It was a usual history lesson on a usual school day at Crystal Prep Academy. The teacher stood at the chalkboard, scribbling down the dates and names of historic events and personalities while telling the students about them – though his words often didn’t match what he was currently writing, since he didn’t stop talking to finish the diagrams on the board. Instead he kept on speaking without a pause, while his hand was hectically moving over the board with the chalk clenched tightly in his fingers. Just as hectically the pens of the students flew over their notebooks, trying to catch up with the teacher’s fast-paced lecture.
However, not every student was following the lesson: Arms crossed over her notebook, one girl was cuddling her head against its pages as well as her hands. The goggles she wore on her forehead were pointing at the windows, the sunlight shining directly into her face. She didn’t seem to mind though as she was peacefully breathing in and out, in a calm and slow rhythm, with her eyes closed. Without the noise of the scribbling pens and the talk of the teacher, one could have heard her snore softly.
From the chair behind her a blue-skinned girl with short purple hair looked up at the sleeping girl. She was bearing a slightly worried expression, while at the same time her eye-brows were knit in an angered manner. “Did she stay up all night to play videogames again?” Sunny whispered, her pen jittering a little as she tried to simultaneously look at Indigo and take notes. “I mean she’s already been sleeping in English and Math!”
“She’s fine” she could hear a girl next to her say. The voice sounded rather carefree, but at the same time highly concentrated. “Told me she was going to train longer with her soccer team cause a big game is coming up. Guess it turned into an all-nighter.”
Sunny tried to focus on the lesson, but her eyes kept gazing up at the slumped figure of Indigo. “Shouldn’t we wake her up?” she asked concerned. “He’s gonna test us on this!”
“Nah, let her snooze it out” she heard the girl’s voice, followed by a snipping sound. Confused Sunny looked to the side. The green-haired girl sitting next to her was holding her head on the table, similar to Indigo, only her gaze was fixed on the table in front of her. From her notebook several small bits had been ripped off the pages, while at the same time Sunny noticed a large number of small paper balls lying on her table. The tip of her index finger on her thumb Lemon placed it behind one of the paper balls, staring with one eye closed at the girl sitting in front of her. Her tongue stuck out she snipped the ball forward. It flew in a slight arc past one of the girl’s three pigtails, landing on the floor in front of her table. Lemon scowled for a moment, before picking up another paper ball. “She can just lend our notes if she needs them” she added as she set up her next projectile.
Sunny glanced at the empty pages beneath Lemon’s arms. “Yeah” she muttered, leaning back over her own notebook again. “OUR notes…”
“Silence!” the harsh voice of the teacher commanded, making Sunny and Lemon wince slightly. After giving everyone in the class a scolding look he bent over his desk. Three books were lying open on it, all of them very thick and large. The eyes of the middle-aged man looked over the pages of each one, seeming a little lost as he roamed through them. “Okay, let’s see” he murmured to himself, focusing on the book to his right. “I think we can follow the original curriculum and skip the battles on the countryside after the defeat of General Hurricane, to focus on the events in the capitol… no wait!” he suddenly said, putting his finger on the book to the left. “It says here in this college book the difference between land and city population is essential in understanding the conflict between the members of the Puddinghead party and the population that supported the royal forces.” He straightened himself again, scratching his head as he stared into the book in the middle of his desk. “Or should we cover the individual chapters from the 12th grade book about each key figure of the revolution?” He looked over the three books on his desk, seemingly confused.
Seeing at the overwhelmed teacher Sunny clenched her pen in anger. “We don’t even have those books!” she complained quietly. “How are we supposed to learn if we miss something he says?”
“Uh-huh” Lemon murmured, bringing her gun-finger in line with the paper ball. She took aim at the neck of the girl, and fired. The projectile flew past the girl’s shoulder onto her table, bounced off the pencil bag and hit the head of the girl sitting on the next chair. The long ponytail of the accidental target swayed a she turned around, looking with a surprisingly sweet smile at Lemon.
“So sorry to interrupt your little bombardment” she gently whispered to her, before looking at her with a frown. “But could you try to keep the causalities to a minimum?”
The green-haired girl stared at her for a moment with big eyes, before grinning happily. “Not planned, but that was definitely awesome!” she praised herself.
Meanwhile the teacher had picked up one of the books, and continued his lesson. “… as the troops from the countryside entered the governmental district of the capitol it had already been evacuated” he told his students, all the while writing down numbers, names and events on the chalkboard. While most other student tried to keep up with their notes Lemon placed another paper ball on the edge of her table.
“With the whole area deserted they were free to vandalize the numerous symbols and buildings representing the rule of the crown.”
Fixed on the girl with the three pigtails Lemon narrowed her eyes, her fingers forming a pyramid as she took aim. With her concentration at its peak she prepared herself to fire, holding her breath as she tensed her fingers.
“When the cannonball hit the major’s hall and the clock tower fell on the statue of Princess Platinum, the leader of the rebels was supposed to have said-”
“BOOYA!” Lemon cheered, raising both arms into the air. The big grin on her face quickly faded however as not only the girl she had hit at the head, but the whole class stopped writing and turned their eyes towards her.
The teacher coldly glared at Lemon. “Not quite” he told her, his voice stern and hard. “He was supposed to have said ‘It was about time’.”
A giggle went through the class, many students sneering at Lemon. A vibrant blush on her pink cheeks she smiled sheepishly, hiding herself up to her chin under her desk. The teacher seemed like he wanted to scold her further. But a glance at the clock made him quickly continue his lesson instead. Soon the whole class had their attention back on their notebooks. Lemon also was also leaning over her blanks pages, hectically starting to fill them like everyone else.
Everyone but Indigo, her head still resting on the table as she was sunken in deep slumber.
Sunny kept glancing up at the blue-haired girl, in a mixture of concern and annoyance. “Psst!” she whispered at her, nervously glancing towards the teacher. “Hey, Indigo! Wake up!”
Sunny watched her rolling her head, munching slightly in her dreams before nestling her head on her arms again.
Frowning Sunny put down her pen. She glanced at Lemon’s table, the green-haired girl seeming rather distressed as she tried to catch up with the lesson. On the side of her table her unused paper balls were still lying. Sunny gazed at the teacher, seeing he was facing the chalkboard. With a swift motion she snatched the paper balls from Lemon’s table. Still cautious of the teacher she mashed them into a larger ball. When she was sure nobody was looking she pulled back her hand, and tossed the chunk of paper hardly against the neck of Indigo. As it hit the back of her head her quiet snoring turned louder for a second. Grumpy moans resonated from her throat, he eye-lids twitching. Groggily Indigo raised her head, slowly opening her eyes. They were still half-closed as she picked up the paper ball from her collar. After staring at it for a moment she furiously turned her head around.
“Hey, what was that for?” she hissed at Sunny.
Staring back just as furiously Sunny put her finger on her lips. “Shh!” she commanded her. Nodding towards the teacher. “We’re in the middle of the lesson, you big dumb sloth!”
Still a little dazzled Indigo looked at the clock hanging over the door, before glaring back at Sunny. “You could have woken me up when lesson was over!” she told her in a more quiet, but not less furious tone. “History is a snooze lesson anyway!”
“A snooze lesson we will be tested on!” Sunny reminded Indigo, leaning back over her notebook. “Now just try to keep your eyes open and listen to get at least some notes! And by the way” she added, looking up into Indigo’s eyes again while pointing with her pen at her “You owe me one!”
Indigo rolled her eyes, groaning silently as she turned towards the chalkboard. She picked up her pen lying on the side, her other hand holding her head as she stemmed her elbow against the table. The teacher’s dry lecture streamed through her ears, a flow of dates, names and events that was trickling down on her mind. Her eye-lids slowly dropped, looking like she was about to doze off again.
“After the Puddinghead party took over the capitol the royal forces were scattered over the country” the teacher’s voice bored itself into her brain. “However, the divergent interests of the farmers led to internal disputes and paralysed their troops for several weeks. Taking opportunity of their confusion the royal forces began to battle the Puddinghead party all over the country.”
Just before her eyelashes fell closed Indigo opened them by a notch again. Battles?
“One of the many battles was raging right within this city” was the next she heard after another flood of dates. “For three days the royal forces put it under heavy siege. Many tales of heroes were born within this time, though most of them probably belong in the realm of legends.”
Indigo’s eyes opened further. Heroes?
“While the Puddinghead party and royal forces were fighting each other, the deserting military troops were able regroup themselves. Soon they were able to reconquer some land, and regained their old strength. With three factions battling each other this period was considered the wildest and most turbulent one of the entire revolution.”
Revolution?
Slowly Indigo raised her head, looking at the teacher with a shimmer of curiosity in her eyes.