The World's Consciousness

Chapter 2

My eyes opened to see the cream-yellow ceiling I had grown accustomed to in the last few months. There in the corner right above my bed, I can see the small web of a spider.

I don't like it at all. As long as it is far from me I won't complain but this spider looks small. That means it wasn't born long ago. Where is the mother? In this room? Under my bed? I hate this already. But I don't want to kill it either.

I sigh, "Another day, another problem."

The bed under me creaks as I sit up and fold my sheets. I take a look at my shoulder to make sure the pad I placed on my wound is still in place.

"It is going to take a good three to four days to heal this."

We have a small sports event coming up in our school by the end of this week so I probably should be fine.

All the students in my class live in this hostel. We have been in trouble when it comes to money, so living here saves us most of the cost. The hostels provided by these schools cost much less than the market rate, although the downside is that we have to work part-time jobs to be able to get money for food, clothing, and other accessories.

After I got ready, I headed to the common mess. We do not invest much time in cooking so we have a menu that doesn't take much time to prepare. A few moments after I sat at a table, Taylor entered the mess too.

"I heard you were in a pinch last night," he says, "how're you doing?"

His new haircut looks nice as it brings sharpness to his expression. His gray hair looks nice too. Too bad he cannot show it off to anyone.

"I don't want to ruin this fine morning with this discussion, I'll tell you later," I replied.

"Sure," he says and continues, "I found a couple of hard questions on the integration part, so I thought I'd ask you."

The rest of our time in the mess went with me demonstrating the use of product rules to him.

With school during the day and missions at night, it is no surprise that he barely finds enough time to keep up with his studies. Not to mention the occasional jobs we have to do to maintain the money supply.

After breakfast, both of us put on our disguises and headed to school.

"Taylor, you mind if I ask why do you always have a sandwich on your way to school even though you had enough time to eat in the mess?" It was bugging me.

It gives me the impression, 'Oh this guy is so busy!' but trust me...that's not remotely the case. He doesn't put much effort into his studies except when it comes to IT. And he doesn't work.

He pushes out a wide grin and says, "it makes me feel better," taking a pause, he continues, "more importantly other people feel worried."

"Impart some knowledge on me, will you?" I request him.

"With my glasses as a disguise, I look quite the nerdy type, don't I?" He says with an expression as if he'd been waiting for a long time to hear that from someone. Just because you wear glasses doesn't mean you're a nerd.

"That's a possibility," I had to humor him to know his logic behind this.

"So, if someone sees me they would think," he makes a dramatic impression in a worried tone as if mimicking some imaginary person, "oh! This guy has been studying way too hard. How am I gonna keep up? I need to study hard too. That."

So by getting an impression of someone else studying way too harder than themselves he hopes to get their spirits down. Keyword 'hopes'.

"Wouldn't this impression of yours get diluted by someone like me hanging out with you without a sandwich?" I tried to present a counterpoint.