Chapter 8: Distractions

Moira sprung out of bed with a big smile on her face like she did every morning.

“Heya, Ai!” She greeted her wakeup call with a wave, quickly changing clothes. She bounded out of her room and flashed her parents a big beaming smile.

“Morning!”

Moira’s parents were the nicest, coolest people in the Bunker, as far as she was concerned. They were always happy to greet her with a smile. And they were also very, very tired.

“Where does she get all this energy from?” Her mom laughed, setting out a plate of roast potatoes and protein mush.

Her dad laughed along. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this happy to go to school,” he noted. “Are your Adult Education classes going well?”

“Absolutely! They’re so much more fun than the ones in Secondary Education!” She couldn’t quite explain it. Even though for classes like math she was still learning basically the same stuff, she just felt so much happier in the classroom these days. Everyone always said that when she got older and settled down a little more, she’d come to enjoy school. Maybe she was finally getting the hang of this growing up thing!

…Not that she’d settled down at all.

“Oh, Moira, make sure to take your pill!” Her mother reminded her.

“I know, mom,” she rolled her eyes, taking the pill from her mom and popping it into her mouth. Her parents didn’t have to keep reminding her, she’d only forgotten to take it once or twice. Or maybe three times. She’d lost count at this point.

As she finished breakfast her eyes landed on the clock and the gasped. The food was so good she’d lost track of time! She hopped to her feet and dashed for the door, stopping herself right before her dad’s warning not to run in the hallway.

Right. Gotta be on best behavior. You’re in Adult Education now, gotta behave like an adult! She reminded herself.

But she wanted to get there so baaaad!

“Hey And-“ She caught herself again. Shoot, this was hard. Clearing her throat, she politely greeted him, “good morning, Andrew!”

“Good morning, Moira,” Andrew replied, smiling back at her. They walked the usual path to class, Moira doing her best to match his slower pace.

Andrew was a great Partner. He was a pretty calm and laid-back guy, which meant that even if he didn’t always have the energy to keep up with her, he was still willing to let her be herself. She was glad that she wasn’t Partnered up with some fussy guy who’d try to make her obey all the rules. It must have been tough on Jason.

Moira reminded herself not to think that way. Feeling sad for Jason was the same thing as saying Skye was a bad Partner, which was very rude. In fact, Skye was a very nice and polite girl, taking the time out of her day to remind Moira not to break the rules all the time. She had nothing but gratitude for the blonde.

And speaking of Jason and Skye, there they were right now! Moira had been excited about school before, but seeing the two of them made her, like… doubly excited!

“Good morning, Jason! Good morning, Skye!” She greeted them both, remembering the proper greetings. Adult Education Moira wasn’t a troublesome rule-breaker anymore!

She met Jason’s eye and saw his face turn a little red. She felt a flutter in her own heart.

…Well, with one exception.

Moira… she’d broken a rule. A big rule. And unlike the other rules she’d broken, this time she was doing it on purpose.

When that lady Sylvia had left her book behind, the correct thing to do was turn it in to the nearest telescreen. Jason told her so, and she knew it too.

But she really wanted to read it. She couldn’t help herself. Even when she tried to be a good girl and sit up straight in class and pay attention to the teachers without interrupting, she’d just get this feeling like she had to do something, and then she’d do it. Make a joke, or doodle on her telescreen, talk to Andrew, it would just happen. All because her brain kept telling her things and her dumb body wasn’t listening.

So when she saw that book, well… it just happened. Again. She wanted to read it, so she did.

But now she wanted to keep reading it. She couldn’t blame her… the doctor called it “impulsiveness”. No, this time she was choosing to break the rules. Even though it was wrong. Even though she didn’t even like reading.

She’d stopped liking reading ever since Secondary Education, when the teachers told her that the books wouldn’t have pictures in them anymore, just boring ol’ words.

“You’re too old for picture books now, Moira, you’re growing up!”

Moira had disagreed. Loudly.

Well, this book didn’t have any pictures either, but she liked it more than any other book she read. Every time she turned the page, she thought about all the cool stuff she was seeing, and couldn’t wait to share it with Jason!

Maybe that was it. Until recently, Moira and Jason hadn’t been big friends. She was always happy to see him, of course, but over the past few days she’d come to realize that she really liked talking to him. She liked that her jokes would make him laugh, and she liked how happy he was to see her. And she really liked his drawings.

Now the two of them had a secret. They were reading the book together! She really wanted to hear what he thought about it. He was really smart and read a lot of books himself, so he must have really liked it.

As the four of them walked to class, she and Jason shared another secret look. And then he smiled! That right there reassured her that even though they were breaking the rules, well, at least they were happy, right? Ai always told them it was important to do things that make you happy, like studying hard in school and being nice to your friends.

Well, the fluttery feeling in her chest was an even better feeling than when she did those! So Moira must have been super-duper happy!

They’d give the book back when they finished. It would be fine!

…

Moira really liked school now, but she still didn’t like classes so much. Even with her pills, she always had trouble paying attention. But she had to be on her best behavior. No jokes, no groans, no whispering to Andrew. Perfect student time!

She sat up straight in her chair and stared at the telescreen. She imagined that she was Skye. Skye always looked straight ahead. Skye always raised her hand before asking a question. Skye never laughed when the teacher said “hypotenuse”, even though Moira was pretty sure that was an animal and not a math thing.

“No, Moira, that’s a ‘Hippopotamus’.”

Darn it. She did it again.

Sit still, sit still, pay attention, pay attention. Take notes. This is important! She said it was going to be on the test!

…

Boy she was bored.

The hardest part about class was having to sit still for that long. She missed the running breaks of Primary Education. If she had to sit in one place too long, she got fidgety. The chair had been sooo comfortable when she sat down but now it just made her feel itchy. An itchiness that she didn’t know how to scratch.

Whenever Moira got fidgety, her body would start being bad and breaking rules. Sometimes it was hands, doing things like doodling or tapping her fingers. Or like before, it was her mouth, making her say things that she knew she shouldn’t.

Right now, though, it was her eyes. Even though she was supposed to be looking at the telescreen, they wanted to go somewhere else.

That somewhere else ended up being Jason. She turned her head back to stare at him, seeing how seriously he was paying attention to what the teacher was saying. And for some reason, she didn’t feel fidgety anymore. It was like she could stare at him for hours without feeling that itch.

Then, he turned his head, and their eyes met. He was staring right at her, and for a moment it looked like his face got a little brighter. But why would-

“Moira, stop looking at the clock.”

Startled, she whipped her head around to see the teacher’s frown. Why was she so upset?! She had been a great student, paying attention the whole time, and-

…

Right, somehow she’d been staring at Jason instead of the telescreen. Whoops.

“Good, glad to have you back with us,” Teacher Madison smiled. “Now, could you please provide the answer for the question I just asked?”

“Um…” Moira squinted at the math in front of her. It looked weird. What was that weird table-looking thing on top of all the numbers? And why were the “2”s higher than the 12 and the 5 that were in front of them?! And plus, this was math class, what was that letter “c” doing here?!

The teacher was still waiting for an answer.

Wait! Her notes! That’s right, Moira had been a good student today and taken notes, so she could use those to…

…

What were these drawings of trucks doing where her notes were supposed to be?!

…Okay, maybe Moira hadn’t been her best student self today. But she could still solve a simple math problem! She took a deep breath and calmed down as best she could, and took another look at the question.

Now that she got another look, it did seem familiar… that’s right, she’d learned about this before! It was that, um… the python theory. Yeah, that table thing meant you were supposed to chop it down, and those 2s meant you needed to double ‘em up, and then… um…

“…13!” She answered proudly.

The teacher raised her eyebrow.

“…Yes, that is the value of the hypotenuse,” she said. “Now that you’ve found all three sides, can you please tell us what the trigonometric ratios of the right triangle are?”

Moira blinked.

“Trigonometric say what now?”