LILITH : BI, PART OF GEN Z, LIVES IN A BIG CITY, SHE/HER, POC.

  It seemed as if things immediately went back to normal. She came back from her vacation as she does every year. The break ended, and they all returned to school. As if nothing happened.

For days and days and days, they all felt the same. She wasn't really able to distinguish between them. They all blended together, as if they were all just a montage, she never actually noticed when one day ended and the other began.

The best way to describe everything is using glasses. The way everything looks when you take them off and put them back on. You know that everything is blurry without them, but you never quite remember the way you saw everything before them. All you know is that you put them on every morning, and take them off every night, but you get the same result. It's similar to that, with the days.

She couldn't tell you what she expected, just because a new year had begun didn't mean it was always going to be fun and exciting, honestly speaking, judging by the first 15 days of this month, it seemed as if things were going to be the exact opposite. Boring, indistinguishable, repetitive.

And that's what she thought too, until suddenly something surprising happened. Something so peculiar. Something that really changed the cycle.

"Good morning everyone!" She typed in chat. Ironically, some people were going to sleep, others were just now waking up, like me. Either way she still greeted them. The time zones were always frustrating, but they made do.

It was six a.m. at the moment. Seeing as she had school that day she got up and started getting ready. Nothing special she could do seeing as she wore a uniform.

Her routine was finished, so she decided to watch TV whilst she ate. The news came, she had no interest in watching really, she was on the brink of just skipping to the next channel, that is, until she saw what was being broadcasted.

"Today's news will be shocking for some and exciting for others. We all know of the incident of Jan. 3, when the president made an irrational decision. Well, it seems that it didn't go without consequence, because get this, as of January 16, the president's impeachment trial will be starting with the Senate."

Numb. She couldn't describe the overwhelming emotion that she felt after hearing that. It was so much that she didn't react in any way. A few minutes passed and she just started smiling. There is no reason to justify her overwhelming happiness for other than the politician simply was not on her good side, the guy had done various things to people like her for her to have enough of a reason to not be fond of him.

She slowly just grabbed her phone and sent a quick message about it and moved on.

That was the start.

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"Hey! DidyoubyanychancedothehomeworkLil?" Some random kid asked her while clearly only bothering to take a single breath while doing so.

She clearly heard him, but Lilith was never one to either help or give out homework answers. She merely kept on walking, her patience not to be bothered with this kid.

As she walked towards her Algebra 2 class she got called a freshie. She merely muttered, 'hag', and continued. Made a left walked into the homeroom. She was exactly 15 minutes early. Once she finally sat down next to her friend, she felt as if she could finally breathe. The daily walking of the hall felt like nothing but a task to her.

"Task one, done huh Lil?"

"Yeah. Any news this morning?" This was a routine. She'd sit down and ask her friend James any important news, if there were any, he'd tell her, if there wasn't they would move on. That was what he did for her.

"Actually, yeah. Check this." He pulled out his phone and opened up an article.

CHINA LOCKS DOWN CITY OF WUHAN

WITH IT'S SO FAR DEATH TOLL OF 17 AND ILL OF OVER 500.

"Huh. That's, I don't like that." Her tone had changed, more flat. More worrisome.

"No. That's your thinking voice, what's wrong with it?" At this point his tone had as well. This is an example of routine. He'd tell her something, and she would explain it. This went from any strange news to potentially any assignments he didn't understand. That was what she did for him.

"Okay, well how long has it been since it was discovered?"

"Let me check." He did some quick typing, looking through potentially credible sources and then spoke.

"Last week of December." Putting the phone down and looking back at her.

"Okay then let's do the fun part, math."

She started thinking more actively while James preferred to just use paper.

"So let's say that the fist case was on the 23rd. Exactly 31 days ago." Every Time she finished saying a thought out loud she paused for three seconds for him to write it down. She heard scribbling of the pencil for two of those seconds then a brief 'okay.'

"The article reports more than 500 cases. 17 deaths. We have those statistics within just 31 days."

"Division?"

"Of course."

"So if we divide the approximate 500 cases within about 30 days? That's...." She took a moment to think. "A little bit more than 16. That's around 16 cases daily."

"Okayyy, 500 divided by 31 exactly is 16.13, so yeah you're pretty accurate." He sort of scoffed. He envied her ability of mental math.

"Okay, now we have a unit rate of cases. As for deaths, 17 out of 500 are fatal. Simplifying those fractions we'll get, 8.5/250, then 4.25/125, 2.12/62.5, and until eventually 1.06/31.25."

"You could've just said the last one first. He grumbled while continuing to write."

"So that means we have about 16 cases daily and then out of every, like 32 people, one dies." She finished proudly.

"Wait. Those are common numbers." He suddenly sat straight up to face her again.

"That's a person dying every two days." That statement was said simultaneously.

The final part of the routine. They helped each other in figuring things out faster. In being efficient. In being on top. That's what they did for each other.

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