Elana Elana Ynda was not having a good day. She had school. Hoterran class, especially, was the problem. She had a hard time telling where yntaxa was supposed to be used instead of gnamka, specifically in the Jinseian dialect of Hoterran. There was caveat upon caveat, and it was annoying. So it was infuriating when the Hoterran teacher, Mr. Vasulenko announced that, because of some scheduling problems, 2nd period would continue into the 4th period study hall time (or as Elana considered it, free time). “Class, open up your laptops, close all your tabs, go to- I see you on ansib.le, Johnny,” he glared, “And as I was saying, go to Schoolology and open up the Hoterran Vocabulary Formative assignment.” He clicked the power button on his projector and it fired up. “Next class we will be starting the History unit, so I expect you to learn some vocabulary. First we have čagnut. This word means shogun.” He continued on and on, so Elana tuned him out. She turned her laptop away from his view and began to do other stuff. For example, play Eaglemine. “Miss Ynda?” She looked up. Mr. Vasulenko was standing over her, a disapproving expression on his face. “Could you tell me what the word MOTSKTET means?” “Uhmmm, it means....” she trailed off. “Hand me your laptop,” he demanded. She complied. “Go to the Main Office subkqyuei!” Elana took the General Pass and exited his classroom. Fazkreing Mr. Vasulensko and his fazkreing subkqyuei and his fazkreing MOTSKET- she thought. When she reached the Main Office, the secretary, Mrs. Xaxior, glanced up. “Come on in, Elana. Ms. Ojao wants to see you.” Elana nodded, and walked in. “Right into that room,” Mrs. Xaxior said, pointing to a room on the right. The principal’s office. Ms. Ojao was sitting in her chair, behind her desk, arms crossed, glasses down, glaring. “Miss Ynda. This is your third time being in this office.” Elana nodded. “Yes, Ms. Ojao.” “Now why do we think that is?” Elana looked down. “Because you’ve continuously been off-task during work time. Because of that, your laptop is revoked and you have 2 days of In School Suspension, not including today.” Elana nodded. “During ISS you will have to review the Students Rights and Responsibilities on top of your normal now-paper assignments.” Elana nodded again. Ms. Ojao handed her a packet of the SR&R. Elana took it. “Now go to room C203. Mrs. Afodp,” Elana nodded. She walked out of the Main Office, glowering. Ryūji Ryūji Ao was in ISS. She was in ISS for kicking Asadikh Myafor in the shin, really hard. In her mind, he deserved it. He was being pretty homophobic, but that apparently didn’t matter as much as her “uncalled for violence”, so he got off free, while she was stuck here in ISS. Not very cool, Jinseian school system. There were about 10 students in the room, half girls, half boys. The door to the room opened. In walked another girl, same age as Ryūji, with a brown ponytail and wearing a blue shirt. Ryūji thought she recognized her from History class, the one who had gotten Hlaf Elþeod confused with Fland (in her defence both were tiny nations annexed by Gunin in the first century and were pretty forgettable). Her name was something like Elana? Mrs. Afodp went over to Elana, and the two talked. The teacher directed Elana to the nearest empty seat to her, right next to Ryūji. When Mrs. Afodp was out of earshot, Ryūji whispered “Hi” to Elana. Who just glared back. She was probably angry at Ms. Ojao for giving her ISS. “You’re Elana, right?” Ryūji asked. Elana nodded. “I’m Ryūji.” Elana’s eyes lit up in recognition. “Oh, you’re from History, right?” Ryūji nodded. “The one who went on some whole rant about how Nationlands and the United Kingdom of R-whatever fought?” “Yeah. United Kingdom of R-” “I don’t care,” Elana said. Ryūji sighed. “What did you do? To get here, I mean?” Elana swore under her breath. “Mr. Vasulenko. I was ‘off task’ during Hoterran, so I got 3 days of ISS. What about you?” “Yknow Asadikh, right?” Elana nodded. “I kicked him in the shin.” “What did he do this time? And did he get in trouble?” “Homophobic comments, he just got a slap on the wrist.” Elana looked at Ryūji. “Are you gay or something? You must be to care about that kind of stuff.” Ryūji looked offended. “Do you have some sort of problem with it?” Elana shook her head. “No, not at all, don’t worry. At least I don’t think so. I just don’t know much about that stuff. I’m straight.” Ryūji exhaled. “To answer your question, yeah. Basically. Not gay exactly, but some type of bi or pan or something, I don’t know, but yeah.” “Do you have the review-the-SR&R-packet-assignment-thingy too?” Elana asked. Ryūji produced a packet from her desk. “Yeah, me too. I think everyone does.”
dont read b4 u read the instructions “How long are you here for?” Elana asked. “Today, and tomorrow. Fun.” “So-” Elana was cut off by Mrs. Afodp. “Boys and girls, its lunchtime,” she called out. “If you need to buy lunch, get it out of your locker or anything, you have five minutes. There’s a special lunch line for ISS kids, and there’s only 12 of you, so it shouldn’t be long.” “I gotta get lunch,” Elana said. “I have mine here. See you in 5 minutes.” “You too.” Elana walked out to the cafeteria. Elana Elana went into the lunch line. She got her pizza, which cost the average 0.9 ᔠ. She went back to room C203, and back to her desk. Ryūji was munching on an apple when she got back. She was hot. That thought made Elana blush, and she looked down at her Hoterran assignment, the Kyakung Hitaru introduction. Ryūji looked over. “Oh, a- *chomp* -history assignment. Cool. I can do it for you, if you’d like.” Elena mumbled a faint “yes” and handed her the paper. The hell is this feeling- like what the hell- why is it SO FRICKIN HARD ALL OF A SUDDEN TO SAY ANYTHING- AGHHGHHHHHHHHHHhh- Suddenly Elana had a thought of what that feeling was. Maybe. Probably not. Definitely not. Okay it’s NOT THAT. Definitely NOT THAT. “Hey Ryūji, do you know anything about emotions?” “Sure,” she answered. “Not as much as history, but sure.” “Wha-” she cleared her throat, “What’s that one feeling where it’s really hard to talk to someone?” Ryūji shot her a glance. “That could be 10 different things. Being scared, having a crush, asphyxiation, lung cancer. Your lungs okay?” Elana nodded. It’s not the second one. Absolutely not. Although, I don’t exactly have any reference point crushes to compare this to. But still. It’s not. It can’t- “I just realised I can’t speak any Hoterran. I can’t help, unless you’d be willing to translate it into Zhenan.” “Aren’t you Hoterran? Ryūji is a very Hoterran name. Like the old UCN president.” “Yes, I’m Hoterran, but does that mean I automatically know the language? No. I only know those standard expressions, borrowed to Zhenan, like subkqyuei or ieuri.” “Sorry,” Elana mumbled. “I mean, I’m Samgukian and Shizan but I don’t know a shred of Saḿ. Much less that near-extinct Shizan language.” “I know a Shizan word! Ṽĺŷ! It means ieuri.” Elana squinted at Ryūji. “What in the name of Iwa were those sounds you produced!?” “Some sounds only Shizan has. Hard to pronounce, obviously.” “Anyway, I’ll try translating the packet. I got.... off task.... during the vocab bit but I might know a bit of the words.” Ryūji nodded. “What’s vatčičsa mean, anyway?” Elana’s mind blanked. “Uhm....” I- I don’t know....” She trailed off into nervous laughter. “Well then I can’t do your work for you.” Ryūji shrugged. “Hey- don’t worry-” Ryūji said as she saw Elena’s shoulder’s slump. “I do, however, know a few of these words. The ones relating to first century Hoterra. Shogunate Era and such, up until the Second Sino-Kokurian War. I see there’s an entire page dedicated to the Vazveh River Campaign, nice touch.” “So, can you do that part?” “Sure!” Elana grinned. The biggest time-waster, the Hoterran homework, was at least partially gone. Ryūji grinned back, causing Elana’s stomach to flutter, reminding her of that mess again. “Miss. Ao,” Mrs. Afodp called out. “Yes, Mrs. Afodp?” Ryūji asked, turning towards the teacher. “I just received an ansible message from the principal, your parent/guardian is coming to pick you up, go to the Main Office now.” “Yes. Mrs. Afodp,” Ryūji nodded. She waved goodbye to Elana, then picked up her backpack and walked out of the room. Elana was left alone with her Hoterran homework and her interal crisis. Of course I have to have an internal crisis and question my sexuality the same day I have ISS- ah fakzre- So she did the only thing she could think of to distract herself from the internal crisis. She did her Hoterran work. But still, ponderings flowed through her mind. So am I not straight? What am I then? What the hell does vatčičsa mean? Does Ryūji like me back? What is with first century Hoterra like damn Taneshiro- stop cursing-
