Beyond

ᑕᕼᗩᑭ丅ᗴᖇ ᖴᎥᖴ丅ᗴᗴᑎ

𝓢𝓬𝓸𝓸𝓽𝓮𝓻 ✶༄ ‧₊˚

Individual testing was terrible, not that it was hard. It was just so dull. Sophia found herself learning the basics of Probability and Risk Analysis for engineering. The lesson was relatively simple. All she had to focus on was how specific outcomes and objectives might change due to the impact of the risk.

". . .And that is why we need to focus on the qualitative and quantitative of risks on a project by using the probability factor. . ." Sophia continued drowning out Professor Laurier's boring speech. Sophia had little to no interest in the subject of not taking risks. Life would be immensely boring if you didn't take some risks.

"Sophia!" The woman with raven black hair pulled her out of her thoughts.

"Huh?" Her eyes shot up from the desk she was staring at, and she looked at Professor Laurier with wide eyes.

"I asked what a vital key to project management could be?" She said deftly. The look on her face gave away the fact that she knew Sophia didn't know the answer.

"I- Um, uh- The, um. . ."

Professor Laurier smiled almost too kindly. "Go on,"

Sophia felt her cheeks redden from embarrassment. The one thing she hated to do was fail. She would get it done and do her best if she were told to do something. She took a deep breath and tried to reflect on the STEM class in her high school. What did Mister Robert say about management? Did he ever say anything about management? She started again thinking about the most innovative and logical possible answer, trying her hardest not to stutter.

"Um, communication with the other people working on the project is essential. I'd also think that organization is good too, so everyone is working on a given task to get everything done efficiently."

Professor Laurier quirked her eyebrows. "Anything else?"

Sophia fiddled with her hands and looked around the room at anyone but the Professor. "Um. . ." She thought about anything else that could be vital to project management but came up with nothing, so she just repeated what the lesson was about. "Probability and risk analysis?"

Professor Laurier frowned, making Sophia uncomfortable, shifting awkwardly under her gaze. That was until she smiled.

"Well done."

Letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding, she thanked her, more out of relief than anything else.

The Professor continued her shpeal about Risk Analysis for another hour before an alarm went off on her watch. "Okay, it looks like our time is up for today. Tomorrow we will study basic graphing and statistics.

Sophia nodded and stood up, moving toward the door. She was about to put her hand on the button when Professor Laurier stopped her.

"Is something wrong?" Sophia asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Nevermind, you should be on your way."

"Okay?" Sophia said, somewhat suspiciously, as she made her leave. She brushed off the abnormality of the situation and shook her head as she made her way to partner testing.

She walked through the halls, looking around at the different architecture. The beams on the ceiling, being made of a substance that took the appearance of wood, were possibly the only contrast to the white of the walls and floor.

As she gazed around the facility, she bumped into a rather tall form. She quickly looked up and realized it was Eddie.

"Oh, hi!" She said, with as much sincerity as possible. Noticing the annoyed look on his face, she laughed. "Individual testing?" She asked, continuing down the hallway with Eddie now following her.

"Yup," He replied, annoyance lacing his tone. "My teacher is so annoying, super stuck up and snobby."

Sophia scoffed. "Couldn't be as bad as my teacher. She was acting super suspicious on my way out."

"What kind of suspicious? Like making you uncomfortable suspicious? Because if so, I could-"

Sophia cut him off before he could get any farther. "No, it's fine, just a little suspicious, nothing you or I need to worry about, don't sweat it, okay?"

He nodded, still uncertain. Ever since he completely blew up at Sophia that morning, he knew he liked her in a more than friends kind of way. He didn't know if she felt the same way.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾　　☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

Back in the halls, Sylvia silently listened while Leo complained endlessly about how useless certain things he was learning were.

". . .And then he was like 'Well it's important to know how to read camera feeds' Like, sir, all your doing is looking at a screen and watching it, not that hard." Leo complained, pitching his voice at least two octaves higher when he mocked his Professor.

Sylvia nodded absentmindedly, not catching everything he said but thinking about her family and how fast everything was moving. Some of the people had already adjusted as if it was expected, which it undoubtedly wasn't.

Sylvia hadn't even seen Kiana in forever, even though they were both in training. It was almost like the people who brought them here knew of the different friendships and were trying to pull them apart.

"Sylvia!" Leo shouted, pulling her out of her stupor. She blinked a few times and looked at him.

"Yes?" She wondered why he was shouting in her face.

"You like spaced out for almost fifteen minutes. I called your name ten times, but you were staring off as if you were possessed. You okay?"

"What, um yeah, I'm fine. Never been better!" She replied in an unmistakably fake tone. Leo just frowned and furrowed his eyebrows.

"Whatever you say," He paused, then added as an afterthought. "If your shoulder is hurting or something or if you need to get your ribs checked, then we can just go to the infirmary and see if you're okay-"

She cut off his rambling abruptly. "Don't worry, I'm fine. . ." She thought for a second before smirking. "Scooter."

He raised his eyebrows, fighting off laughter. "What- Did you just call me scooter?"

She laughed maliciously. "Sure did, scooter, you deserve it! You called me possessed!"

He looked at her incredulously, still trying not to laugh. "First off, I did nothing of the sort. I said you looked possessed. Secondly, we were having like a dead serious conversation about nothing that had to do with scooters," He was cut off by Sylvia laughing with all her heart. "So where the heck did that even come from."

"I honestly have no clue, but y'know. . . you kind of look like a scooter."

"Wha- How!?" He said, slightly offended.

"I don't know, you just do." She replied before jogging slightly down the hall. "Come on, and we're gonna be late!"

He sighed and followed her. What a strange person. He laughed breathily before mumbling under his breath with a slight smile. "Scooter," He scoffed and jogged lightly after Sylvia.