Alomiriya

Chapter 2: Arachnia

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Karin walked into the classroom. Everyone was busy talking about something, with visibly surprised and either excited or concerned looks on their faces.
Just as expected, Karin thought with a sigh. She was slightly worried, even though nobody could've really recognized her in her fairy form.
Karin walked towards her chair, waiting for Rashida to come. In the meantime, she decided to eavesdrop on the classmates who were sitting behind her.
"Do you believe it? I don't believe it. It sounds so surreal." "But I was there! I saw it with my own eyes!" "Don't be silly, we all know fairies and dragons aren't real! It was probably all fake." "No it wasn't!" "Yes it was!"
Karin sighed again, slightly more annoyed. She knew that what happened yesterday would be the talk of the town that day, but she did not look forward to it at all. She just couldn't shake that worried feeling...
"Hey Freckles, yo' girl has arrived." Rashida sat down next to Karin. It was so sudden that Karin was taken slightly aback. Then again, Rashida was simply being Rashida.
On the other hand, Karin wondered how Rashida would react to the news...
"Oh hey, water rat," Karin joked back. "How was training yesterday?"
"It went pretty well, all things considered," Rashida responded. "I truly think I have a chance of winning the next competition." Her eyes twinkled with enthusiasm and pride. "Oh yeah! I have this in the bag."
Karin felt really happy for her best friend. It was another motivation for her to do her very best at school and not get in trouble — if she were to have detention or whatever again on Rashida's competition day, she'd be very disappointed in herself.
Needless to say, Karin would make sure to never asleep in class ever again.
"By the way," Rashida wondered while changing the subject, "have you heard about what happened yesterday? I was at swimming so I couldn't witness anything, but when I got home that evening it was all over the news. Something about a fairy and a dragon? Dang, I never realized you could've been right about all that stuff!"
Oh dear... Of course Rashida had caught air of it too. However, admittedly Karin felt quite a bit safer discussing this matter with her best friend.
"Yeah, I did. I guess it was kinda hard to miss though," Karin responded. "But who knows, perhaps it was all actually—"
"Fake? Karin, aren't you the one who always believed in fairies and all that?" Rashida had raised an eyebrow in surprise and slight judgement. "You shouldn't be so dismissive of this, especially right now! Perhaps it's a sign of something bigger... Part of me hopes it is, not gonna lie, haha." A dreamy look had appeared in Rashida's eyes.
Not that Karin had expected anything different from her best friend, but she was still relieved that Rashida had remained receptive of the idea that there is "more" to our mundane, every day life. Perhaps someday Karin could—
No.
No, she would never tell Rashida, that would be ridiculous. Besides, heroes with alter egos never tell anyone their secret, do they...?
All of a sudden, the classroom door opened.
"Good morning, you little snots." It was mister Johnson, who clearly thought he was the most hilarious person on the planet, as always. "Is everyone present?" He veered around the class for a bit. "I see everyone is here today. Good, Now please open your textbooks at page 53, we have a lot of fun work to do today."
The classroom still hadn't become entirely quiet yet. Some people were still murmuring about what had happened the day before, although some quit talking as soon as they noticed mister Johnson had entered the classroom.
"Please be quiet, all of you", mister Johnson spoke loudly to the class. "We have some actual material to learn about, unlike that rubbish sensationalist story from yesterday." He put his materials on the desk and sat down. "Whoever still believes in fairies at you guys' ages must surely have had an incredibly poor upbringing. At least the wonderful subject of Math is based purely on science." Mister Johnson snickered once again, like he always tended to do when he thought highly of a statement he had made.
Karin could feel herself get angry inside, but she knew she'd make a fool of herself if she had spoken up. Besides, she was pretty sure that mister Johnson didn't have a very high opinion of her anymore after yesterday, and Karin didn't want to make it even worse.
She looked at Rashida, who as always sat next to her. Rashida clearly rolled her eyes at mister Johnson's statements as she let out a deep sigh. She then proceeded to look at Karin, nodding in agreement as she noticed the look in her face in turn.
"Oh crud," mister Johnson suddenly exclaimed, "I completely forgot to get my coffee! Be right back, and don't forget to read page 53 of your textbooks, you little worms!"
Karin remembered the debacle with the coffee machine yesterday during detention. She wondered if it had been fixed already...
She proceeded to open her textbook on page 53, just like her teacher had ordered everyone to do. She read the first assignment on the page.
"'If you subtract A from B, then multiply C with D, then...' Good lord, I don't understand any of this!" Karin exclaimed in frustration.
Rashida, who was slightly better at Math, decided to help her friend out.
"The outcome is 15. Look." Rashida pointed out how exactly she came to her conclusion. Karin managed to understand it a bit better, though Math would probably always remain difficult for her.
"Thanks," Karin responded with a smile. "I think I can figure out the rest by myself now."
Rashida smiled back while nodding. Karin was very grateful to have a friend like her. And not just because she was good at Math.
Karin proceeded to work on the other assignments on the page. After Rashida's explanation, she had a lot less trouble solving them.
After about half an hour, she was finally done.