Study Time

It’s 6 PM already… man, I’ve been stuck on this page for two hours, and I’ve accomplished nothing, nada, absolutely zero results! Oh, why did Maia have to bail on me like that! I’ll never pass this test without her!

Obsessively looking at the clock on their phone, hoping that time would somehow mercifully slow down, Lile was getting more and more desperate by the minute, while their history book refused to cooperate and remained as silent, monolithic and unapproachable as all the cute girls at school whenever Lile ran into them and thought of saying hello.

C’mon, Lile, focus, it can’t be that bad, just read one sentence, just do something!

They glanced at the page again, trying to distinguish the words they’d been staring at the whole afternoon long: Italy was characterized by a distinctively fragmented political situation: with Charles the Fat’s deposition, the Kingdom of Italy became independent, and the crown was highly contested between the most powerful italian lords (marquises of Friûl, Eporedia, Tuscany, dukes of Spoleto…), whose ambition was further fueled by the aspiration to the papal throne and by extension to the imperial title (as only the Pope had the power to invest the emperor of his powers).

“Alright, that’s… one heck of a sentence. Who was Charles the fat again? I gotta google this.”

“LILEEE! Get over here, dinner’s ready!!”

What, already? But it’s only… 8 PM?? – “I’M COMIING!!”

They looked up from the screen, where eight wikipedia pages had just been added to the “stack”, as they liked to call it. The newcomers, finding their place right on top of the “german flora” pages and the “ugrofinnic language family” pages, were: “Charles the Fat”, “Carolingian dynasty”, “Old High German”, “Oaths of Strasbourg”, “Fall of the Western Roman Empire”, “Roman province”, “Roman Italy”, and “Celto-Ligurians”. With a deep sigh, Lile closed the book, without even bothering to check what page they were at, and ran upstairs to the kitchen, where their mom, dad and brother were already eating.

“So, did you study?” enquired their mom, as if she hadn’t been interrupting them every five minutes to check how they were doing and ask random questions that only distracted them more.

“Uh, I guess” they blurted out.

“Good! So where are you at, what can you tell me of Medieval history?”

“Well, uh, Charles the fat died… or maybe he was killed? Or he just abdicated… anyway after he wasn’t king anymore, Italy was really kind of screwed and they didn’t know who to make king, so the families started fighting and the situation was… not good. Anyway I haven’t really rehearsed it, I just collected the information y’know, I don’t… know it… yet.”

“Well, I’d give you an A for this performance, for sure! – interrupted their father – A for “asinine”, of course.”
“Ha, ha, very funny dad.”
“I thought it was A for “An embarrassing display of ignorance”” butted in their brother.
“Please, do go on. Your jokes are extremely novel and hilarious” replied Lile in the most monotone voice they could conjure.

“Well, the test is in one week, so you have to hurry!” resumed their mother in a mildly encouraging, mildly stern tone.

“Yeah, I know that, thanks…” mumbled Lile, shifting all their focus to the pasta al pesto that was getting cold in its plate, while their family kept talking about something or other. Pasta was friendly. Pasta was inviting. Why couldn’t history be more like pasta. Heck, why couldn’t the girls at school be more like pasta, too. And the boys. And the teachers. Why was everything so goddarn hard all the time, who decided that, and why did everyone else seemingly agree with no qualms. Why were they expected to just learn all this useless stuff they were gonna forget in two weeks anyway, what was the point to any of that!

“Come on, no need to make a sour face, I’m sure you’ll do great!” mom’s voice suddenly brought them back to the physical plane.
“...I’m not making a sour face”
“Are too”
“Am not”
“I know my child’s sour face and you were making the sourest of faces”
“...”
“...”
“...No I’m wasn’t.”

Their mom sighed: “you know what this is? I read about this in my facebook feed. This is called: “gas-lightning”. You’re gaslightning me. You guys do this all the time”

A general laughter broke out.

“Lol, who let mom use the internet again.”
“Yeah, come on, grandma, let’s get you to sleep!”
“No, stop, you’re ‘gaslightning’ her!”
“I don’t see what’s so funny about it, it’s true! You try to convince me that I’m imagining things and I’m wrong about stuff!”
“That’s ‘cause you are wrong about stuff”
“Yeah, like the fact that according to you I have always loved minestrone, despite it being one of the foods I despise most in the world?”
“Or like the times when you’re sure we stole your things for no reason? And then you find them again and we had nothing to do with it…”
“Or that time you stole my chips at the festival?”
“...What do the chips have to do with this?”
“Nothing, but I’m still mad at you”
“That was ten years ago, Lile, come on!”

The atmosphere had brightened up, and dinner soon came to an end. Lile quickly retreated to their room after loading the dish-washer, to boot up their favorite videogame, Dymon-tamers: where you can capture and raise cool monsters and creatures, often inspired by various mythologies and folkloristic stories from around the world.

However, the looming threat of the test did not let them enjoy it as much as they would have liked.

“I’m sorry, Slushie, I can’t keep giving you treats, I have to sleep if I want to study tomorrow” – they said to their giant electric-blue snake monster while petting its adorable pixelly head.

Yeah, I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna wake up at seven AM and study all morning long. Then in the afternoon, I’ll go to the swimming pool and take a break from all my screens and distractions, it’ll be great. The most productive Sunday ever.

They turned the lights down. Plans of all their future accomplishments kept their brain busy until oneiric images started slowly emerging within their thoughts… everything became more and more confused… Charles the Fat, their mom, Slushie the snake, even the pasta and the chips, they were all dancing up and down with Lile… like a pendulum, rocking between consciousness and unconsciousness, thoughts and impressions, lights and sounds… until they woke up.

There was something cold on their chest.

It was moving.

A small, electric-blue snake.