THE CRYSTAL HOUSE

¶Time's essence¶

He took his time heading back to his room, feeling every single sparkle and shimmer built into the walls of the house. All that was left to do was wait for the Crystal House to select the final five so he could take them to Meissa. She had grown weary waiting for her children, and besides he couldn't wait to be back home.

Even though home was currently a mess.

Chiara

Chiara was engrossed in a Pharmacology textbook she snuck into the house, when a gentle knock sounded on her door.

"Chiara, can I come in?" She recognized the voice of her roommate, which meant he was back from his morning workout.

She sat up and quickly hefted the large book, shoving it under her bed before carrying a mirror and a pair of tweezers.

"Yes, sure you can." She answered, lifting the tweezers to her brows and pretending to pluck out a few of them.

As the door opened, she glanced at her wristwatch. Nearly two hours had passed since her roommate left the room, and she had been reading for half of that time. Her studies had been suffering these past weeks, and being in this competition wasn't helping.

"Good morning, Chiara. Did I interrupt something?" He asked when he entered, walking towards his bed.

"No, not at all." She answered hastily. "I was just removing a few unruly strands from my brows."

The last part of her answer was out of habit, but now she actually noticed her brows in the mirror and realized they looked really bushy.

How had she let it get this far?

"Really?" Ace questioned, bending over to pick something up. "While reading a Pharmacology textbook. How did you get your hands on this? It's so rare."

She snatched it out of his hand, and held it close to her chest. Apparently, in her haste, she failed to push the book further into her bed. Her roommate didn't need to know that she was a major nerd. She preferred being known as the sociable, fun-loving Chiara than the genius, nerd-brain Chiara.

"What do you mean it's hard to get? All libraries in Milan have a copy of this book, not that I've checked by the way." She said, tucking away the book under her pillow.

"Never mind." Ace said, running his hands through his hair. He stared at her as she rearranged her pillow severally to hide the massive book.

"It's too conspicuous. Anyone will see it. Here, let me help." Ace offered,carrying the book and pushing it under his own bed.

"Now, that's done. Why are you hiding this, anyway? You should be proud of your mental capacity."

Chiara shrugged, and dropped the tweezers. "Well, I'm not publicly proud of it. I prefer being seen as the average student, who just manages to get good grades. The university I school at make it quite tough for the genius students, and I don't want to be tied down like that."

Ace sat forward, curious about the story she was sharing with him.

"How do you mean?"

"They take tests at the beginning and end of our first year, and the top students are enrolled into a mandatory program to hone their skills, and make them better at their field of study." She explained, making air quotations at the word 'hone'.

Ace frowned. "What's so bad about that? They're trying to help their students."

She shook her head. "I don't think you understand. They're given a different curricular to follow, one more tedious with little to no free time. I entered college to study Pharmacy and also have fun, so I can't allow myself to be noticed."