🌘

You leave 7 alone and head to the opposite elevator. The Obfuscation school building isn’t far from the Administration building and your meeting spot on its roof. You step out just as the shadow of night falls on the academic block. By the time you reach the Admin building annex, you look up to see the crescent Moon rising over the horizon, and soon after, the sunrise.

Jumping up a third of the ladder at a time, you pull yourself up to the annex roof, where Zeta waits in its corner. Its face lights up a little when you arrive.

“Aydan! Hi,” it says, doing a happy stim with its fingers.

“Hey!” You glide over to it with a few steps, but lose your balance trying to stop yourself. Zeta catches you before you can fall, and you sit down against the building wall.

“You look exhausted,” it says.

“Haze’s class, they really push us to our limits there…” you say.

“Huh, that hard for you?” it says.

“Well it’s not the material really, it’s just this girl I end up training with often I guess. She’s very strong, overwhelmingly actually, I’ve never come close to beating her.”

“Damn, and you’re no weak technopath Aydan, she must be really scary.”

“She is, her ObTech and her SysTech are both incredible…but, I also kind of feel bad for her too, because everyone is afraid of her, I don’t think she really has any friends… But I’m not even sure she’s the type of person who wants friends, so I also haven’t pressed too much… I don’t know how to handle things like that.”

“A colony full of autistics, what a great idea,” Zeta says.

“Much better than the alternative, though…” you say.

“Surely.”

“Ahh, I’m kind of anxious. If I can’t overcome my own classmate, this midterm exam worries me,” you say.

“Everyone’s worried about that. It’s like they project this air of secrecy about it to intentionally worry us. I bet that’s the whole point, testing our ability to deal with pressure and uncertainty. So try not to worry too much about it. You’re good, Aydan, you’ll pass!”

“I should improve my ObTech though,” you say.