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Adaine sat patiently, fiddling with her pencil as her teacher began to pass out their test papers. With what happened with the skater dwarves and Gorthalax, Adaine had nearly forgotten she had a test the next day. The teacher had finally reached her desk and gave her the test. Adaine turned her test paper over and instantly paled. A big, fat, ugly D on along with a “Maybe stay for tutoring this week” written in red ink on the corner of her test paper. This wasn’t happening, this couldn’t be happening. She should walk up to her teacher and ask to check it again, there was no way in hell that Adaine Abernant got a D on a test.
“What are mum and dad going to think.? What is Aelwyn going to think?” The doubt in her head starts to say. She imagines what insults her sister is going to throw at her, what punishment her parents will give her. The teacher continued with the lesson, but her thoughts continued to spiral. Her thoughts morphed from her family, to her friends. Oh gods, her friends. What are they gonna think?
“They’re your friends” the small, rational part of her piped up “They won’t care if you got a D, some of them are probably skipping class right now. They won’t care!” Adaine almost listened, until a louder thought drowned out her rationality.
“Of course, they won’t care” the louder, scared sounding part of her mind spoke “Isn’t it obvious Adaine! They don’t care about you. This grade will only open their eyes! They’ll know you're a sham!” The voice got louder, and Adaine felt a familiar cold sensation grab her heart. She felt her breath shorten, tears begin to well up behind her eyes, her limbs tingling with the need to run away. She dug her nails into her leg and with whatever self control she had left, raised up her hand.
“May I be excused?” Adaine said desperately trying to keep a steady voice. She may be panicking but she would never forgive herself if she broke down in front of her whole class. As her teacher nodded, she stood up and quickly walked into the hallway, making her way to the nearest bathroom. She started to walk faster, her breath coming quicker and quicker. She felt the tears begin to fall, vaguely registering bumming into someone. Muttering an apology as she brisked by them, running into the bathroom and sliding down the wall. She clawed her hands into her hair, pulling at it while she cried. “ They’re going to make fun of you Adaine, they are going sneer and toss you aside. Your parents will kick you out and pretend they’ve only ever had one daughter. Why can’t you be like Aelwyn?”
Adaine is sobbing on the floor when she hears the door open. No no no, don’t come in, please don’t see me like this.
“Adaine? Are you here?” the person asked, it sounded familiar, but Adaine couldn’t focus enough to identify who. She hears the door close and the sound of footsteps rapidly approaching her. “Holy shit, Adaine!” The voice sounded concerned, and Adaine felt someone kneel by her. “Hey! Hey, Adaine? I’m going to touch you, is that fine?” The voice sounded unsure. Adaine paused, processing what was said before slowly nodded her head. She felt hands lightly land on her shoulders. Adaine looks up and sees Fig, her face filled with worry. Despite her worried look, Fig gives her a small smile. “Adaine are you okay?”
Adaine hesitated, before throwing herself at Fig, Fig letting out a surprised oof, as Adaine wrapped her arms around Fig’s shoulders. “No, no it's not-it’s not okay Fig. Nothing is okay, I-I don’t know-” she kept blubbering, becoming more incoherent as she tried to describe what had made her so upset. Fig wrapped her arms around Adaine, pressing one of her hands to the back of Adaine’s head and gently combed her fingers through her hair. Being held made Adaine calm down slightly, but her breathing was still short and fast, made worse by her trying to explain her situation.
Fig pulled back a bit, hands still on Adaine’s shoulders, still looking unsure. “Adaine, can you take a deep breath? You’re choking up.”Fig said, nervously. Adaine nodded, but her attempts were unsteady, She ended up choking, cutting off even more air. “ Fuck, um...Here! I learned this from Kristen, Follow my lead.” Fig took an over exaggerated, deep breath, held it for a bit,then released it, and repeated the motion. Adaine sucked in a stuttering breath, attempting to match Fig’s breathing. “Yeah,yeah, Just like that Adaine, one more time.” Fig again took a deep breath, and Adaine did the same. This time her breathing came steadier. They kept doing this for a while. Adaine’s breathing became more stable with each loop. Fig dropped her hands from Adaine’s shoulders to hold Adaine’s shaky hands, while they breathed.
Adaine had calmed down, the tears had stopped falling a while ago, the cold sensation leaving her body. She took one more deep breath before giving Fig an apologetic look. “Thank you Fig, I’m sorry you had to see me like that.” She looked at the floor, feeling too embarrassed to make eye contact. She felt Fig give her hands a gentle squeeze, causing her to look back up at her.
“Don’t apologize Adaine. I was just worried. I mean it's not everyday you see your friend crying and shaking. Are you okay?” Fig lifted her hand to wipe any leftover tears off Adaine’s face. She got a serious look on her face. “Did Ragh do something? I swear if he said anything, Imma set fire to his ass-”
“No! No! Fig, It wasn’t Ragh!” Adaine grabbed Fig and pulled her down, before she could go storming after Ragh. “ I got a D! I got upset because I got a D on a test!” Adaine shut her eyes and prepared to hear her friend ridicule her for overreacting.
“Oh, what a bitch, he gave you D?” Adaine looked curiously at Fig. “My offer still stands. I can set fire to his skinny ass.” Fig emphasized this by letting go of their joined hands to crack them intimidatingly, only to wince as she bent her fingers too far. Adaine felt a small pang of disappointment at the loss of contact, but was quickly replaced by amusement at Fig’s attempt at being big and scary.
“I’m sure you and your broken fingers will truly strike fear in my teacher.” Adaine started giggling, at the thought. Fig gave her a pout. Why was Adaine ever scared of what she’d say?
“Honestly though. If you really wanna, I got a new spell I can try on him. OH! Maybe I can get Gorthalax to help me! Father-daughter bonding activity and all that-” Fig was cut off by Adaine’s giggling getting louder. She really had nothing to worry about. Her friends care about her. Fig cares about her.
“You are a dork, Fig.” Adaine said. She reached for Fig’s hand and stood up. Helping Fig up. Fig grumbled under her breath, on how she wasn’t a dork, and she was actually cool or whatever. It was nice being with Fig. But they must’ve been here for a while, Adaine acknowledges that she will have to go back to class. She felt a frown form on her face. “We should go back, class is still in session.” She let go of Figs hand and started to walk towards the door. However, Fig caught her sleeve, stopping her.
“Class is still in session for everyone else maybe.” Fig gave her a mischievous look and started to lead her out of the school, still holding her hand. “But I believe there's a milkshake with our name over at Basrar. Besides that class made you upset. There's no way in hell that I’d let you go back.” Fig paused and looked at her sheepishly. “ I mean unless you really want to stay. I’m not going to force ya or anthin’ like that.”
Adaine gave Fig a smile and squeezed their joined hands “A milkshake sounds lovely. Thank you… for everything. You didn't have to do all this for me.”
“I want to, you’re my friend, and I know I am not the most open book,” Adaine rolled her eyes fondly. “But I’m learning to lean on you guys, you can do the same with us.” Adaine gave Fig a shy smile. As they walked hand in hand to Basrars.