by Travis McBee
Will nodded his head, “Yes ma’am,” he answered not trying to press for conversation
“Do you know what it is?” She asked him again.
Will didn’t trust himself to speak so he simply shook his head.
“Well it’s the piloting controls for the school,” She informed him in what she obviously thought was a kind and educational tone, “If that little baby got messed up it would either send us into deep space, into the sun, or crashing into Broglio.” She let out a low laugh, an evil laugh in Will’s opinion.
She looked at Will with a pair of dangerous blue eyes that were glinting viciously. Will didn’t know if she was trying to intimidate him but she was doing a good job none the less. This lady isn’t quite right.
She might have planned on continuing their morbid little conversation but Brandon groaned in his chair and drew the attention of the mysterious woman.
“Ah, the source of our meeting has emerged I guess,” She said flashing a smile as dangerous as her eyes at Will, “Take a seat next to your friend there.” She added before walking behind the large desk and sitting down with practiced grace.
Will walked over to the chair next to the whining Brandon and sat down. Brandon had recovered enough from his injuries to sit up and look at Will with a face full of new born bruises, popped zits, and mingled hate.
“Well boys,” came the sweetly sinister voice yet again, “I assume we all know why we are here. Now do you both know who I am?”
Will shook his head and Brandon whimpered “Yes” so softly they could barely hear him.
“I am the Dean of Students, Jane Norris,” She informed them, “I am in charge of the school in its entirety and am unfortunately responsible for handing out punishments.” She smiled to show she didn’t think it was unfortunate at all, “Now fighting is not permitted in my school and your little display of machismo cannot be allowed to go without repercussion.”
She flicked her fingers casually over the desk and a large hologram of the cafeteria appeared. It was not the shaky, grainy, holograms that Will had once seen at a science convention. Instead this hologram was perfect in every way as if the cafeteria had appeared in miniature upon her desk. Will could see a miniature Brandon sitting at a table talking to Abby and suddenly spring up and grab hold of her hair. He then saw his own miniature self bolt across the room and plant his fist firmly into the tiny jaw of the miscreant. The tiny Brandon was launched several inches across the desk turned cafeteria and Will watched as he jumped on the little boy. Dean Norris allowed the scene to continue until the miniature Will had been restrained by the older students.
“Now now Mr. Haynes,” She addressed him again in her falsely sweet voice, “We have quite a temper don’t we,”
Will hung his head and didn’t bother to defend himself. How could he with evidence like that? Beside him Brandon had recovered the use of his neck and bobbed his head up and down clearly hoping that severe punishment would be bestowed upon his now mortal enemy.
“And you Mr. Crosby. Why were you picking on that girl?” She asked Brandon turning her head and fixing glinting eyes on his battered face.
“I. um. Weebledooble,” Was the only response Brandon could formulate
“Indeed,” She said, eyebrows rising into her dyed golden locks, “Well I can see that both of you have tempers, but I understand that you are both from Earth and are going through a bit of a…shock trying to adjust to Bridgeworld. I am therefore giving you both in school suspension for the rest of the day in lieu of more serious punishments. Be warned though, anymore of this nonsense and the consequences will be Much. More. Severe. Now get out of here.” And with that she dismissed the two boys.
If in school suspension was a lenient punishment Will was terrified of what a harsh one may be. After leaving the Dean’s office Brandon and he were directed to another room in the suite of offices that comprised the sixth floor. It was a tiny room by any standard and the rich black of the rest of the sixth floor did not make it into the small room, instead the walls and floor were the same dull gray as the rest of the school and the desks he and Brandon were forced to sit at were harder and more abrasive than any that Will had sat in his day and half of classes.
Their supervisor of in school suspension turned out to be David Sweetman, the giant that had brought them up there. He only spoke once to give them instructions and after that he just sat in a corner watching the two boys and making sure they were doing what they were told.
What they were told to do was something Will was quite sure was not necessary. He was given a massive armful of news papers that covered his entire desk in a layer almost a foot deep. As he flicked through them he discovered that they were all from Earth and all in English. They were also all lunatic’s newspapers and each had a heading like, “Aliens abducted me and my goat…and kept my goat!” Mr. Sweetman, who was not sweet, told them that they were to translate every word into Ligurian. It was a clever punishment since Brandon didn’t speak English and Will didn’t speak Ligurian. The boys were forced to work together, Will would read out the text and Brandon would hear it translated through his Lingus and write down what Will said on his Micro.
Mr. Sweetman may have thought it would help settle their differences but instead both boys became more and more irritated as they were forced to spend time together, not to mention forced to interact. By the time they were allowed to leave the two were close to blows again and Will walked quickly down to dinner so that he could secure a seat far away from the redheaded, pimple faced, freckly little twerp.
Will made his way through the line and picked up his dinner, glosh and a ham and cheese sandwich, and made his way to an almost empty table. The table had one occupant, a boy Will recognized as a fellow freshman.
“This seat taken?” He asked the boy pointing at one of the four available seats.
“Nope have a seat,” The boy said without glancing up.
After Will sat down the boy looked him in the face and his mouth dropped open and his spoon fell into his glosh. He glanced all around him and then back at Will.
“You’re the guy that knocked that kid into next week at lunch aren’t you?”
Will felt himself blush and nodded his head without looking into the boys brown eyes which were darting over his face.
“Well that was awesome! I’d never seen someone fly like that before,” he said in a shrill voice full of excitement, “Was that your girl he was messing with?”
Will blushed at the assumed relationship and glanced around to make sure no one was looking at them or close enough to overhear a conversation that might turn personal. There wasn’t.
“No, just don’t like to see girls getting picked on,” Will said in a blur of words that came out as defensive.
“So you want her to be your girl eh?” the boy laughed sensing something Will thought he had hidden.
“No. I never said that,” Will took a breath, “Can we talk about something else?” He asked trying to avoid making his feelings for Abby common knowledge.
“Sure thing man, my name’s Jon by the way, Jon Strickland.”
“Will Haynes,” he replied holding out a hand in greeting
Jon stared at the hand for a second in confusion then glanced back at Will, “What are you doing?”
Will glanced embarrassingly at his hand before withdrawing it, “Where I’m from we shake hands when we meet someone,” He muttered lamely his eyes down cast in embarrassment.
“Wow really?” Jon replied looking amazed, “That’s so weird! What do you just grab it and see who can shake the hardest?”
“Um, no just a gentle up and down is all,” Will replied cautiously not sure if the boy was making fun of him.
“Well let’s try it then,” He said extending his hand towards Will.
Will took it and shook once then twice and tried to let go but Jon’s hand was still clamped around his. It only took Jon a moment to realize the exchange was over and he let go of Will’s hand before things gr
ew too awkward.
“I’m going to be honest dude,” Jon said after they both retrieved their own hands, “That seems kinda dumb.”
Will thought about it for a second then nodded his head laughing, “Yeah it is isn’t it?”
They both broke down into a small fit of laughter and Will felt his friendship with Jon begin immediately. Will bit into his sandwich and found he was already tired of ham and cheese after only a few meals of it.
“So where are you from?” Jon asked after he had taken a bite from his own sandwich followed by a slurp of water.
“Earth,” Will replied simply as he chewed his food, “You?”
“Earth?! Wow no way! I’m from Broglio so nothing special….but Earth!?” Jon was nearly shouting.
“Yeah, what’s the big deal about being from Earth?” Will replied slightly taken aback by the strength of surprise Jon showed.
“Well it’s the only planet not a member of the Confederation,” Jon replied more quietly after sensing the slightly offended tone in Will’s voice, “I heard that Terries use these giant animals to ride around on, is that true?”
Will glanced at the boy not sure what he was talking about at first before realizing what he must mean, “You mean horses? No we don’t still use those to get around, I mean some people ride them for fun but that’s it. We haven’t relied on them for a hundred years.”
Jon looked at him with something approaching awe in his eyes, “A hundred years isn’t that long for technology though!” he laughed, “I mean Earthlings aren’t going to be going into space anytime soon if you were riding animals around a hundred years ago.”
Will stared at Jon with a bemused expression, “We’ve already been in space, we’ve been going for the past fifty years or so.”
“You mean to tell me that Earthlings went from riding around on animals to flying around in space in fifty years?” He asked Will with a dumbfounded expression on his face.
“Well, yeah.” Will replied simply
“Amazing, our technology hasn’t changed a bit in fifty years. I mean they’ve polished out some flaws in some things, but nothing new.” Jon muttered under his breath.
“Yeah strange,” Will said before ladling a spoonful of glosh into his mouth.
Their conversation on technological advances was interrupted by newcomers to the table. A pair of girls descended on the table from the food line and sat down at the table without seeming to notice the two boys.
“Like oh my gosh I still can’t get over what happened to Abby at lunch today,” one of the girls was saying to another.
Will glanced up to see a blonde girl talking to a girl with short black hair. The blonde girl was not particularly attractive in Will’s opinion but he could tell by the way she presented herself that she had no clue she wasn’t stunning. The girl she was talking to was nodding her head so vigorously that Will was quite certain it was going to pop off and roll around on the floor at their feet within moments.
“Uh, yeah,” The girl said, “That jerk was totally going to hit her! Where is she anyways?”
“She’s in the dorms doing some homework. She said she wasn’t hungry, poor thing,” The blonde girl replied.
“Well good thing for that kid who saved her right?” The nodding girl asked her.
“I mean I guess, but he really didn’t need to do that did he? I mean he could have just, you know, held him back,”
Will looked at Jon who looked back at him in disbelief, the girl actually had no clue the person she was talking about was sitting across the table from her. Will cleared his throat audibly to try and get the girls attention and prevent the conversation from going to places that might upset him.
“Um excuse me,” The girl said noticing what she thought was a very rude interruption, “I’m trying to have a…,”
Her voice trailed off as she noticed that he was in fact the subject of their conversation. She quickly leaned over and had a fevered conversation in whispers with her friend. Will tried to overhear but all he could hear was the whistling sounds of their whispers although he thought he had picked out the words “Cute” and “Violent” at one point. After a few moments the conversation faded and the girls straightened up and looked both Will and Jon in the face as if noticing them for the first time.
“I’m Cassandra White,” the blonde girl introduced herself, “And this is Stacey Hampton,”
Stacey gave a feeble wave and a smile which Will returned with a smile and Jon with a large wink. Stacey blushed at the wink and looked at the ceiling as if something very important might happen up there.
“And you are the one who beat that guy up,” Cassandra continued.
“Yep that was him!” Jon exclaimed ecstatically, “The names Jon by the way and my smashing friend here is Will,” He emphasized smashing by punching a fist into and open palm.
“I’m taken, so shut up and leave me alone,” Cassandra replied viscously while pointing at two mismatched bracelets that dangled around her wrist. She then turned her attention back on Will.
“So Will, why did you do that?” She asked lowering her eyes on him with cold interest.
A few sentences ago Will would have answered her but after the way she had snapped at his new found friend he decided he didn’t really care to have a conversation with the want to be beauty Cassandra White.
“That’s my own business thank you,” He replied calmly looking her dead in the eye
Cassandra looked as if someone had just dumped ice water down the back of her monogarb. The girl was clearly use to getting her way and Will had just introduced a novel concept to her, rejection. She looked at him with an open mouth for several seconds while Stacey looked back and forth between the two of them with wide eyes. Next to him, Jon had broken into a fit of laughter that Will felt himself catching.
“Fine,” Cassandra replied after she regained her composure, “Come on Stacey lets go find another table to sit at,”
With that said she stood up and walked away in a storm of attitude followed closely by Stacey. Will started laughing along with Jon and it took them several moments to stop laughing as the image of Cassandra’s shocked face slowly faded in their memories.
“Thanks for getting rid of her,” Jon said wiping tears from his eyes, “Bit of a snob isn’t she?”
“Yes indeed my friend,” Will replied, “But why’d she shake those bracelets at you?”
“Oh the amors?” Jon replied, “Those indicate your relationship status. A guy normally wears two and a girl wears one, but if he has a girlfriend he will give her one so everyone will know the girl is in a relationship. Each one is unique too so people will know who’s dating who. When you get married you stop wearing amors and wear rings.”
“Oh, do you have those?” He asked Jon
Jon shook out his wrist to show two gleaming bracelets made of what appeared to be solid glass filled with stripes of color.
“Single huh?” He said after looking at them for a moment.
“Only way to be!” Jon replied laughing and Will joined in halfheartedly thinking of Abby. He couldn’t remember if she had had any bracelets on, much less how many.
Will and Jon talked lively about a variety of things through the rest of dinner and by the time they exited the cafeteria they were close friends. Will was thankful for finally making a friend, he supposed he and Ryan were friendly but he didn’t feel the bonds of friendship that had already crept up between him and Jon. Will had never been far away from friends, he had had dozens in Pleasant Valley, and he had felt empty without having any around so far from home. That emptiness was gone now and he would never feel it again, hopefully.
* * *
The freshman lounge was located between the dormitory and the hallway that lead to the rest of the school. It was a large room filled with chairs and tables for the students to study or socialize. Most of the time people would go in, choose a comfy chair, and play on their micros. That evening Will and Jon found themselves a cozy corner away from
the raucous group that decided to reenact Will’s fight for those that missed it at the far side of the room. Will had found that he had turned into a minor celebrity for punching out one of the most unpopular kids in the dormitory. He hadn’t seen Brandon since their punishment and that was fine by him.
Will was deeply immersed in conversation with his new friend and didn’t hear the light footsteps that approached his chair from the sliding door that led to the girls dormitory. He didn’t know anyone was approaching him until a hand touched his shoulder lightly. Will jumped and turned around to see Abby standing behind him with a smile on her beautiful face.
“I just wanted to say thank you,” She said in her bell like voice, “For standing up for me. No one else was doing anything but you did.”
Will stood up quickly and almost knocked his chair of in his haste to stand up. He blushed at his clumsiness and the proximity of Abby.
“Don’t mention it,” He managed to say after he had slightly recovered from his embarrassment.
Will looked at her and saw that her beautiful green eyes had tears in them. He glanced at her wrist and his heart skipped a beat. One bracelet! She’s available
“Well it means a lot to me,” she said and then without warning wrapped her arms around Will and gave him the most amazing hug he had ever had.
Will’s face felt like it was on fire he was blushing so hard and he was so shocked he forgot to hug her back. Abby let go of the hug and turned and ran back through the sliding door into the girl’s dormitory without another word. Will was fairly certain he saw a blush of color on her cheeks as well as she ran away. Will plopped himself back into his chair and looked up at Jon who looked him in the face for half a second before he burst into laughter.
“Oh shut up Jon,” Will told him as viciously as he could. With the events of the last minute he only managed to be about as vicious as a sleeping kitten.
Chapter Nine
A New Game
