by Travis McBee
“How do I turn it on?” He muttered aloud losing himself in the search and forgetting that he was surrounded by fellow students.
“You press your thumb against the screen,” A kind voice answered his question.
Will glanced up to look into the eyes of a boy a few inches shorter than him. The boy had brown hair and benign brown eyes that looked with malice free interest at Will. Will recognized him as one of the boys who had looked utterly calm during every aspect of this strange day. Will looked back down at his Micro and obediently pressed his thumb against the glass of the screen. Instantly the Micro came to life in a blur of color and sound. The sound was obnoxiously loud and Will tried to muffle its sudden arrival with his hands to no avail.
“Just tell it to be quiet,” The boy said again this time smiling at the look of embarrassed futility that Will had adopted
“Quiet,” Will half whispered half yelled to the noisy Micro hiding in his hands.
The words had no sooner left his mouth than the noise desisted completely as if chopped in half with a knife. Will glanced gratefully back up at the boy.
“Thank you,” He told the boy, “I’m Will by the way,” he added as he stuck out his hand
“Ryan,” The boy replied shaking the offered hand, “Ryan Heslin. I’m willing to bet that you didn’t know much about this place until recently.”
Will risked a chuckle and was pleased to find that it came out genuine, “Didn’t have a clue until yesterday. How did you know how to do that? Have you known for long?”
“Aye, you could say that,” Ryan returned the chuckle, “I was raised on Broglio till I was nine. My parents then had the brilliant idea to move to Earth though so I’ve been cut off for a while.”
“Mine did too,” Will said, “But mine moved before I was born and didn’t tell me a thing.”
Ryan laughed along with Will and would have continued the conversation if Mr. Roberts hadn’t chosen that time to shepherd them to their next location.
“Follow me everyone,” He droned with his dull voice, “You are expected in the cafeteria,”
The group of students followed Mr. Roberts out through another door and into the main school. The group emerged into a massive room that appeared to serve no other purpose than to impose visitors. Will assumed it was the atrium of the school and a whispered conversation between two girls confirmed his suspicions. Mr. Roberts led them across the atrium and through a pair of shining metal doors that were twice the height of Will.
He emerged into a room that was even more massive than the atrium he had just left. The ceiling, made of the same gray metal as the rest of the interior, hung fifty feet over his head with rows of lights that resembled the fluorescent lights from his old school making narrow paths across the otherwise dull surface. The metal floors were dominated by what appeared to be hundreds of large circular tables, most of which were filled to capacity with students of varying ages. Along one wall of the cafeteria stood a long buffet from which steam was billowing in waves. Will followed his group of fifteen towards the line of food and felt his appetite arrive in a sudden burst of stomach growling as he drew closer.
Will’s appetite disappeared as quickly as it had arrived when he got close enough to look into the bowls of food. Instead of the piles of delicious home style food he had come to expect through years of exquisite cooking by his mother, he was now faced with piles of gray and brown slush.
“Ugh, what is that?” he complained aloud.
“It’s Bridgeworlds excuse for food,” A familiar voice responded.
Will glanced behind him and saw that Ryan was looking on the food about as favorably as a vegetarian looks at a steak.
“The gray stuff’s called glosh,” Ryan continued, “The locals love it but they don’t have food here like they do on Earth. The brown stuff is called broccoli strangely enough and it’s just about as popular as the broccoli you’re used to.”
Will laughed and helped himself to a spoonful of the gruesomely gray glosh and the broccoli that wasn’t broccoli. Once he had his tray piled with new and somehow not so intriguing food, he grabbed a cup that was offered to him by Ryan and sniffed at it.
“What is it?” Will asked prepared for an exotic answer
“That’s water,” Ryan answered raising his eyebrows in sudden worry for Will’s sanity
Will blushed and muttered something in his embarrassment that was inaudible even for him and followed Ryan towards one of the few remaining tables. He pulled out an uncomfortable looking metal chair and sat cautiously into it expecting discomfort as he had when spotting the chairs on the Terra Shuttle, instead he was surprised to find that once again it was incredibly comfortable. Well maybe the food will surprise me too he thought as he spooned some gray glosh into his mouth. It didn’t stay in his mouth long before he spat it back onto his tray. Nope, that’s as bad as it looks.
“Too good for you Terry,” The freckly pimple faced boy sneered as he pulled a chair out next to Will.
“My name is William buddy,” Will replied angrily at the boys overt nastiness.
“I never said it wasn’t,” The boy replied with a smirk growing like a tumor across his face, “I just called you a Terry, Terry.”
“And what’s a Terry?” Will asked before he could think not to answer the boys jibe.
“It means you’re from Earth, it’s short for Terrestrial,” a more welcome voice answered on the other side of Will, “Now get out of here Brandon. I don’t like scum at my table.” Ryan added to the repulsive boy.
The boy allowed himself a sneer in Ryan’s direction and raised his eyebrows threateningly at Will. However, after his signs of animosity he meekly rose from the table and trooped off across the cafeteria in a sour mood.
“Thanks,” Will said to Ryan, “What’s that guy’s problem?”
“His parents work with mine back on Earth,” Ryan replied while moving his food around on his tray with apparent disgust, “He thinks all Terrestrials are stupid. Terry isn’t even an insult up here though, it just means you live on Earth. In fact he is one,” Ryan laughed and began spooning the glosh into his mouth at break neck speed barely pausing to swallow.
“Well he’s right isn’t he?” Will asked, “Earthlings are dumb, I mean compared to all this,” He waved his arms around at the surroundings that appeared to be from a science fiction movie.
“Not dumb,” Ryan replied after swallowing a mouthful of food, “Ignorant, not dumb. There’s a big difference,” He glanced at the tray of food that was untouched in front of Will before adding, “It’s gross but if you eat really fast you can’t taste it, trust me it’s the only way to get it down.”
Will smiled and thanked Ryan for the tip before putting it into practice. He soon discovered that Ryan was right yet again, the glosh was still disgusting but if he swallowed it as soon as it was in his mouth he barely tasted it. He soon finished the entire tray of food and began to examine the cafeteria with renewed interest.
“Hey Ryan,” he asked after a moment of study, “Where are all the teachers?”
“They don’t eat in here. They have a private dining room through that door,” He said pointing towards a small door set in the wall by the buffet.
Will glanced towards the door but his eyes became distracted before they completed the journey. About halfway across the room a girl casually flicked her hair over her shoulder drawing Will’s eyes to her like a moth to a flame. Will felt his pulse quicken slightly at the sight of her.
She had shoulder length hair of the darkest red, so dark it was almost brown, and her eyes appeared to a dark green from the distance Will was observing her. Wow was the only thought that managed to crop up into the forefront of his brain. When he tried to glance away he found his eyes returning to stare at her within seconds and he spent the rest of dinner trying not to stare.
* * *
Dinner was followed by a tour of the school for the entire freshman class. It turned out that there while only fifteen students h
ad come from Earth there were a hundred freshmen overall. The feeling of friendship Will had felt budding between himself and Ryan dissipated almost instantly as they joined the larger body of freshmen and Ryan disappeared into the crowd after people he had already known, leaving Will to fend for himself.
The school was six floors in height with a central staircase used as the main way to traverse the floors. The first floor was devoted to only three rooms; the hanger, the cafeteria, and the study which was the largest of the three and filled with hundreds of tables and small rooms that could be reserved for intense study.
The second floor was where three of the floor dormitories were located. Each grade level had their own lounge that preceded the two dormitories, one for girls and one for boys. The freshman, sophomore, and junior lounges and dormitories were all situated on the second floor. The senior’s dormitory supposedly dominated nearly the entire fourth floor leaving them free of the majority of the foot traffic throughout the school. They even had their own private dining hall so that they could isolate themselves from the rest of the school completely if they chose.
All of the classrooms in the school were squeezed into the third floor which was a maze of hallways as a result. The fourth floor was the senior floor and Will’s tour group skipped over it entirely and went to the fifth floor which had only one room in it. The one room was a gym unlike any Will had ever seen before. It was monstrous in size taking up not only all of the fifth floor but also most of the sixth. One wall of the gym was made of glass and hundreds of seats afforded spectators a view of whatever sport they played in Bridgeworld. It was a room that appealed to the inner athlete in Will and it was the only place in Bridgeworld that he felt the least bit comfortable.
After the tour, which skipped the sixth floor altogether, they were taken back to the freshman dormitories. Will managed to get a bed in a corner of the room that afforded him as much privacy as possible in a room with fifty teenage boys. Each boy was given a bed that was slightly larger than the twin mattress Will had slept on before his parents had redone his room for his thirteenth birthday, and a large metal closet that stood between each of the beds to help spread the illusion of privacy.
Will opened the closet and slid his micro onto a shelf midway up before sliding his tennis shoes off and under the bed. He climbed into the bed without bother to remove his new silver outfit, which he had learned was called a monogarb. After all it felt like his skin anyways and his modesty prevented him from disrobing in the vast room. As he was clambering into bed he realized that he hadn’t slept since he had woken up on Earth to a home cooked breakfast which seemed to have happened weeks ago. Once his head hit the pillow Will managed to stay conscious for only a few seconds and he slipped easily into a dreamless sleep, a sleep which was broken by a blaring alarm after what seemed like only minutes.
Chapter Seven
The First Day of School
Will groaned as he sat up in his bed as his body protested the lack of sleep with radiating cramps that tried to force him to lie back down. The lights in his dormitory had sprung back to life and the loud alarm that had accompanied their return continued to blare for another minute. Will rubbed the tiredness out of his eyes with a little assistance from the adrenaline that was beginning to find its way into his blood at the rush of sounds.
“What’s going on?” he yawned to a straw haired boy that had slept in the bed across from him
“Morning alarm,” The boy said returning the yawn
Will’s heart slowed as he realized that no emergency was taking place and instantly felt an almost uncontrollable desire to fall back into bed. Instead he glanced around and saw that all around him boys were moaning while climbing, crawling, and falling out of bed. Will swung his feet out of his bed and placed them on the cold metal floor for only a split-second before drawing them back up with a sharp intake of breath. He reached down to the floor and dragged up the pair of sneakers that he had brought with him from Earth. He slid them over his feet and jumped down from the bed and followed the mass exodus of boys towards the freshman boy’s bathroom.
Thirty minutes later Will found himself in the cafeteria staring into a tray of food that was anything but appetizing. The glosh and broccoli from the night before had been replaced by what he had assumed was powdered eggs and pancakes and to his amazement he found that he was correct. Unfortunately for Will powdered eggs, no matter which planet serves them, are disgusting. He ate one bite of the eggs before abandoning them for a bad job and made due with surprisingly decent pancakes. The people Will shared a table with at breakfast spared him no word of conversation and he took no initiative to start a one of his own, so breakfast passed in silence, although it was not the painful silence that often happens in situations like that.
After breakfast Will made his way to the first class of his extraterrestrial schooling career. He had received his schedule on his Micro midway through the meal when the little device began beeping incessantly; he wasn’t embarrassed this time at the sudden noise due to the fact that the entire cafeteria had turned into a music hall of beeping Micros. The third floor was a mess of people winding their ways through the narrow corridors to their classes and Will found that he had to force his way through chattering groups of girls and lazy packs of boys to get to his first class, mathematics.
Will had half hoped that math in space would be dramatically different from the boring monotony that had been his math classes on Earth but he was disappointed to learn that math was the same as powdered eggs, terrible no matter where it was. His teacher was a rather pleasant lady named Mrs. Green. She was a plump middle aged woman with a sheet of curly brown hair that fell down her back. She constantly smiled at the class even though none of them returned it and was helpful and friendly when a student asked a question. None the less Will hated the subject enough to be relieved when the buzzing bell rang throughout the room indicating that it was time to change classes.
After his math class Will stumbled through the mob of students that congested the hallway and fought his way into the history class that was his second period. The history class did not disappoint Will as the math class had done. His teacher was an eccentric woman, who appeared to be in her mid sixties, named Mrs. Eagleman. She instantly began teaching when the door had slid closed to start the class and had done so with such fervor that the class soon became a circus of excitement. She would run around raising her voice until she was almost shouting and then just as skillfully drop the volume until Will would find himself leaning forward into his seat to try and hear. The history she taught was also nothing Will had ever heard before because it had nothing to do with Earth. On that first day she talked about the colonization of Broglio and Will found himself hanging on every word. When the bell rang for the class to end Will found himself disappointed, a feeling he had not felt about a class for several years.
After his extraordinarily exciting history class will made his way down to the cafeteria for lunch. When he had waited his way through the line at the buffet he made his way to an empty table with a tray of food that was quite familiar to Will, a ham and cheese sandwich. He had sat down at the table and began to enjoy the familiar food when a voice as clear and sweet as a bell rang into his ears.
“Is anyone sitting here?”
Will looked up to see the girl from dinner the night before looking at him and motioning towards the empty chair on his right.
“No,” Will replied in a voice slightly higher than he usually used “Help yourself.”
The girl shot him a quick smile, a beautiful smile in Will’s opinion, and sat down gracefully. Up close Will could see that her eyes were a stunning dark green that hinted at both mystery and kindness.
“I’m Abby,” She told him in her sweet bell like voice after she had sat down
“I’m Will,” He replied in a graciously squeak free voice.
The conversation threatened to end after that brief exchange and Will’s mind had gone suddenly blank about things to sa
y to her. He turned to his sandwich and took a bite out of it and saw that Abby was starting to eat hers as well. After a moment of chewing Abby turned to Will and started to talk to him as if she refused to let the lunch pass in silence.
“Are you a freshman?” She asked him
Will nodded, “Didn’t know this place existed till a few days ago, you?”
“Well I am a freshman,” She laughed, “But I’ve known about Bridgeworld for years. I worked my butt off to get in here, how did you not know about it?”
“Well um,” Will paused as he looked for the right words, “Well, I’m from Earth so I didn’t know about it, but my father went here so I was automatically given a chance at a spot.”
“You’re from Earth?” She questioned with a sudden look of intrigue on her face, “Why’d your parents move there?”
“They said they didn’t like Broglio,” Will replied shrugging his shoulders
“Oh okay, but Earth?” Abby replied completely shocked at the idea that anyone would choose to live on Earth that knew of other places to choose.
Will simply shrugged his shoulders again not sure how to respond and suddenly felt very uncomfortable. Abby saw his discomfort and changed the topic to school. By the end of the lunch period they had become rather friendly towards each other but it was not a true friendship, although Will felt a desire for much more than that, and as soon as the bell rang they parted ways with only a mere “good talking to you” exchanged.
The third class Will fought his way into was named Basic Sciences. It was in the largest classroom yet with small tables set around the edges of the class with the middle left open for the teacher to lecture. The tables were laden with strange instruments and devices whose purposes Will could only guess at. The teacher was a tall Asian man named Mr. Kang. He was the first teacher Will didn’t care for, not because the man seemed mean, but due to the fact that the man was extremely boring. Will wouldn’t have been surprised if the man’s face had fallen off revealing a robot underneath the facade of a man. The class was also exceptionally hard even on the first day and Will found himself struggling to comprehend the material that was thrown at him, it was a novel feeling for Will and he wasn’t sure he enjoyed it.
