The line was long, not stretching out the door, but long enough that the drink that Lailah wanted to get would take a bit longer than she had anticipated. For once she was trying one of the shops out near the Academy since she had some money to spend, and since she had heard good reviews of this one, had decided to go and try it out. She was surprised when she got there and realized that it was incredibly crowded.

Was it because it was the morning? Was there a special drink promotion going on? A free coffee day? She didn’t know, but she was happy to wait in line as long as she got her drink. It was a weekend, and school, while still being in session for the summer, did give them breaks on the weekend, which meant that she had time to waste waiting in line.

Of course, she was going to get something for her dorm-mate too! She couldn’t leave Talia out of this and the Geist had said she would come with! Unfortunately, it seemed that the poor Geist had gotten sick, somehow. Lailah didn’t know if Geists got sick that often, but poor Talia was miserable! As though it were the first time, she had gotten sick in her life and didn’t know if she would make it!

Lailah had managed to calm her down about that fact and made sure to get her all the right foods for when she was sick so that she would hopefully feel all better again! They would have gone to the nurse, but she wasn’t available on the weekends, and they weren’t sure if the clinic would accept them, so they had to wait until the next school day for Talia to finally be seen and possibly healed so that she could get over this sickness more quickly.

But Lailah had made sure to promise to bring the Geist a drink back because she deserved it! Not for any reason in particular, but Talia was her friend and she didn’t want the Geist to feel terrible the whole time!

The line moved a bit once again, and Lailah was able to take a few steps before having to stop again. Lines were always a bit awkward for the Fallen. First of course were here wings which, while small because she was still a junior, still got in the way like many sets of wings did. Chimera, Fallen, Fey, all of them seemed to have a wing-in-the-way problem and that made standing in lines just that more uncomfortable. And then of course were her “butt” wings, which was one of her mutations. She wasn’t sure why she had gotten wings down there, and while she was able to ignore them most of the time, it did make her clothing options quite limited.

Still, she lived with them. There was no point in getting rid of them after all! They were just a slight inconvenience and when they brushed up against something, she felt it a bit and tried to move away so that they weren’t touching whatever it was any more.

She was glad though that this line seemed orderly and that most were either reading on their phones or the newspaper, or they were patiently waiting in line rather than pushing each other about and trying to cut ahead.

She did have her phone with her, so she could have used that to pass the time, but she knew herself. She would get so absorbed in it that she wouldn’t realize when the line had moved, and eventually those behind her would get angry and either yell or move around her as she was too distracted. She knew herself at least and she knew that she was distracted easily. Her head was often “above Below” which was a bit odd for a Fallen, but she had seriously thought about going to live up in Above. It seemed so much nicer. Sure, Below was fine, but it didn’t seem like such a beautiful place. When she wanted to watch the clouds, they almost all looked the same. Talia had told her that the twilight clouds were just as different and interesting as those in above, but Lailah wasn’t sure, which was another reason why she wanted to go up there. To see what the difference was!

Still, she was fine here, right now. All she had to do was remember where she was, her goal in coming here, which was getting a couple of drinks and a few pastries and leaving without running into a chair or a wall or something.

The line moved again. There were only three ahead of her now, which meant that she would soon get to try the teas that they were offering and that others had said were quite amazing. She was going to get some green tea while Talia was going to get some green tea with lemon. They both hopes that the Vitamin C that could be gained from the lemon would help the Geist with her cold.

Soon enough, she was finally at the counter, the line having gone down quite a bit behind her, and the drinks being made quickly and taken off the pick-up shelf. She ordered what she wanted, and a few pastries to go along with their mini-meal and walked over to the counter to wait for her drinks and pastries to be delivered over there.

She didn’t have to wait long though! Apparently, her order had been easy, at least compared to the complicated drink orders that had come through so far, and soon enough she was out the door and, on her way, back to the Academy, bag in hand with the pastries and a carrier for the drinks. She was so happy that she hadn’t been distracted and had done something correctly this time! And without holding up the line or anything! Maybe she could improve and concentrate when she needed to! If only school was as interesting!

She would need to go back and tell Talia about all of this! Perhaps the Geist could help her out! That is, once she was feeling better!