 Which came first, the phoenix or the flame?
Flying class wasn’t the same... not anymore. Flying was Mamie’s thing. Ash and Mamie weren’t friends anymore. Flying class just reminded her of Mamie. Mamie had betrayed her, just like everyone eventually did. That was the only thing she thought about in flying class nowadays. You could imagine what sort of fragile mood Ash was in to start with.
Getting things thrown at her didn’t really help. Ash was not expecting things to be thrown at her today. Well, she didn’t expect betrayal either. Who cared about her expectations.
Ash did not expect any of this, but she wasn’t surprised when it happened. Or maybe she was completely surprised. It was hard to tell.
Either way, Ash caught the ball reflexively, flinching as she did so. She was in no danger, but it still terrified her. She should have been on her guard. People are unpredictable. She was reminded of betrayal... there were spiders and potions and crying and guilt and mirrors. Betrayal was always right around the corner. The tennis ball thing was some kind of metaphor that had to do with betrayal. It was trying to tell her something, she just didn’t know what.
Here she was, staring into a fake tennis ball like it contained the secrets of the universe. Maybe it did... As she tuned back into the real world, she realized that she had been standing there for at least a minute. She threw back the ball. It was an expert throw, but it was so... unenthusiastic. “Heads up,” Ash said, unenthusiastically. It was as if she couldn’t even bother to move her mouth to talk. It was as if the words were... blurry. Or maybe like she was frozen. People talked like that when they were really cold. Well, her heart felt cold. That counted, did it not?
Ash stuck her hands in her pockets and walked past the professor to where she was supposed to stand, not in the mood for a greeting.
What a great day today was turning out to be.
Last edited by astrocat; 06-26-2021 at 01:36 AM.
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