Ashes and Embers

08. Childhood

Seated at the table was Sophie, typing away furiously at her laptop, and Pipes was seated in one of the comfy chairs in the Reading Nook. Wordlessly, I made my way over to the table and sat down across from Sophie.

"Oh, hey, Kriss," she said, not taking her eyes off of the screen. "How do you spell 'sophisticated'?"

I blinked and scrunched up my nose in concentration. "Um... how did you spell it?"

"S-O-F-I-S-S-T-I-K-A-Y-T-I-D," she said, and glanced up at me through her lashes. "Is that right?"

Sofisstikaytid. What the actual -

"I hate to break it to you, but you're still really bad at spelling," I said, tearing a piece off of my bagel and popping it into my mouth. "It's S-O-P-H-I-S-T-I-C-A-T-E-D."

"Close enough," she muttered, typing the correct spelling into her laptop.

I squinted at her. "What are you doing, anyway?"

"Finishing this essay for English class," she said. "I have to do this online learning thing now, since my parents can't really homeschool me from Europe, and they agreed that I shouldn't have to go to school in Plattsburgh this close to the end of the school year."

"Online learning," I frowned. "What's that like?"

"It's harder to find the motivation to do work," Sophie admitted. "Usually, I can focus on work, but here... all I want to do is paint or bake or do something actually interesting."

"It must be so hard trying to get straight-A's online," I said, shaking my head sadly.

Sophie smiled and turned back to her laptop as I finished off my bagel. I moved to get up from the table.

"Oh, wait!" Sophie said suddenly. "How do you spell intriguing?"

"Do I even want to know how you spelled it?"

"I-N-T-R-E-E-G-I-N-G," she said, frowning down at her laptop. "It doesn't look right though."

I mentally slapped my forehead.

"I-N-T-R-I-G-U-I-N-G," I said, smiling to myself as she narrowed her eyes with concentration and went back to her work.

I stood up and wandered over to the classic novel section of the library, scanning the titles for something I wanted to read to get my mind off of the Charlton's imminent arrival. I grinned when I spotted a familiar title.

Oh, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland!

With a happy sigh and a satisfied smile, I pulled the book off of the shelf and wandered over to the Reading Nook, where Pipes was glaring intensely at the book propped open on his lap.

"Hey, Pipes," I said, curling up on one of the chairs. "What are you reading?"

He held up the book so I could see the cover, not taking his eyes off of the pages. A Game of Thrones.

"Oh!" I said, giving him a curious look. "I didn't know you were a fan!"

He lowered the book. "I got hooked onto the television series a few months ago," he glanced at the book. "I found the books in the library and thought I'd try reading them while I wait for the next episode."

I made a face. "Carl tried to get Megan and I to watch Game of Thrones," I said. "There was too much blood and gore for my taste, and Megan clearly stated that if there's no spaceships or droids in it, she's not interested. We didn't make it past the first five episodes."

He nodded. "I had the same problem with Delia," he said. "She wasn't interested in the show at all."

Why are they even engaged? Can't he see that she's a horrible human being?