To Wish Upon a Fallen Star

Chapter 1: Don't You Just Love Midterms

What's his deal this time?

No matter. A crowd gathered around her now. Like what she did to Alyssa, Tala smiled at everyone and nodded. "You guys need help with anything?"

The one behind her, Dianna, gestured to her test paper. "What's your score? Dumb question; we all know you got a perfect score. Can I see your paper?"

Tala blinked. She flipped it around, showing the score on the upper right corner. Written in a bright red pen was none other than a 50/50. It wasn't something unexpected, especially since history was a subject she both excelled at and enjoyed. But she resisted the urge to smile even wider every time she saw it.

There was a soft murmur from the crowd gathered around her. The one standing in front of her, Kenneth, grabbed her paper and flipped through the pages. A low whistle left his lips before he placed the paper back on her desk. "At this point, should we even say it's impressive? You always score the highest in every test."

"It's probably easy for you, too," Alyssa said as she leaned next to her, checking her paper out. "My older sister has a Starblessed classmate, and she told me that some of you guys can look into the past, too. If you do do that, do you look at the past our history books show us, or do you just look back at the times Miss Chini discussed this in class and use that as reference?"

Tala smiled. She rested her chin on her palm and chuckled. "I'm impressed you think I'm powerful enough to look back hundreds, maybe even thousands, of years into the past. But no, I don't usually use my magic to do that. That's still difficult for me. So, I just spend hours reading and rewriting my notes until I'm sure I've got everything memorized. But if it helps, I had a hard time answering the essays. I could admit that it was difficult."

"You think we can do a group study with you for finals, then?" It was difficult to tell who asked that. It sounded like it came from her right, but she didn't get to see who it was as another person leaned closer and grabbed her test paper again.

"You even got full marks on both essays. I got too lazy to do the whole thing."

"A group study session sounds nice, too," Dianna—no, that was the girl sitting next to Dianna. Was it? They both had similar sounding voices.

Alyssa nodded. "I could use your notes as a reference. My handwriting's so messy whenever I write down notes I can't even read them sometimes."

As more people gathered around her, Tala scooted a little farther in the corner, hitting the wall and window behind her. But before anyone could notice, she raised her arms, fanning one hand in the air as a chuckle left her lips.

"I'd love to have a group study with you guys," she said. "But as much as I'd love to do that, I don't think I actually can. I'm not sure if I have the time to do so, and I'm not really that great of a teacher."

"That's too bad." She finally realized who the person that suggested the group study was. It was Wynona, one of the shortest people in class. The other students must have blocked her. "But I understand. Someone like you is definitely busy. But if we have free time, do you think you can teach us a few things?"

Tala nodded. "I'll try."

She grabbed her test paper and folded it, placing it in her bag next to her literature paper. Her classmates left and returned to their own groups, making her sigh. She brushed some strands of her hair away from her face before scanning the classroom again. For a quick second, she turned her gaze to the seat at the farthest corner from her. But she didn't let her gaze linger there for a second longer before turning away.

The midterms were finally over, which meant finals were next. She doubted she actually had free time. And she wasn't lying when she said she wasn't a good teacher. She wasn't sure she could teach an entire class. Especially not her own class.