Inside the elevator, alone and a little bit soaked, Hera stood. She was shaking a little, her palms on her chest. There was a mingled look of surprise and irritation drawing her face as she stared at her barely visible reflection. In the silence, the drumming of her heart was almost audible, a rapid tick that agitated her soul. As she shifted from where she’s standing, the elevator door opened. The three students stopped talking once they realized who’s inside. They looked at each other for a moment until the door started closing. Slipping in, Hera moved to the corner, fixing her hair so that it obscured her features. Hera tapped her feet, trying to steady her breathing. Once in a while, the girls were glancing in her direction and those short moments of attention knotted her stomach and clenched her heart. It was almost a relief when she reached the seventh floor. Without looking at them, she swept past, but her expression turned blank at the party awaiting her. The

When the morning of Friday bloomed in its entirety, Hera was to wake with the rich and bright rays of the sun peering from the window. It was lukewarm. Hera smiled as she clenched her fist on the ledge, looking down at the school. The trees were dancing with the morning breeze, watched by the blue horizon, cloudless, just as ecstatic and weightless as Hera’s heart. Despite the feast of nature, the rest of the school was still in their slumber, but the silence was more than enough for Hera. It was an orchestra that which her ears kept longing to hear. Forcing herself to look away, Hera turn the light on and sat down on the bed. Five books were propped open on it, the contents highlighted and annotated. Hera was reading them when she fell asleep yesterday. It was weird and natural at the same time, as though she was meant to be a bookworm from the very beginning. 

Hera looked back at the school’s gate. It was becoming smaller and smaller as the limousine drove away. She didn’t know what she should feel. After months of being away from the orphanage, she had decided to pay it a visit. There’s an odd emptiness inside of her heart as she leaned back on the soft foam of the seats. She was once again alone in this wide of a car, Kioven driving her back. She had no idea how he did it, but when they traced their way back to the outskirt of the school boundary, there was no wall surrounding it but the gate itself. Kioven said she had two hours to spend in the orphanage, though in her case, it’s more likely to be just the half. The remaining time would be for visiting Astrodome. She wanted to try it there. Maybe she could find solace at the way the waves rage on its shore or at the chi

Hera felt he had owed Kioven by crying on his shoulders. Not only was he right to say she’d feel much better if she would stop taking everything in, but he had also comforted her when no one else had. She knew she had splattered some words then, and she’d be a fool to deny it. Although she was glad Kioven’s not mentioning any of it when they see each other in their room or in the corridors, she was still doing everything she could to avoid having a single contact with him.For two weeks she crafted excuses whenever Kioven’s calling her and ran as far away in the opposite direction, either saying she has left something or else in need to take the comfort room. Kioven was no fool to not notice her gestures, and he had texted her to imply that he understood where she’s coming from, but if she wouldn’t talk to him, he wouldn’t know what to do with her, once again, failing performance. In fact, she had already taken detention for three nig

On the day of the exam, Psyche Sect was to wake with the sky drawn by dampened clouds, the horizon a dirty-white with occasional streaks of light illuminating its scope, looking like that of a child ready to whine any minute or two.  It was to this that the school staff was to be found erecting a long tent in the Amphitheater, lining about ten armchairs in a row and ten in a column, each of them carrying a netbook, a sheaf of parchment, and a pen. All the chairs were numbered, corresponding to the scheduled student to take the test on this day.Because everyone was to take the midterm in the Amphitheater, it would last for a week and a half. To consider the time and the subject the student would be tested on, every exam only had a thirty-minute interval. The examinees were expected to hold themselves to a higher standard, which means that 0n