Rosaโs in school when she hears the news, tapping her pencil and wishing she was somewhere else. But in that moment before, it all comes into perfect clarity in her memory.
The classroom has three tables made of pushed together desks, each with six desks. She sits at one of the desks, her best friend Abby seated across from her, her kinda-friends Georgia, Claire, and Evelyn around the two of them. Sheโs got the end of her pencil in her mouth - it tastes like rubber and metal.
Of course she knows about Team Plasma at this point. Who doesnโt? But she also knows that Corbinโs going to take them down. That theyโre not a threat.
Outside the window, birds chirp. The sunlight filters in softly, casting shadows of the paper snowflakes taped on the glass onto the desks. The teacher is yawning, having just passed out a times-table assignment to all of them. Itโs a slow day, a quiet day.
Abby is clearly on her phone across the desk, and Rosa looks at her oddly, tearing off a corner of her assignment and scrawling something on the paper. She pushes it across the table. โWhatโs happening?โ it reads.
Abby looks up at her. โChampion matches,โ she mouths, and oh, yeah, Rosa forgot that was happening today. She nods. Goes back to her work.
Abby flinches, and looks up at her. โTeam Plasma hit the League castle,โ she says. โTheyโre raising their own castle behind it and destroying the building.โ
And Rosa has a thought that she still remembers all these years later with shame. Itโs not of Corbin, itโs not of the people inside the League. Itโs this: the thought that she wants a castle of her own someday.
She laughs. โYouโre kidding me,โ she says. But all around the classroom, kids are gasping and screaming.
Abby shakes her head. โIโm not,โ she breathes. โTeam Plasmaโs destroying the League building.โ
Rosa pales. โIs Corbin okay?โ she asks. โWhat the fudge do you mean, theyโre destroying the League building? Is everyone still alive?โ
Abby looks back down. โI- I canโt say for sure. The streamโs too dusty.โ Itโs in moments like these that Rosa wishes so badly she had a proper phone instead of just the one she shares with her brother, the one that stays at home. She feels tears beginning to well up in her eyes, and without thinking, stands up.
She pushes back from the desk and mumbles something about going to the restroom, before running out of the classroom.