Heart of the Veldt

  7: The Paper, the Academy, and the Veldt

  “I didn’t get any of my homework done. They're going to know.”

  Eric shrugged. “So what? We went camping on the Veldt over the weekend. Big deal.”

  Before opening the door to the Academy, Alice took in a deep breath. I could have really gone for an extra day--

  Ms. Aimes and the entire class looked up when the quartet slowly filed into the room. Ms. Aimes was taking roll, so they weren't late. At least, not technically.

  “Hey, Ms. Aimes. We made it.”

  Alice could have clobbered Eric.

  Ms. Aimes lowered her roll sheet to slip the delicate glasses from her face. “Eric. Gau. Carol. Alice. Take a seat.” The group moved to their assigned places, Gau returning to his seat with the younger students, and Ms. Aimes resumed roll.

  Carol leaned over to whisper in Alice's ear, “I didn't have a chance to ask before. Is everything fine now between you and Eric?”

  Alice nodded. “Yes. We're still friends.”

  “Friends?” Carol received a warning glance from Ms. Aimes and apologized. She promptly pulled a small tablet of paper from her pack. 'Friends?' she wrote.

  Alice accepted the paper and pencil. 'What did you expect? We've always been friends.' Well, mostly.

  Carol pulled the tablet into the center of Alice's tilted wooden desk and took out a second pencil. 'Yeah, but you didn’t always want to be friends. Remember?'

  Alice frowned and crossed her arms. Carol slammed down her pencil, again apologizing when Ms. Aimes pinned her with a second warning. Glancing over her left shoulder toward Gau, she intercepted his smile, returned it, and then continued to watch him and the kids as he refocused his attention on Ms. Aimes. After a while, so did Alice.

  “Now.” Ms. Aimes placed the roll sheet on her desk to again slip the glasses from her face. “I know that several of you older students are planning on sending entry essays to Figaro's Academy next month.” Alice's attention perked. “There's a chance the King and Queen may be making an appearance here in the next few days.” A cascade of murmurs and conversations crashed through the classroom. “I thought you should be warned ahead of time so that you could make preparations.”

  “Omigosh,” raved Lena. “King Edgar? Here? I've got to go shopping!”

  Alice rolled her eyes. Carol gave a shrug before leaning back to look over at Gau. He grinned.

  Eric sat forward to place a hand on both Carol and Alice's shoulders. “You don't suppose he had anything to do with that, do you?”

  Alice peeked at Gau before meeting Eric's gaze. “I don't know and, really, I don't care. All I know is I'm going to the library to finish that essay tonight.” Thanks to their excursion around the Veldt over the weekend, and the day alone with Gau, she felt more than ready.

  Eric looked at Carol. “What about you? Up to a jaunt around town after class?”

  “Sure. Sounds like fun. Do you think we could bring Gau?”

  He glanced over at him before giving a one-sided shrug. “Sure. Why not?”

  Alice frowned as she picked up her pencil to tap it on the desk.

  “All right then,” Ms. Aimes continued. “Those of you whom are submitting an essay to the Figaro Academy are excused. All others, today we'll be working on fractions and common denominators.”

  Three quarters of the class groaned while digging out textbooks and paper. Alice, however, bid Carol farewell before gathering her things and hurrying down the aisle to the back exit. She sent Gau a smile before running outside to hurry home and take a shower.