Her Efforts

"That should be enough…"

A series of beeps are followed by the constant whirring of the microwave. I'm not short of ambient noise between this and the chatter one wall over.

"Which clothes did Stella pick out?"

"Something simple."

"It's all so white!"

"I just like the colour."

I plop down at the chair of my desk and let out a relaxing sigh despite the uncomfortable plank of wood. These days have been far too eventful. Not one, but two girls have found their way into my home and have caused me grief. A random thought floats into my head as I hear the faucet in the tub begin running.

"Is this the start of my popular phase…"

I stare blankly at the ceiling in the same way I always do when I don't feel like doing homework. The question itself is a form of procrastination given how long it will take to think about, assuming it's even worth considering.

"Yeah, there's no way."

No point in even feeling flustered about it. Stella always seems to have it out for me unless it directly helps Mira. Mira is, well, Mira. I still have a long way to go before my life can become filled with the thrill of romance. If I really assumed anything to change now, then I'm as stupid as Stella accuses me of being.

I glance to the side over at the window instead, looking for some kind of distraction. For better or for worse, something does seem to be there.

"Woah, when did you get here!?"

I almost fell back in my chair when faced with a familiar bird. It's not necessarily that this particular bird is familiar, it's just the same kind that you'll see everywhere that so much as decides to exist. Those grey feathers have a tendency to block out the sun and litter everything beneath them with droppings. This one doesn't seem to be particularly interested in the happenings of my humble abode.

"Pigeons, huh…"

The words of the master of dull birds pop back into my head along with the words at the front of that one flashcard. My face begins heating up despite this being the second time that this thought has entered my brain.

"No no no no no no no!"

I leap to my feet and slam my head against the wall as hard as I can. The heavy shaking causes the bird on the ledge to take flight, but not the butterflies in my stomach.

"If I start thinking of Mira that way, it's over!"

We can say goodbye to any kind of wholesome cohabitation if that happens. I already have a hard enough time trying to navigate her unusual way of thinking courtesy of being a rabbit. Imagine trying to also juggle not letting myself explode emotionally at every interaction, that would be painful. Mira being the way she is, I would probably face no resistance if I made moves, but that is a problem on its own.

"L-Let me actually do some work!"

There is still so much homework left to do that I really don't have the time to be slacking off. When taking into account Mira likely eating at some of this remaining time, things get even more dire.

I plop back down into my chair and attempt to boot up my laptop before noticing all of the papers in the way. I'm about to brush them off to the side before I realise that the writing isn't mine.

"Would you look at that…"

I pick up one of the loose sheets and rub my hands over the dark etching. It takes a few glances over the markings to figure out what it says, but there is no mistaking that I can read it.

"Mira, your handwriting sucks…"

One of the pages has some basic fraction calculations that, while the answer is incorrect, follow the basic procedures. Another has a bunch of silly stick figure drawings with the names of several historical figures in the order of their time period. If you squint hard enough, you can kind of make out the similarities between their actual faces and these doodles.

The bottom sheet of paper has several rows where questions were copied from the book. While the words don't seem to follow the lines, you can tell where her awkward responses begin.

"Why was the girl in the story sad? Because she hasn't eaten in a while and was hungry…"

I lean back in my chair and run back through the words one more time. If I recall, the story covers an entire day of a girl trying to get her feelings across to the man she loved. The two begin with a wholesome relationship that leads to them growing close. One day, another woman appears and captivates the man. In the end, the sad girl is unable to stop the man from leaving with the other woman and the two never see each other again. I guess if you make some massive assumptions, you can probably come to the conclusion that she hasn't had a meal since the beginning.

Following this response is the follow up question related to the sad girl. 'What should the sad girl have done?'. It's a very open ended question that requires the user to identify the girl's approach across her various interactions with the man. Regardless, it seems that this girl was always destined to be overlooked. Their relationship was fairly set in stone. This is the correct answer, but the one who was sitting at the desk earlier had other ideas.

"Eat something tasty and stay by his side…"

The microwave blares to inform me that the bag of frozen vegetables has completed heating, but that doesn't cause me to stir. All I can do is stare at the sloppily written words, words that I could never have written.

"Pffft! Hahaha! What the heck!"

It's a very Mira-like answer. That may not be what the textbook was looking for, but there are a lot of problems that can be solved after a nice meal and some sleep. Let the man go and be happy? Most people probably would, but that's just us using consideration as an excuse for surrender. If you want something, only persistence will give you the chance to obtain it. It's that simple.

Tears have formed in my eyes from laughter.

"She really is something…"

These words had a greater impact than whatever that tragic tale could ever give me.

Stories nowadays try to be dark and dramatic. Everybody has these deep concerns eating away at them from the inside that they spend the entire story trying to solve. Characters are all so serious and cynical that you almost have to find your own demons to relate with. Otherwise, you're stuck being the simpleton that these 'victims' despise at a close second to whatever they think caused their pain.

It may be a person, someone like family, or it could just be society as a whole. People find these enemies to blame for an imperfect life, but this is something done only by humans. Animals are fighting for their lives everyday, be it a lion or a rabbit. Even when hunted, they don't sit and complain about challenges. Animals adapt, they survive. No matter what happened the day before, they always dedicate the present to making life work in whatever way possible. Things like resentment and regret are only distractions holding us back in the past and preventing us from moving forward.

I might be overthinking the simple words of a once wild animal, but I'm only human after all.

"Maybe it really does take a rabbit to tell us humans that the world doesn't have to be all that complicated."

Life can be pretty simple sometimes. I see Mira smile, I smile. I see Mira frown, I panic. It all just makes sense on its own.

The smile on my face persists as I flip through the loose pages one after another.

"She really did it…"

Sure enough, she seems to have gotten through the questions from each of the textbooks. I can only imagine how challenging it may have been to go from having never experienced normal study to grinding not one, but multiple subjects in a single day. To be human, you have to be capable of managing at least this much. Mira is a rabbit, but that doesn't seem to be stopping her from trying to reach our level. All she can do is press forward.

Even after gathering all of her notes into a folder, I can't stop myself from rereading her work with a strange feeling in my chest.

"Looks like I'm not the only one working hard…"