By Kohdok
"Oh no, I'm late!" Gnosha said as she finally lifted her head from her study desk. In a flurry of notes and pencils,
she whirled out of her chair and ran to her closet, grabbing the first uniform she could get her hands on. She'd
been getting up later and later over the past few days, and she couldn't really think why. Maybe it was because
she usually studied past midnight but...nah, that can't be it. Besides, that test was really important!
The young water mage looked in her mirror. She was a mess; her brown hair was frizzy and she had bags under
her eyes from sleep deprivation.
No time to fix that, she thought, simply grabbing a couple of black hair ties from the top of her dresser. She then
began the task of lifting her backpack. It was quite a feat for her small, thin frame to lift such a full bag,
crammed to the top with books, notebooks and anything else a student could possibly need. She made audible
grunts as she balanced it onto her back. Running for the door of the dorm, she grabbed a pack of uncooked
Pop-Tarts and headed out, slamming the door behind her.
She had every sign of a student that was late for school: putting on a shoe while walking, braiding her coarse,
difficult hair, and all the while with a strawberry poptart hanging out of her mouth. For her, being late was
unacceptable.
"Ahm gnna maygid!" She mumbled through her breakfast as she looked down at her watch while finishing her
last braid. She didn't stop running until she'd passed through the gates of the school. Passing through those
brick pillars made her finally relax, and she took a deep sigh towards the ground.
"Hey, Nosh!" A voice called away. Nosh looked up to see a blond girl waving at her. It was her friend, Tori, the air
mage who shared her class.
"Hey, Tori," Nosh replied, slumping somewhat. She was surprised when Tori started giggling, "What's wrong?"
Nosh asked.
"You... you look awful..." Tori giggled, "Your pigtails are lopsided and you're not wearing your glasses. I'm
amazed we were even able to recognize each other."
"You meanie..." Gnosha replied as she checked the pockets of her backpack for her extra pair of glasses, slipping
them over the bridge of her nose, allowing everything to finally come into focus, including Tori's trademark
dimples. This morning couldn't get any worse.
"Hey, Flat-Stuff!" The only thing that could make it worse bellowed as Nosh felt a pair of hands erupt
underneath hers and plant themselves on her chest. Not that there was anything to feel there but ribs, but it
was enough to piss her off anyway.
"Sanders, Knock it off!" Nosh yelled as she whirled around with her fist only to watch it easily dodged by her
molester.
"Woah!" A tall boy with his red hair in a ponytail said as he bent over backwards to dodge the fist. It was that
annoying fire mage again, that guy who always knew how to tick her off in the easiest way possible, "You've
gotten slower," he said as he righted himself, "And more forgetful. I don't think I felt a bra under there."
"Good morning, Sanders," Tori said, sweatdropping at the odd comment.
"How could you say something like that, you jerk?! I'm already late enough as it is!" Nosh yelled, her face a hot
red, "Besides, you're late, too! How can you be so calm about this?!"
"Woah, chill out," Sanders said, putting up his hands, "You know, I think that's you're problem. You're body isn't
growing normally because you're so uptight and grumpy all the time. I thought water girls were supposed to be
calm and curvy. Even that girl in the class next to us, I think her name's Sarah; compared to you, dayum, she's
a model!!" He said as he turned around and placed his arms on his hips, striking a confident pose.
"How can you talk about stuff like that so early in the morning?" Tori asked, sweatdropping. Nosh, however, had
already turned and was stomping her way into the building.
* * * * *
"Okay, class," the teacher said, "Today you're going to be taking your test reviewing the early history of magic,
You have all of the class to finish and..." As the teacher trailed off, Gnosha smiled and waited in anticipation.
Finally, all of those long nights of studying would pay off, she thought. She would ace this test and smash it in
the face of that jerk who was barely passing. She imagined all the ways she could rub it in his face, coming up
to the victory dance when she felt some tugging on her hair. She whirled around to see that Sanders had
already undone one of her braids and was going through it with a comb.
"What are you doing?!" She whispered angrily.
"You're hair's a wreck," Sanders replied, "I'm fixing it for you."
"I don't need a boy fixing my hair, knock it off!" Gnosha replied.
"Hey," Sanders replied, suddenly looking very serious, "Who do you think styles my hair each morning?"
indicating his ponytail.
"I don't want one of your crappy-"
"AHEM!" Nosh and Sanders looked up to see the teacher standing above them with a stern face, "May I
continue?" She asked.
"Yes, ma'am" The two replied, embarrased.
Finally, the tests were passed out and the students were told to begin. Nosh flipped over the test and began to
look at the questions. To her surprise, they seemed quite easy. It must be the studying, she thought as she tore
through page after page. She then rose from her seat and said "Teacher, I'm done!"
"Oh, now there's someone who know's what they're doing!" The teacher said, taking her paper, "In fact, it's a
perfect one-hundred! I think I'll have you do another!"
"Yes, Ma'am!' Nosh replied as a huge stack of paper was slammed onto her desk. The other students were
watching in awe as Gnosha went through the pages like wildfire, flinging them to the side as she finished them
faster than a supercomputer. Ah, and there was such a feeling of glory as the pencil-
"You have five minutes left, class."
Gnosha snorted as she opened her eyes. She rubbed her eyes and raised herself from the small puddle of drool
that had formed on her desk. Nosh looked down to see what page she was on only to be met with an empty
answer sheet.
"Oh no..." She muttered. The worst had happened. She'd fallen asleep and hadn't completed a single question.
"No... no, no ,no..." Gnosha muttered to herself as she looked at the blank sheet, "Wait a minute..."
* * * * *
"Flat-Stuff!" Sanders called as he walked down the hall, "Hey, Flat-stuff, where are you? Strange..." Me muttered
as he scratched his head. After the test was over, Gnosha was nowhere to be found. Turning a corner, he finally
saw her sitting in a corner of the hall, alone.
"Oh, there you are!" He said cheerfully as he walked over to her. Gnosha didn't respond. "What are you do
depressed about?" He asked when he finally reached her, squatting down.
"I'm not depressed about anything..." Gnosha replied.
"Flat-stuff, I happen to know that when a little stormcloud appears over you and starts raining on your head,
you're depressed about SOMEthing." Indeed, a little thunderhead had formed above Gnosha and hair and
shoulders were already wet from its precipitation. As it let out a somewhat cute boom of thunder, Gnosha began
to silently curse the fact that she had been born a water mage.
"But man, that test sure was a bummer, wasn't it," Sanders said, causing the stormcloud to grow somewhat, "I
had to guess on like half of those questions! And those true/false ones...How did you do?"
"I fell asleep and didn't wake up until the last five minutes. I had to do a lot of guessing, too..." Gnosha said as
the cloud expanded and now a small puddle began to form around.
"Now that's because you don't get enough sleep. When you don't let yourself sleep enough, your body forces
you too."
"I don't need someone who can barely pass history to tell me what to..." Gnosha said before stopping herself. She
suddenly burst up from the ground, grabbing Sanders by the collar, "YOU!!" She yelled.
"What? Sander's asked, "Stop it, you're getting me wet!" He winced as raindrops began to hit his face.
"You were sitting right behind me! Why didn't you wake me up?!" Gnosha yelled as lightning began to appear in
the cloud above her.
"I though you were concentrating." he replied nervously.
Lighting crackled as it flew out of the cloud and rain began to whirl as Nosh seethed at Sanders's response. She
took one long breath through her teeth, her eyes blazed and Sanders began to laugh nervously, like someone
who is about to be flattened. Finished taking in her breath, Gnosha finally exhaled in the form of a mere sigh.
Her grip on Sanders' collar relaxed and the cloud disappeared out of existance.
"Come on, we'll be late for our time in the dome..." Gnosha said as she walked past , wiping the water from her
glasses with her shirt. Sanders, now knowing that he wasn't going to die, also sighed and raised his hands in
the air. An orange glow began to emanate from them, producing enough heat to evaporate the water off of the
floor, leaving it as dry as it had started. He turned to see Gnosha slumped against the wall, holding her head.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"I'm fine!" Gnosha replied angrily, glaring back at him. She quickly picked herself back up and walked away.
* * * * *
*Whoosh!* Gnosha grumbled again as she watched another one of her ice shards miss its target.
"Woah," Her instructor said, "You're aim's been off today, Nosh. Something wrong?"
"Nothing..." Gnosha mumbled as a little puff of cloud dripped a little over her head in disgust. In truth, she was
far from okay. "That guy" had been a lot more annoying today than he had been most days, what with the
random groping, messing with her hair, and rubbing in how badly she'd done on the test. Yet there he was,
showing off how he could shoot off his flames from his finger like a pistol without a care in the world. At least he
didn't do that stupid dance like that other fire mage, or she probably would have killed him by now.
Now even angrier than before, Gnosha took aim with her ice crystals and fired again. Her attack hit the mark, if
her mark had been the hair of a nearby earth mage, who yiped as she felt the ice crystal pass within inches of
her head. A couple of strands fell slowly to the ground. Gnosha had her mouth agape in shock.
"Woah," She heard a painfully familiar voice say behind her. She turned to see Sanders again, "I guess I'd better
be careful with this around you today," he said as he walked up, holding his ponytail, "I don't wanna lose what
took me five years to get."
That was the last straw. "Sanders!" Gnosha yelled as she whipped her hands into the air and began to conjure
one of her more powerful attacks, "YOU...!"
"Hey, calm down!" Sanders said as he watched blue energy began to circle around Gnosha's wrists, "It was a
joke!"
"Hey, no firing spells at other students!" A supervising teacher yelled. Gnosha either hadn't heard him or didn't
care, because small whirpools of water began to form in cones around her hands.
"Nosh!" Sanders yelled nervously.
"Sanders! You...! YOU...!" Nosh didn't know if it was her anger, or the massive amount of magic she was using,
but she suddenly felt very light-headed. Nosh grunted slightly as she felt her strength suddenly leave her. It
was like watching slow motion as she could feel herself begin to fall and her spells detach from her hand,
simply dissolving away. Things began to grow blurry and she could feel the floor rapidly approach to meet her.
She thought she heard someone calling out her name as everything went black.
* * * * *
Nosh groaned somewhat as she began to wake up. She didn't know where she was or what time it was, but she
just knew that her head hurt and she didn't want to open her eyes. Soon, she began to notice the things around
her, like the feeling of a blanket across her body, the sound of birds outside, and the general chatter of students
leaving their classes. Nosh slowly opened her eyes to find herself in the school clinic, lying in one of the beds.
Oh yeah, she remembered I passed out. She sighed somewhat as she lifted her arm to her forehead to block out
some of the light coming through the window, it just felt so unbearable.
"Ah, you're awake," a voice said. Nosh turned to see the doctor standing near her, "What were you thinking,
coming to school with a fever like that?" She asked.
"...Fever...?" Nosh muttered.
"You were over a hundred degrees," The doctor replied, "You've been asleep for a few hours afte. He was so
worried that he's been watching you the whole time."
"Who?" Nosh muttered. A snore was her answer. Nosh turned to see that pony-tailed guy with his arms crossed
asleep in the chair next to her bed. "What's he doing here?" She asked.
"He carried you here by himself," The doctor replied, putting a hand on her cheek, smiling, "He was panting so
hard I think he ran."
"Him?" Nosh muttered as she glanced over at Sanders' sleeping form.
"Mr. Clarkson," The doctor said, "Ms. Brown is awake now,"
"Nkt wha?" Sanders muttered as he woke up, "Nosh!" he suddenly said, opening his eyes all the way. He turned
to Nosh, "You alright?" he asked with genuine concern, "How do you feel?"
"I feel fine..." Nosh muttered somewhat annoyed. It was pretty obvious she was lying, though.
"Oh that's good to hear," he said, "You should have taken my advice and gotten to bed earlier," he said jovially. A
little stormcloud began to form above Nosh's head once more.
"He's right, you know," the doctor said, causing the cloud to vanish with a pop, "People who are sleep-deprived
are at an increased risk of getting sick."
"Really...?" Nosh replied.
"That's right!" Sanders said, again striking a pose, "You need to take my advice more often."
"I don't need to take your advice," Sanny replied. However, despite how harsh her words were, she couldn't help
but smile knowing how Sanders really felt about her.
The end (Awwwww... he likes her!)