A compromise

Sarah stood there for a few seconds, turning her head to swap between you and her friends before she seemed to make up her mind.

“Hey think we can sit over here for a change?” Sarah nervously asked, tilting her head towards the seats next to you to make a suggestion towards her friends.

“We usually sit over here though?” one of her friends answered back, not dismissing the idea but looking confused about the sudden change.

“The sun always gets in my eyes when we sit there and I thought it was worth mentioning” Sarah explained, nervously holding her hands behind her back where her friends couldn’t see.

Her friends gave each other a shrug as the decision didn’t mean that much to them and they followed Sarah to the row of tables you were at. You moved down a seat so that you were at the end of the row at the back of the classroom and she quickly took the seat next to you while the rest filled up the remaining spaces. Sarah turned slightly to give you a smile before continuing the conversation she was having when she first entered the room.

Things quietened down once the teacher finally arrived and you focused on the work you had set in front of you. History wasn’t one of the subjects you were too interested in but the teacher was normally hands-off and just made you read from the textbook and then fill out an answer sheet. His lazy approach to teaching might be why you weren’t interested in the subject but you felt like your memorisation skills made this type of work quite easy, and that had only gotten easier with the intelligence upgrade.

You finished the work with plenty of time to spare and turned to see how your sister was getting on. Surprisingly she seemed to still be struggling even with the added upgrade you had given her last night. You didn’t know if the user and subject upgrades worked the same but for your conversations with Emma, you felt like you had gotten the same type of boost.

You considered the possibilities and thought that it may amplify your previous abilities instead of making a set improvement. Explaining it in RPG terms would be like a 20% boost to your int stat instead of just adding 10 points to what you already had in the stat.

You and Emma seemed to have the same process when it came to revising for tests and although boring, the work in front of you matched that style. On the other hand, you had no idea how Sarah prepared for her subjects so maybe she had a different method for revising that didn’t match up with your own. You had promised her that you would help her out with her studies and getting a grasp of how she learnt would make it easier for the both of you.

The rest of the class passed by with you observing your sister and tracking which answers she got right compared to the rest. You got a few weird glances from her friends next to her once they noticed you staring, alerting Sarah of your actions before she had to tell them you were her brother. She gave you a few secret jabs to the ribs and quietly told you to stop acting so weird.

The gazes on you turned less hostile after that but they still seemed to be keeping an eye on you. You smiled at the fact that her friends were looking out for her and it helped improve your opinion of them other than the basic cheerleader stereotype that you had unfairly given them in the past.

Other than that, you carried on through the lesson the same as before, trying to act a little more discrete in your spying than before. With them seemingly still keeping an eye on you, you were still able to make a basic study guide to help her out but anything to add to the KDK was a no-go. You got a few seconds here or there from ‘accidental’ contact but you tried not to push it when you were under observation.

The class ended with a quick goodbye from your sister and after that, the rest of your classes dragged on without any particular challenge. You spent the spare time mainly thinking about Rebecca and the solutions you had come up with to try and bring her closer to the main group of subjects.

You wanted to start off by introducing her to one member first instead of just throwing her into a group of five people and expecting her to get along with them. Rebecca was obviously aware of both Sarah and Emma already but their contact had been minimal so far so you didn’t expect that to make a difference when choosing a subject to start with. You considered all five but a few ideas popped into your head to narrow down your options slightly.

You became more certain about a couple of these ideas as the afternoon passed by and when the final bell at the end of the day rang throughout the school, you confidently made your way towards Rebecca’s office. The door was locked as you expected and you could hear the sounds of multiple voices coming from the principal's office as you leaned against the wall, placing yourself far enough away from the door that you would avoid potentially getting squished.

You couldn’t make out the voices through the door and you didn’t want to risk a concussion to get closer and find out if the people inside were discussing anything juicy. The voices got louder at various points as if they were arguing but they were still muffled and unrecognisable so you just waited until Rebecca turned up to see if you could get any details from her.

After about 5 minutes of waiting, the door flung open at the side of you and bashed against the wall. You waited for the principal to walk out but were surprised to see Rebecca following behind her with a strained smile on her face. You met Rebecca’s gaze but her mother hadn’t seen you yet as she had stormed out the door past you. You moved away from the door to Rebecca’s office in case you potentially caused another argument and turned away while pretending to be looking at your phone.

“I think I’ve made myself clear” the principal huffed, hearing her voice over your shoulder as you tried your best to act like a piece of the scenery.

“Yes mother” Rebecca replied, sounding like a child who had just been scolded.

“I told you to call me Principal Ryans while we are working” she tutted, clicking her tongue.

The sound of high heels permeated the corridor and slowly got quieter as she walked away from the offices. You turned around and made your way to Rebecca’s side once you knew the coast was clear.

“Sorry for running away” you said sheepishly.

“No, I don’t blame you. I would have done the same in your shoes and when she's in one of them moods she can be such a... “ she replied, cutting herself off before she went too far.

“I’m here if you wanna vent, from the limited time I’ve interacted with her I wouldn’t blame you in the slightest” you offered with a grin.

Rebecca smiled in response and unlocked her office so you could talk a bit more openly without the worry of anybody in the hallway overhearing. Rebecca’s level 1 active was still on cooldown so you gestured for her to enter in front of you before locking the door behind you. Rebecca didn’t comment on it so you felt confident that it wouldn’t be a problem in the future unless you tried to lock it randomly mid-conversation.

Although the level 1 active was still in cooldown, her level 2 was just about to be available. The conversation you had planned wasn’t something that you would the effect for but knowing that you could use it did put you more at ease and having a trick saved in your back pocket would never be a bad thing.

The both of you sat down in your chairs and Rebecca placed the remaining pile of documents that you hadn’t got through at lunch onto the desk. You were about to start going through the work but stopped yourself before you could grab the first test off of the pile. You had missed your opportunity last time to bring up what you wanted once you had gotten into the flow of the work and although it might be an awkward start to the conversation, you felt determined to bring it up before it was too late.

“Hey so, I wanted to mention something before we got started” you announced, moving your arm away from the document pile and trying your best to get Rebecca’s attention.