School's In

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"Come with me girls," says Katherine with a wave of her hand.

Heading out, my eyes try to adjust to the darkness in the tunnels. All I see at first are big glaring white spots in front of me. It makes me dizzy and I bang into a wall.

"Ouch!"

Crinae has the same problem. She knocks into me. Katherine seems fine with all of it. She must have had a lot of practice going back and forth and into and out of the fierce light of Luminia.

Travelling through the maze again, we pass rooms filled with people working. I take a peek at what some are doing. In one space, a man and a woman are building shelves. In another space, people are mending clothing. In another space, there's a sight to behold. Books!

Tonnes and tonnes and tonnes of books in tall shelves that must go at least five metres up. Folks are reading the books too. I want to go in and look at all the titles. Books are rare and to see so many under one roof is rarer still.

Katherine notices my dawdling.

"That's a library," she explains. "We have everything in there from manuscripts, old newspapers, maps, magazines to paperback romance novels."

"Cool!" exclaims Crinae. "Can we check it out?"

"Not right now," says Katherine smartly. "I have my orders to bring you two to class."

Class – that'll be fun. I wonder what we'll learn. Katherine stops at a blue plastic door and raps on it a couple of times.

"Come in," says a man's voice.

We're gently pushed into a room full of kids sitting at tables. (I mean kids, little kids younger than Elody.) They all turn to see the newbies.

"Oh, yes," says the man standing in front of the children. "The new students I presume?"

"Indeed," says Katherine. "This is Naia and Crinae."

"Welcome. My name is Mr. Cho. Please find a seat."

Walking into the centre of the room, I only find one empty wooden desk so I point it out to Crinae. I probably won't fit in the tiny chair anyway. I'll stand at the back. I can see and hear Mr. Cho from here. He's writing with white chalk on a black wall.

a = (vf - vi) / t (4)

a = (vf2 - vi2) / (2 s) (4b)

"Can everyone see this?" he asks.

Oh yes, I can see it. Understand it? No.

"Uniform acceleration occurs when the speed of an object changes at a constant rate," says Mr. Cho, turning to face the class. "This is the formula you use when you're figuring out acceleration plus variables like speed, time and distance."

Huh? How do these young kids get any of this stuff?

A girl with rows and rows of braids raises her hand.

"Yes, Ruby," says Mr. Cho.

"You forgot to mention that that's only accurate if the acceleration is constant during the time interval considered."

Who is this girl and why are they learning equations?

"You're right, Ruby," says Mr. Cho with a quick nod. He adds some more numbers on the board and starts talking about manipulating numbers. He's lost me and my eyes wander from the board to the rest of the classroom. My fellow students must be five or six years old. Why are Crinae and I in here with them?

My face flushes red. Even babies understand what Mr. Cho is teaching. Solomon must think Crinae and I don't know much of anything. I want to take her hand and walk out. We don't need this stupid stuff. We can do better on our own.

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