3 Day 1
"Huh..."
"..."
Karen and Evlin were sitting together during lunch time enjoying the view of the garden of the school while they waited for the next period to start.
"So... Huh..."
"..."
Evlin was starting to get a little unconfortable with Karen's presence for some reason.
"Can I... Help you or something...?"
"Help...?"
"Yeah, you... Kinda have been following me around for a while..."
"Oh... Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't meant to... I just, well... I mean..."
"I... I..."
Evlin stared at Karen as she tried her best to remember how to speak. After realizing that this girl might be more trouble than its worth, Evlin tried to quietly ditch her.
"Well... I better get back to class and continue to review our book so... Bye!"
"Ah! Wait!!"
"Y- Yes...?"
Karen was desperately trying not to mess this up. Evlin was the best chance she had right now to make a new friend. If she lost her, who knows how she would manage to approach someone else?
"I..."
"...?"
The problem was that Karen was trying so hard not to lose this chance that she was starting to sacre Evlin away.
"I... Would like to help you with your review!"
"... Really?"
"Yeah!! I would love to!!"
"... Because...?"
"Because..."
"..."
"Because I need to work on my review as well, so i thought I could take inspiration from you!"
"Huh... Are you... trying to steal my work...?"
"What!? No, no, of course not! I just thought you looked like someone who knew what you were doing and might help me find out what I'm doing wrong."
"... R- Really?"
Evlin showed she was charmed by that comment, which was all Karen needed to know to make her plan proceed smoothly.
"Of course! While everyone was busy just chatting in the class, you looked so focused and dedicated!"
"Really?"
Evlin started to blush a little bit. Karen realized she was a little weak to compliments.
"Well... If you say so... Then sure! I would love it if you would accompany me!"
"Great!"
The two proceeded to return to class and opened their books to help each other with their reviews. Karen noticed that Evlin seemed really excited about that. She must have been really happy with the early compliments.
Karen decided to push her luck and tried to see if she could improve her mood even further.
"By the way, I really liked your hair Evlin!"
"... Huh... Thanks...?"
But all she received was a confused look from the black-haired girl. Karen was confused. Her strategy was working so well before. What did she do wrong?
"I think your hair is nice too... It looks very vivid."
This time Evlin was the one who praised Karen. The girl with wild red hair was very happy to hear someone praise her most distinct visual feature. Karen would usually get bullied for having such strange hair on top of being such an awkward person, so Evlin's comment felt really refreshing.
"T- Thanks..."
"So anyway... About the review... I think I was intrigued by the way the king used some of his servants as bait to lure hie enemies into a trap and captured them to use as exchanging coin against the enemy country. What did you think about that?"
"Eh...?"
King? Servants? Country? Karen had no idea what Evlin was talking about. She said she would help her with her history review but the truth was that she hadn't even touched the first page yet.
"I... I..."
She tried to stare at the pages that Ashley was showing to try and see if she could make a quick scam so she could contribute with the conversation, but she realized she was having trouble understanding what was being said.
"I think... The author could have used easier words..."
"Easier words...?"
"Yeah... I don't understand any of these terms... And it's really hard to remember the time periods..."
"I see..."
Karen was afraid she had just lost Evlin by showing she was completely clueless with the subject. She imagined that Evlin now saw her as some idiot who was even lucky enough to not hold her book upsidedown. She was afraid of lifting her eyes from her book and seeing Evlin's expression.
"..."
"Eh...?"
However, when she finally did look at her, she was caught by surprise by Evlin's reaction. She was smiling from ear to ear as if someone had just given her a birthday present.
"Evlin...? Is there something in my face...?"
"Huh!? Oh sorry... It's just... Never mind..."
"Ok..."
She returned back to her regular expression, but there was no denying what Karen saw. She was happy. Not just happy, but extremely happy. Karen didn't know what she did but she had somehow managed to raise her points with Evlin. All she needed now was to find out how.
"Yeah, I agree... The author of the book does use quite a few difficult terms and makes it hard to understand. I had a lot of trouble when I first read it as well."
Karen just got a new clue. Evlin was excited after hearing about her issues with reading the history book. All she needed now was to consider the possible reasons as to why.
She was trying her best to act as one of the characters from a detective show she liked, a small re-imaging of the famous character Sherlock Holmes if he was in space and if he was a girl called "Sharla away from home!".
She had her facts, it was time to consider the possibilities.
Number 1, Evlin was happy because she was able to read the book and make a proper review while Karen could not. In other words, she was trying to brag.
Karen didn't want to believe in that. Evlin didn't look like the kind of girl that liked to show off. t
At least based on the very little Karen knew about her so it wasn't a completely impossible possibility.
Number 2, Evlin was actually having a hard time reading that book just like Karen, so that smile was her showing sympathy for a fellow bad reader.
That also didn't seem like the case. Not only was she able to make a proper review of the text, she was smiling waaay too much just for finding someone who was as bad as her.
Number 3,...
Karen was out of ideas already. Mr. George was right, she really was bad at understanding people. She simply had no idea what was passing through that girl's head.
She decided to simply risk it all and ask her directly.
"Hey, Evlin...?"
"Huh...? Yes?"
"What was that smile from a while ago...?"
"Huh!!?? Smile?? W- What smile??"
"..."
"Huh... The thing is..."
"..."
"I want to be a teacher when I grow up... So when I saw that you were having trouble with the text while I was not... I thought..."
"...?"
"That maybe I could practice with you...?"
"... Oh! You want to use me to find out if you could be a good teacher?"
"... Yes...? Is that weird...?"
"But... When I came earlier and asked for help you were acting a little cold towards me..."
"That's because I thought you just wanted to copy my homework..."
"...Oh..."
"But you still kept following me the whole day! So you must really need some help! And you must really trust me, right?"
"Huh..."
This time it was Karen's turn to be afraid. It seemed like she would have an easier time with Evlin than she imagined. All she had to do was act as her test-subject to practice her teaching methods, no big deal.
"Sure...?"
"Ah!!!"
That said, Evlin was looking at Karen with the biggest eyes she had ever seen. It didn't look like she wanted to take Karen as a student, it looked like she wanted to eat her head.
However, Karen didn't have many other options and simply surrendered to the goodwill of this small wide-eyes creature.
After that, she spent the rest of the day stuck with Evlin while she lectured her about all the topics of the history book that she was pretending to have read. Karen would often try to shake her head up and down as if signaling "Yes, yes, I understand!" all for the sake of making her happy and trying to end her lesson faster. She already had to deal with a bunch of real teachers on a daily basis, she didn't need to deal with a fake one as well.
"I guess we can stop here for now!"
"... Sure..."
Karen was honestly relieved to be free from Evlin and wanted to thank the heavens right now, but she managed to keep it to herself. She couldn't wait to get home, talk about the success of her mission to her parents, and return to her life with Nate.
"Same time tomorrow then?"
"Eh...?"
"Tomorrow! We will reunite again right?"
"Eh...?? But... We just reviewed the lesson!"
"What are you talking about? That was just chapter one..."
That was chapter one? That girl spent this whole time talking about a single chapter?
"H- How many chapters are there again?"
"Five chapters! Inst that great? This way we can go into great detail about every single one every day!"
"Eh...??"
"Ah!! I better get home soon to revise my notes to prepare your lesson for tomorrow!!"
"Ah... Wait..."
"See you tomorrow Karen!!"
Evlin proceeded to storm out of the room with her bag still open and running with a smile on her face.
Karen fell on her chair after realizing she would have to endure that girl for the rest of the week. She started to wonder if she would be able to endure that experience four more times in a row and was almost about to quit and find another target.
"Ughhhhhh..."
She then suddenly heard a voice coming from the door.
"Oh! I almost forgot!"
"Huh...?"
Karen turned her face and saw Evlin at the door.
"I had a lot of fun today Karen!! Thanks a lot!!"
"..."
She then waved her hand and left again. Karen started to wonder if she even had the guts to disappoint Evlin after seeing such an innocent and honest smile.
"... Eh... How hard can it be...?"
