I was standing in the courtyard of the school watching the other students moving about. I rubbed my fingers on my skirt and looked down at the ground. My claws were in my skirt pocket and I reached in and ringered them. They were wrapped up, the claws covered by the gloved part, too keep from having the tips poke and scratch me when I moved and sat down. I glanced back up and turned around.

The school was surrounded by a large, chicken-wire fence. It stood about ten feet high. A large gate was our only way in and out of the school area, and it closed after the second bell. Tellka was standing just outside the gate. She had walked me to school. I headed over to the gate where she was.

"Have fun, Kate." She glanced over at me. "Remeber, practice today after school. I'll meet you at the Colosseum."

I grumbled. "I hate school Why do I have to go?"

Tellka grinned. "To get an education. I can only teach you so much. Think about it, you'll learn how to read and write and do math.."

"But I already know how to read and write."

"Yea, you know about as much as I do." Tellka rolled her eyes. "And I use a 'k' to spell 'cat.' Now get back in there, Kate. The bell will ring soon."

I turned and headed towards the school. I had only taken a few steps when Janet came running up to me.

"Heya, Kate. I've been looking all over for you!"

"You have?" I blinked in surprise. She grabbed a hold of my arm and gave me a tug.

"Sure I have. Come on, join the group!" She began pulling me over to her small group of friends. I followed without a word.

The minute we reached Janet's 'group' she immediatly immersed herself into a conversation with two other people, leaving me all alone. I snuck away without anyone noticing and headed towards a small bench. I removed my pack, placed it on the bench, and sat down next to it.

The bench sat right infront of a large rock and directly under the shade of a tall, thin tree. It was a nice spot. I leaned back and stared up at the tree. It was about 35 feet high, and thin enough for me to wrap my arms around its trunk. It's branches were plentiful, and each was long and thin. Although it didn't hold many leaves, it was shady enough to be enjoyable.

The rock itself was bigger then the bench. It seemed like a good place to climb up onto and lounge around in the sun.

If it weren't for that shade I mean...

'Oh boo hoo... You'll live.'

I grumbled and my mind slipped into a day dream. It wasn't long before my thoughts were disturbed by a loud ringing.

Stupid bells.. I snatched up my pack and shouldered it as I stood up from the bench. I waited patiently for a path toward the main doors to clear before heading into school. It took less time then I expected.

The halls were crowded as usually, and by the time I got to the staircase that would take me to the second floor, I only had about three minutes to get to class.

Janet was waiting outside the classroom for me.

"Where'd you run off to?"

"Eh?" I shrugged. "I just wanted to go sit down, that's all."

Janet nodded. "Yea well, you missed a lot. Justin was just talking about when he-" a tardy bell cut her off and we sprang into classroom, grabbing our seats before Mrs. Wireman noticed us. Janet giggled and poked me in the back as our teacher turned from the board to her students.

"Good morning, class. Nice to see you all here again." She pulled out the attendance sheet and scanned it over. After a short moment she paused and glanced around the class. I suppose she had been counting names and students and was looking for a match. She then reached into her desk and pulled out a stack of papers.

"This is what we shall be studying." The class groaned as she began to hand out the worksheets. "Questions are on the back. Please answer them in complete sentences."

I glanced up to see a large stack of paper being handed to my face. I blinked, retreived them from the hand of the person infront of me, took a paper from the stack, and handed the rest behind me, to Janet. I sighed and read over the paper.

'Evolution' it read. 'From Air to Land, the Wings of Windia.' I blinked. We're going to study the evolution of windians...

'Yeah, what did you expect? This is the Windian Highschool...'

I suppose so... I sighed and began reading quietly to myself.

"Over all of time, the clans of this world had been seperated by attributes they carry. These attributes are what links a clan to its evolutionary background. Each clan is distinguished by their attributes. One of the better known attributes of the Windians are their bird-like wings. These attributes have evolved greatly over the years..." I paused. I thought they were diluted..

'Evolved.. diluted.. same difference. It's changed, that's all they mean. Plus, evolved is a much nicer word.'

Ahh... I continued the reading in my head. By the time I was done, the period was basically over. I finished answering the last question when Mrs. Wireman asked to have the worksheets passed up. I sighed.

That... was so boring...

'Heh, you think that was boring? I've been watching some of the other classes here, and those things are worse...'

Gee... you're so reassuring..

'Hey, that's what I'm here for.'

e-mail author, talonr@hotmail.com