Bethany hurried across campus to the school auditorium,and was only a few minutes late by the time she arrive. "Sorry I'm late, I just got into campus."
The teacher and students turned, as Bethany hurried over to the join them. The reaction of the students was somewhat mixed about Bethany's arrival, but the teacher was more than pleased. "Excellent. I was worried we'd have to begin without our most talented member. Take a seat up front, Bethany, we have a few things to talk about before we begin."
Bethany nodded, taking a seat, unaware of the fact that her body continued to regress in age and her eyes had just shifted to the color of coffee beans.
Gillian, meanwhile, had made her way to the gym, but upon finding it empty she wandered outside. Her thoughts had grown disjointed since her talk with Bethany, her train of thought taking all manner of twists and turns it never had before.
Eventually she arrived at the track, watching a few classmates pass by on their laps. Then she spotted Bert, who had begin to lose a few years himself, and began jogging backwards alongside him as he passed by.
"Where were you?" Bert asked, a little tired by now. He had been jogging for most of class, hadn't he?
Gillian tilted her head, as she managed to keep pace with Bert going backwards surprisingly easily. "I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure I had a phone conversation with a robot though, and met a stupid hat."
"Sounds fairly normal for you then. Why aren't you in gym clothes?"
Gillian glanced down at her current outfit. "These aren't gym clothes?"
"Of course they aren't Gillian, coach is going to throw a fit if you show up late and out of gym apparel again."
"Throw a fit, huh? Don't you think that's a weird way of putting it. I mean, have a fit, sure, but throw? You're not hurling the fit at anyone, you're keeping it to yourself. Unless they mean 'throw' as in 'to throw a boxing match', but that makes even less sense..."
Bert couldn't help but laugh at Gillian's train of thought. "Do you ever respond to things like a normal person."
"Of course not, that would be boring."
"That response was fairly normal."
"Cantaloupe."
"What?"
"See, that response wasn't normal at all. Don't question my oddness. It makes me want to do it worse."
"Of course. Mind the tree."
Gillian glanced over her should, just in time to see herself back into the tree by the side of the track. She slammed into the trunk, stumbling over a root and landing face first in the grass. This spectacle amused Bert to no end, who stopped his jogging and began cracking up, his voice rising a few octaves as he did.
"So, we meet again," Gillian said, addressing the tree as she got back to her feet.
"I swear, every time we do this you run into that tree. Will you ever learn to run forwards?" Bert asked.
"That's exactly what he wants, though," Gillian said, glaring at the tree. "Isn't it, your photosynthesizing ass?"
