by Jess Petosa
“Should it?” she responded.
“I think so. It is okay to be angry and upset over something, even if you cannot change the outcome. They are normal human emotions, and you should allow yourself to feel them.”
He was alluding to the fact that she could show some emotion in reaction to the events of the past couple of days, but he couldn’t find the words to say it outright.
Ally watched him for a minute, her jaw line tightening. “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
He shook his head. “No. When my mother gave birth to a son my father said there was no need for other children.”
“He sounds lovely”, she laughed.
“Look, Ally, there are some things I need to tell you…” Luke rubbed his clammy hands on his pants. He had stalled long enough, and now he needed to come clean.
She rested her chin in her hands, watching him.
“In the woods, when I claimed you from the Guards, I wasn’t doing it to prove a point to them or just to save your life.” He started, taking a different direction than he had planned. “I was truly interested in you from the moment I saw you. I want to get to know you better, if you’ll give me a chance.”
Ally seemed surprised at his words, her green eyes growing wide. She turned and stared at the fountain, bouncing her foot on the ground. She finally opened her mouth to speak, but another voice called out in the garden.
“Luke! Hey, Luke.”
“Pax,” he cursed under his breath.
“There you are.” Pax ran into the garden and grinned when he saw Luke and Ally sitting on the bench. Luke hadn’t realized it before, but they were sitting rather close to each other. He moved over a few inches and turned toward his best friend. A moment later Maver slid up beside him.
“Luke,” Maver started. “You need to come with us, now.”
“Why?” He stood and stepped toward his friends. “I’m kind of busy here.”
Pax laughed. “We can see that.”
“Watch it,” Luke snapped. “What is so important?”
Maver practically jumped beside them, his expression brimming with excitement. “Tighe has challenged you.”
“What!” Luke let out a frustrated groan. “Today? I’m not even at the Warehouse, isn’t this against the rules?”
Maver smirked. “He didn’t do it officially. He told us to come get you, making sure to add that a refusal would be cowardly. We told him that you would come, and you would destroy him... again.”
Pax slapped Luke on the shoulder. “Looks like any business you had with the Ordinary today is off. You have a fight to win.”
Luke looked back at Ally, who was watching their interaction with curiosity. He didn’t want to leave her, especially after she had started to open up to him, but he couldn’t risk his friends seeing him have a weak moment. He had had more since Ally arrived than he had in the past year. He hoped that what he said before Pax arrived had left some sort of good impression on her, and that she would start to trust him. Without a word he turned his back to her and followed his friends out of the garden.
Chapter Seven
When Luke left Ally in the garden, she had spent almost an hour wandering the paths, wearing a nice pattern into the already packed down stones. Luke’s words settled into her mind. He was interested in her? Back in the settlement, dating had never been something she considered. A few of the boys her age had seemed interested, but she didn’t want to be tied down to any relationship. Her mother’s previous relationship had done more harm than good, and Ally wasn’t sure she wanted to risk a similar fate.
But now that she was in the City, Luke had to come along and make her rethink her relationship expectations. When he was near her, she felt electricity buzzing between them. The way he looked at her and spoke to her was nothing like what she expected an Exceptional to be. At least, until he was around his friends. Then the cocky, stubborn side of him she saw back at the boundary line came back out. She realized that it should probably bother her, but she found that it heightened her awareness of him.
She didn’t go inside until her stomach started to rumble, and even though it was well past breakfast, Mazzi gave her a banana and some toast to eat. Afterward she went up to Luke’s room to use his TV since the other Ordinarys were out on errands. She copied the steps she had seen Luke do just yesterday and after a few errors she was able to get a movie playing.
Ally couldn’t read the titles or the covers of the movies she chose, so she had to come up with her own summaries. She watched several love stories, which peaked her interest based on the inner battle she just experienced in the garden. Back in the settlement love wasn’t regarded as serious as it was in these movies. Marriage was important, and many married for love, but it was expected that everyone have a family to help better the community. This meant that sometimes the Ordinarys in the settlement needed to marry someone they could easily get along with, rather than someone he or she loved. Since Ally had tentatively planned on going to the City, love had been lost on her. She didn’t know if Ordinarys in the City were allowed to marry, so she had given up that expectation early on.
But the love in these movies made the characters light up. They ran through fields, danced around large rooms full of glamorous looking people, and even gazed at the stars from a blanket on a grassy hill. The stories went on. As Ally watched she couldn’t help but be reminded of Luke. She hadn’t known him long at all, but she felt comfortable around him. As if she had known him all her life, and was really just noticing him now. He seemed to identify her as a person, not just an Ordinary. Ally figured he just felt responsible for her, since it was not likely that an Exceptional would fall for an Ordinary. Things like that only seemed to happen in the movies she was watching, and all this new world had left was reality.
THAT AFTERNOON ASHER finished his chores early and offered to teach Ally how to play the piano that sat in the foyer. Every time she passed the large, glossy instrument she longed to run her fingers along it. She wanted so badly to hear the music that Sabine said it made. So when they sat down at the small bench behind it and Asher lifted the cover to keys, she quickly reached out and pressed one down. A low note emitted from the back of the piano, echoing through the hall.
Asher laughed at the amazed look on her face and showed her how to position her hands on the keys. She pressed down several notes at once and winced at the unpleasant sound it made.
“It takes practice”, he said and put his own hands on the keys.
Ally watched as his fingers glided across the keys, making a melody so perfect she started to sway back and forth.
“It’s beautiful,” she murmured, continuing to watch his hands. She felt dampness on her cheeks and was surprised when she reached up and felt a tear on her cheek. How many other things had she missed out on because of the virus? Or maybe just because she’d been born an Ordinary.
The front door slammed open and Asher stopped playing immediately. Ally peered around the side of the piano and her eyes locked with Luke. He had dark circles under his eyes, and she could see his muscles tensed through his white shirt. He started to climb the stairs and stopped at the railing that looked right over the piano.
“How’d it go?” She looked up at him, hoping this was the correct question to ask. She wasn’t sure what exactly had he left her to do, but it had sounded important.
“I won.” His voice sounded stiff. He turned and stomped up the stairs. She could hear him walk down the hall and slam his door behind him.
“I should go talk to him.” She started to stand but Asher grabbed her arm.
“I wouldn’t. He isn’t right after a fight. The adrenaline does wacky things to an Exceptional.”
She took one last look at the stairway and nodded her head, placing her hands back on the piano. “Okay, where were we?”
Luke stayed in his room that night, which put some confusion in Ally’s mind about the morning talk they shared. Rather than over thinking it, she decided to spend the
next day getting to know the other Ordinarys in the house.
Sabine taught her how to do the laundry. In the City they had machines that washed clothes for them, so all she needed to do was load and unload the clothes, and then fold them. Back in the settlement they washed their clothes by hand, in bins outside their homes. The process took a while and in the end, their clothes never seemed very clean.
Flint taught her how to change the filter on the furnace in the basement. Ally hadn’t even known the basement existed. It was mainly just for storage, seeming unnaturally damp and cool despite the warm temperatures outside. Flint was a quiet guy, but she was able to gather that he did the handy work around the house.
Asher was able to acquire permission from Mrs. Mathias to take Ally on an errand outside of the house that afternoon. They went to a local food store and picked up ingredients Mazzi needed for cooking the meals. Back in the settlement their food was simple, and plain. Meat from the cattle, chickens, and pigs. Fruits, grains, and vegetables from the gardens and crops. Sometimes they would buy sugar and other refined items from the City, but not often. Here the Exceptionals could pick from any variety of foods, many of them packaged. Asher explained that the first Exceptionals found and trained people who could run the factories that made the food, trying to keep the City running as normally as possible. Many of them were Ordinarys, and they were required to train their children to follow in their path. Asher’s parents had been electricians for the City, and since he was their second son, he was sent to work as a housekeeper.
Luke didn’t come home that night, but he did send her a message saying that he was sorry he had been busy lately, and that he would be home the next afternoon to spend time with her. Apparently he had a big test he needed to study for and he chose to stay at Maver’s. He decided that being home with her would be too much of a distraction.
Since she couldn’t read, she had to have Sabine read it to her.
“This is kind of sweet.” Sabine giggled as she read it a second time. “I’ve never seen Mr. Lukin speak to another girl this way. He must really like you.”
“He barely knows me.” Ally pointed out, folding up the letter and placing it in her nightstand.
“Who says there has to be a time limit on love?” Sabine’s face took on a dreamy expression. “You’ve watched some of Luke’s movies, right? Sometimes the people in them know from the first second they lay eyes on each other.”
Ally shook her head. “You’re crazy. Those are just stories.”
Sabine giggled again. “If believing in love like that is crazy, than I am okay not being sane.”
Ally shut off the light and rolled over, closing her eyes. Luke had told her that those movies were made-up and that the people in them were called actors, or people paid to play those parts. Still, the ideas for them had to come from somewhere. Didn’t they?
IT WAS AROUND LUNCHTIME the following day that she received a piece of paper from Mazzi. She recognized it immediately since Sabine, Asher, and Flint received a similar one every morning. It was a work list. She stared at it for a moment and turned to Sabine for help.
Sabine took the paper and read it over. “You’re supposed to be at Institute in an hour. You are to wait in the lobby.”
“Did Luke send this?” Ally took the paper from her hands.
“It doesn’t say.” Sabine shrugged.
Ally laid the paper on the table and took another bite of her sandwich. “Someone will have to take her. She’ll never find the Institute on her own.” Asher pointed out, looking particularly solemn today.
“Maybe that is part of the task,” Sabine said. “She needs to find the Institute on her own and prove her resourcefulness. It doesn’t say anything about someone leading her there, and it isn’t on any of our work schedules.”
Asher rolled his eyes. “You read way too far into those things Sab, but whatever you say.”
Ally doubted it was meant to be a test on whether or not she could navigate her way to the Institute. She wanted to head out of the house on her own this time, since her previous excursions had been in the company of another.
“I’ll go on my own,” she finally said.
After numerous warnings from Sabine that she would need to leave promptly in case she got lost, Ally washed her face in the downstairs bathroom and ran her fingers through her hair to pull out the knots. It was all she had time for. Since it seemed obvious that the Institute would be in the City Center, she stepped into the flow of pedestrian traffic headed in that direction. Several Ordinarys passed by with their gazes locked on the street. She could see work lists sticking out of their pockets as they carted around bags of food and piles of paper. Most of the Exceptionals seemed to ignore her completely, but a few gave her stern looks when they caught her looking anywhere but the ground. Sabine had never mentioned this as being something that Ordinarys did, but maybe it was more expected than required.
The crowd thinned out immensely as she walked deeper into the City. The streets become wider, and there were more directions for people to move. She thought about asking someone where the Institute was located but that broke the rule of speaking to an Exceptional first. An Ordinary would have been a better choice, but they all looked caught up in their errands.
Instead she decided to listen to those around her, trying to pick up pieces of conversation. She might not have super hearing, but she could still eavesdrop.
“More and more Ordinarys on the street. What a waste,” a male Exceptional said to himself.
Two women Exceptionals walked side by side.
“Did you see Maren’s hair-do this morning? So over the top,” one of them said.
Another voice popped up to her right.
“On my way to the Institute, we’ll catch up later.”
Ally’s head snapped around, searching for the source of the voice. A male Exceptional finished waving to someone off to his right, and then marched toward a street to the left. She followed him at a safe distance, finding herself in another traffic pattern. Several other Exceptionals were walking a similar path, hopefully heading toward the Institute as well.
Twenty minutes later, and with a few minutes to spare, Ally stepped into the lobby of the Institute. The whole outside of the building had been made with some sort reflective material she had never seen before. The large buildings across from the Institute were reflected so clearly Ally almost believed that she was seeing replicas that had risen across from them. But once inside, the front of the Institute took on a whole new look. Rather than seeing her own reflection in the windows of the Institute, she could now see the people and buildings outside. She turned and peered around the lobby, first noticing that it was several stories high. Directly across from where she stood, she could make out the higher floors, each ending in a balcony that over looked the lobby floor. She was sure there were even more floors past that, but after the fifth floor, the ceiling jutted out over head, made of glass just like the rest of the inner windows.
The lobby of the Institute seemed crowded and Ally wasn’t sure how she would ever find Luke. Just to appear productive, she began to weave through the crowd, looking for any Exceptional that might have some resemblance to him. She hoped that since he had asked her to come here, that he was searching for her as well.
“You. Ordinary!” A voice barked.
Ally froze in place, recognizing the grinding voice that could only belong to an Exceptional Guard. She turned around to face the fearsome man and tried to appear calm.
“I’ll need to see your work papers in order to allow you access to the building.” He held his hand out and she slapped hers to her forehead.
“I left it at home,” she said. She thought Sabine might have mentioned bringing her work list along, but Ally had left it sitting on the kitchen table.
“Then I’ll need to see you out.” He grabbed her arm roughly, cutting off her circulation with his strong grip.
“Wait, I’m meeting someone here.” She struggled against hi
m but it was useless.
“Corporal Nicks,” a voice boomed. “You can release her.”
Ally should have been relieved that she suddenly regained feeling in her arm, but she recognized that voice all too well. She turned and found herself face to face with Aden. He towered over her, crossing his arms over his body.
“I’m glad you got my message”.
So the message had been from Aden, not Luke. She hadn’t thought about the possibility that he might be at the Institute, but here he stood. Somehow, she didn’t think that his reason for bringing her here was backed by good intentions. Ally had pretty good instincts, and right now a lump was starting to form in her throat.
“This way.” He put his hand on her back and started to move forward. The gesture might have seemed protective coming from anyone else, but Ally found it threatening. They walked across the lobby and stopped in front of a clear shaft that led from the bottom floor to the top. Ally wasn’t sure what its purpose was until something large within the shaft glided down toward them and stopped level with the lobby floor. Exceptionals stood inside the box, and when it opened they poured out into the lobby.
When the box was empty, Aden led Ally inside and pushed a button on the wall. Two Exceptional Guards stepped in beside them and stood on either side of Ally. She startled a little when they started to move upward. She peered through the front of the glass, watching the lobby grow smaller as they rose. They finally stopped on the fifth floor, and stepped out into an open hallway. She was then led over to the high railing, which overlooked the lobby. She could see the Exceptionals moving below and they were just big enough to make out some definitive features.
Aden peered over the edge as well and focused on something that brought a smile to his lips. He turned to look at her, clasping his hands behind his back in the same moment. “I’m sure you are wondering why I called you here today.”
Ally didn’t respond. She avoided making eye contact by continuing to watch the Exceptionals below. She watched as a new group poured out of two large sets of doors. Then, just as she was about to look away, she caught sight of Luke, Pax, and Maver. They were standing in the center of the room, looking over some papers in their hands. Is that who Aden had been pleased to see below? She wondered if Luke knew she was here. He didn’t look around or appear in a hurry.
