The classes were going steady. Mr. Nile would never miss a class and would never change his inexpressive face and voice. Ernest was doing his best to keep up, but Nile's methods were very demanding. His first assignment was an essay on the history of any virus. Ernest picked Ebola, and he got a Pass grade. The teacher's reasoning was that Ebola changed very little, and the teacher wanted something that enjoyed changing. The High Distinction grade went to a girl and her essay about the Swine Flu. She covered her face with her notebook, trying to hide from the jealous looks of her classmates.
That day, at lunch, Ernest sat with his newfound friends. Eric, the committee guy with the glasses and Sarah, the girl of the HD grade. Sarah was invited to join them at the suggestion of Eric, who thought that she would make a good tutor for Ernest. He didn't like the idea at first, he was raised to never depend on people, but warmed at the prospect of a new friend.
Sarah never talked during the lunch... She only whispered "Safe" after playing with her soup for a while. After lunch, the three friends had to see Physics. Ernest loved, to a certain degree, numbers so it was piece of cake. Or so he thought....
Dana Larousse, formerly known by her cheery attitude, was now as stoic and cold as her colleague Nile. Her once lovely quirk of forgetting numbers was gone... Also, her stuttering was gone. Not therapy gone, but absolutely gone as if she never had it.
Another two hours of cold punishment, Ernest said to himself., trying to keep answering in the barrage of operations Mrs. Larousse was throwing at him.
At least he got another friend... Isabelle "Belle" Founts. She was Dana's right hand, until now. She was a lovely person... That cursed every moment she was remembered of her diabetes. She and Eric shared a somewhat caustic friendship, but she retreated to him after seeing her best teacher friend dismiss her as "a little sugarless girl."
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