One person&#x27;s craziness is another person&#x27;s reality

Study Times, Buddy Times?

“Oh-okay, thanks.” She smiled sheepishly before her face dropped immediately into a frown as soon as his back was to her. She took a deep breath and sighed, taking the time to actually get some of the outline done.

She couldn’t help but notice how much louder (well, as loud as it could get) the library was today. It seemed as though it was much busier than usual, especially on a Saturday morning. Cybil would have found it odd but the timing seemed, their projects were due relatively soon.

Henry was taking an awfully long time, so Cybil decided tog o se eif he needed help, using it as an excuse to get up for a moment. She made a B- line for the supply room, taking note of how Ms. Caden was out in about and nowhere near the supply room. “Henry,” she called out, barely above a whisper once she reached the room. With no response, she kept probing “Do you need any help?”

Silently, though not at all silently to himself, really as he was talking to him--this was beside the point, why was he analyzing everything so carefully? In his head, he admonished himself for responding to words she hadn’t exactly said aloud. Her mind had seeped into his, it was a little scary on account of said barriers he was not supposed to be able to bypass. It must’ve been some sort of fluke, or maybe he just instinctively knew? Either way, Henry shook the thoughts out of his head--this clearly wasn’t something that worked, but it was nice to pretend.

He closed off his mind forcefully, zeroing in on his own mind and focussing on the task at hand: supplies for this freakin’ project--but even when trying to separate his brain from others, the buzz grew and grew. This wasn’t a big deal until he felt--or was this heard?--the distinct thoughts of a few certain individuals.

Henry could never get a break, huh?

“I--what?” He whirled around and met her eyes. “No, I--” Where did his confidence go? Why was it so hard to access such bravado around Cybil--he wasn’t particularly a fan. Was this part of that whole puberty thing? Rather shitey, that--Henry was a fan of cursing in his head, because he could never be admonished. He supposed that everyone else felt the same way.

Clearing his throat, he shook his head--but then changed his mind, and nodded. “The rolls are large,” he gestured towards the colorful paper. “I can grab them while you--the markers?” Henry’s head tilted to the side, still looking at Cybil while his mind was on a completely different train: there are no spies, there are no spies, I’ll murder them if there are spies.

Lessons Learned

These classmates are troubling you? [He frowns] Tell me, are you willing to say which of your classmates? And what their ah….. attitude towards you?

Actually, I’m not sure if that would be, erm, wise? I don’t want to really point anyone out, I’m enough of an... Outcast, I think I could say, without becoming a tattle-tale...

#c;sujay

Lessons Learned

Henry, how are you? Come! Come on in.

Tell me, is something troubling you?

[ sighs and steps more inwardly, sitting before the Headmaster’s desk ] I--everything is fine. I only have some concerns... About my classmates and their attitudes towards schooling and, well, towards... [ pauses ] me.

#c;sujay

Lessons Learned//Open

[Looks up as someone enters his office] Ahh, welcome!

Ah, sir? [hesitantly looks around before entering] It’s... Henry. [suddenly feels a lot less confident seeing that it’s Headmaster Acharya instead of Huxley]

#c;sujay

Study Times, Buddy Times?

Henry took some time to answer, but Cybil gave him all the time he needed, not wanting to bother him, especially since he seemed visibly upset. “Okay, fair enough. We can just do a brief outline, that way both the layouts can match without either of us having to do much tweaking.” Since he took responsibility of the essay, she decided to take on the rest.

Cybil leaned in for a better view of Henry’s sketch, but quickly caught herself before leaning back and simply waiting till he was done before pulling it over to her side. “Alright, simple enough. I’ll probably put it on the bottom.” Yeah, she would prefer it there. “I should be able to get started on that by the end of today actually,” all she needed to do was get it from the material room.

Their fingers brushed when she grasped the notebook and Henry froze himself for a good three seconds. He swallowed and took a breath and nodded carefully, agreeing to whatever it was that Cybil said--did it really matter? His sliver of a social life was already going to go to hell--and why was that? Well, he made a spectacle of himself. But who, really, was surprised?

“I’ll get it,” he muttered, standing up and grumbling as he walked into the back utility room of the library. It was wide and white, with off-shoot closets that held supplies free to student use. “Ms Caden?” He called out--no answer. Fine, he could look for things himself.

asabutterfielded

#*

Study Times, Buddy Times?

“Sorry!” she hissed a bit loudly, causing some of the other students in the library to turn int heir direction. She glanced around with an apologetic wave before turning back to Henry. Cybil offered him a hand to help him up, but he seemed bent on getting up without her aid. Her outstretched hand went ignored, so Cybil simply waited until Henry composed himself.

“You- alright?”Henry seemed to gloss over her concern for him, jumping straight back into the project. “I-okay, sure, I’ll-think of something.” Henry seemed to avoid her gaze but Cybil decided to pretend that was normal, she also pretended that Henry didn’t sound sour towards her. “Right, now where were we before that….” She tapped her chin, pondering for a second, “The poster, right.” She asked Henry on his thoughts about the layout, hoping to have more of his input.

The end of the world wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be. Still, it was pretty damn terrible. Instead of fire and brimstone, there was embarrassment and a very high heartrate—but Henry was pretty sure that those were the same things. In the same moment, he made a list: first, no looking at Cybil. Second, no talking about anything other than the project. Third, do not embarrass yourself any more.

Funnily enough, he never thought he needed to tell himself that last bit.

Henry took a deep breath and calmed himself down, slowing his thoughts and his breathing and trying to look on the bright side, as his mother had tried to make him do so very often. Thankfully enough, Cybil was working to pretend nothing had happened, and Henry would only have to play along. “I’ll write the essay,” he said bluntly. “If you would like, you can give me some information. But I will write it.” It wasn’t really that he had no faith in Cybil, it was that he was certain that his work would do better.

Some people would call it hubris. Henry would call it confidence. “The layout should mirror the rubric. Just in that order would be fine, or the opposite, with the name large on the bottom or the top.” He took a pencil and began to sketch it out, trying to blink away any water that began to pool in his eyes. Everything was going fine.

Study Times, Buddy Times?

“Ah, you didn’t have to…” she trailed off as he moved away, deciding not to bother halfway through her sentence. “Thanks,” she smiled meekly before turning back the notes and poster template. Cybil wasn’t about to make Henry do something he’s uncomfortable with, even if it was in her best interest.

“You’re right Henry, since we’re both part of the team I want to hear your input as well. If you are more partial to culture that’s perfectly fine! We could do something we’re both comfortable with and it might end up being easier in the long run.” She turned towards him and shrugged, squinting her eyes at something behind him- something that appeared to have been someone looking at them- mm, must have imagined it

Huh? Henry turned around to look at whatever Cybil was squinting at--"What is it?” He turned back to look at her, to properly receive the response, but was very startled to see that she was indeed very close to him, and well, that just wouldn’t do. “I--” he started, backing away once more, too quickly this time and it ended in a small disaster.

The chair tilted back, as he hadn’t lifted it completely from the carpet, and backwards he fell. Now, in Henry’s head, this all played out much worse than it actually did--but that was all that mattered, wasn’t it? Under his breath, he cursed every thing--Henry refused Cybil’s help, and rubbed at the back of his head as he tried to right the chair and sit once more. He wasn’t going to look into Cybil’s eyes--he was much more comfortable staring at the table and his papers. “We’re doing the art. That’s final,” he said, a bit of hostility still in his voice. “You can, choose whatever, I don’t really care.”

Study Times, Buddy Times?

“Thank you,” Cybil shot him a smile as she sat. He seemed eager to say the least. After making herself comfortable she readily took his notebook as he spoke “Good! Hopefully we don’t have too much overlapping information,” She quickly scanned through it, it was very good if not overtly detailed, but it was a good starting point to say the least.

“I figured if we get a good portion of it done today we can relax a bit for the week.” Cybil believed that the week day was for school and the weekend was for relaxation, so she always tried finish most school work before hand- or after if she had to. “Would you rather to the cultural or art integration?” Naturally they would do the extra credit, considering it seemed fun to do either way. “I’m leaning towards art myself.” She reached into bag, searching for something they could figure out the layout of the poster on. As she pulled out she elbowed River, interrupting whatever response he offered “Oh! Sorry.”

Henry hummed in agreement--though he didn’t particularly like the idea of relaxing on the weekend. Why waste perfectly good time? There was no need to--”Oh, the... I’m not much of an artist, see, but if you take point on that...” Neither singing nor drawing was his forte, and he hadn’t exactly wanted to belt out in song in front of class. Truly, he would’ve rather had himself drowned--or fed to a tank of hungry sharks right after chum was dumped into the water. But either way, his mind was getting away from him again.

He cleared his throat as he was very rudely elbowed. Then, his cheeks went a little red. “Oh, it’s, ah, fine.” Henry gave her an uneasy smile and moved away from her. “There, more space,” conflict resolved. Things were running smoothly. “As for the art... I’m not very much into singing... But, we could come up with something else, of course. Since you want to do art. And you’re part of this team, this, uhm, partnership and we each get a say. And you say you want to do art.” Smooth one, Henry.

Study Times, Buddy Times?

Cybil had woken up bright and early thanks to her dear roommate, but that was okay, she felt more productive because of it. Once ten o’clock hit she made her way to the library, walking neither quickly nor slowly. She walked in, immediately spotting him towards the back of the library and making her way over/

She shot him a wide smile, “Good morning, “ she spoke quietly, they were still in a library. “I hope you weren’t waiting too long. “ She sat down, laying her bookbag down on the table. Cybil was partly excited, sure it was school work, but it was still interesting at the very least. She was still getting used to the school in general so this would be a good distraction from her thoughts.

Right, lets get to it. She had done a bit of research and outlined anything related to Cleopatra in the book. “Here, I found some interesting points we could mention in our presentation.” She scooted over her notebook for him to see.

Henry was something of a slight worry-wart at times. There were just so many possibilities that were able to happen, so many different things that people could think--and though he could easily tap into such things, there were just too many chances to take. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and concentrated. This was only a project, and this was only Cybil. She was a girl, she was just a classmate of his. A person. With a brain. And hopefully a desire to get an A.

even in his concentration, the whispers of another mind slipped in and he tensed slightly. There was an emotion, a warmth to it, even a sound that was akin to music--soft. He opened his eyes and watched Cybil come into the room, and forced himself to relax. Cybil. A student, just like him. Maybe even eventually a friend.

“Good morning,” Henry echoed, the words stumbling out of his mouth as he shot up to stand and help Cybil into her seat. “No, not at all--just five minutes,” he lied, giving her an easy smirk. He spotted the notebook and moved closer to both it and her. Henry scanned the page, nodding and humming to himself as he read over the notes, shaking his head here and there (errors--but easy to fix.) “Alright. Here is what I have,” Henry said, pulling out his notebook and handing it to her. “I, ah, have a... Bit more than you.”