Date

"Yes, you could use the imperfect here, but it'd probably flow nicer if you made use of the continuous instead."

"Does it matter that much?" Gika asked, "I know most of the more complex facts, and I don't think they'll really care about asking the more basic stuff. It won't matter."

"Maybe not so much on most other tests, but on language and writing? Absolutely."

"But why is it more natural?"

"I- I- I don't know, honestly, it just is."

"Then how do I know when to use which?"

"You just have to intuit it."

"You're not the best teacher."

"I never promised I was."

"But you learned it too, when you were young, right?"

"Yes, I did, but that was mostly through listening and talking to people despite being scared of messing up."

"You're brave, I'm not."

"What are you talking about?" I said, "you are much braver than I am."

Gika looked very uncomfortable.

"I'm not." She repeated, this time with a much more mellow tone of voice.

I took a deep breath in and out, closed my eyes to think for a moment, then closed the book that laid open in front of me and stood up.

"I'm sorry," I said, "I have put you in a bad mood. Trying to learn with that kind of headspace will not work, so let's do something else for now. It is market-day today, want to head out and get something tasty to eat and drink? My treat."

Gika looked somewhat suspicious of me, rightfully so, but stood up and played along. As we went out, the sounds of hundreds of voices became immediately audible. As we approached, Gika became visibly more nervous. I began to regret my plan somewhat.

"If you- if you really feel too uncomfortable to go into a crowd we can go back," I said, "I know this was my idea but don't feel too pressured. If you don't want to I am perfectly fine returning to the studio."

Gika violently shook her head.

"Okay, let's continue then." I said.

I didn't know this until recently, but despite being very sociable when talking to me, she wasn't the best with large numbers of people, which was something I never expected from her. After a few minutes of wandering the city streets, we arrived at the source of the chatter: a large plaza, with several dozens of stalls set-up both on the surrounding paramenter of the square as well as in ineat lines inside it. Talking, laughing, bartering and the occasional angered shout made up the area's soundscape. The smell of food and alcohol was very prevalent, though wares other than consumables, such as tools and pottery, also made up a significant proportion of the goods being sold.

"So, what would you like to have?" I asked.

Gika looked unsure. She remained silent.

"Mmh?"

She went over to me and stood on the tips of her toes to whisper something in my ear:

"Fish, please."

"If you want fish you don't have to whisper it, you can just tell me."

Gika averted her gaze. Her face began to turn a little red.

"If I'm honest, the whole point of coming here was to get you to speak a bit with some strangers as practice, but if you aren't willing to try that, then it's better to just go back to studying." I said.

"Okay… but let's eat some fish first. I'm hungry." Gika whispered.

Finding a stall that sold fish was easy, since Magranpoli was a port-city, though most only sold them as raw ingredients. Only one shop, manned by a broad, burly man, sold small slices of already cooked fish drenched in a sweet fruit-nectar as a treat.

"You two a couple?" He asked, as he handed Gika the food.

Gika averted her eyes, tried to say something but stopped herself, swallowed then answered with "Soni ku.", which thoroughly confused the man.

We walked as we ate, looking through the stalls to see if anything caught our attention. Slowly, we approached the source of the shouts that occasionally echoed through the market: a small podium near the northern edge of the plaza called "The Madman's Stage", a monument meant to symbolize the city's free speech laws, were anyone could go up and declare their opinions to the world, no matter the number of angry shouts one received in return. One the stage were two individuals, two older men, who were arguing about whether or not this year's math test was too easy. We stood and listened. I got bored quite quickly, checking out of the debate and getting lost in thought. I was only brought back to reality when my eyes glazed over Gika's face, who was standing next to me. She was angry, fuming.

"Do you have something you want to say?" I asked

She turned to me, the anger in her face leaving and making place for a somewhat unsure expression.

"If you have something, go for it," I encouraged, "you can't possibly be worse than these two fools. Just go up there and imagine you are talking to me.'

Gika looked at her hand, balled it into a fist, breathed in, then walked onto the stage, confidence exuding from every step. She pointed her finger at the two men and shouted:

"You two are really stupid, you know that?!"

The geezers were flustered. The audience held their breath.

"You're arguing about meaningless diddle-daddle, no realizing the real problem at hand…"

She turned towards the audience.

"... This whole system is absolute bullshit!"

The audience gasped, including me. Now that I thought back to it, I had never heard Gika swear before.

"Why would I give a shit," she continued, "about whether or not the person that makes the laws I have to follow is good at math?! Or spelling?! Or alchemy?! I have to go through this whole system of useless fucking tests, just so I can maybe have a voice in changing something. That's so stupid!"

Passion dripped from her voice.

"And you know what…"

She pointed her finger at the audience this time, a big smirk appearing on her face.

"...All of you are stupid too! You follow these people, almost worship them because you think they are perfect, but really, they're just a bunch of rich kids wasting their lives on learning for tests instead of doing anything remotely enjoyable or fullfilling! You think they will solve your problems?! Are you that dumb?! They only care about themselves! How could you not if you spend your life trying to be perfect?"

Boo's and shouts were coming from the audience. Rotten vegetables were thrown that Gika skillfully avoided. I was just shocked at this side of her.

"Also, you may not believe me, but they're trapping souls in the Municipio, including the souls of your loved ones! As I said, they're horrid people!"

People were moving towards the stage now. Smelling trouble, I ran over and grabbed Gika's arm before running away, curses and food being thrown after us. The whole time, Gika couldn't stop laughing. Ultimately, we managed to shake off the crowd and return home, where I took a breath and Gika continued snickering.

"That was so fun!" She said, "you are great at dates, Gavino!"

I gave a soft smile back.

"Thank you," I said, "you certainly made it interesting."