devi nodded with mock seriousness as she grabbed my hand and pulled me out into the hallway.

"Radiant as always, Fee," she replied, grinning. I grinned too as our hands swung between us.

I was ready for anything.