A day in the life of a child (Tatum's Work thread)(Done)

~ Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep ~

"Go away, Frost Clock... I'm not ready to go to school yeeet..."

~ Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep ~

"Shudduuuuuup...."

~ Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, be-click ~

"Fiiiiine, I'm up, I'm up, see?  This is me up, I'm getting up, I'm in my pajamas, I'm going to get breakfast, then I'm gonna do my morning routine then go to school, raaaawww..."

This was how the day would normally start for Tatum.  Wake up in the morning, cook an egg, toast some bread, pour a glass of milk, pour a glass of orange juice, then sit down and watch TV.  She woke up considerably early in the morning, as it was the only way to get everything done on time while still being able to relax and not stress about being late.

There was almost no cartoons as early as Five in the Morning, so she tends to leave it on the News as white noise.

"Today may turn out to be a very sunny day.  Partly cloudy all throughout the morning, where we'll have clear skies during the rest of the day, be sure to have sun screen at the ready because the sun will be beating down considerably-"

"Hot day today..." Tatum groaned, cooking herself a sunny-side up egg.  "... I'm gonna hate my Jacket today, aren't I?"

Breakfast eaten, teeth brushed, and hair, erm, also brushed, she was almost ready for school.  All that was left was a quick check of her necessities.

"Pencils... check... homework... done, thank goodness, I don't want to rush it again... today is.... what again?  Literature, PE, math, and science, right?  Then that means my books and my work out uniform.  Check, check, uniform is in my gym locker, so check there already... Extra note boooooks... watch, check and check... I guess I'm good to go."  She was intentionally stalling by now.  There was one last thing to do, and she dreaded doing it.

She looked up at the wall, where he newly cleaned Uniform hung.  Like clockwork, she had a clean one hung up by the door so that she had easy access to it.  The idea was to make sure she could see it so that she couldn't make an excuse about not finding it.  She was able to get away with it at first as a joke, but the school does not tolerate constant tomfoolery.  It wasn't a problem at first, but these days that uniform has come to represent something she was uncomfortable with.

Her imprisonment and self-alienation.

She wondered about goofing off for a bit before heading to school.  One quick check of the clock would tell her.

"... it's gonna be six soon... Class doesn't start until eight, right?"  She grinned.  Normally she wouldn't take this kind of a risk, but she had to make the effort.  Sunlake Palms has proven to be very handy for meeting new people.  Already she has met two, one Gabriel and one Hikaru.  With some childish abandon, she took to her jacket and made the quick run out.  Her dorms were close to Seven Stars Academy, anyway, so if she was good she could make a quick run through Sunlake to see if she could find anything new and still make it back on time to class.  With that known and her jacket thrown on, she was ready to see what surprises met her at Sunlake palms.


It turns out that the trip to Sunlake Palms was worth it.  She made yet another interesting acquaintence in the form of Selenus.  It was a very terrifying first meeting, considering the stunt that was pulled, but she didn't mind if it meant meeting a new potential friend.

Even so, it was already seven forty two when she came back home.  She needed to be quick if she was to make it on time.  Thankfully, quick was a talent of hers, especially when on foot.  A five minute quick bath and a re-brushing left her with twelve minutes to make it to class.  She really only needed eight, with the shortcuts she knew.

Still, it brought her back to reality.  That uniform that waited patiently for her.  She had only succeeded in delaying the inevitable.

With a sigh, she managed to force herself to wear the uniform.  It was a shame that it made her feel so out of touch with everyone.  She rather thought she looked cute in it.  With a second sigh and bag at the ready, she opened the door and made her way to class.  Then she came back in to turn off the TV.  Now she was ready to get to class.

Down the hallway, she dashed, rushing her way through the door that lead to the stairs.  Down the stair hand-guards did she slide, an act already proven much faster than the elevator.  Through the door did she rush as she joined the crowds of students making their way into class.  In a way, it was kind of odd, walking through the mass of teenagers just to get to the mass of children her age.  It usually made her feel very small.

Actually, she rather liked feeling small.  Most of the teens are too busy to notice her, assuming she was just trying to catch up with her peers.  While she was still surrounded by teens towering over her, she liked to pretend that she was walking through a street crowded with giants, avoiding their steps with expert ability.  It was a silly game she allowed herself to indulge in before getting to her group.

At any rate, she managed to get to her group on time.  From there, it was just a matter of (rather barely), making it on time to her class.  Actually, she was beginning to feel the weight of the risks she took just to sneak out and explore the city.  Normally she would have arrived some ten minutes ago.  The fact that she made it this close to the clock was very easily noticed by her teachers.  At least she did make it on time.  It was time to start another day.

Another day in the same old routine.

First class of the day, Literature.  Tatum has nothing against literature.  It was a good way to pass the time, and sometimes she gained knowledge of an interesting book.  It's not her favorite subject, especially when she is sometimes asked to stand up and read a portion of the story in front of class, but she has nothing against it.

Still, why did it have to start out with one of the most awkward questions a teacher could ask?

"Are you alright?" said the teacher, "You're normally here much sooner than this."

She could hear the murmurs of the students as this was mentioned.  Sometimes she found herself wishing she wasn't able to make out what they were saying.

"The Ice Princess almost came late?"

"You think she's beginning to not care about class now?"

"I wouldn't put it past her.  She doesn't care about anything else, so why not class?"

"Wow, gutsy coming this close to the clock."

"And I thought I was bad, coming in at two minutes before the time!"

"That's not something to be proud of, Jeff."

Jeff... Tatum hated Jeff.  Probably because he was a delinquent who didn't even care about being a delinquent.  He was the epitome of lazy.  Of course, she only knows this because she was given the displeasure obligation of tutoring for him, on the request of the teacher.  At least now, they realized, it was better to give him detention for his laziness.  But Jeff was besides the point.

She was aware of nickname "Ice Princess" that the students have given her.  If it wasn't obvious, it was because of the constant cold shoulder that she had not choice but to give everyone.  As much as she wanted too, she was incapable of making friends due to the absolute need to do her best in school.  As long as she did well, the school would let her stay.  This way, her parents wouldn't have to worry about her well being.  The dorms are a very safe place, and many of her needs were met this way.  She even learned how to cook for herself.  Thanks to her self taught cooking, she also learned where the nurses office was.  She was safe and could care for herself with these accommodations, but only for as long as she could keep up good grades.  Which meant that friends were a distraction, so she unfortunately had to cut them off very early into her new school career.

Of course, this lead to the eventual nicknaming of Ice Princess, and quite a lot of teasing and rumor making.

"I heard that she found a way to get rid of her parents, just so she could study and study!"

"I heard that she once cared, but because she got a B in class once, she got upset and decided to just work on getting nothing but straight As!  Talk about over reaction!"

"Gah, I bumped into her!  Now my heart is gonna freeze just like hers did!  I won't care any more about anyone!"

"Quick!  Only an act of true love can save you from that fate!  Show your mom that you love her!"

"Oh, I'm definitely going to do that!"

In all honesty, while a lot of the rumors did hurt, that last one was amusing to her.  After all, it referenced a favorite movie of hers.

Oh, right, the teacher had asked her a question.

"I'm fine," she replied, "I just got a little too absorbed in my studies last night, that's all."  From that, a new explosion of murmurs started.

"Whoa, she does morning studies?!"

"What kind of weirdo student risks getting let just to study?!"

"Ice Princess needs to stop having such cold focus!"

"Well, at least you're on time," the teacher said, somehow unaware of the murmurs, "Please take your seat and we'll begin."

With that, she kept her head low and took to her seat, trying to ignore the stares and murmurs of the other students.

Normally, sitting in the back row, she was thankful for being ignored.  It made having to do her school work more bearable.  Since everyone is facing forward, she only has to worry about, maybe, three other students, and they tended to ignore her anyway for more interesting things.  Sometimes she wonders if they ever thought about teasing her, but didn't because they feared what would happen if they got caught.  Seven Stars is very, very, well maintained, after all.  If it didn't work like clockwork, it was almost immediate noticed and corrected.

Besides, there was better things to worry about then potential bullies.  Today they were doing a literature study of one of her favorite books!  The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland.  She grew up on Alice.  In fact, she remembers asking her mother, every night, to read to her from that book.  When her mother was finished, she would ask her to read it again.

That was before they had moved to Endymion.  Before the three of them got consumed by work.

As the literature analysis and lesson of Alice continued, she found herself daydreaming a little.  She knew Alice in Wonderland so well she could recite it by memory, almost word for word, so a little daydreaming couldn't hurt, right?

She loved to daydream about making friends with Alice, about how they would explore wonderland together, and of how they would get very close to one another.  Tatum even imagined a giant Alice, clutching to her both for affection and comfort, especially during the more stressful periods of the adventure.  Tatum even nicknamed Alice Pleasence, after her apparent middle name, because she was such a "pleasent" person to be with.

While the story would end with the cards attacking her and Alice waking up from there, Tatum instead added an extra spin on the tale, involving Pleasence pulling a giant monster act and fighting off the armies that the Queen and King of Hearts would send after her.  Then, once the battle was won, Tatum would ride on Pleasence's shoulder as they walked through the sea to get back to Britain, where she would surprise everyone and end up taking over as Queen due to being too big to handle.  Then her parents would come to meet them, and they would be a family again, and Pleasence would keep both them and all of Endymion safe!  Pleasence would also keep all the boys away, since most of them were the ones who spread the rumors and talk about her behind her back.

The class bell would snap her out of her silly fantasy.  It was time for Physical Education.

Physical education. It was... different from what she remembers in school before she moved to Endymion. Before, Physical Education was more a class where they taught sports as well as made the class do physical activities such as running twenty laps and doing push ups. At Seven Stars, while they do still perform similar acts to that, they actually go out of their way to teach what happens to the body during such things and why it's important to keep your health up. She was surprised to about what happens to the muscles as she exercised, and why proper breathing was so important.

Of course, due to the fact that she regularly pushes her body to the limit just to run free throughout Endymion, this classed turned out to be her best class. It was also her favorite. A lot of the activities made it quite handy for improvising her way through much of her exploration. Running laps was good for stamina building, which was great for long term running through the city. The hurdle was excellent for obstacle handling (though the way she handles some of city obstacles would never be allowed on this track.) The vaulting boxes were surprisingly inspirational for teaching her a means to continue her momentum while jumping or vaulting over things. P.E. was, essentially, the perfect place for her to refine her self taught skills as a freerunner through the city.

Today's activity was the rope climb. She was pretty decent at the rope climb. She'd consider herself, at least, the third best rope climber in her class. The honor of first best belonged to a guy by the name of Drake. He has been, so far, the one who's consistently reached the fifteen foot mark of the rope climb, just five feet away from the top. Tatum herself seems to max out at twelve feet, but she was determined to try and out do everyone. Imagine the uses she could get out of rope climbing for her city explorations!

As usual, Drake went first. Tatum always did her best to study Drake's method, though the method always seemed to simple. Every step Drake did was virtually the same as everyone else, including Tatum's. Step 1: Grab the rope with both hands above your head. Pull down on the rope as you take a small jump. Step 2: Wrap the rope around one leg, using your feet to pinch the rope. Reach up as high as possible with your arms, gripping the rope tightly. Step 3: Release the rope from your feet as you pull yourself up with your arms, bringing your knees towards your chest. Step 4: Resecure your feet on the rope, and then stand up to take another high hold on the rope. Continue until you reach the top of the rope or until you've run out of strength. That was all there was to the climbing. Oh yes, there was step 5 for getting back down. To lower yourself, loosen the grip of your feet on the rope as you slide down using a hand over hand motion.

Perhaps Drake just happened to have a lot of upper physical strength. It was rumored that his dad was a boxer, and that Drake was interested in following in his fathers footsteps. It would explain his pride in his arms.

Thus, up went Drake, making a rather fast climb up the rope until he reached the seven foot mark. Then he started to slow down, getting to the twelve foot mark. By that point he took it at his slowest so as to not struggle. He managed to get to his usual spot at fifteen before his arms finally told him he should come down.

Tatum wondered why the teacher always had Drake go first. A lot of the students felt a little discouraged by the standard Drake was setting. Shouldn't it be done in a way to motivate them and not obligate them?

Next was Michelle, who managed to get as much as fourteen feet high. Michelle was better at running then she was at climbing.

Then came Tatum's turn. As always, Tatum did her best to mimic the best climber in their group. Both hands gripping high on the rope, a small jump as she pulled down, and a moment to wrap the rope around one of her legs. Now came the hard part. Pinching on the rope with her feet, she pulled herself up, little by little. She decided she would take it slow and easy, to see if she could climb just a little higher. It was an easy climb all the way up to the seven foot mark. Her little muscles were beginning to feel the strain, though really that was nothing new to her. Her muscles always felt a strain when she rushed through the city.

She could feel her excitement build as she reached the ten foot mark. Another pull down and she reached the eleven foot mark. Her arms were beginning to hurt a little by this point. One last pull and she reached twelve feet. Did she have it in her to pull higher?

Her arms declared their refusal to go higher by hurting quite a bit. Any attempt to go higher only filled her imagination with the thought of her arms breaking off as she plummeted to the ground. Limbless, they would have to rush her to the hospital, only to cover her in bandages. They would try to operate to reattach her limbs, but it would be too late. Her arms were gone for good. Thus, she would live out the rest of her life, with a cute maid helping her everywhere via wheel chair and being her hands for her. The only good thing that came out of that terrible ordeal was that her parents came to visit her while she was at the hospital, grieving the loss of her arms.

Snap back to reality and Tatum was already lowering herself back to the ground. As always, ten minutes to rest then it was time to run laps. At least this one was the one she was best at. She was always the first to finish the full set of twenty, sometimes doing extra laps until the last student was done. At her old school, the P.E. instructor would insist that she stop, but Seven Stars Academy seems to encourage effort and enthusiasm. It made sense, since everyone at Seven Stars was being raises to be able to contribute to Endymion in the best way possible.

The class bell would ring. Time for Lunch, then from there math class.

Oh, how she dreaded math class...

Lunch was stale pizza. Hurray for stale pizza! Also accompanying the pizza was stale fries, stale hash browns, and ironically the most flavorful thing the lunch lady had to offer, a cup of apple sauce. Actually, it was still pizza, so she was able to enjoy it, and the apple sauce made for a delicious dessert, so really she didn't have a reason to complain. She often wondered why the other students did, though.

Lunch period was definitely one of the more difficult times for her. It was when she was out in public without her ever reliable mask, the jacket collar she had grown so fond of. This meant that everyone can see her face, and everyone was free to make comments and spread rumors. At least with her mask on, if rumors were spread no one would be able to track it back to her.

Noticing people watching her made her feel very uncomfortable. It was enough to send tingles down her spin. What were they thinking about her? What were they saying about her? What were they claiming about the Ice Princess?

With a sigh, she decided not to press into it. It was better just to move on. Besides... oddly, she liked the idea of being called Ice Princess. She loved Elsa, and she wanted to have Ice Powers like Elsa for the longest of time. It would make things so much more fun.

Sitting by herself by a tree, she was granted an excellent view of the students of higher grade than her. There was one in particular that she always noticed walking by. Always stoic, always so serious. It scared her to think of meeting that woman. It didn't help that she stood out because of how over all big she was. She looked like she could cut a tree in half with her wooden sword on sheer brute strength alone.

Either that or it was her imagination running away with her again.

She was usually very quick to finish her meals, so often she would spend this time doing a quick study for the next class.

Math... oh how she dreaded math. She was a wiz at math, to be fair. The vast majority of math was figuring out the patterns and memorizing how the various mathematical functions work. Many have told her to just memorize the answers, but she instead chose to figure out the answer each time. She found that the knowledge stuck in her head better.

Math was, arguably, her very best subject. Once the formula was figured out, she always ended up with perfect scores.

It was also the most boring subject. Nothing but formulas and patterns and repetition. Tatum was ever thankful for the diversity of her classes. If it were not for that, she would have been driven insane.

The bell rang and it was time for Math class. Tatum found herself groaning as she left for her class. If she remembered right, her algebra test was today. It was going to be the most boring hour of her life.

Back at the back of the class, she watched with much boredom as they passed out the test sheets. Supposedly, each sheet was different from the last, to make copying off of someone pointless. It seemed some students never figured that out. She has caught, on multiple occasions, a few students trying to copy her answers.

It was also quite laughable the effort. She always wondered how badly they would score if they copied off of her. She heard that once, Drake got as bad as ten percent on his test when trying to copy off of a student next to him. From what Tatum could gather, Math was never something he was good at, and he sat next to a girl named Enna. Enna was Tatum's equal in Math, and Enna sat right next to Drake. Enna was also not a fan of Drake, and constantly made her displeasure known through body language. But that's besides the point.

The test began, and already she was trying to find a way to make math more interesting. The first question was a simple division question. It was to take the circumference of a circle and divide it by it's diameter.

3.14159265359...

The answer was always Pi.

This was why this was boring. It was too routine, and she was desperate to change things up a bit.

"Well, if you want something to change it up, then I supposed I can be of assistance."

The Pleasence of her mind decided to come and visit again, it seemed. This was a habit of Tatum. When trapped in a boring situation, invite Pleasence and have some Wonderland Themed fun.

"What would you get if you cloned two royal cards five times?" would be one imagined question.

"How many royal guards would you have left if you uncloned them seven times?" would be another imagined question.

The silliest questions were the word questions.

"The Queen of Hearts is playing crocet and hitting her hedgehog at roughly five hundred miles an hour. The King of hearts, her opponent, is hitting his hedgehog at three hundred miles per hour. The time is one o'clock, and they don't realize that they are about to hit each others hedgehogs. They are also roughly four hundred miles from each other. What time will it be when the two hedgehogs arrive?"

"Well the answer to that, apparently, is roughly around one thirty. If we take into consideration the relative speed of the two, five hundred plus three hundred would equal eight hundred. From there, the formula is distance divided by relative speed, or in this case, four hundred divided by eight hundred. The answer is .5, which can be translated as half an hour. Also, those two hedgehogs are going to have a major headache when they meet."

"That's very astute of you," said the Pleasence in her mind, "But incorrect. The answer would be Tea Time."

"Um... what?" was all Tatum could say in her mind.

She finished her test early, so she figured she'd turn in her test and study for science class. It was the last class of the day, and she was eager to finally get the day over with. In due time, the bell would ring, and it was off to do sciency stuff.

Today was a science demonstration. Those were always the best for Tatum. It was when you could watch, observe, and if you were lucky, take part in the set up and execution of the science experiment. Tatum was not as lucky today.

That honor went to a student named Zakiya. If there was a student to try and top in science, it was him. Even with Tatum getting constant high marks, Zakiya was the best science student in her class. No one understood science quite like he did, and he was pretty good at figuring out the how and the why things were. But that's besides the point.

The demonstration this time was a series of experiments involving dry ice. The first was pretty simple, but rather surprising. The set up: Pour water into a mixing bowl, then toss in a few chunks of dry ice. Next, take a small rag or cloth or something similar and make sure it is properly covered in dish washing soap. Finally, spread the rag over one end of the top of the bowl and gently drag it to the other end. If done successfully, the steam produced by the dry ice and water will be trapped in an ever growing bubble until it pops harmlessly.

A similar experiment follows a similar formula, but with one key difference. In an appropriate container, mix the water and the dish soap to create a fairly soapy water. Applying the dry ice will create a bubble making chemical reaction, with soapy bubbles overflowing from the container. With encouragement from the teacher, the students were allowed to play with the bubbles. Tatum was surprised to see how doing so would create small clouds of smoke as the bubbles were popped.

The crown jewel of the experiments, however, was quite possibly the simplest of the experiments. Plug up a deep sink and fill it to the top with warm water. Then apply roughly two pounds worth of dry ice. The smoke from the chemical reaction seemed to travel along the surfaces, creating a waterfall of smoke as it reached the edge of the counter tops and fell to the floor. Much of the floor was completely obscured by the dry ice smoke. Some braver students, holding their breath, decided to try laying down flat on the ground where the smoke was closest to the sink. The smoke made them virtually invisible. Playfully, Tatum would gather some of the smoke and quickly raised her hands. She did this a few times. Once, she accidentally made a tiny tornado of smoke. She kept trying to make the tornado appear again, though she was not always successful.

From this, the most common observations were made, the smoke from the dry ice is capable of creating building pressure if trapped in something. The smoke can remain trapped in a bubble until either there is too much pressure or an outside force pops it. The third demonstration showed the difference between colder gases and warmer gases, with colder gases more likely to fall to the ground. As a homework assignment, kids were encouraged to try their own dry ice experiments with adult super-vision, and to record what happens in a short essay. This put Tatum in a bind. She didn't exactly have adults to supervise for her.

That didn't matter, though, she was still capable of taking care of herself. All she has to do is take what she learned to day, pick and experiment, and then move from there. She found herself wondering what would happen if she filled a bottled with both dry ice and warm water only to close the lid on tightly. As far as she could tell, either the bottle will explode like some kind of explosive or will propel itself some distance like a small rocket.

Either way, the last bell of the day rung. All too excitedly, she took her belongings and rushed back home. Once in her room, she was only too happy to throw off her troublesome uniform and get back into her safe and secure jacket. It was time to rush back out and explore Endymion. Maybe she'll find something worth while at the Back light this time.