Attemp.

“You are incredible.” Coral exhaled.

“I know,” Adassa replied proudly.

“No.” She raised her voice, but quickly corrected herself. “It's not a compliment. How could they think of that? It was the last exam, you have to leave with a good taste in your mouth.”

Coral was lying on the ground, leaning against the wall of the school's exterior, taking advantage of the four o'clock sun rays. She had rolled up her long pants even though the marks from the neoprene remained. She jumped up and landed on her left leg.

“We haven't done anything wrong…” Teresa defended herself.

“It was the teacher's intolerance and fascism!”

“Whatever you say, Lady Anarchy, you'll admit that it was out of line.”

She looked left and right for any trace of shame, and finding none, she started walking.

She wished her brother was there. He sure knew how to scold, even if he sometimes got so wrapped up in it that he forgot to do it; or Yûusuke, that look would make you feel bad for splashing the mirror when you brushed your teeth, something she did a lot.

“In a way… we don't bother anyone.” Teresa said.

“Yes. Red Eye is right.”

“Let's see…” Coral's hands came together in a perfect arc, then she exhaled sharply. “Who would think that as soon as the exam is over you should stand at the door in the starting position?”

“And what's wrong with that?!”

“Not even a quarter of an hour had passed.”

“It's not my fault it was easy. The teacher should have let me out! It was the last class of the day.”

She shook her head.

"And that pendulum?" Coral pointed to the jewelry Teresa wore around her neck. "Where did you get it?"

“He gave it back to me after the punishment was over. He just wanted to make sure I got more answers.”

“And the best thing was to put the stone so that it would tell you if it was a, b, c, d, e. Yes.”

“Hey! Don't complain. You're the only one who copied here.” Adassa reproached.

Coral's nervous laugh made Teresa jump. The brunette hesitated to admit it at first, wondering how he had caught her.

“That's different.”

“Why?”

“Why haven't I been discovered? As I was saying...” She spoke faster so didn't give space to the old conversation. “We have already publicly agreed to explore the cave, several people have already come to ask during the week.”

“Come on, you're going to swallow your fear just because of what people will say.”

“Exac- No! It's not because of that.”

“Well... it's okay, what matters is that we're going together.” despite the difference in height, Teresa swallowed Coral completely and left a space for Adassa in case she wanted to join in. It was her best way to cut the conversation short, she didn't want any arguments.

Doubt haunted Coral's angular face the whole way. How? She had written the entire syntactical-morphological analysis, as well as small details of García Márquez's life in four square centimeters, rolled up in her favorite Bic pen . And the worst thing was... if she had noticed, would other people have noticed? Would they comment on her? Would they not invite her to future study meetings?

She shook her head, as if trying to get it out, as if that would make the thought drift out of one of his ears.

“How exciting, isn't it?”

She came back to her senses when she noticed Teresa hugging her around the waist. She was so excited that she couldn't think about anything else.

“Yes,” she nodded. Although it's a little late.

"Does that mean you're going to make us run away again?" he said, showing a half smile. Imobach, sarcastically, believed himself to be the funniest of all, and looked for a trace of laughter in the others, but he didn't get even a hint. His lips, narrow but long, descended to their usual seriousness.

“You wanted to come as soon as possible. Don't complain.”

It was to calm his anxiety, Yuusuke knew it, and he didn't agree but he didn't put up much of an impediment either.

"How annoying." Coral tapped her fingertips against her thigh. "Why don't we talk about something else? About what you're going to do now that you've finished your exams and school."

“I thought you were going to prepare for the university entrance exams.” Teresa said in an innocent tone.

“No. I'm going to take a sabbatical year. I'll think about what to do.”

Thinking about what to do. Ha. That was strange, that was what he did constantly, thinking, thinking and overthinking, even if his mood did not match his head.

The one with the green eyes stopped at the top of the rock that marked the beginning of the cave and the end of the path. She turned on the flashlight and focused it on the bottom. It wasn't necessary yet, it was still daylight and she could see clearly, but it would be useful later on, and the others would feel safer from the start.

“Are you crazy? Mom and Dad are going to tell you off!”

“Mom and Dad?” he snorted loudly and ironically.

“Well, whatever.” Teresa's hand went between them and guided them on. We are almost adults now, if that is what she has decided…

He pulled Coral away, not wanting them to get into that topic of conversation. It was always irritating for both parties.

“You're wealthy” living in a different situation was relaxing Yuusuke's mentality. It wasn't all about work anymore (now it was only 95% of the time). “you won't lack anything.”

“You see them 10 days a year and you still punish them? What a piece of shit.” Addassa added.

That was exactly the comment Teresa was trying to avoid. She tried to give her the dirty look she wanted, just like the rest of us, but as she did so, she regretted it. Adassa didn't even notice.

It was in that strange lapse of time, where the two darker skinned ones only exchanged glances, that Coral's phone rang. Behelit is the theme. It reminded them where they were, it didn't scare them, it wasn't loud, it just reminded them how small they were, well, everyone except Coral.

“Wow, the coverage is great, it even reaches me here” he said out loud before answering.

“Yes,” Adassa replied, puffing out her chest proudly.

As if she had worked in the Chinese factory for two cents an hour to build it. Or if she had created the satellite that transmitted the call.

“Let's continue.” Coral ordered after finishing the call.

“As I was saying, I'm taking a year off from Friday. Nothing to do with school, studies or anything.”

“But you will go to graduation, right?” Coral's dramatic pause was even longer.

"What for? I don't like noisy environments," he replied sincerely.

Yuusuke silently shared the same opinion.

“Better. Now they are into American stuff. Tacky!” Adassa urged.

“It's part of globalization. Like the alien boom from 1950 onwards, nobody looks at what's down here!” Teresa's enthusiasm came to light.

“It's normal. It's one of the big questions you ask yourself in life” said Imobach, completely ignoring the issue that worried the girl with the scar on her shoulder. “Although I would have used Starbucks as an example,” he smiled and made Teresa blush.

“Seriously? You're not going to go to graduation, the most important social event of the institute, your diploma, your recognition, to be well dressed... It's a fantasy, I can't wait until next year for mine. Oh... I've already half prepared the speech, there are usually three people, the other two could be Anaís, she's very good at literature, and her girlfriend, Cathaisa, as the representative of the science class.”

“But there is no male representation…” Teresa replied in a low voice.

“True, how could I have missed that? Nauzet, for example, is a bit… (lets's pretend we don't hear this word) , but people respect him.”

“You haven't been chosen yet. And you don't know if they will, or what will happen between now and tomorrow” Yuusuke was too sincere and realistic.

“But why?” Coral's voice came out in a thread, but then she remembered that that was the personality of the one she already considered her friend and, just like with Adassa, she didn't have to take him too seriously. “Don't be mean.”

“What I find harsh is that you think I'm not going to talk! I'll be your boss in the future, a little respect.”

“For that you need a bit of discipline.” Imobach preferred to soften the phrase, although he really thought that a lot of discipline was needed. A lot.

“Information is power and power makes you have multinationals. And I remind you that I keep a lot of information.”

“Technically yes, but now that they know it (Yuusuke was not included) they won't make the same mistake again.”

“How many careers have been ruined by comments and things from the past. From everyone, not just from you, it's not a threat.”

“She's right, it's better not to touch Twitter .” a shiver ran through Teresa.

"Well," Coral said tiredly. She was walking slower than usual.

The path seemed endless, even though it had taken them much less time than at the hermitage, but there was a big difference: this path was natural and they would not know the end, while the one made by man would sooner or later come to an end. In addition, the added bonus of waiting for something unknown inside did not help, something that made noise and that had been frightening those who were around.

Luckily, they hadn't had to take a detour, that was even scarier, a group of relatively unattractive and humble teenagers was prime fodder for any bad B-movie.

The more steps they took, the more it looked like the previous one. Part of its spectacular landscape was cracks, dirt and dust, rocks, badly grown mold along the entire semicircle, lizards (Teresa wondered if there was a water tank nearby), some stray mice, beetles, a few earwigs and, as expected, several spiders.

Luckily for Coral, the biggest one they had ever seen was right in front of her.

"Take it off," she asked whoever in a stammer, as if Miss Long Legs could understand her.

“He's just a little animal, Coco, and he's helpless. He's not going to do anything to you.”

She stood still, unable to move. Her eyes just rolled from side to side, following the gentle swinging, mesmerizing fabric she was hanging from. Yuusuke realized she was very scared, he had never seen the girl who always found something to talk about so quiet, mostly about trivial things.

The one with the round glasses moved very slowly, he wanted to reach the spider to push it away, but Adassa had already taken off his boot and crushed it.

“My savior.” Coral enthused.

"Murderer," Teresa added. She would remember that for at least two days. And it might have caused her a nightmare.

"A murderer? She hasn't killed anyone," said a voice broken by the years.