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Chapter Two of "Just Another Sci-Fi Novel" |
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Hey, This is the second chapter of Just Another Sci-Fi Novel. Again, feel free to comment. This one is longer than the first, so I’m sorry if you wind up with a headache. Enjoy! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
2 Okay, now that you know more about the world nowadays, I’ll tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Emily Normand, and I am sixteen years old. I go to the only high school in town, Mach High. Only grades nine through twelve go there, so it’s a small school. Yes, as I said previously, we do have a uniform. Our uniform consists of a dark blue; high cut t-shirts and a black, knee-length skirt for girls and black pants for guys. Nice happy colors, aren’t they? Anyway, back to school. On campus, we have five buildings, one for English, one for Math, one for History, one for Biology and Chemistry, and one for all electives, which each have four floors. The bottom floor is for ninth graders, the second floor is for tenth graders, and so on and so forth. Still, we’re not so far behind in technology that we have to climb up several flights of stairs to get to our classes every day. It’s true that we still have stairs (this high school has been running since 1990), but for those people that have class on floors other than the ground, there’s this thing similar to that of an elevator called a shoot that takes us up to our designated floor. It works along the same lines that an elevator does, except it runs on magnetic power instead of electricity, so there’s less of a risk of problems. The shoots are large enough that they can easily accommodate twenty-five to thirty people. There are three shoots, one going to the second floor, one going to the third floor, and one going up to the fourth floor. Having both of these options to get to class helps make it an easier task to get there on time and it makes it less crowded as well, not that we have to worry about that anymore. Due to the single-child law, the number of school kids coming to high school has been going down. Now, remember how I said there were new laws in place forbidding certain things? Well, they even have laws regarding how students interact. Girls and guys can’t have class together, but between classes and before and after school is an entirely different matter. You can go and talk to guys and interact with them normally; you just can’t hug or kiss them or anything like that. The “hall monitors” kind of frown on that here, assuming they could frown. You see, we’re taught by human teachers here (which isn’t the case in every high school; we’re just old-fashioned that way), but out in the hallways, we have security cameras in every corner that watch us day in and day out. I’ve wondered at times just how boring it must get to have to sit in a chair all day and just watch for trouble on a screen. That can’t be a fun job. Anyway, that’s where this story begins (in school, not watching a computer screen), after school on an average Friday afternoon. I was just coming out of my last class of the day, History III, when I spied two of my close friends, Rose Gende and Lily Tufa, coming around the corner. That struck me as odd, considering the fact that the two of them are both ninth graders and really don’t have much of a reason to be up on the third floor. In fact, neither of them, to my knowledge, even had their last class in the history building. “Hey there, what are you doing up here?” The three of us exchanged quick hugs (I only said that guys and girls can‘t hug). “I thought I was supposed to meet you two down by the gate?” “We‘re looking for Violet and Daisy. Have you seen them? We‘re supposed to clear the schedule for the weekend with them.” Rose piped up. She’s only fourteen, making her the youngest out of our little group. Despite her young age, however, she’s very mature, making her an excellent peacemaker, which comes in handy when you have a bunch of teenage girls arguing at any given moment. We love each other to death, but sometimes, we’re going to get on one another’s nerves. “There they are!” Lily exclaimed. She took off running down the hall, ignoring a near collision with a teacher coming out of her classroom. Lily’s only a month older than Rose, and has the hyperactivity and attention span of a five-year-old. I rolled my eyes (this was nothing new) and turned to Rose. “Should we run after her?” “Nah. We‘re going to the same place. What does it matter that we get there at the same time?” I shrugged and we headed off in Lily’s direction, who had caught up to Violet and Daisy and seemed to be listening intently to Violet and Daisy’s conversation. As we approached, we overheard the three of them talking in hushed but heated tones. “Are you serious?” “Yep, that’s what I heard.” “That can’t be; there must be a mistake.” “My sources never make mistakes. It‘s pure information, or as pure as it can be considering it‘s gone through about half the school by now.” That was Violet. Never one to be left out of anything, her “sources”, as she called them, were several people at the top of the “social ladder” of our school (not much really has changed in two hundred plus years). She’s always up-to-date on the newest and freshest gossip, which is good for keeping up with and dispelling rumors. “What’s wrong?” Rose asked as we approached the group of three. Violet turned around sharply and Daisy jumped. When they looked us in the face, we knew something was off big-time. They looked like they had received the news that someone had died. “It‘s Erika.” Daisy spoke in a quiet voice after looking over her shoulder and over at the two cameras pointed at us. She’s always paranoid that someone might overhear us when we talk about gossip. Not that we aren’t, mind you, just not as much as her. She was a really shy girl way back when, never wanting to break the rules in any way. Nowadays, it still freaks her out, just not as much as it used to. “Apparently, she‘s back in town and the authorities are looking for her and Kane.” Rose went pale, but I didn’t go to panic mode immediately. Maybe it was something minor. “Is it bad?” “We’re not quite sure.” Violet ran one hand through her jet-black hair in irritation. “Usually, I can get all kinds of information about this kind of stuff. But this time, they’re being tight-lipped about it. All they would tell me was that there‘s an order to bring them into custody as soon as possible. What‘s worse, the order came from high up.” A knot of fear grew in my stomach. “How high up?” Rose voiced the question I was afraid to ask. Violet sighed. “All the way.” That was very bad. Since the order had come all the way from the top of the food chain of the government, there had to be serious trouble brewing. That’s when I got officially nervous. Erika was a former member of our group of five (back before Rose was around), but she left us for her boyfriend, Kane. Kane is said to be a bad boy, a rebel by today’s standards, and we’d heard that he ran away from home to join the underground movement. Yes, we still have rebels, despite the government’s attempts to stomp them out. About a month after they met, Erika announced that she planned to leave town to be with him. Naturally, we freaked out. Therefore, like good friends do, we tried to keep her from leaving, saying that he was dangerous to be around and that she shouldn’t get mixed up with him. However, it didn’t work. About two months ago, she stopped coming to school. No one’s heard from her since. We’ve worried about her every day. But there’s always a silver lining to a dark cloud like this. After Erika left, we needed a new member (I‘ll explain why in a bit), so we found Rose, who had just transferred to our school at the time, and we welcomed her in. “I didn‘t even know she was back in town.” I muttered under my breath. Catching Violet’s inquisitive gaze, I asked, “So you couldn‘t get any other information than that?” Violet shook her head. “Nope, sorry. I‘ll keep on this one, though. It‘s brand-new information, so I‘ll probably get some more information later. They can‘t stay quiet forever. They‘ll tell eventually.” “Thanks.” I tried to give a hopeful smile. Violet just gave me a sorrowful look and I caught everyone else giving me the same. I didn’t have to ask why. They knew the back-story of Erika and me. The two of us had been best friends for as long as I can remember. Our parents used to live across the street from each other. When she wanted to leave, I was the one who fought the hardest to get her to stay, and I was the one who missed her the most when she left. I’m not saying that the others didn’t miss her, they just didn’t know her as well as I did. Aside from myself, out of Violet, Daisy, Lily, and Rose, the one who knew her the most was Violet, and she’s only known Erika for about two years. “Uh, guys, not to change the topic, but what were you going to tell us?” Daisy’s question, thankfully for me, brought us back on track. “Right. We came to tell you that we can hit the books at Rose‘s house this weekend.” I answered. “My parents are working on a big project this weekend.” Rose chipped in. “They won’t be back until Sunday.” “Cool.” “Sounds good to me.” With that, the five of us walked through the nearby transparent door of the shoot and pressed the button for the ground floor. Now, before I go any further, let me explain something here. When we’re talking about hitting the books, we’re not actually studying. In fact, most of us, with the obvious exception of Daisy, don’t study most of the time anyway. Besides, we haven’t had books since our dictator came to power. When we say ‘hitting the books’, we’re talking about studying of a different sort. You see, we’re practicing witches, and by practicing, I mean we do this on a regular basis. But with the no-religion law in place, we have to be careful. So we made up the code phrase and agree to meet at Rose’s house whenever we can to study magic. Rose’s house is the only place we can really do all of our stuff at because that’s where all our stuff is. Rose is the only one out of us, to our current knowledge, who has a direct blood relative who practiced magic. Her grandma taught Rose how to do this stuff and left her all of her equipment when she passed away last year. Violet, Lily, and Daisy have had to learn from books and from each other. But there’s a secret I’ve been keeping from the others for a while. Erika taught me how to use magic, how to wield the powers given to me naturally and enhance them. No, I can’t move things with my mind or shoot fire from my hands. I’m an empath and a healer. I feel people’s emotions in addition to my own. Erika taught me how to not only call up my gifts of empathy and healing, but also how to push them to the back of my mind, so they don’t drive me crazy. To this day, no one else knows who taught me to use magic. I’ve had to hide it from the others for as long as we’ve been practicing. They have no idea that Erika taught me everything I know. Erika. Just thinking about everything she taught me brought other memories rushing back. Erika and I at my fifth birthday party, her chasing after some guy who had the utter stupidity to pour water on my head. Erika and I in my room on the weekend, scanning over various sources of magical know-how and quizzing each other. Erika and I on the day she left, my tears and her promise that she’d come back soon. That particular memory brought with it all the pain I’d felt then. Even after two months, the pain still hasn’t faded. “Emily?” I opened the eyes I just realized I had been clenching shut. Rose and the others were each looking at me with concern written all over their faces. “Emily, are you okay?” Rose asked again. I nodded, just then noticing I was clutching the necklace that hung beneath my shirt. The see-through door of the shoot opened and I stepped out first, letting the heat from the sun warm my face. After the others got out and began making a beeline for the nearest gate out, I pulled the necklace out of my shirt. Normally, we’re not allowed to wear jewelry of any kind to school. However, the collar of the shirt of our school uniform is high enough that I just wear it underneath my shirt. It has a thick silver chain and a silver ring with two rubies sitting side by side hanging from it. Erika gave me the chain and the ring separately the day she left. The ring fits me; I just chose to wear them together. As of now, it’s my only link to her. “Emily, hurry up!” I glanced ahead. The others had gone through the gate and now Lily was hanging on it, calling for me, impatient as always. “I‘m coming!” I yelled back at her. I ran for her and she took off, probably thinking I was chasing her. I stopped running when I caught up to them all, who apparently weren’t as far away from the gate as I thought. “Took you long enough.” Violet teased, laughing. “Sorry.” I apologized. The others, forgiving me for my tardiness, went on ahead, but Rose stayed behind and we walked together. Rose’s house is only a block from the school, so we can just walk there after school. “Thinking back?” I knew what she meant. She was asking about Erika. “Yeah. It‘s just hard, with the information about Erika being back in town and all, not to worry about her.” “Well, you‘ll have plenty of time to worry later.” Rose grinned. “Come on, they‘re waiting.” We took off at a racing pace down the sidewalk. As we ran, I couldn’t help it. Thanks, Rose. I let the words float through my mind, though they were directed at her. Rose has been working on reading people’s thoughts for some time, and is getting good at it. She’s not quite there, yet, which is why I kept the message short. Still, she must have heard me because she sent back a message. No problem.
Daughter of a Wolf · Mon Aug 13, 2007 @ 07:40pm · 0 Comments |
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