Chapter 201: Everything is Weird

The lesson for the two had been in large part silent for the fact that they were currently working through a test paper Parc was guessing Glynda had prepared. He doubted Velvet had so quickly put together something like that in the near week since Glynda first agreed to find the girls a tutor.

Lili was flying through the answers, her pen scratching down more and more words with every passing minute that lead into half an hour and then into near an hour. Only pausing to scratch her head confusedly later in the six paper double sided exam.

Ferry on the other hand, she wasn't having as much luck. For her it was like the world was spinning. Her mouth hung open, her eyes widened and grew misty and her hand shivered.

Page one. Nothing.

Second side. Nothing.

Page two, both sides, nothing.

Page three… page four… page five… nothing.

By page six small staining droplets were dying splotches of the last paper a shade darker. Ferry didn't whimper, it still hurt though. She felt so stupid. So useless. She couldn't even answer one of the questions.

She desperately scoured each page, flipped through them again and again searching for just one thing, just a single thing she could answer, yet, again… nothing. She couldn't answer them, her mind was blank, the numbers turned to squiggles, the big words looked longer and the sentences mashed into single words.

"Ferry, are you okay?"

Velvet fell to a light squat besides Ferry, her ears drooping in concern for the girl whose eyes were a stain of red.

Ferry didn't respond, all she did was stare at the jumble of words, numbers, numerations and the like with shaky eyes. She so wanted to prove herself—prove to herself, that she was capable. That she was smart and yet, when she looked to her right and saw Lili's paper. All the words she'd written with her pen, the answers, the crossouts of misspelling she'd caught, Ferry felt pathetic.

Was it even worth teaching her? Could she even remember anything she was taught? She was just barely getting the hang of times and division but here they were showing a strange squiggle and a small three just above one of the numbers. What was that? It wasn't right. She wasn't right.

"It's alright if you're struggling Ferry. I'm not here to judge you about what you know. I'm here to see what you don't know so we can figure out what I need to teach you."

Velvets voice was soft, sweet and the smile plastered on her lips was as natural as anything.

"I don't know anything."

Ferry's lip trembled and she said. Staring down spitefully at the paper Ferry reached for it, crumbled it and threw it across the table Parc had set up for them and burst from her seat, rushing around Velvet and charged up the steps to the door.

"Ferry!"

Velvet called but was too late as Ferry was already upon the door and pushing it open.

Lili stopped her scribbling and laid down her pen to watch what happened. A sad frown taking her expression. She couldn't imagine how difficult it was for Ferry. She was surrounded by people who were practically geniuses compared to herself, the amount of stress and frustration that must be welling within her to prove she wasn't just an idiot must have been immense.

Velvet straightened herself, looked to Lili and with a worried whine decided to go after Ferry.

"Velvet, its fine. I'll go talk to her."

Halting her stride Velvet spun around to see Professor Evans unfurling the paper Ferry had tossed away and was reading through. Sighing when he passed page four and found nothing but 'I don't know,' written again and again in shaky lines of a hand unused to writing.

"Are you… are you sure? I don't mind going."

Velvet unable to look him in the eye asked.

"I'm sure. You keep an eye on Lili, make sure she doesn't cheat."

"Hey! I don't have anything on me that will even let me cheat!"

She was ignored as Parc set Ferry's wrinkled paper down and with a nod to Velvet made his way up the stairs and outside.

Still inside, Velvet was left staring worriedly at the doorway. She wasn't expecting Ferry to act like that, it was like a child having a tantrum and running away because things weren't going their way. Looking to the paper, Velvet reached for it and flipped through each page, her expression faltering and weakening with every empty box and screaming 'I don't know.'

It hurt, it honestly hurt her heart to see it. Just the way those words were written with such desperation, Velvet could feel the painful emotions Ferry was going through. So much so that her own tears were beginning to trickle down her cheeks.

"Ferry… she's had it hard."

Velvet jolted and shot her gaze onto Lili.

"She hasn't really had the chance to learn anything. She's been isolated on her own with her adoptive mother for the last ten years so she hasn't had the chance to go to school or learn anything. She doesn't know people and she doesn't talk a lot because people scare her. So please. Don't blame her."

Meeting their eyes, Velvet could feel a melancholic seriousness to Lili's chestnuts.

"I'm… It's not my business to blame her for something that isn't her fault."

Though short, Velvet smiled at Lili and Lili furrowed her brows. They eyes still connected for a few moments before Lili nodded and returned to her paper.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

***

Parc's stride was slow as he climbed the steps onto the cliff. When he could he turned his head to the right, then the left in search of Ferry and soon found her, she was sat on the edge of the cliff a few meters away, her arms wrapped around her legs and her face buried into her lap. Her ears—the donkey ones—flat against her head of brilliant blue hair. The odd whining cry escaping her.

Approaching her, Parc kept his steps light but loud enough that she could hear them. She didn't react, not even as he grunted and seated himself besides her, one leg pulled onto the cliff while the other hung off the edge.

He didn't say anything, instead leaned back, shut his eyes and breathed the fresh evening air. The sun was setting far in the distance. It was early, a side effect of Vale's rapidly approaching winter time.

There weren't any exchanges of words initially, just silence between the two as Parc waited for Ferry's cries to soften and stop.

"I'm not very smart."

Was what broke the ice between them. The sound having jolted Ferry into a shake. She didn't lift her head from her lap.

"I failed a bunch of my tests, dropped out of college and couldn't even finish an online course I'd bought because I was bored of it. I was angry, annoyed, frustrated, generally any emotion that wasn't very good is what I was feeling. Frankly, I hated myself because I hated just about everyone else because they had something I didn't."

Ferry pulled her head from her lap, looked to him. Her eyes bloodshot and cheeks stained with tears and a small dirty droplet of snot hanging from her nose which she wiped away with thesleeve of her blazer.

"What?"

She asked, her voice shaky.

"Parents."

He chuckled and let his other leg dangle off the ledge as he stared up at the orange sky and white clouds.

"See, when I was thirteen, I basically lost everything. My dad abandoned me and my mom disappeared. I was left on my own in a world that hated my very existence. I was lucky, though at the time I didn't believe that myself. See, after everything, my dad's abandonment, my moms disappearance, I still had people who cared for me. They got me through the rough patches, helped me get through highschool and most of college."

Parc snorted, the laughed.

"Honestly I was a terrible person back then. Cold, detached, uncaring. They didn't care, they still came over, made me food, walked me to school. All for what? My derision?" His words slowed, he shook his head then continued. "It's a miracle they dealt with my shit at all."

Turning to Ferry he could see he was confusing her.

"Look at me, talking about myself. Clearly I've still got an ego to me. Ferry, it will get easier."

Lifting an arm he hook it around her back, held her shoulder and pulled her closer to himself.

"Things have changed so suddenly for you, you went from an island where every day was the same to a whole new world you didn't even know existed. Where the stress of grimm, of hunger and everything else just doesn't exist. It's a big change, massive even, and it all happened out of nowhere. So it's completely understandable to be annoyed and frustrated."

Ferry lingered her gaze on him, narrowed her lips then turned down and to the emerald forest.

"I miss my home…"

She muttered and wiped away a trail of tears but a moment later they returned.

"But I don't want to go back… I… I like this place… I like the people… I like the food that isn't fish… I like that there's no shamblers… I like the blankets and clothes… but its so… so weird. Lili say's I'm weird because I always wake up early and get ready to go fishing or looking for berries then she reminds me that I don't have to… it's weird."

Ferry nuzzled into Parc's side but didn't let his smell get to her. She wasn't in the mood to get distracted by it.

"Everything's weird Ferry—Everyone, is weird. Just weird in their own way."

Both went still, staring off into the distance for a few minutes when Ferry pulled off of him, cleaned her cheeks of trails and sniffled one last time. Slowly she lifted herself off the ground with Parc joining her not a moment later.

"You ready to go back?"

Ferry nodded slowly and Parc softly smiled in response.

"Then lets get going."

***

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There was a fuckup on my part. Was supposed to be another chapter out prior to the previous chapter named 'Mirror.' That's been released now and everything is in the proper order. So head on back there to fix any consistency issues.