ll Soulmates ll A Spirit Animals Alternative Universe

Chapter 5

The sun was shining brightly and not a single cloud was seen on the blue sky on the morning of Greenhaven High's celebration. Abeke and Rollan had been hanging up the decorations of the stall that Aidana, Rollan's mother had set up for the celebration since early morning. It turns out Aidana had quite the talent for carving. Dozens of wood figurines were set on the display table nearby, with animals of every kind.

Aidana came into the room just as Abeke finished putting all the carvings on the table. Rollan was obsessively blowing into a whittled wooden pipe that he had carved.

"Alright, kids," she said. "Why don't you go out and hang out somewhere?"

Rollan stopped his terrible playing for a second to say, "Why? It's fine here."

Aidana laughed, putting away her red cardigan. "Because you'll scare all the customers away with your flute, honey," she pointed out bluntly.

"You know, we can go back to library one more time with the others," Abeke suggested, silently praying that he would say yes because he can't make any noise in the library.

Rollan was silent for a beat too long, and his mother made the decision for him.

Five minutes later, Abeke, Rollan, and the rest of their trivia team had arrived back at the library for one final check.

"Alright team, let's spread out. We'll meet here again after a couple hours for the competition," Kalani directed them.

Rollan and Abeke stayed together. Abeke because she suspected that Rollan remembered nothing from yesterday's study grind. Rollan because he actually remembered nothing from yesterday's study grind and needed to ask Abeke.

The two sat around a table, trying to appear unnoticable as Abeke pulled out her copy of Trivia 101 that Irtike had made for every member of their team, with all the most popular trivia questions. Kana had been extremely strict about the fact that no one except them should know about the book.

"Alright, let's quiz each other- Rollan....." Abeke narrowed her eyes at the sight of Rollan scribbling furiously on a journal.

"Rollan, focus," Abeke reminded, nudging him on the shoulder.

"But I need help on Geography," he protested.

"You can read about it. They won't be able to help you on exams or the trivia competition, you know," Abeke tried to convince him.

"There's, like, a hundred books in the Geography section. No way I'm looking there. It'll be like looking for a needle in the sea."

"Isn't it 'looking for a needle in a haystack'?"

"I don't know. My soulmate always said it this way." Rollan shrugged.

"I still think-"

"She answered!" Rollan yelped joyously. completely ignoring Abeke.

Abeke sighed, but still peered over at Rollan's journal curiously just in time to see his messy handwriting fade away.

"You never remember Zhongese topography, do you?" Abeke said, shuffling around to get a better view.

"She'll tell me," Rollan insisted. "And I'm blaming Dorian for my bad Geography."

"Why would you need to know?" Came his soulmate's response.

Abeke surpressed a laugh. "And you were so sure she'd tell you."

"I'm getting my answers," Rollan said.

"I just need it, please?"

"Fine. What do you need to know?"

Rollan shot a smug smirk in Abeke's direction.