Evaline relaxed her posture and glanced up to let her eyes meet his every once in a while. Yes, she already trusted James, but there were different layers of trust. It felt like she was shedding through to a new uncomfortable layer, and she was allowing it.
He didn't ask a question about Alan and instead asked about a small and almost trivial thing in her life: the number of classmates she had. It would have been easy to use this opportunity to turn the question around so he was in the hot seat instead, but... something about the triviality of his question after a sensitive topic made her realize even more that James was only trying to get to know her better.
She needed to stop being manipulative. He wasn't trying to manipulate her.
"At its peak, there were 22 of us," she answered, and then decided to give additional information without prompt. "I knew everyone, but the class was divided into groups of four or five, so I was closest to my group. We were all the same age and learned the same things. It wasn't until our later teenage years that we split off for half the day to go through individual training."
"I'm sure the subjects are not too different from what you were taught," Evaline said, but then was reminded that James went to military school. She wasn't sure what exactly the differences were between military Nye school, regular Nye school, and regular Earth school in the sectors, but the basics were likely the same.
"Math, science, history, and language were the foundation classes," she decided to clarify. "During homeroom, we learned about common knowledge things, mostly relating to our powers. Like how our powers impact society, and a brief lesson of various powers we might come across. Things like that. But for the most part, specific training lessons relating to a person's power was taught individually."
Evaline took the time to cross her legs, reorienting into a casual position so that she leaned back with both arms. It seemed that whatever resentment she felt before had dissipated by now.
"Well, this isn't typical, but my parents were my teachers," she said. "So I guess you can say that I've been getting lessons from them since day one. They often came home late, so if they didn't put me into another drawing class, I ended my day early."
She let out a small smile as a silent way to apologize for her earlier behavior, but also to help lighten the tension she had caused.
"My teacher didn't know that I practically cut class everyday, though."
“Well, I’m assuming your parents were busy. It sounds like they weren’t around a lot, leaving you unsupervised. And - you can correct me if I’m wrong - but if they were diplomats I assume your family was pretty well off. So missing school for you didn’t have many consequences, it sounds like.”
Evaline stared at James and slightly pursed her lips in thought. It was a good deduction. He was mostly right, except she didn't really know what he meant by 'well off.' It wasn't like they had wealth. Although, her family did get privileges and gifts more often than other families who had to work or trade to get the same things, so maybe that was what he meant. Either way, she didn't want to point it out so that she wouldn't bring to light—or accidentally bring to light—that she may have had a spoiled and privileged life compared to him.
"It's not like I had a choice in the matter," she said, suddenly feeling the need to not look like a spoiled brat. "I wanted to have traditional training lessons, but it wasn't my fault my parents constantly bailed on me. Where else was I supposed to go?"
James tilted his head to the side. There were still many things he didn’t understand about earth, so he was suspending many assumptions at the moment. He hoped she knew that.
“I’m not sure I understand,” he said. “What do you mean by where else were you suppsoed to go? Where did you go when you weren’t in classes?”
Evaline sighed. She really had to break this down for him.
"For the second half of the day, we'd get dismissed to go to our individual training classes," she said. "My friends often ended up going to another part of the school, especially if someone else had similar powers as them, so they'd be in the same class. As for me, I know I'd be by myself in these classes, and I know my parents were the ones teaching me. So I went home because that was where I 'trained.' But they often didn't meet me. So in a way, it was like I skipped class. But I didn't, really."
She looked up and paused, deciding to give him one last wave of patience. "Does that make sense?" she asked.
'Hush, hush!' I whispered; 'people can have many cousins and of all sorts, Miss Cathy, without being any the worse for it; only they needn't keep their company, if they be disagreeable and bad. — Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights
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