What's School?

Posted on 30 Aug 2018 @ 7:47pm by Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin

475 words; about a 2 minute read

After talking with Luke about Charlotte's future, Amaranai considered his offer and then considered his suggestion also. Amaranai knew that she should talk to her sister and recommend, or at least, encourage Charlotte to start working with Luke to learn and she hoped Charlotte would at least think about it.

Amaranai waited until the next day to talk to Charlotte. This would allow Amaranai to consider exactly how she wanted to bring up the subject. She couldn't think of an easy way, so the elder Franklin simply brought it up.

"Charlotte," she started. "I was thinking about your education." She paused as the girl looked across the table. "You might not be old enough to go to the Academy," she started. "But you still need to go to school."

Charlotte scoffed and put her fork down.

"I am not going to school with a bunch of children," she said. "I haven't been to real school in three years, so it's not like I'm missing anything."

Amaranai sighed. It was amazing that Charlotte had managed to skip school for that long and still survive. She knew that her parents hadn't cared and obviously Amaranai's sister and brothers didn't care, but Charlotte should have cared.

"It's not like that," Amaranai said. "Luke said he would be willing to teach you about different things. It wouldn't be like school. You could learn at your own pace. Take your time."

Amaranai paused.

Charlotte huffed and looked down at her plate.

"I don't know," Charlotte said after a moment. "I don't know what I even want to do with my life. What if I don't want to go to the Academy?"

Amaranai looked at her sister. She considered the statement and thought before she answered. Amaranai had a choice way back then. Charlotte should be afforded the same choice, even if the girl didn't make the same one. But what would she do? At least if Charlotte were in the Academy, it would keep her out of trouble and away from their family. That was the most important thing, after all.

"Can you at least give it a try?" Amaranai said after a few moments. "More than one session. Just to find out if it's something you like."

Charlotte looked back at her plate and spoke without looking at her sister.

"And if I don't like it?" she asked quietly.

Amaranai thought about the question and if there were any alternatives - which there were not.

"I guess we'll just have to figure it out."

"Okay," the younger girl said.

"Thank you," Amaranai said and stood up. "I'll let you know when he's available."

Amaranai moved to the replicator and placed her dirty dishes on it to be cleaned later. She moved toward her room to get ready for the day leaving her sister alone with her thoughts.

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