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Ruth paced up the school building, her hair bouncing against the back of her neck, reaching class she sat down at the back, on the left, by the window, her usual seat and the blindspot of the security camera in the front of the room, she had no idea why the whole school had these, they were in every room, except bathrooms of course. Only a few people were in class at that time, just a couple girls, Cherry and Mina, chatting, and a group of jocks, who were making a considerable amount of noise. Ruth reached into her denim messenger bag and pulled out a black sketchbook, opening it there were mindmaps on every page, each started the same way, with someone's name in a little cloud, followed by arrows of their traits, personality and predictions. She turned to a page with the name 'Tyler' in a fitting, dark green cloud, drawing a couple more arrows she looked at him, studying closely, his school team hoodie seemed to have a little chilli stain on it, probably from the store down his street, TacoTells. She knew he lived in the area by looking at the little address engraved on his bag, and the knew that the diner was down the street because heck she'd memorised the state map, being bored one day. So if he was eating there for breakfast, it meant something was wrong with his house, his shoes did have some odd blue stains... ahh renovation! Maybe they're redoing the kitchen and he couldn't cook anything. Knowing the new piece of information Ruth jotted it down in her book, feeling pleased to have cracked another code.

As Adrian strolled into class, Ruth was blocked off from Cherry, the cheerleader she was analysing, trying to figure out which taylor shop she had her perviously tiny skirt (Ruth knew since she remembered Cherry had worn it last Tuesday) altered even tinier, about 3.7 inches more if she wasn't wrong, but she was confident she wasn't she was never wrong about gauging distances. Anyway she realised she could let the skirt thing go for now, and focused on another target in front of her, Adrian... the modern Da Vinci, as most people call him, and as Cherry began to stand on the table and do flips (as she had an extremely good sense of balance) to show off, Ruth turned to Adrain's mind map, what shall she add today? Taking a short sniff of the air she smelt at least ten different scents, Cherry's perfume, Flora by Gucci, Tyler's Chilli breath, sweat from another jock's morning run, cheese pastries underneath one of the desks and Adrain's shampoo. Immediately her mind wandered to guess what shampoo it was, citrus, not overly fruity or cheap smelling, fresh... like mint. Her mind then went through all the scents of the shampoos in the supermarket she knew by heart... got it! Quickly she wrote it down, it was a popular, simple shampoo brand for men, mentally she added that it was a nice choice, for she thought the smell was awfully decent, she smiled a little to herself.

Ruth's head snapped up just as he turned, snapping her sketchbook closed, she blinked a little at his question, it was hard to refocus her senses, "oh.. uh yeah, sure." she said softly, getting out some lead for him, "you should get it cut," she pointed to his hair, she never really meddled in people's business but it just happened to blurt out, not that she didn't like his hair, it looked pretty soft and nice on his head (why was she thinking these wrong thoughts), but it must be inconvenient. "Now now class settle down," said an old man in a lab coat, standing upright, banging his books on the large oak desk he clapped his hands together, "a text today! a pop quiz yes yes, hurry students get your papers together and let's begin!"

Ruth took the paper wordlessly from the teacher and begun, as she concentrated she flashed up all the material they went through last week as if it were a video she could watch over and over again, she began to write, careful not to quote from the textbook for pages on end, she got disqualified for doing that last time, apparently teachers think you're copying answers, if she wanted to do that she could've just listened to the nearest person to her, for she could tell what letters they were writing by the sound their pen makes, this hearing was usually quite accurate too. She was on question 3 before she knew it, she looked up to recall the material again, and wrote. Her handwriting was messy, but somehow orderly highschool scrawl, not very high class, but it does the job. Soon the test was finished, the teacher collected in the papers and Ruth silently cracked her wrists under the table, for it was rude to do that in public, she scanned the class for how many people found it difficult.

Ruth handed in the test knowing she got the only perfect score in class, she'd already read her classmates, nervous expressions, habits emerging, lots of line making sounds as the answers they wrote were crossed through, unsure, but it was understandable, last week's topic covered at least 200 pages worth of textbook, maybe some people's skills weren't geared to superior eyesight and memory like hers. She picked up the note off her table and read it, tilting her head as she did. She did not remember any encounters with Adrian before, but it could be a good opportunity to gather more information to add to her mind maps.
The professor's voice interrupted her thoughts, "i would say i'm happy for this class, but that is unfortunately not true, obviously you didn't read through the material last week well enough, i don't see many good answers," Ruth noticed his fingers drumming, this meant he was about to say but, "but," ping, she was right, "there is one perfect score in the class, of which i suggest, Ruth Crosscard, meet me in the principle's office after class." Ruth didn't look surprised, all the people with perfect test scores, whether it was a physical or mental or IQ test, got sent to the principle's office. It was a privilege, an honour, but those students always came out a little different than they were when they once went in, normal people didn't notice it of course, but Ruth it, their voice became droning, their actions and feelings null, and almost... robotic. This made her consider her odds about whether or not to go...

After class Flint packed her bag, proceeding to walk to the office, on the way there, she noticed there were people following her, they looked like school security guards, except more serious, and wearing black suits, they kept whispering into ear buds and tailing her in the most inconspicuous way, maybe this was a bad idea, maybe she shouldn't go, she should turn back, but they'd notice, damn. Making a quick decision she casually went into the nearest bathroom, she knew they couldn't follow her in there. Locking herself in a stall she opened the window above the toilet, she knew this particular toilet overlooked the school gardens, just where she wanted to be. Looking around she spotted the guy from her previous class, she had to find a way to signal him, getting back down she tore a piece of paper from a lined paper book and scrawled on it, she knew what he was thinking, she knew it all along since he sent her that note, she needed to tell him he was right, to come see her:
=You were right, i'm not going into the principle's office, i'm not going to become like that, meet me in the cafe opposite campus after school=
SHe paused for a moment, thinking whether or not she should add the next part, it was a little private, but figuring that she can, she should
=by the way, the sketch you did of me looked really pretty=

Ruth, managing to hear him shook her head and retreated back into the window, in the tiny bathroom stall she managed to jump and get the heating vent open, climbing inside and pulling her bag along with her, if she remembered corrected she should go straight, make two left turns and she'd end up in a supply closet close to the other side of campus, all she had to do then was rush to the exit and the school guards wouldn't be able to touch her without her calling the police. She knew this was something bad, and she knew she had to check it out, one way or another, but she felt a little scared, and that guy was her only lead, because he saw what could happen, a skill like that, as uncommon as it was, didn't surprise her, she had a gut feeling she had to talk to him, and her gut feelings are usually right. She climbed out of the vent into the dark, dusty room, picking the lock of the door she peeked her head out, then tried, as best as she could, to walk casually, but fast, out of the school.