𝕲𝖔𝖊𝖙𝖎𝖈[𝕬 𝕿𝖔𝖒 𝖗𝖎𝖉𝖉𝖑𝖊 𝕾𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖞]

Black and Blue

Maybe she should just give up and fail this year. Yeah, that would make everyone happy. But her mother had worked very hard to make her study in such an expensive boarding school. What would she think if Leo would fail? It would break her heart. Even the teachers would arrange special classes for her, maybe contact her parents.

She could go to the stationery and ask for another book, even though it would increase her annual bill. It was a practical solution to ensure she could at least pass the subject. The other option was to confront her suspected enemy, but without any proof or reason, it would only lead to trouble. A fight could result in suspension, and as the head girl, that was the last thing she wanted.

With a defeated sigh, Leo left the classroom and walked briskly towards the stationery. She stood in front of the counter, her face filled with gloom.

"Lost your book again, huh?" The old man behind the glass counter asked, a smile playing on his lips, which only deepened her frown.

She nodded, her voice barely above a whisper. "One chemistry book, please."

The old man nodded and began shuffling through the piles of stored books. After a moment, he found the one she needed and slipped it through the small opening. Leo instinctively reached for her wallet, ready to pay for the replacement, but the old man smiled kindly.

"This one's on me, child. Go ahead and bring back some good marks. Show them that stealing your books won't stop you."

Leo's frown deepened, her confusion evident in her voice. "How did you...?"

The man shrugged and shooed her away. Leo left the place heftily in order to reach her class in time. She stood in front of the door to see their teacher distributing loose papers for the test.

"May I come in?"

The teacher nodded without sparing her a glance. Leo had made sure to hide her new book from others. She quickly sat down in her place and took out a pen for the test.

The test seemed like a piece of cake to her. She had already covered these topics back in the fourth grade. Leo had always been a curious child, diving into books that were far beyond her years.

She submitted her answer sheet followed by Noi Noi who looked like she had seen a ghost. Leo frowned at her friend and gave her a questioning look.

"How was it?" She asked the shaking girl.

Noi Noi dramatically slumped over her desk, wailing, "Horrible! Oh, dear lord, I am absolutely doomed to fail!"

Leo didn't feel the need to say that the test was easy. She didn't like showing off how much she knew. She believed that being overly proud of being smart was foolish. In her opinion, even the smartest person in the world only knew a tiny bit compared to the vast amount of knowledge out there. There was no end to what could be known, and nobody could ever know everything.

•••••••••••••••

Leo always had the feeling that the exams ended way too fast. 

As she finished writing her last sentence, she dramatically dropped her pen, causing a mini earthquake on her desk. Leaning back in her chair, she let out a jaw-cracking yawn that could rival even the most majestic of camels. With a whopping 45 minutes still on the clock, she had more time than a sloth on vacation. Cracking her knuckles, she gazed up at the ceiling, as if expecting it to reveal the secrets of the universe. A bewildered expression took over her face as she finally caught up with her runaway train of thoughts, looking like a lost astronaut in the vastness of space.

Leo couldn't help but let her imagination run wild with the idea of time travel.

I wish I could time travel and fix everything once again. Just imagine this, if I think that I will be an inventor who will be associated with only time travel. I will work very hard at present and always make a promise to myself that as soon as the time machine is built in the future, I will travel back in time and meet myself. That way, I can time travel even without inventing the machine which would be TOTALLY AWESOME.