Frostbite

Chapter Eight

"Eira."

No response.

"Eira!"

Eira's eyes snapped open. She rubbed them, yawning. "I'm sorry. I must have dozed off." Again.

"Honestly," Edan sighed. "That's the third time this week. And it's only Tuesday. How late are you staying up these days?"

Eira averted her gaze guiltily. "You wouldn't like to know."

"What book is it this time, then?"

"It's a mystery set in the middle of a big city. It's from the point of view of a detective and the serial killer he is trying to find. It ends up when the detective does find out who the murderer is, it turns out it is his best friend from childhood. I just got to that point last night. It's a very gripping story. I'm nearly finished it now."

"Sounds... intriguing," Edan commented, trying not to sound disinterested— which he obviously was. He was never much of a reader. Eira had much more luck discussing stories with Gwen, who actually liked them and read for leisure.

"I know you don't like those sorts of things, but you did ask me about it."

"I did," Edan affirmed, before changing the subject, "I don't know how Miss Landon doesn't notice you sleeping. I think she just lets you."

Eira shrugged. "I imagine so." She looked down at her parchment. She had only one sentence worth of notes written. She couldn't help it; mathematics was overly tedious. She enjoyed Literature, Language, History and Science. She even partially enjoyed her Frost training. She liked using her powers, but she disliked the sternness of Madam Fairburn. They would be getting a new Tutor in one month's time, however, which was a relief. Eira acted shy and passive—most of the time—but even she'd been in trouble with the Madam. She even liked combat training, despite how terribly tired she felt during it and afterwards. In fact, she preferred every single class to Mathematics. The Tutor wasn't bad—she was probably their least strict one, which certainly counted for something. It was just the topics. The endless equations and calculations. Eira didn't think many of them would be that useful later in life, unless she was aiming to become a scholar of Mathematics. She wasn't.

"That is everything for today. Make sure to do the equations I hand out before Thursday. That is all, goodbye children."

Miss Landon was an odd woman. Odd, but nice. She was aged and Eira thought that might be one of the reasons that she never noticed her falling asleep in class. Perhaps the old woman was short-sighted.

The six students packed up their things and filed out of the classroom, all making their way to the dining hall to eat their lunch. Eira still hadn't shaken the feeling of sleep. She yawned close to ten times on the walk there. Edan obviously noticed, but said nothing. Eira was grateful for that. The dining hall was already full of students. No doubt her class had gone over its time limit. It happened too often to count. Eira and Edan went to the food table and began to fill their plates with food. After they'd got everything they wanted, they headed over to their usual table.

"Hello, Gwen," Eira said, sitting beside the girl, who was already eating her meal. Edan took the seat to Eira's other side.

"Good... good afternoon, Miss Gwen!" Edan was still overly shy about talking to her. Eira thought it was amusing, though endearing.

"I told you, just Gwen is fine," she replied, amusement filling her voice. "But hi, you two. How were your lessons this morning?"

"Tiring," Eira muttered, slumping in her seat.

"She fell asleep," Edan put in.

"Again?" Gwen asked. She turned her attention to Eira. "Did you stay up late reading last night?"