Lucy does

“Hey Lucy, is Mom still around?” you greeted, unluckily having your sister pick up the house phone instead of Mom.

“She's in the kitchen at the moment and asked me to grab the phone. What’s up?” Lucy answered, letting you just about hear Mom’s voice muffled in the background asking who it was.

“I just wanted to talk with Mom about something” you answered, sounding way more defensive than you would have liked to.

“Well I’m sure I can tell her whatever you need to ask” Lucy replied, suddenly sounding a lot more interested in what you had to say than before.

“Look, Grace dropped me off at school this morning and I’ve sorta invited Emma to come and have dinner with us. Can you check with Mom to see if that's okay or just put her on the line… please?” you asked, rubbing your forehead after not having expected this to be as annoying as you first thought.

“See, that wasn’t so difficult to admit, why didn’t you say that from the start” Lucy responded, stressing you even further.

“One sec… Hey Mom!” you heard her shout on the other end of the call, her voice getting quieter as she moved away from the phone.

You stood waiting for either Mom or Lucy to pick up the phone again and started walking closer to the school building. You were hoping to still get to class on time but just as the thought passed through your mind, the bell started to ring and you watched as people started filing into the building, Emma included who gave you a quick look before you gestured for her that it was fine to go inside without you.

“Hello?” Mom said as she answered the phone after what seemed like forever, apparently not getting an explanation from Lucy beforehand.

“Hey Mom, I just wanted to ask if Emma could stay for dinner tonight? Grace asked me as a favour and said she would explain to you later if you end up seeing her.” you explained, trying not to trip over your words while being in a rush.

“Oh hi sweetie, sure I don’t see a problem with that. I’ll have a word with Grace when she's back and tell her you mentioned it” Mom replied.

“Great, that's perfect. Just make sure she doesn’t feel like she's being a hindrance and everything should be okay” you said, feeling the stress leave you now that you had confirmation.

“Look Mom, I’m sorry but I’ve really gotta go, the bell just rang and I’m gonna have to run to class” you announced hoping to shorten the call as politely as you could.

“Well don’t let me stop you, I’ll see you later. Love you” Mom said.

“Love you too.” you said, ending the call and speeding up your pace towards the front steps of the main entrance.

You quickly checked the time as you put the phone back in your pocket and you knew there wasn’t a chance of you making it on time. Ignoring the signs plastered in nearly every corridor telling you not to run, you raced through the building and made your way towards your first class. The lack of people still in the corridors wasn’t a good sign and the only people you saw were also looking frantic as they sprinted off towards their own lessons.

Skidding to a halt, you let your breathing slightly calm down as you stood in front of the door to the correct classroom and quietly turned the handle to try and avoid drawing any extra attention towards yourself.

“Ah Max, I'm glad you found the time to join us” Rebecca announced, peering over her textbook that she was reading from at the front of the class and turning everyone's attention towards you in the process.

You could still feel her usual relaxed attitude hidden under her teacher persona by the way she gave you a coy smile but she wasn’t the type of person to give you any extra special privileges. Finding out that her mother also seemed to be making sure she acted like a model teacher, made you understand her teaching style a bit more and you couldn’t blame her for that when you realised you would probably do the same if you were in her shoes.

You gave her an apology and went over towards your seat, seeing one of your friends grinning at you as you went to your seat next to him. It looked like he was about to ridicule you like a good friend would but before he could get half way through his sentence, Rebecca directed her voice towards his direction.

“If anyone has got the time to be paying attention to your classmates then you're not paying enough attention to me. Max, come see me after class. Now where was I…” Rebecca commanded, turning everyone's attention back towards her and getting your friend off your back in the process before she went back to what she had been doing prior to you interrupting her.

As quietly as you could, you got out your textbook and turned to the page number you saw in the corner of your friend’s book next to you. Everyone seemed to focus on the work as if your arrival had never happened and you were happy to follow along with everyone else by getting out the rest of your books and writing down the points that Rebecca was talking about.

In the little time that you had been studying, Biology had been the subject you had given the most amount of effort and actually had the most amount of interest in. This was even before you had got the KDK and although having an attractive teacher be the one who taught you the subject did also increase your enthusiasm even more, Rebecca wasn’t the one who originally piqued your interest.

Ever since you had been introduced to the science-y subjects when you were younger, you had always had a fascination with the life sciences. You weren’t sure when your interest had turned away from dinosaurs and animals that you found cool as a kid, to getting more invested in anatomy and psychology but there was an urge to learn more than you knew currently. You would have probably pursued a career path in this direction even without the KDK but it may have taken you a few more years or too many missed opportunities to come to that decision.

In either case, you were glad you had something to focus on and even though you had already read ahead to make sure you knew the material, Rebecca’s descriptions and thought process made it easier for you to digest some of the bits in the textbook that you had been less clear on.

As the lesson progressed, you kept finding your thoughts drifting towards the KDK and how some of the changes and effects that it had given you and all of your subjects were way too weird based on your knowledge of the brain and was closer to the realms of science fiction than anything. You saw bits and pieces of the news when a new trial for a cancer treatment or new research was brought to everyone's attention that would ‘change life as we know it’ before fading into obscurity the next week but the KDK was too much of a leap forward for you to grasp what was actually happening.

You had very little evidence to go on to figure out where it came from which only amounted to the vague descriptions given from the creator on the information panel and the listing of the phone when you first bought it. Neither of them were anything you could use in any meaningful way but you had saved the information on your computer anyway, just in case you needed it in the future.

The thoughts circled around in your head as the minutes ticked by, distracting you whenever your concentration lapsed. You only seemed to break out of it when the bell for the end of the lesson rang throughout the school and made you take a look at the clock to realise an hour had already passed. You stayed seated as everyone else left the room, only getting a pat on the shoulder from your friend as he walked past before it became just you and Rebecca still in the room.