The Teaching Assistant, Part 58

There was no student ID to be found in Amelia’s binder.

At first, she just thought she was looking in the wrong place. Her first instinct had been one of the pockets in the front or back, after which she scoured the rest of the thing. Nothing. The more she searched however, the more sure she was that what she needed was missing.

Though Mrs. Webb had been the one to hand her the binder, it probably hadn’t actually been prepared by the first teacher Amelia met. There was a syllabus for every class, each with its own tab. If Amelia had to guess, those had either been sent to the office by each teacher for her, or were already on file for new students or anyone who needed to reference a specific class. That meant Ashley potentially would have had the access needed to remove something like an ID that would help Amelia on a day where the young adult had more freedom. It was the only logical conclusion, as a school like Westridge wouldn’t have made such a mistake.

Groaning in frustration, Amelia shoved the binder aside and gave a cursory look to the rest of her desk. Aside from the student handbook and the binder she had just flipped through, she couldn’t see anything else that would be helpful. After checking the drawers and doing a quick walk of the dorm room, it was clear that the space was still more or less move-in ready aside from the items on the desk as well as a couple spare uniform pieces hung in the closet for her. No key, either; that’s the other thing she had been looking for upon making it back to her room.

She shrugged off her blazer while internally cursing out Ashley. What now? Amelia’s short list of ideas were all limited by a lack of resources at the moment. Lying back on her bed and closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and tried to think. There was still Summer, whose clique Amelia had ‘invested in’ to some degree. That was going to have to be a last resort option, as the mortifying experience from earlier was still replaying in Amelia’s mind.

The solitude of her bedroom was nice, though it didn’t serve to spark any new escape concepts. She wasn’t giving up, yet it was starting to feel like staying here for the rest of the weekend was a very real possibility. Until the office was open on Monday morning, there was only so much Amelia could do.

Sitting back up and opening her eyes, Amelia let out a quiet sigh. She was actually considering studying as a way to pass the time. For classes she had already aced years ago. It was better than doing nothing, and Amelia was also the kind of girl who liked to play it safe. If, for whatever reason, she wasn’t able to solve her case of mistaken identity tomorrow or immediately on Monday morning, she would only end up looking worse if she was a ‘student’ who was constantly struggling to keep up.

Proving that she didn’t need a tutor was a good first step. History and Science were just difficult due to all the details she hadn’t brushed up on in years. For a studious girl like herself, an afternoon/evening would do wonders to bring back the names, dates, terms, and equations that were somewhere in the depths of her memory. If her teenage self had done well in every class growing up, albeit at a public school that was less academically rigorous than the preparatory boarding school she was currently stuck at, surely her young adult self could manage it.

As she sat back down at the desk and took out the materials she and Evelyn had just worked on, Amelia tried not to think about how she was low key doing exactly what Ashley and Claire wanted. ‘Developing intellectually.’ Which was, of course, absurd. Amelia was supposed to be a teaching assistant at the academy, not a student. She was plenty intelligent. Just not when a ton of old subjects were sprung on her with no warning.

Amelia couldn’t help but blush at the other phrase that the two eighteen year olds had insisted on. ‘Develop physically.’ SO rude. And literally impossible. Unless Amelia had a super belated growth spurt, she was more or less resigned to her smaller size. Outside of the enhancements she usually made to her appearance, there wasn’t anything she could do about that. Especially not when she was dressed like a schoolgirl, complete with a training bra and flats that left her shorter than half the girls in her class.

Doing her best to stop thinking about the conversation from the previous night, she started by reviewing all the Earth/Physical Science sections that she and Evelyn just worked on. One of the best ways to study was to do so right after a lesson when the information was fresh.

One thing Amelia didn’t consider when sitting down to study was that the only concept of time she had to work with was the dorm room window. Normally she would take timed breaks along the way, except she didn’t have a phone or even a simple clock to work with. It wasn’t that important, as she could just take a mental/stretch break whenever it felt appropriate, but she was also thinking ahead to dinner and how the dining hall was only open for so long.

It was definitely still afternoon, based on how bright it was outside. The handbook didn’t say anything about missing a meal, though a real dinner was preferable to the collection of snacks she was given last night. For the time being, however, Amelia added that to the list of mental distractions she was trying to avoid.

Despite the material she was working on, reviewing the two less familiar subjects was still somewhat cathartic compared to what the rest of her day had been like so far. Unlike some of her former peers, Amelia didn’t mind settling in for an afternoon of studying.

Around the time she had decided to take a second stretch break, Amelia jumped slightly at the sound of someone knocking on her door.