Ava quickly retracts her finger and turns around. She puts both her hands on her head and starts muttering to herself ''I can't believe it. Am I going insane? I knew he was there, I knew it! I knew it!'' Dave also turns around and puts a hand on her shoulder. Ava doesn't want to lift her head, she's too scared as to what Dave's reaction might be. Dave lifts Ava's chin with his hand and looks at her worriedly.
''Are you sure you're alright Ava? First with your weird dream and now this.'' Dave sighs and continues. ''I'm really worried about you Ava, you've been acting weird for a while'' Ava doesn't like how he's condescending her and replies ''But I swear he was there! Why won't you believe me!''
Dave backs up in shock of the sudden yelling and puts his hands out to make sure she's not getting the wrong idea ''Hey Ava, you know I trust you, we've always been together since the start yeah? Now please calm down.''
Ava finally starts breathing normally and regains her composure a bit. 'The old man is a figment of her imagination' she says to herself. She lets her shoulders down a bit and her heartbeat stabilises. ''You're right Dave, let's go before we're late to class.''
On that note they walked to class together. Ava still couldn't keep her eye off the spot she saw the old man. And during all her classes she was struggling to keep attention. There was a class about metrics and how to increase elasticity to some hard objects, subjects she often found interesting but she just couldn't help drifting off.
Ava just looked out the window in confusion, her face puckered up and Dave gave a sideways glance but didn't say anything. During break her friend Emily sat next to her. ''Hey genius, we've got an algebra test next period, did you study this time?''
Ava didn't respond, she was still lost in thought. She was feeling a bit depressed because of how long the day felt but she didn't feel like sleeping as well. Also the chair she was sitting on was uncomfortable.
''Hello! Earth to Ava! Are you there?'' Emily knocked on Ava's head like how you would knock on a door. ''Ow! Stop! Are you insane?'' Ava replied, finally being able to incapicate Emily. Ava rubbed her head in pain. She noticed that Emily's hands were clean for once, which didn't happen often since Emily works at a farm.
''Don't ever do that again or I'll beat you up.'' Ava replied coolly. ''I'd like to see you try Ms. Skeleton with your spaghetti arms.''
Emily thought her own joke was genius and was laughing like a maniac until Ava lifted her hand and made her hand a tight fist and quickly brung it down upon Emily's head. ''Ow! It was just a joke.'' Emily replied, faking her pain. She was scrunching up her face like she was going to cry ''Ms. Skeleton please don't punch me again otherwise you might split my head'' Emily said, struggling to keep a straight face. ''Alright enough with the jokes'' Ava sighed ''How's it going with the family?'' Ava continued. Emily's face darkened a bit. Something clearly was going wrong at the farm.
''I noticed your hands weren't all dirty for once, is there something wrong with the crop or something?'' Ava inquired. Emily nodded ''Yeah, there's a disease going around and we're really struggling to seperate part of our corn.'' Emily replied whilst looking at her feet dangle about the ground.
Farms weren't able to be that big nowadays because every farm had to use some sort of UV light. This was of course the reason because there wasn't any sunlight anymore. So if there was a disease it didn't take long before all the crops were infected and they had to replace everything. Emily's farm was mostly untouched because corn doesn't have that many diseases but a new one surfaced recently and it has a devastating effect all across the country.
It was also impossible to plant the crops elsewhere since a whole new farm needed to be made with new fertile land and transporting the UV lights was most expensive of all. Some ingenious farmers found a smart way to bypass all the diseases by using small 1 by 1 plots of land to plant the corn.
The only downside for this is that the yield is way smaller and there's a lot more glass needed to encase every single crop. A huge amount of the farmers didn't have the money or resources to fund such a farm and didn't want to take the risk of earning less money. The government was planning to make all farms unionized in one big farm plot but there wasn't that much money to actually realise these plans.
''So what are you guys going to do. I'm not sure how wealthy your parents are but it must cost a lot to create a new plot.'' Ava replied. Emily looked up and was just about to say something until Dave butted in with his flask in hand. ''There's rumours of some new corn seeds going around which are way more durable and can grow with way less light.'' Dave took a sip of his water and continued. ''My parents are desperate to get their hands on them but they're going quickly and the state doesn't have that many of them yet.''
Emily looked at Dave with a sparkle in her eyes ''If we can get our hands on those seeds our farm would be saved!'' Emily said clearly excited about this new development. Dave nodded and sat down next to Ava. He was still watching Ava closely but seemed to calm down a bit when he saw her engaging in a normal conversation.
The bell suddenly rang and it was time for her last period. Algebra. She shuddered by the thought of it. She didn't hate algebra but she just thought it was really boring. The teacher was always closely watching Ava like she was about to turn into a T-Rex or something.
She sat down and her test was handed to her by her teacher. Who's eyes expanded 300% of its size by seeing Ava. ''Good afternoon Miss Sprat'' Ava said. This was clearly a mistake on Ava's part because Miss Sprat's eyes widened an additional 200%. Her eyes were almost bigger than her glasses were. ''Yes yes, sit down Ava.'' Miss Sprat responded. Not blinking one second when she watched Ava sit down.
Ava turned around behind her where Emily was sitting and Ava whispered to her ''You think Miss Sprat is creepier today than other days?'' Emily didn't take notice first so Ava had to knock on her desk to get her attention. Ava repeat what she said but Emily responded knowingly ''I think she's as creepy as she's always been.''
''Emily Jefferson!'' Miss Sprat shouted. Emily quickly sat up and was shaking in terror ''Y-y-yes Miss Spratt?'' Emily said softly. ''What did you say about me young lady?'' Miss Sprat shouted again, spitting everywhere.
Miss Sprat got the nickname Miss Spat because she was always spitting with every word she said. The whole class was holding its breath, waiting for Emily's response. Emily opened her mouth but nothing came out but a little squeak. ''That's what I thought, Emily. Next time be more careful what you say next time.'' Miss Sprat said, satisfied with Emily's fear.
Miss Sprat was clearly sparing Emily. If Ava did this she would be suspended to working in the farm for the next two months. ''Alright silence class, the test begins now. No talking or cheating or you'll be working in the farm until 8PM for the next two weeks.
Ava focused on the test but it was pretty easy she thought. Most of the subjects she already covered with her father since her father was a major nerd for everything that was math. She was done fairly quickly and handed the test to Miss Sprat with a satisfied look on her face.
Ava waited outside until the two others were done. Dave was the first one to come out and he said he was fairly confident in his performance. Next came Emily with a depressed look on her face. ''What's up Emily?'' Dave asked.
''I got so confused by the questions that I just drew a dog'' Emily replied sadly. Ava thought that was hilarious and was struggling to keep her laugh in and almost burst out when she thought about Miss Sprat grading the test and just seeing a dog but kept her composure.
''If I don't start improving my grades I'll get sent to the boarding school'' Emily said worriedly. This killed Ava's mood and she immediately tried to console her. ''No way they would do that! You put so much work into the farm they wouldn't dare to do that.''
Emily was clearly biting back tears but just nodded. ''Yeah I'll be ok'' Emily said and started walking. ''Where are you going Emily?'' Dave asked and grabbed her by the hand. ''Home.'' Emily replied. Not wanting to turn her face. She was clearly crying. Dave replied ''Oh, sorry'' and let her go.
Ava and Dave walked outside and were waiting on the bus until Dave broke the awkward silence. ''Do you think Emily will be alright?'' Dave asked worriedly. ''Yeah I'm sure, I'll send her a text to keep up her studies and send some funny cat videos. She'll be alright.'' Ava said to comfort Dave.
Dave wanted to say something but bit his lip and looked up into the darkness. Dave was always a very empathic person, he was always trying to help people in pain. But sometimes people just wanted to be left alone and he had trouble trying to comprehend that.
…
It was a fairly silent trip back home. Dave and Ava weren't really in the mood to talk to each other after the events that just occured. Ava opened the door waiting for her dad to immediately hug her as he always did but he wasn't home yet. There was dinner on the counter with a note.
''Eat me!'' with a big smiley face resembling her dad.
Ava ate her dinner in silence and cleaned the dishes. Her dad wasn't home yet what she thought was weird because he was always home earlier than her. But now he was really late. Ava decided to stop worrying about it and walked up the stairs to her bedroom.
She was getting really tired from the exhausting and boring day she just had so she jumped on her bed. Ava sent some funny cat videos to Emily and told her to cheer up and continue her studies. Emily just responded with a smiley face but Ava was content with that.
Ava put her phone down and quickly fell asleep. Her last thought was 'I sure hope I don't have a nightmare again' Which of course was the case as she drifted into another terrifying dream.