Academy Shorts

A Year of Mistaken Classification

Sang's eyes rhythmically went back and forth, left to right, top to bottom. To Nathan only half conscious lying across the leather couch in his living room, she appeared to be reading her required novel for her English class. If he had not been running on only two hours of sleep the night prior due to an Academy assignment, he would have noticed Sang's eyes going over the same page of the tattered paperback for the past half hour in the armchair.

While her body was caught up in the motions of reading, her mind was focused on something entirely different from A Farewell to Arms. Instead, her thoughts were on something else she read earlier that day.

During lunch period at Ashley Waters, North demanded Sang to hand over the notes passed on to her from the first half of the school day. Most of her friends were up late the previous night and had not intercepted all the notes from their classmates due to fatigue and exhaustion. A few managed to land on her desk, and she dutifully shoved them into her backpack with the intent to surrender them to North anyways. She never bothered to read the content.

As she fished them out of her book bag, a gust of wind caught one and whipped it away from the rest. It didn't get too far though; it smacked right into Silas's broad chest. The Greek took it and unfolded it in curiosity.

He didn't get a chance to read too much before a fight in the cafeteria broke out. Kota shot up and instantly barked out orders, demanding Nathan, North, Silas and himself to head straight into the scuffle. Victor was to contact Mr. Blackbourne, leaving Gabriel and Luke to keep Sang company at the benches.

Everyone jumped into action, forgetting the notes for the moment, including the one Silas opened and left face up on his seat.

Right next to Sang.

Darn her traitorous eyes for scanning over the scribbled words on the lined loose leaf paper, because she came to understand the proverb, "Curiosity killed the cat."

She managed not to think about the contents of the note for a while, filing her contemplations away while she worried about the wellbeing of her friends among the mob in the cafeteria. No one got hurt; two girls just got into a heated argument over a boy, and no disciplinary action was needed.

The note Sang accidentally read surfaced in her thoughts as she did her homework at Nathan's house that afternoon. The words and implications plagued her mind and refused to let her focus on her studies. She feared Kota's disappointment.

"You want something to drink, Sang?" Nathan asked her as he lunged up from his reclined position on the sofa. He really wanted to get some juice into his system to wake himself up.

Sang looked up from the pages of her book but it was obvious she did not hear the question. Her face easily betrayed her and broadcasted other things were on her mind, things that worried her.

"Peanut? Are you okay?" Nathan asked as he stretched with his arms over his head.

"Hm? What did you say?" She blinked several times as her mind returned to the present.

"I asked if you wanted anything to drink," he said with a raised eyebrow.

She closed her book with a finger in between the pages to keep her spot. "Yes. Thank you."

He made his way to the kitchen and poured two glasses of orange juice, handing one to Sang when he returned. "What are you thinking about?" he asked after draining half his glass.

Sang knew that once he suspected something was on her mind, there was no point in hiding it. Her friends always managed to pull it out of her and face the issues to be discussed and anything that needed to be solved. "I accidentally read one of the notes passed to me in class today," she admitted on a weary sigh. She held up her hand to keep Nathan from exploding and going on the expected tirade. She had heard it before. Thankfully, Nathan understood and obliged to the gesture, allowing her to continue. "I know I'm supposed to ignore anything they say because none of their words matter. It's hard to control my thoughts about it, though. The implication, and with what we are..."