23. One Step at a time

And here we were… The dumb purple-haired boy and I... Sitting in the classroom while the others were celebrating downstairs. 

What a G R E A T baptism day! 

And that idiot completely ruined it!

I felt my stomach rumble uncomfortably. I put Darkie on my belly to calm the discomfort.

I can’t believe I didn’t even get to eat any of the delicious food! 

AAAARRRGGH! THAT DUMB DUMB DUMB FAT PURPLE BOY! I HATE HIM!

I banged my desk with my fist and glared in his direction. His face was still swollen, and he looked equally irritated to be stuck in here with me, but it was all his fault!

Hare had one big rule: no fighting. 

Fighting meant detention, and detention meant being stuck in here! 

I knew the rule made sense, but the way it was applied was always so unfair! 

That boy had been picking fights with him for weeks, and no matter what he did, he never got scolded by Hare… But if I did A N Y T H I N G to defend myself, I was scolded right away! It was completely unfair! I couldn’t even tell anyone he was picking on me!

As my anger slowly subsided and turned to boredom, I looked for some distraction.

I picked up the pouch from my desk and emptied its contents on the table. Hare had somehow allowed me to bring my things to the time-out. I guess he figured the scripture and the strange cube could count as learning material. I stared at the unremarkable metal object at the centre of the table. I knew that if I touched it, it would immediately shock me, but I wondered if I could make it change shape just with my mind.

I focused on it and tried to get angry at it, but with no success. I sighed and let the cube rest on the table.

Instead, I picked up the book and looked it over again. The boy was still around, of course, but I don’t think he would dare do something like taking it away again. Looking at the strange arrangement of letters, I resumed my attempts at reading. I tried to recite the prayer as I followed the text with my finger. The number of words really matched the prayer, so it must be what was written. Now to figure out what each letter meant…

It was kind of exciting to be able to ‘read’ even though I still didn’t actually understand what was written.

After a while, the boy approached me. He looked at the cube and asked me something. I looked up at him. His forehead was swollen from the headbutt, and his eyes were still red from crying.

I raised an unimpressed eyebrow. 

I wanted to tell him off, but didn’t know how… 

Suddenly, an idea occurred, maybe that could work!

I traced my finger along the words of the book until I found what I was looking for and showed him.

[I will resist the hand of oppression!]

I said, trying to repeat the line. 

It was his turn to raise an eyebrow. I thought that was going to be more effective, but maybe he’s too dumb to get it.

He shook his head and extended his hand toward me, motioning toward the book.

I reluctantly handed him the book. He read over the text and put his finger over a line. It took me a second to figure out which one it was:

‘I will not drink the poison of deceit.’

Uh? Does he think I’m lying about something?

[I’m not lying about anything! You’re dumb!] I lashed out before furiously reciting the prayer in my head to find something that would counter it.

He started talking to me with an unimpressed look, pointing at his ears as he did. His look was downright accusatory.

Wait… Does he think I’m faking being…? Uh... What was the word again… 

Deaf! He thinks I’m faking to be deaf?!

[I’m not lying!] I replied angrily, crossing my arms.

He pulled his tongue, heavily dropping the book back on my desk before going back to sulk in his seat.

I pulled my tongue in response and returned to the book.

After some more time had passed, I got bored of trying to decipher the lines and eyed the cube on the table. 

Unsurprisingly, the boy hadn’t tried to pick it up again. I took it into my hand as I grimaced at the pain, but managed to hold on to it. 

I have to hate it, right? That worked last time. Maybe that's why it hurts? To make it easier to hate..? 

Annoyingly, the more I thought about hating it, the harder it was to focus on changing the cube.

The boy approached again. Probably curious. He pointed at my hand with his chin. Probably asking what I was doing. I focused harder, wanting to show off to shut him up, but it still wasn't working. Even as I ignored his prodding, there was no result.

That stupid thing was making me look like a complete…!

Just as the thought crossed my mind, the cube turned into a spoon.

I quickly took the spoon and hit the boy’s forehead with it before it turned back into a cube.

He looked completely dumbfounded, struggling to register what had just happened. After what felt like several minutes, he exploded in laughter. He laughed so much that he fell on his butt, making me start to laugh as well. We laughed for several minutes for no good reason. Every time one of us managed to stop, we would just glance at the other, still laughing and start laughing even harder. It was contagious, very contagious. My cheeks and chest were starting to hurt from all the laughing, and I struggled to catch my breath...

At some point, Hare had entered the room and was now staring at us with a smug look on his face.

It probably looked like we had made up from his point of view, so he invited us back downstairs for the festivities. As we were following him out, I waited until Hare looked away and landed a punch on the boy’s shoulder.

He looked surprised for a moment, but then a malicious smile appeared on his face, and he punched me back. I couldn't help but chuckle again. I guess a bit of rivalry never killed anyone.

Once downstairs, Jade was waiting for me with an angry expression. She scolded me for a while for misbehaving, getting in my face and pointing her finger at me. She eventually relented when I looked sorry enough and took me by the hand to walk around the room. 

While I was upstairs, it seemed that yet more guests had arrived. Adults, some of them even more well-dressed, others not so much. From what I gather, they were the ones who had brought the gifts because slowly, children were invited to come toward the pile, and the adults would hand them one of the many gifts from the pile.

The gifts weren’t extravagant, mostly used children's toys and clothes.

I received two gifts for which Jade insisted I  thank the people who gave them to me. 

The first gift was a new pair of socks given by an elderly couple. From the man’s velvet coat and the trimming of the woman’s petticoat, I knew right away they had to be from an affluent family. Perhaps even lords?

I instinctively started to curtsy, but Jade interrupted me. She shook her head and instead bowed her head and gave them words of thanks.

Oh… That’s right. An orphan girl shouldn’t act like a noble.

The thought made me slightly melancholic for a moment, but I shrugged it off. It was better that way. Everything was better than back then.

[Thank you.] I said as I bowed my head.

My words were probably unintelligible to others, as always, but Jade made up for it by happily chatting away with the couple.

My second gift was much better; it was a leather bag that I could sling across my body. It looked like something I could put toys or Darkie in while I walk around. The man who gave it to me was an eccentric-looking man with a funny moustache.

When I came to thank him, he wouldn’t stop laughing and even ruffled my hair. It was a bit uncomfortable, but I tolerated it the best I could while Jade spoke to him.

Once that was done, I could finally return to eating and playing with Jade.

When she finally handed me a plate filled with multicoloured pastries, fruits and vegetables, I was basically drooling on the floor.

The festivities continued late into the night, at which point I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore, and Jade helped me to my bed, where I peacefully fell asleep.