Fancy Knowledge [Rowan & Delroy]

[Scion]

R o w a n L e i g h

L e f t b y t h e w a y s i d e .

Normally such a building wouldn’t be intimidating in the slightest. It’s charming brick walls with barely a single brick out of place and the ornate window casings, why one might call it a dream. It’s certainly someone’s dream. The amount of work that must have gone into this, well, Rowan couldn’t fathom, really. When he had first heard about this college opening up, he was frankly in disbelief. To think there could be education that’s affordable here in District 11, especially to a poorer civilian such as himself, why I just didn’t make much sense to the young man.

But after the thought of it rolled around in his mind, the clay began forming shape in questions. Things like “Do they have an art program?” and “Would they have materials I could use?” Surely it would come at great cost, no?

He had sat outside his home, legs at odd angles as he lounged on the rickety wooden steps of his front porch. There were several kids from around the neighborhood sitting with him. He could never understand why that is. Perhaps, despite Rowan’s lack of enthusiasm and ideas, they just need someone they can be with. Sitting in silence with a friend is much better than sitting by yourself. That’s when he stood up abruptly, and stared off. His eyes focused on something no one could see. “What if I went to college?” The other boys laughed and jeered. “I’m serious,” his eyes broke from their stare, landing instead on his friends. “What if I really did it, got an education and everything?” All the boys mumbled and shrugged, not truly interested in what Rowan was saying, dismissing it as a silly outburst and nothing more. Rowan sat back down, eyes once again staring off in the distance.

And that’s how he found himself staring at a not-so intimidating, very intimidating, building. His shyness was certainly getting the better of him; his palms were sweaty and his mouth kept opening and closing like a fish. He came just to check it out, see what was up. But now that he was really here, what was he to do? Where should he go? Thoughts raced his mind a mile a minute, questions without answers, demands to turn around and just go back whence he came. He can’t imagine what he must look like, standing around like a fool.

elegant

[marguerite harvard d2a (zori)]

d e l r o y.

Delroy had been humming all morning. Waking up at sunrise hadn’t dulled his spirit, even when the shower had gone from achingly hot to ice cold before he’d had a chance to lather. Nor when the curdled milk had spilled across his cornflakes leaving him with nothing more than a cup of coffee to tide him over until noontime. Even the day’s assigned duties couldn’t weigh him down – cleaning each one of the toilets, waxing the floors, and washing the laundry – he set about grabbing the toilet brush from under the hall sink, along with a mop and bucket and went about his way.

Life wasn’t close to perfect, of course, what with the shifts the students would spend out in the fields during the summer heat or the family style dinner that always left him a little hungry. Working for the grand dame Ayena, who lorded over the whole campus that was her house, felt a bit like they were under a different kind of servitude. He might’ve hemmed and hawed a bit more if she didn’t swoop in now and again with a word of wisdom, or a steady hand on Delroy’s shoulder when he was feeling low.

She’d talk about how seventy years ago, her father would throw parties for all the heavy hitters of the district. That the halls held stories written by men and women who’d passed years ago, and it was up to us to fill them with stories again. He liked to watch her, seated at the end of the long wooden table, her sepia skin glowing under a warm yellow light while the rest of the scattering of students would pick at the meal whoever’s turn it’d been to make it. She never went back further than sixty, maybe seventy years with her stories. Why was that?

He’d set the basin full of water and soap out on the front porch, along with the wash rack. He dragged the overfilled bags of laundry out to the front porch with both of hands, minding not to let out a curse as he struggled. When he set them down by the basin, he turned to spy Rowan along the front lawn.

“Well as I live and breath,” Delroy put his hands on his hips and looked his old friend up and down. It’d been too long, perhaps a few months, since he’d made a trek back to his momma and pa, out along the part of the district he referred to as the briar patch. Too much trouble growing too little, and a bunch of boys growing up that didn’t know what to do with themselves. Delroy had been a hot head but that was just how they were made out there, or so he liked to tell everyone that would listen.

“Rowan, what’s up man?” He stepped down onto the grass and gave a grin. “You get lost or something? Or was it a dare for you to come out all this way?” Rowan had never struck him as more than a boy looking for a good time. From what Delroy had known growing up to him, he was honest, and true. But not the sort of fella that’d quibbled over having to do an honest day’s work.

“If you have a minute, you could sit and I’ll do the wash, and we could talk a while,” Delroy offered. He wouldn’t mind the company, or to hear what all the boys had gotten themselves into.

elegant

[Scion]

R o w a n L e i g h

L e f t b y t h e w a y s i d e .

That’s it, he was just going to turn around and leave. What good was this anyways? What was he going to do, walk in there and then… His mind went blank. He doesn’t even know how this education stuff works. He knew a little bit, like how to read and write, how to count and do basic math. Little stuff like that. But the schools were so poor that when he was a kid they didn’t have much curriculum to teach to begin with. They weren’t provided any books to read of course. Everything had to come from the people’s pockets and that wasn’t much to live off of, let alone to find a school. But they made do, didn’t they? He still knows his basics and honestly that’s a miracle in itself.

But that’s when Rowan heard him. A voice he hadn’t thought about in a few months at least. And even then it was, what, a glance? A “hey” in his general direction? His expression went from anxious wreck to anxious surprise. If he’s here that means he goes to the school here, right? He never really asked him, now that he thinks about it, where exactly he went off to. He just didn’t come back for weeks at a time and not that many questioned it. Maybe he found a job, maybe he moved away. It’s not really anyone’s business, right? Tucking a strand of dark hair behind his ear, he smiled and gave a big, overhead wave. He should have brought a ribbon to tie his hair but he must have left it on his bedside table.

“Uh, hey!” He tried to sound cheery through his near panic attack he just had moments earlier, walking closer to the other boy. “Del, you’re out here too? I never really asked, huh?” As soon as the words left his mouth he cursed himself. He could have just used him as an excuse. Said he was here to see him and then scurried back to the little place he called home and called it a day. But the moment is gone and his opportunity lost. Not that he isn’t happy to see Del, it’s just unexpected is all.

He chuckled a bit, looking down at the dirt and grass below his feet. “No, it wasn’t a dare, I actually…” he began to trail off. What was he doing here, what does he say? Giving himself a mental slap and jostle, he spoke up, perhaps with more conviction than a casual conversation needed. “Well I wanted to see the college. And, well, maybe look around, meet some of the folks here. I was thinking- as a possibility- enrolling here.” As soon as those words left his mouth he rubbed the back of his neck. Looking for a subject change, he noticed the bags of laundry that littered the ground. He mentioned the wash, right? “Here let me help you.” He offered, though he wasn’t enthused about it. Of course he did chores and such for his parents when they asked but it wasn’t exactly his favorite thing. Hopefully Del wouldn’t pry too much.

elegant

[marguerite harvard d2a (zori)]

d e l r o y.

Boys out in the briar patch weren’t the types to find themselves at Iris Gate. That’s what Del had told Ayena when she’d interviewed him for one of the scholarships. Not that the boys weren’t smart. Just that they’d been kept down with how they’d been stuck to poor yielding fields. Their part of the world worked harder for a handful of the berries a better cropper could grow. Not to mention they didn’t have a family name hanging off them like some sort of medal. Just a few little families trying hard to get the most out of dusty soil so they wouldn’t have to shoulder the shame of taking out tess.

Del had burned hot thinking about how the whole of eleven couldn’t be fixed no matter who was in charge, whether Kirito and all his wise words as victor, or Mr. Izar, well intentioned as he could have been. Change was slow, and uneven in eleven. So much that it’d taken eighty-four years for anyone to plan to build a college and let them work toward a higher ideal. Would it be another hundred before they saw the luxuries down in the career districts?

“Yuh, I got in all on my own,” He smiled, white teeth flashing, “Even told the old lady that runs this place what I thought of this whole district. Honest to goodness thought I’d shot myself in the foot and lost the whole scholarship talking to her.”

He yanked the pile of whites out of one of the bags as Rowan fumbled for his words. Where Del was all fuss and first to storm the barricades, Rowan was the type to linger in the shadow of the sun, so far in the distance you might not’ve noticed him there at all. Didn’t make him less of a person, in fact, Del liked that he seemed to think things through a bit more than the other boys. Or at the least he wasn’t so keen on shouting over the rest of them to get his way.

“But then she liked my honesty, that I wanted to make so much of a difference.” The part of his spirit that stuck out of the ground, one that Ayena saw needed nurturing and pruning if it was to become anything. She’d spotted a boy who hadn’t the chance to learn how to navigate the world, but one who saw how broken the system was. Someone that would refuse to go quiet into the night, even if he hadn’t become a part of Iris Gate.

“C’mon and help me some, would you?”

Del waved to Rowan to join him next to the pile of shirts, sheets, and other whites. He dunked a collared shirt in the water and started scrubbing against the wash board.

He stared down at the bubbling water but kept returning to the fact that Rowan had wanted to see the college for himself, too. Now, he didn’t want to take credit for starting a trend with the briar patch boys, but maybe there was something to seeing one of them get out of the weeds. After all, if someone like Delroy could be more than just a sharecropper, did that mean that Rowan or anyone else had the same sort of chance?

“Don’t mind being here even if there’s lots of work done to pay for room and board.” He kept scrubbing at a stubborn stain, and looked back over at Rowan. “Especially with all the things they have. Like – the books, Rowan. All the stuff that I get to read that, well, I thought was gone. Things about history from even before the dark days.”

His voice was low then, even if it was just him and the other boy on the porch. He felt the same nervous energy he’d had when he looked in Ayena’s library and got to hold some of the contraband first hand.

“If you came here, what’d you want to study, huh?” He pulled out the shirt and gave it a twist to dry before tossing it into an empty basket to his left. He set about a bedsheet next. “We could use someone like you here, you know.”

elegant