Almost
everyone in Cynthia’s Intro to Energy class was eagerly gathering their things
together now that she had dismissed them. In fact everyone except for Foster
had moved like there was money on the line because it was Thursday and Friday
classes didn’t exist for underclassmen.
Foster
looked stuck in something resembling a painfully stiff meditation pose. His
eyes were shut so tight she was worried even that was hurting him. He was
breathing like a machine. Counting a robotic three seconds and then forcing his
body to inhale or exhale for exactly three seconds. By the time it was just the
two of them in the room she was genuinely surprised he had not passed out. She
walked over to where he was sitting, her movement broke his concentration and
he skipped from breathing in to breathing out.
“You
should take a break.” She said as she sat down.
Foster
opened his eyes and rubbed his temples. “Midterms are next week. I am too far
behind to take a break.”
She shook
her head in disagreement. “Not really.” She replied.
Foster
looked doubtful. “Five weeks Cynthia, I’m the only student in class that hasn’t
started to produce some form of energy.”
She
shrugged her shoulders. “Foster, RELAX. You are the most determined student I’ve
seen in any of my classes this semester. You just need to find a way to calm
the hell down and let your body do what it wants to do. You can’t brute force
your way to mental and physical balance.”
Foster
leaned back and used his arms to hold himself up as he stretched his neck
muscles. “I can feel myself falling behind.”
Cynthia
joined him in stretching out. “You know this class isn’t about producing an
energy
signature. All this pressure is coming from yourself, you’re not failing
by any metric but if you’re not careful you’re going to burn out before the end
of your first year.”
Forster frowned.
“Thanks for the pep talk, teach.” He grumbled.
She
smiled. “This is a pep talk, this is the first semester of your first year. You
can love Combat Studies without majoring in it, perhaps there’s a different
major that’s a better fit for you?” She suggested.
He looked
dismayed. “How the hell did we get from ‘you’re not failing’ all the way to ‘maybe
you should quit?’” He asked.
She shook
her head. “I didn’t say you should quit, I said it might be in your best
interest to find something you can be as successful in as you would like to be.”
She explained.
Foster
Shot up in anxious frustration and started to pace. “ I WANT to be successful
at this. This is all I have ever wanted.” He said.
Cynthia
stared deeply into the carpet beneath her as Foster paced back and forth. She
wavered for a moment but suddenly blurted out “Talk to Dean.”
Foster
stopped walking and looked confused. “What? Why?” He asked.
Her gaze
didn’t leave the carpet. “We had this class together as freshman. He had a
harder time learning to meditate than even you. He could barely sit still
most of the semester. Then one day, he burned.” She explained.
“Burned?”
Foster asked.
Cynthia
nodded. “He couldn’t meditate to save his life, still can’t as far as I know.
But his energy was fire incarnate. He figured something out, something that
might be able to help you.” She offered.
Foster
looked cautiously intrigued. “So then why would he switch to Adventure Studies?”
He asked.
She
finally looked up from the floor and shrugged her shoulders. “Your guess is as
good as mine.”
Foster couldn’t contain his eagerness, he grabbed his shoes and his bag and left Cynthia in the classroom alone with her thoughts.
