Stephen Baxter
August 01, 2008 10:24 AM
Passing Time during Midterm by Stephen Baxter
Midterm was boring. Most of his friends seemed to have disappeared along with Sorrel and Ash (although they had been gone longer, and, sadly enough, with better reason). There didn't even seem to be anything interesting set up for the students to do at school.It was boring.
Stephen, in an effort to find something to fill in the days actually found himself studying even more than he had been before. He was in the commons, late in midterm, going over some Ancient Runes work when his eyes started to glaze over. Dropping the book, he let his head fall back, hitting the edge of the seat and stared at the ceiling. There had to be- wait. Wait. There had been something on the noticeboard. He'd noticed it right off when midterm started but then there had been other things happening. Snow. Thinking about Sorrel and wondering if he should write her a letter. Writing her a letter and then deciding not to send it because he wasn't sure if it made him sound like a complete sap and he didn't want her to think that he was. Hiding the letter amongst things in his trunk so that there was little chance of anyone else stumbling upon it while he considered his options. By which time he'd turned to homework to take his mind from it - where had this train of thought come from? Oh, right. The noticeboard.
Stephen turned his head without really moving from his position. Definitely a notice. Notices were.... ok, they weren't always interesting, but they rarely had anything to do with homework. Which was a plus in their favour.
A strike against it went up because he couldn't read it from here. Stephen briefly wondered when he'd got so lazy and then decided that it was a momentary aberration. Pushing the books to one side, he jumped to his feet and took the direct route to the noticeboard without minding the furniture between him and his goal. The Fair, huh? Stalls...
Ok, this was definitely interesting. Ideas for things far more attention keeping than homework began to swim through his head. Fun things he'd seen and done at fair's back home. Or seen on the telly. There had to be something he could do. And then the idea struck him. Pulling down the form to apply he started to fill it out quickly - although there was a minor pause at the beginning when he had to retrieve a writing implement. He halted at the point where it asked for his collaborators, before - with a shrug - filling in Sorrel and Ash's names. They'd be up for it, naturally. It was filled in far too quickly, really, and soon he had been and gone from Connell's office, handing it in as instructed.
Paperwork done, it was time now for planning. Although, it occured to him, it might be an idea to get a letter to his collaborators about they fact that they were collaborating. And to get their input on who best to choose. Stephen settled down to that task, ignoring the as yet unfinished essay sitting beside him on the seat.
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