I was still rattled Monday morning when I woke up. Last night was a complete blur to me except one image that had somehow seared its way into my mind, like steel being soldered to steel; me standing over Dizzy after having slapped her in my nightmarish rage. I knew I had no control over my nightmares, but to go as far as to slap Dizzy? It reminded me of when Cocoa stayed the night. I shuddered. I didn’t want to ever remember that, and that felt equally soldered to my memory.

 

I had to shake the thoughts away before meeting with Cody at school. Today was the week long break, where we hold stalls showcasing some of what we learn for that year as well as other miscellaneous things. We agreed to meet at the school, but it’ll feel weird seeing him without the intention of going to school to learn.

 

After I forced myself out of bed and got dressed (a simple lime-green tank, navy blue sweater coat and midnight blue jeans) I headed toward the living room. My stomach was still feeling queasy and I didn’t want to eat anything here, especially with the food that would be distributed at the school.

My second instinct before I left was to find Dizzy. I wanted to try and apologize to her for last night. But when I got to the living room she was still fast asleep on the couch, an innocent look displayed across her face. I noticed the red mark on her left cheek and flinched; I had caused that. I walked over to the door and took one last look at her before heading through, hoping I could make up with her when I got back.

 

I’m glad I chose a sweater coat to go over my tank; it was rather windy today, the clouds unusually grey. I shrugged it off though; nothing was going to ruin this week, not even rain that wasn’t even really rain, at least that one time it wasn’t. I did however stop for a hot chocolate along the way, reminded of Cocoa with every sip.

 

When I got to the school Cody was standing at the base of the steps, leaning against the railing. The moment he saw me that beautiful white smile of his spread across his gorgeous face, causing even the grey clouds to feel as if they were miniscule.

 

“Sup, Random,” he says, coming over and kissing me on the cheek. I was little caught off guard with the gesture. “What’s wrong, you look shook up?” His smile disappeared and was replaced with a serious expression.

 

“I…” I’m what? Fine? That would have been another lie I’ve told Cody. If I built this off of lies I’d get nowhere fast.

 

“Last night was a little hectic. Did I tell you I had someone staying with me? Well, last night her and I…” I trailed off.

 

“That’s alright,” he says, his smile returning. “Having someone new over doesn’t always yield the best results right after the first few days. Come on, you’ve got to see what they’ve done to this place.”

 

He offered his arm and I took it. I was glad he didn’t press further, but he was speaking about it almost from experience. The way he talked about his family, it sounded like he didn’t have anyone move in. But I didn’t want to press him further with questions; he didn’t for me.

 

As we stepped through the double doors leading into the school, I had my doubts that they could make this year better than the last, but I was wrong. The only thing that left my mouth was, “wow”.

 

This year they seemed to go the extra mile, donning something remotely closer to each class category rather than just allowing the work to show it. Even the lockers around the stalls had items resembling the classes. A huge banner also hung right past the doors that read, “Welcome to our class showcase”.

 

 The lockers were blocked off with multiple stalls, each housing three to five people showing off what their class does to those who may have found it boring or uninteresting.

They each had cubicles along the walls about 20 feet long and 6 feet wide to allow people to walk down the hallways, but thankfully the halls were wide enough to allow multiple groups through.

Each stall was placed diagonally along the walls; about two per wall do to the length of the hallways, with the exception of the main hallways, which had four. New ones appeared around each corner. Each one had decorations depicting what they stood for. Archery had bows and quivers and offered people if they wanted to go to the archery club and shoot. Science had many displays as well as helpful facts to those interested. History was similar. AI intrigued me most, since neither Aurora nor I was running it. Who I did find there was Serena, Dizzy’s sister. Her, along with other familiar students, were rummaging through their backpacks and fixing up small machines. I introduced her to Cody and asked how she was doing. She told me not long ago that she made up her mind on what she wanted to do, so it was a surprise to see her here. I explained to her Dizzy was doing fine, even if it was a lie. I didn’t want to have this week be hard on her.

After waving goodbye, Cody and I continued to browse more, passing by the cafeteria in the process.

 

The entire cafeteria was set up to allow people to line up and get food from most of those who were in cooking, with the supervision of the cooks there of course. It was roped the whole way from the entrance to the end, like a museum, allowing no one to easily cut. The other entrances were sealed off. Since it was early in the day, and I was still feeling uneasy, I told Cody we could eat later, if he was hungry.

 

The classrooms were divided into eating areas and decorated to mirror what we were learning within that class, each scheduled to change each day. This allowed others to come and glimpse at what we do or even allow others to explain and show others what we do.

 

Mrs. Natsume’s classroom had various AI machines greeting and working on setting up decorations from past machines.  On the desk stood a ferret, fur and all, but I knew it wasn’t really a ferret; its movements were too coordinated, even for a ferret. Two students were huddled around it, asking it questions. When I went up to ask where Mrs. Natsume was, it responded, in her voice: “I won’t be in today, Random.” It was almost as if she’d know only I’d ask. Even Cody seem shocked by it, asking how’d it know it was me, but I just chuckled and pulled him back into the hall.

 

Other rooms showcased various things related to their class as well. Business had filing cabinets, more desk than normal and even a water cooler in the corner. Two students were also here dressed in a business suit and black business dress. They looked ready to give a lecture. The walls also had two bulletin boards with various notes plastered on them.

Cody and I then headed to the computer class and found computers lined up with students standing next to them, ready to address them with wanting to learn anything related to the inner workings of AI or other advanced programs. History had miniature figures of old war generals and displays from, by the look of it, the civil war. They all had the whiteboard filled with historical facts. I didn’t prefer history myself, but Cody was indulged by the many facts. I had to really tug on him to leave. Science was similar, using props to display biology projects, micro life, and other organisms I didn’t really understand. There were other places to go, but I didn’t want to unveil everything on the first day.

 

Passing back by the stalls we came across business, where I stopped dead in my tracks a few feet away. I saw Cocoa and Aurora as well as others I didn’t recognize, busy moving back and forth in their small space, practicing interviews, typing away on computers, even doing accounting and other things I didn’t quite understand. They looked almost like worker ants. Cody also abruptly stopped short and that’s when I realized I was still holding his arm.

 

“What’s wrong?” he asks as he turns around toward me.

 

“N-Nothing,” I tell him, although it sounds false, which it should since it is.

 

As we got closer Cocoa turned toward me and for a few long seconds she and I locked eyes, trying to explain how it ended up this way. Aurora didn’t seem to notice as she had her back turned from both of us, talking with a student who was fidgeting as they type on a computer. She then stepped out from the cubicle and came over to greet Cody and me.

 

“Hi,” she says, with a hint of bitterness.

 

“Hi,” I reply, unknown as of what to say but still trying to sound sincere.

 

“Hi,” Cody jumps in, probably feeling left out.

 

“Cocoa, you know-“

 

“I know who he is,” she cuts in. “So I heard you turned down the AI stall. Why?”

 

The question cut across my ears like a dagger. I didn’t know what to tell her, even though the answer should have obvious. I just couldn’t go in and leave Cody with nothing. But the sudden attitude surprised me a little; she hadn’t really cooled down at all.

 

“I-It doesn’t matter,” I tell her. “I’m glad you got what you wanted, though.” I tried to put as much empathy as I could into those words because I was glad.

 

It still sounded a little bitter though. I was glad she got to join in business and practice on a wider range of people than just the students in her class. But I was also sad because we couldn’t join in something together, like we had promised from the start. I glanced toward Aurora at this thought and quickly cut myself off from that thought; Cocoa was already mad enough at me.

 

“Well, I hope you have fun. I have to get back.” She turned and walked away.

 

I wanted to chase after her, but I stopped myself. There was always another day to apologize, and I wanted to be with Cody right now. I wanted to just be by his side. I also wanted to get away from the stalls for a while, and was thankful when Cody asked, “want to get something to eat?”