Page 19 of Group Studies

A few students groaned. I gratefully turned from Ashe and focused on my excitable non-magical psychiatrist. He set his tablet onto the projector, and it appeared on thick white canvas across the wall behind his desk. CBASIC ran vertically along the left side.

C – Communication.

B – Benevolence.

A – Alignment of interests.

S – Similarities.

I – Integrity.

C – Capability.

“Now, I want historical examples from the reading of each of these,” Doctor Roy continued. “Then we’re starting our mini-unit on trust. One class for each letter of the acronym starting with Communication.”

I glanced at Ashe. Like always, he’d closed his eyes and gotten comfortable with zero interest in the lecture. I wrinkled my nose. We needed to pass these classes to get out of here, he should pay attention.

He lightly kicked my foot and jerked his chin toward the front of class, his beard swallowing a grin. I scowled at him before turning back to Doctor Roy.

CBASIC, the elements of trustworthiness. I wasn’t sure if I could even find all six in myself, much less another person.

After a short lecture and question-and-answer session, Doctor Roy broke us up into groups for Communication Origami. I cringed when Mercedes and I ended up in the same group, but silently thanked Doctor Roy for making Alrick move across the room.

Ashe didn’t leave my side to find his assigned group. Instead, he eyed one of the other students who wandered over until the kid nervously moved to Ashe’s assigned group instead. Across the room, my excitable psychiatrist waved his hands as he explained something to one of the younger girls. Completely oblivious.

“Well, I’m not happy about this,” Mercedes said, looking at Ashe from across the loose circle our group formed. “You should not get special treatment because you have a hard-on for Skeletons.” She twisted her lips, and glared at me.

Wrapping my arms around my waist, I rubbed my thin sides. I’d put on a little weight, but she wasn’t wrong. Between saving rations to get my hair fixed and my new inability to eat in the mornings, I’d not put on much.

“Fucking adorable, name-calling,” Ashe said. “Very adult of you.”

“Oh, snap,” someone said as their attention bounced between Ashe and Mercedes.

My redheaded roommate’s already red face turned a shade darker. “Do you know who I am?”

Ashe grunted. “And that’s a wonderful segue into communication. Is the trustee, Mercedes, in this case, communicating clearly and openly with me?”

Doctor Roy walked behind Mercedes. “Oh, splendid, you’ve already started.” He lay down a stack of origami paper and a pile of blindfolds. “If you have any questions, I’ll be here and there.”

“I’ll fucking go first,” Ashe said, pulling up the website with instructions for creating the various shapes.

I cocked my head to the side. Ashe’s snooze through Doctor Roy’s lecture hadn’t been as deep as it appeared. I picked up a square of origami paper and tied the blindfold across my eyes. Ashe’s rich voice called out directions. We had to follow them by feel, trying to make the shape he described.

When he finished, we removed our blindfolds. Despite the tension between Mercedes and me, everyone laughed. No one’s shape was even close. Mercedes hadn’t even tried. A wad of crinkled paper sat in front of her. Between the group's humor and my ability to brush off Mercedes’ underhanded comments, we ended up having a good talk about what parts of Ashe’s directions were effective for each person and why.

Another student went next, and we started the process over.

I ended up going last and got stuck with the heart shape. Although the pattern in the directions made sense, communicating them was another story. I wrinkled my nose, looking at Ashe’s duck beard sticking out of his big black blindfold. It kind of looked like a heart.

“Ah,” I stammered.

Before I could continue, the tritone of doom blared twice, ending class.

I managed not to shriek, though I jumped out of my seat in surprise.

Pain ripped into my calf. Something hot and sharp dragged up the back of my leg. Still biting my lips shut, I tipped backward, my legs tangled with my chair.

The ground tilted. Alrick caught me before I fell. His black beady eyes narrowed as he mouthed ‘dragon.’ The blood drained out of my face. Only his arms kept me from hitting the ground. If he dropped me, I’d fall like a stone.