by Quil Carter
I scratched my chin and listened to the scraping sound it now made. It was a pleasing sound, an audible declaration of my path into manhood. Though that declaration was mostly made from the embarrassing cracks in my voice, but thankfully, those breaks were getting fewer and fewer. It sure didn’t stop Nero from pointing them out and laughing at me and Garrett whenever it happened. It was entirely unfair that his voice had dropped almost a year ago now. If we made fun of him he’d just punch us with his fucking Neanderthal hulk arms.
Yes, a few weeks after my conversation with Silas my facial hair began to grow. It also didn’t stop there, my underarms now held faint strands, my arms and legs too, still blond but darker than the hair on my head. And of course, there was hair down below too. I felt embarrassed to even admit it to myself but I was most thrilled about that. That was one of the true signs that I was becoming a man, that and the area in its entirety changing. It was a fascinating thing to have happen, but my hormones were going off in all directions too much for me to actually sit back and enjoy it. On the contrary, sometimes I was so frustrated with the emotions I was feeling I wanted to shave everything off and pretend I was a child. And that was with me only beginning the major throes of puberty, I knew just from my own personal readings that the worst was yet to come. This was only the start, and even though I told myself I’d keep my emotions in check… I didn’t even believe my own words.
“Happy Skyday, aurea flamma.” Silas appeared behind me. He threw his arms around me and hugged my back to his chest, then rested his chin on my shoulder. “How can you almost be taller than me? It’s not fair.” I scrunched my face when I saw Silas’s lips purse in the mirror, then tightened it in mock annoyance when he planted a kiss on my cheek.
“How tall do you think I’m going to get?” I asked. I stood on my tip-toes, and in defiance since I was almost taller than him now, Silas stood on his toes as well. Laughter filled the bathroom as we craned our necks to make ourselves as tall as we possibly could. I still reigned supreme however.
“Your papers say you’ll be around six-four,” Silas said with a pleased smile. “Nero is going to be six-seven. A towering man with arm muscles bigger than our waists.” He reached over and grabbed the hairbrush resting on his marble top sink, then ran it through my chin-length blond hair.
“I love how we have papers like we’re purebred dogs,” Nero’s deep voice rang from the living room.
Silas put the brush down after getting his fill of preening me. “I suppose that’s how I can explain why I’m going to have you neutered,” he called back to Nero. I smirked and Silas pinched my side before turning and leaving the bathroom. He was in a great mood today and it was nice to see him so happy.
However, the reason he was happy I didn’t like. There was a Sky clone being watched over by Perish that was approaching five months gestation inside his steel mother. Silas was excited because so many of the infants died in their first trimester so we were hoping this baby would be viable.
I’d seen the child myself, baby Lennix. I’d been apprenticing for Perish over the last three months. Both because science fascinated me, and to help prepare me for my science classes at school. Perish taught part-time at the College of Skytech and I was hoping Silas would let me attend after I graduated. Perish was an excellent teacher, and since I’d been his student, I got the impression that he didn’t hate me nearly as much as he used to. Garrett was still his favourite, but Garrett was a science chimera so that was expected.
Even though the source of the king’s happiness wasn’t one that I liked, I was going to enjoy these times that he was in a good mood. I myself was floating on air over tomorrow being my first day of public school, and with the two of us content, the family in its entirety were enjoying the positive atmosphere.
I followed Silas to the living room and saw the rest of my siblings. Nero was on the couch with Ellis playing video games and Garrett was lying on the sun-soaked lounger in front of the window.
Nero looked like an adult now, or pretty damn close to one. My brother was officially six feet tall now, taller than King Silas, and from a mixture of his genetics and his love for working out and jogging, he was built like a weight lifter and loved showing off his huge arms and washboard abs. He kept his facial hair down to stubble, his eyebrows groomed, and Silas had even let him pierce both of his ears. Nero was quite handsome, ruggedly handsome as Silas had said, and every time he went out, he turned heads.
Garrett still had a boyish quality to him, but it was now mixed in with that awkward gangliness, like his limbs were growing faster than the rest of him. He also had a weak teenage moustache as well, and a voice that was cracking even worse than mine. My youngest brother was incredibly self-conscious about these changes that his body was going through and he got embarrassed easily. He had none of the confidence that Nero had, but he was a sweet and kind young man, and the two of us had grown closer during my reclusive years.
My only sister was also turning into a young woman. She had her plague of women friends that followed her around like a cloud of locusts, and she had quite the mouth on her as well. Ellis was a know-it-all little smart mouth who was convinced that we were all idiots who knew nothing, but she was also quite sweet and protective of her family, and loved her father and brothers dearly. Like Nero, she’d matured earlier than her other two brothers, and thankfully, female friends of the family took Ellis under their wing and told her everything she needed to know. I was a bit disappointed in this, I would’ve loved to be a fly on the wall when Silas had to explain that horrendous thing that happens to women every month. It would’ve been absolutely hilarious to see the horror and embarrassment on Silas’s face. But I suppose it was better for the girl to have other women explain that. Silas avoided those talks like the plague. I’d had to learn about sex through Nero bursting into my room in the middle of the night with a dirty magazine in his hand that he’d snuck from Perish’s apartment. I still shivered just thinking about that. I mean… didn’t it hurt? Like… a lot?
“I need dinner requests in the next ten minutes or I’m just ordering pizza,” Silas said as he walked into the living room. “I forgot to ask our guests what they want… it’s too late to call now.” He snapped his fingers at Ellis, who was playing the video game from Silas’s recliner, and pointed to the couch. That was Silas’s spot and we were only allowed to sit in that spot if he was gone.
Ellis’s bangs flew up as she let out an exasperated sigh. Then she got up slowly, as if it was the most difficult thing on the planet to do, and dragged herself to the couch to sit beside Nero.
“I want chinese,” Ellis said. She shifted to her side so her feet were on the couch and her back on the arm, then stretched out her legs so they were digging into Nero’s side. She began to knead her feet into Nero and stretched out.
I wasn’t sure if she had a reason for this, or if she was just being a pain, but then Nero made disgruntled noise and threw his hands up into the air. I looked to the television and saw that they were playing Mario Kart, and Ellis’s player had gotten first place.
Nero reached over and poked Ellis hard in the stomach. “I would’ve won if it wasn’t for that, you stupid broad.”
“Better luck next time, meathead.” Ellis smirked. “Order the fried rice and I’ll get the noodles and we can halfsies.”
“Fuck that, sissy! This is Skyday, I’m just gonna order both.” Nero stretched and waved the remote at me. “I’m sick of Mario Kart. Want to watch some TV with us, Eenie-Meenie? You can choose the show but you gotta sit by me.”
“Sure, it’s six so there must be something good on,” I said. Ellis made room for me and I sat down between her and Nero. “When are you leaving for Cardinalhall?”
“Not until Tuesday. So I’ll get to hear all about Mr. Muffin’s first day of school.” I scrunched away when Nero tried to ruffle my hair. I’d spent ten minutes trying to get my hairstyle exactly right. Perish, Zamir, and Mantis were coming over for Skyday dinner. I wanted to lo
ok my best for them. I’d been doing really good over the past few months trying to be more social. It was difficult at first, but I’d gotten used to being around people again. I still felt better if I was in my room and alone, but no longer was I miserable being out in public. I was quite proud of myself.
“You’re so lucky!” Ellis sighed. She leaned her head on my shoulder. “You’ll tell me everything, right? It’s not fair you get to go. The best I get is my study groups in the damn library. I feel like such a tool.” Her head lifted. “Daddy…”
“We already discussed it and no.”
“But Dad-dee.” Ellis made a high pitch whine come from her, that horrible shrill octave that only young girls seemed to be able to make. “You have so many paranoias in your damn head. You don’t trust me at all.”
“It’s everyone else I don’t trust, Elly. And if I kill every straight man in Skyland who looks at you, our population will drop and the human race will die,” Silas said, his eyes fixed on the open laptop which was resting on his lap. “Do you really want to be responsible for killing the human race, Ellis? That’s extremely irresponsible of you.”
Nero and I, and even Garrett napping in the sun, laughed at this. Ellis gave him a flat look, then her eyes fell to me and my brother. “I’m never going to have a boyfriend,” she said dully. “I’m going to just carry through with my threat and become a lesbian. It would be so much easier that way.”
Over the years I’d learned what a lesbian was.
“If I was going to purposely create a female I would’ve done just that. Unfortunately, since you split from a brute chimera, you share your genetic engineering with a horny lunatic; which means you’re not dating until you’re forty.”
Ellis’s purple-blue eyes widened and her cheeks flushed red. “You’re implying that I’m… ugh, Dad!” She got up as the living room continued to roll with laughter, then she grabbed Silas’s remote phone and walked towards her room. “I’m calling An-mei until dinner. You’re a freak show, Father.”
Silas did glance up at this. And when Ellis was in her bedroom, he gave Nero and I both smirking looks. “She thinks I’m so stupid, but yet I stopped that conversation in its tracks.” But then the smirk faded. “That reminds me though. Since Elish is going to public school tomorrow, the four of us are going to have an important talk tonight. So prepare yourselves for it.”
A talk? Nero and I exchanged glances. My eyes then looked behind Nero to Garrett who was sitting up on the lounger. “A talk?” I said. I blinked and scratched the back of my neck.
“Yes,” Silas said simply. “You’re all going through changes right now and it’s my job as your guardian and master to educate you. Not only on what’s happening with your bodies.” My siblings and I all groaned at the same time. I put my hands over my face as it became boiling hot with embarrassment. “But also the rules that I’ll be expecting, especially you Elish, to comply with. I’m not going to enjoy it either… but it has to be done.”
Didn’t that god damn dirty magazine explain it enough? I wanted to run away at that moment, join the circus or defect into the greywastes. I didn’t want this conversation to happen! I mean, truthfully, I was curious, and though I thought the curiosity would pass, it seemed to just be getting stronger. I could ignore it most of the day, it was at night when my mind would wander that I had difficulties.
“Okay,” I said sickly. I drew my hands down my face and stared at the television. “I… appreciate you taking the time to teach us, King Silas.”
Nero snorted. “Suck up,” he muttered. Then his voice rose. “Will you let us have a liquor shot beforehand?”
Silas rose. “If I don’t drink it all first,” he said. “I’ll be putting in our dinner orders now. Our guests should be arriving soon.” He paused for a second though, and his attention turned to me. “I’m having a lot of second thoughts about allowing you to go…” Silas walked to the back of the couch and put a hand on my shoulder. “But I see how excited you are about it, and I’m proud of you already for the changes in you this new challenge has brought on. Just…” I looked at the mirror so I could see him behind me. This was the same mirror I’d watched him in that day he was arguing with Zamir… the day he’d whispered about me being his future husband. “Just… obey my wishes, Elish. This is hard for me to allow, and if I feel you’re not going to make the right choices… I will withdraw you from that school.”
Slowly but steadily his tone darkened, as if the words themselves were sucking the natural daylight from the room. By the time he said the last three words, my heart was fighting off anxiety and hiding my original happiness like it was a wanted man.
But when I looked at Silas, his tone making it impossible for my eyes to rest anywhere else in the mirror’s reflection, the darkness vanished from his face and was replaced by the most content of smiles. I returned the smile but my heart was still digging a hole to hide my former joy.
“I’ll obey you, Master Silas,” I said to him. “I’ve always obeyed you.”
Silas nodded. He leaned down and kissed the top of my head. “I know you will, golden boy,” he said, before walking away.
“Do our teachers always give us homework?” I asked Mantis. We were downstairs in what had once been called our playroom, but was now affectionately known as the chimera cave, or just the cave. Zamir and Mantis had arrived about an hour earlier, Perish trailing behind, and we were all hanging out before dinner was delivered to us.
Mantis nodded. Yes, the nickname had stuck, and only his immediate family still called him Uzeyer. He was almost as tall as me but willowy and all limbs. It was easy to see what Mantis was going to look like when he was older, because he was the spitting image of his father. Both had dark features and grey eyes, and both required glasses. Mantis even needed an asthma inhaler. He’d been a sickly child growing up, but he was rather healthy now as long as he stayed out of extreme weather.
Mantis’s glasses reflected the lightning bolts coming off of Raiden. He was delivering a series of punches to my Mortal Kombat character Sub Zero on one of the arcade games we kept in the cave.
Finish Him! was displayed on the screen and I took my hands off of the controls and let Mantis have his fun morphing into an animal to kill me. He’d played so many times with Garrett he knew the finishing moves. I’d never stood a chance winning against him, but since I was asking him questions I decided this was the best way to keep him in once place.
“Yeah, for the most part we get homework, but sometimes we get lucky. But don’t call them teachers, everyone at school calls them professors.”
This was valuable information. I was glad I learned this before making a fool out of myself.
I jotted this down in my notebook and also added a yes to the question I’d just asked Mantis. I put a checkmark next to that question to remind me that it had been asked and moved onto the next one.
Mantis must’ve glanced at my book of questions because he chuckled. Sure enough, a finger appeared by the top of the page and he pressed it down to get a closer look. “You’re so weird, Eli. It’s just school. You’ll figure it out as you go along. Everyone else did.”
The thought of simply figuring it out as I went along, was as outlandish as it was stupid. Why would I ever put myself in a position to be humiliated when I could avoid it by asking questions and educating myself? The more I knew about school, the easier it would be to make the transition to such a new and exciting part of my life.
Plus, it would make me look cool to everyone if I was laid-back and passé about being there.
Oh, who am I kidding? There was only one man I wanted to impress, one man who I wanted to think I was cool… Todd.
Even saying his name in my head made my heart sprout wings and flutter around. Thankfully Mantis was no chimera and couldn’t hear the embarrassing display going on underneath my skin.
My eyes travelled down the list until I got to question thirty-two: What time is lunch? I didn’t care what time lunch was, that was a th
rowaway question to remind myself to find a sneaky way to ask Mantis about Todd. I obviously couldn’t write down Todd’s actual name. What if Silas hadn’t believed my reasons for going to public school and snooped? If he ever found out that the push I got to start this excursion – one so outlandishly out-of-character for his golden boy – was because of a fifteen, possibly now sixteen, year-old boy, he’d explode from rage and break my legs. And even worse, he’d never trust me again. That possibility alone fuelled my determination to keep my real intentions to myself.
“I just have to be prepared… you know me,” I said with a partial shoulder shrug. I looked at the next question. “I’ve acquired all of the textbooks for the grade I’ll be entering and I’ve read all of them front to back.” If I was the best student in the entire school, surely that would make me the most popular. The teachers would all love me as well since I was a prince, and that alone will help my popularity.
I’d been researching public school for months now, and while laying on my bed reading those school books, I’d wish for the days to go by faster so it would be time for me to go. But now that it was actually here, I was downright terrified! Even though I didn’t let it show, I was full of anxiety over it, and it was bordering on debilitating when I thought of seeing Todd for the first time since our initial meeting. Researching school was a lot safer than actually attending… but I was determined.
“I was forced to attend that party…” I began. In my head, I was snatching words out of the dark void they were bouncing around in and hurriedly attempting to organize them in a fashion that would seem casual, bordering on uncaring, “I spoke with someone at the party… do you know a guy named Todd?”
I wasn’t sure what reaction I was expecting, but it definitely wasn’t a smirking smile.
“What is it?” I asked curiously. My relief over him not having hearing enhancements was overwhelming, inside I was screaming.
“He knows that I’m best friends with Garrett,” Mantis said casually. “And he asked about you.”
