Chapter 3:
Maxwell
Bridges reminded me of my brother.
It
wasn’t his appearance, though they did look similar, and it wasn’t age, as Max
was only 15, a short 7 months older than myself.
No,
it was in the cadence of his voice and the way he held himself that reminded me
of David.
Max
sweat confidence, it oozed out of every pore.
It
was shortly after arriving at the Center that Ms. Arch had introduced us.
Informing me that Max was not only my roommate, but also the leader of Team
Theta, which I was now a member of.
Max
was now taking me on a tour of the facilities, but it was infinitely more
interesting to hear it from him.
“That’s
the fitness center across the way” he pointed to a stout white building down
the lawn, “we have open gym every day from 3 to 7, except on the weekends when
we have football.”
“Do
you play?” he asked casually.
I
shook my head, and he gave an exaggerated sigh.
“Damn,
I was hoping we’d have another baller in Theta, but oh well…”
He
punctuated this statement with a chuckle and lighthearted a slap on my shoulder
as we continued on our tour down the great lawn.
My
old school had been one great big block. With classrooms, gyms, labs, offices,
and the dining hall all stacked into one large square of a building.
The
Center sprawled.
There
were geometrically shaped buildings of varying heights in each direction, and
vast system of trails tracing across the lawn between them.
Currently
we were headed toward the dormitories, a cluster of four buildings about four stories
in height, each painted with a stripe of a bright color.
“We’re
in building 2 up on the fourth floor.” He said pointing to a building with a
bold stripe of blue down it’s front.
My
stomach churned with nerves as we headed for the door and, the sudden realness
of my situation clouded my thoughts.
This is where I’ll be sleeping. This is the
place I’ll call home.
I
felt a hand on my shoulder now, but couldn’t turn to look.
“Are
you alright?” said a soft feminine voice.
I
attempted to nod as the girl circled round and came into view.
She
was younger than myself, possibly 12 but maybe 13, with a crown of wavy blonde
hair that reminded me of an ocean, though I’d never seen one.
She
was small and doll like, like my mother, but she didn’t seem as fragile. If my
mother was a porcelain doll that spent its life on the shelf, then this girl
was the doll that went on stroller rides around the neighborhood.
“It’s
ok if you’re freaking out” she said, her voice a gentle coo, “we all went
through home sickness the first week or so of being here, even Max.”
Picturing
someone as confident as Max feeling homesick made me feel slightly better.
The
girl placed her hand in mine and gave me a firm shake that shocked my arms back
to their normal weight.
“I’m
Hazel, and you must be our new team member?”
She
smiled expectantly up at me.
“Jason.”
I said, feeling my feet warm up to the idea of movement.
“It’s
a pleasure to meet you, Jason”
Max
appeared in the doorway, looking mildly frantic.
“There
you are Jason! I got to the top floor and realized you weren’t behind me. You’ve
been so quiet I didn’t realize I had been talking to myself.”
“Sorry
Max, I just couldn’t wait to meet our new recruit.” Hazel replied for me,
placing the blame entirely on herself.
Max
exhaled a sigh of relief, “I don’t know what would happen if I lost our new
team member on day one. They’d probably strip me of leadership, I only just got
this job.”
“Adam, Max’s previous roommate, was our
old team leader, he turned 18 two weeks ago,” Hazel whispered aside to me
I
nodded in understanding. At 18 you started your mandatory military service.
Most kids went straight into the infantry, but the rules were a little
different for us. Adam was probably working in some secret underground lab
right now.
“You
sure you’re good Max?” Hazel asked, her voice loud again.
“I’m
alright Haze, I just panicked is all.” He chuckled, “Alright, this time for
real.”
Hazel
and I followed as Max lead us up through the ground floor common area and onto
the main stairwell.
From
what max was saying and I was seeing I gathered that each floor had 2 teams
living on it one on the east side and one on the west, with a smaller common
area in between each floor with a couple of couches. Each team decorated their
side of the common space differently. Most showed off their accomplishments
with large holos of their achievements, awards, and trophies, but one team near
the ground floor chose to have a painted mural of an alien landscape, which Max
had pointed out saying “Team Lambda has a lot of outworlders, they get really
creative.”
The
Theta’s wall was covered in schematics for various things: robots, hoverboards,
boats, the perfect sandwich.
“Our
team projects,” said Max with a smile as he opened the door with the touch of a
button, “We’ve had a lot of commendations, especially on the sandwich.”
***
Inside
our room was sparse and impeccably clean. There were two desks, two beds, two
nightstands with two lamps, and a closet. The long blackened strip of the
school’s computer ran along the wall at waist height. The only decoration on
the walls was a single large holo of some famous footballer in the midst of
kicking a ball, which was positioned perfectly over Max’s bed.
On
my bed sat my suitcase, and as I touched the lock the computer warmed up and played
a message welcoming me to the “E2 Learning Center for Applied Intelligence”,
that ended with a small note signed by the Regents themselves.
“Woah”
I said to myself. It was hard to comprehend the Regents taking time out of
their busy schedules to all sign a note. I wondered for a moment if it was
manufactured in some way.
“It’s
real” said Max, sitting in his desk chair with a tablet in hand, “My Dad’s on
the director’s council, he meets with the Regents each month to update them on
how things are going with the school. They take a personal interest in us.”
“Your
dad’s a director?” If I sounded surprised it was because I had previously
imagined that the school’s directors were all ancient and decrepit men tied to
life support machines and talking via computer.
If
Max’s dad was a director, who personally talked to the regents, that meant that
his family was probably even more of a political power than my Aunts,
Grandfather, Grand Uncles, Great Grandfather, and Great-Great Grandfather
combined.
Max
just shrugged and nodded his head. It wasn’t a big deal to him.
I
continued to unlock and unpack my bag, placing my small amount of clothes in
the closet, next to the neatly piled supply of Center uniforms, setting an
extra blanket my mother had packed on the bed, placing my toiletries in various
drawers and bins, and carefully checking each of my holos before sticking them
to the walls around my bed.
Most
guys had holos of footballers, women, or their favorite bands, but what I
placed on the wall were my favorite stars and galaxies,
Surrounding
myself with constellations made me feel immediately more at home. I even found
myself wondering where the school’s holochamber was.
Behind
me at Max’s desk came a small pinging sound, followed by a line of text appearing
across the computer screen.
“We’d
better get going to the dining hall,” said Max, giving the text a look, “the
rest of the team is getting a bit impatient.”
---
This entire part is highlighted for heavy revision based on the feedback I received from my writer's group. -KayPee
No comments:
Post a Comment