by Quil Carter
Fuck Todd.
“Do you… want to eat lunch together?” I asked suddenly, another thing to burst from my lips before I could properly analyze it to make sure it was the right thing to say. I was riding on emotion right now, my worst nightmare.
Embarrassment flooded me when I saw the hesitation on his face, and I melted in my spot when his heartbeat jumped. Maybe this wasn’t the best of ideas. I was doing this too quickly, he probably thought I was a freak.
“Actually I forgot mine…” I stammered. He didn’t have to say anything; I knew this was too far. Way too far. Oh god I was going to have to kill him too now, wasn’t I? “I’ll see you tomorrow, Professor Britain.” Before he even had a chance to open his mouth I was out of there, speeding down the hallway to the cafeteria as quickly as I could.
I got my food, shepard’s pie, cream corn, canned green beans, and Jello, and sat down. As soon as I placed my red tray of food in front of me I buried my face into my hands and groaned. Everything was going so great but I just had to humiliate myself, didn’t I?
There was nothing I could do about it; I’d just have to forget about it entirely. Too bad this was easier said than done.
I picked at my food, but when I heard Tiberius’s deep yet loud voice blaring several feet away from me, I decided to eat it properly. It wasn’t like it was awful, it was edible at least, I just had lost my appetite after what had just happened.
It wasn’t that bad, Elish.
Ryan’s heart jumped and… and that damn expression of hesitation. He didn’t want to. I bet he doesn’t even want to come over for dinner!
It wasn’t that bad, you’re reading too much into it because you like him.
Just shut up… stupid brain.
I sighed and concentrated on eating. It was hectic and busy in this cafeteria which was a plus at least. There was so much activity, so many kids yelling and goofing off, with the occasional teacher barking at them to behave, it was easy to let the chaos drown my self-derisive thoughts.
But it looked like my peace wasn’t going to last. There was a chair scraping beside me which caused me to look up.
I couldn’t fucking believe it…
Sacario!
“What do you want?!” I said exasperated. He was holding a new bag of Skittles, no lunch on him, just the candy. “Do you want your paper? Here.” I tore my binder from my pack and cracked open the metal spirals. I took out a piece of paper and handed it to him. “There you go! Now go!”
Sacario looked down at the paper, then back up at me. “That’s not the right paper though.”
I exploded. “I don’t fucking care!” I said loudly. “It’s the same as any other piece of paper!” Then I took out a pen and flung it at him. It bounced off of his chest and landed back on the table. “There. A brand-new pen, never been used. Better than the shitty pen you had. It’s an upgrade. Now leave – me – alone! GO!”
Sacario stared at the pen where it had dropped, before his eyes turned back to me.
He… he looked hurt.
Well, that was an odd look for him.
“Okay,” he said simply. He turned around and walked away from my table, leaving the piece of paper and the pen behind. The last I saw of him was when he walked through the cafeteria doors, only the bag of Skittles in his hand.
I looked around and saw several eyes on me. I glared back at them, too upset over the last moments I’d spent with Professor Britain, and went back to my food, daring them to say a word to me.
But there was a nagging feeling, a prickle in the back of my brain…
… that maybe I’d just acted like a complete and total asshole.
No. Fuck it. I’m a prince I can act however I want!
I ate in anger after that, then when the bell rang I made my way to my newest class: History.
This was my first time in that class. The teacher was a female named Professor Harrier. She was nice enough and welcomed me like the other teachers did. The classroom all stared at me for a while but eventually they settled down and concentrated on their work. Professor Harrier started off the semester by teaching us about World War 2. It was fascinating and one of my favourite historical events. Unfortunately, Silas didn’t allow war things in the house because he was in the Second Cold War. Nero, who was equally as fascinated, smuggled in magazines, literature, and movies since he shadowed for Zhou and was out in the greywastes a lot. But we had to keep them hidden.
That class passed by quickly. I tried to pay attention but my mind was elsewhere. I was suddenly not looking forward to tomorrow’s English class; I wouldn’t be surprised if he cancelled coming over.
The last class was Introduction to Skytech which I’d been looking forward to since I’d learned I would be taking it. I’d shadowed for Perish and already knew a lot about cloning, I was going to ace it easily and would hopefully learn a lot too.
I walked into the classroom, one near the cafeteria so I didn’t even need to ask where it was, and sat down in the back again. The teacher wasn’t here yet but the bell had gone off so students were starting to file in.
This classroom was the same as all the other ones but more sterile and clean. We still had desks but they were brand-new without a single mark on them, and the teacher’s own desk was impeccably organized, not like my other teachers. I liked this place already, it reminded me of the Gosselin lab, actually all of the Skytech labs I’d been in.
Then the teacher walked in. I thought I might recognize him but I didn’t. He was an older man, clean-cut with salt and pepper hair cut short, and a trimmed moustache. He was dressed in a pressed lab coat that had Shepard stitched in it in handwriting. Well, he looked like a scientist, that was for sure.
“Take your seats, ten seconds until the bell,” Professor Shepard said. He opened up a small case and put on a pair of glasses, then his head turned towards the door. “Cutting it close, aren’t we, Sacario?”
Sacario? I shrunk down in my seat when he walked in and stared at my open binder just waiting for the screech of the chair beside me.
But there was none. I looked up and then around… and saw that Sacario was sitting on the other side of the classroom, his old ratty binder in front of him.
Well… good… at least he – he got the hint.
Professor Shepard did the normal introductions and the same introduction of me to the rest of the class. I was used to it now so it didn’t faze me, my mind was elsewhere now.
This day had not gone good at all and yesterday wasn’t that great either. Why did I have to be a prince? Why the hell couldn’t I have been born normal?
I brooded on this as Professor Shepard taught the class. He was going over what we’d be learning and also brushed on what I’d missed before the break. This semester we’d be learning about cloning and botany, and how Skytech was working with Dek’ko to create a skyscraper that was used purely for growing fruits and vegetables. We already had giant greenhouses to help grow these things but a skyscraper would be a boon to Skyfall and the economy. We would also be learning about the skyscraper project called Project Greentower, and we’d be taking a field trip there sometime before the semester ended. I’d never grown anything before, I was looking forward to that.
After going through the basic facts about cloning and some other random things, Professor Shepard handed us our homework and sent us on our way with the bell. I quickly left but had to use the restroom before I went to go find the black car that would be picking me up.
This was another day I would be happy to leave behind. I exited through the entrance doors, several people standing back to let me go through, and walked towards the front field so I could cross through it to get to where my driver parked the black car. The parking lot was always crowded with parents picking up kids and the high schoolers who could drive home. I know I could reserve the parking lot just to have my driver pick me up but well… I’d look like an ass and most of those kids already thought I was an ass.
Anyway I missed grass, it reminde
d me of my childhood home. We only went there for a week or two during the summer now and occasionally for New Years, and it wasn’t the same as it was when I was little.
There were kids all around me, almost all of them with backpacks slung on their backs or over one shoulder, and clustered in groups so they could chatter amongst their friends. Most of them glanced at me while I walked past, but no words were spoken.
“Where you goin’ in such a hurry?”
That voice… that was Tiberius. Was he calling to me?
I turned around to see what the fuck Tiberius wanted, but realized he had his back to me. Tiberius was with three of his friends stalking towards someone.
Not just someone…
Sacario.
“Nice spikes, you fucking queer. Gonna go sing some Evanescence?” Tiberius pushed Sacario making him stumble back and drop his shabby blue binder. He picked it up, his head lowered and his eyes fixed on the ground, and began walking away.
One of Tiberius’s friends grabbed Sacario’s jacket and when he yanked the boy towards him, he wound back his fist and punched Sacario in the stomach. Tiberius and the others howled with laughter as Sacario dropped to his knees, and then the asshole walked up to him and kicked Sacario’s binder as hard as he could. It sailed through the air, pages flapping and pens flying, and landed on the ground.
“Skyland doesn’t need slum garbage, rat boy,” Tiberius said. He grabbed Sacario by one of the gelled spikes and when he yanked him to his feet, he bopped him rather hard in the nose. It was about that time that I realized my blood was boiling. “Heard you sleep under the bleachers. Do you suck dick for Skittles too, gutter trash?”
And that was when I exploded. “Four against one, you guys are a bunch of fucking pussies.”
Tiberius and the other three turned in my direction. The meathead’s pig eyes flashed and he dropped Sacario on the ground. “Walk away, prince,” he growled. “You don’t want me to introduce you to high school the hard way.” He grinded his knuckles as he said this, and behind him his four friends, the same ones I’d seem him with previously, laughed like he’d made the most cleverest of jokes.
My temper tweaked. What a pathetic beast of a man. He had no redeeming qualities, nothing about him that stood out or was special. He was just a thick-necked idiot who had a father in the military.
He was nothing to me.
Without another word, I stalked up to Tiberius… and I punched him right in the face.
Right in the face.
The force of the blow made his neck snap back, and as he slowly turned back to me… I saw his lip tug up into a one-sided smirk.
The next thing I felt was a blow, a blow so hard I thought a truck had hit me, followed by the sensation that I was flying through the air, and finally the crescendo… landing on the grassy ground so hard I saw bright flashing lights and my world started to spin.
Behind me I then heard a bellow, a bellow from a man I recognized, but my mind was too topsy-turvy to register just who’d made it. All my world was in that moment was throbbing pain, sunbursts that appeared in my vision like the universe itself was bubbling, and dizzy nausea.
Then hands were on me, and I was being pulled to my feet. I squinted and tried to adjust my eyes, and when they came into focus, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
Nero was beating the ever-loving shit out of Tiberius.
My brute brother had the fifteen-year-old Tiberius in a headlock and he was punching him in the head. Sacario was standing several feet away his eyes as wide as an owl and his blue binder clutched to his chest. It looked like he didn’t even believe what he was seeing – and neither did I.
Nero dropped Tiberius and kicked him in the stomach, then he leaned down and grabbed him by his collar, and threw the large man to my feet like he was tossing a small dog.
“Lick his fucking boots, asshole!” Nero snarled. His face was red, and his eyes indigo sapphires that burned like red dwarfs. He was furious, a beast in the form of a young man that was only being restrained by the body he was trapped in. If Nero could rip out of his skin and become a monster, I knew he would devour every person in this park.
Tiberius coughed and groaned. Blood was pouring from his nose and mouth, coating his prickly facial hair in glistening red. It was dribbling down onto the green grass as well, clinging to the blades like paint.
He looked up at me, then to his side where I realized three of his friends were also on the ground. The forth one, the smaller out of the four that had always looked misplaced, was standing behind them with a shocked look that was only outdone by Sacario’s. Tiberius then crawled towards me, not even challenging Nero’s demand, and outstretched a hand to my shoes.
I didn’t want that idiot’s slobber on my school shoes. Instead of indulging myself in the pleasure of having this pest submit to me, I extended my leg and kicked him right in the fucking face.
Nero barked with laughter, then raised his foot and slammed it down onto Tiberius’s back. “You got off easy, my friend. You fucking sorry?”
“Yeah,” Tiberius gurgled. A crowd was gathering around us now, every one of them watching this scene play out as if we were watching a TV show.
“Louder, bitch. I fucking asked you if you were fucking sorry!” Nero said in a raised voice. He picked up his boot and slammed it back down onto Tiberius’s back. The pinned man’s face scrunched in pain, and I saw sweat begin to mix with the shining red blood.
“I’m sorry!” Tiberius yelled.
“Good.” Nero took his boot off of Tiberius’s back. “From here on out, you fucking protect my brother. You understand me, fuckface?”
“Yeah,” Tiberius coughed, spittle bursting from his mouth as he tried to clear his lungs. “I will.”
“Glad we could work it out then. Believe me, butterbeans, if it was King Silas who was coming to pick him up, you’d be fucking dead. Now piss off.”
Tiberius scrambled to his feet and limped away, and to further add insult to injury, the gathering crowd vibrated with laughter and whispered words.
Nero walked up to me, anger still in his eyes. “You okay, bro?” he asked. “He socked you good. I would’ve ripped his arms off but I didn’t want Kingy to feel like he had to come home early… killing people and all. How’s your face?”
“Hurts,” I said. Then I looked behind Nero. “Just one second.” I walked towards Sacario who hadn’t moved one inch. He was still holding his binder, and still looking like he wasn’t sure of what he’d just seen.
“Are you okay? He punched you pretty hard,” I said to him. Nero was following right beside me, probably to make sure I wasn’t going to fall over.
Sacario looked at me and I saw surprise on his face. Immediately I felt a wave of regret and shame wash over me. I’d been such an asshole to the guy who’d been the first person to talk to me, try and make friends with me. And now I’d treated him like such a piece of shit, he was staring at me in confusion because I was being nice to him.
Yeah, he was weird… but maybe I liked weird.
“Who’s he? Friend of yours?” Nero asked.
I looked back, and even though I could feel liquid dripping down my nose, and the hand I’d punched Tiberius with was throbbing, I smiled through the pain and nodded. “Yeah… he’s my friend.” I motioned with my chin towards where I knew the car was parked. “Come on. We’ll both get checked over and… you want to stay for dinner or something?”
The look of disbelief only deepened on my new friend’s face. It took him a solid ten seconds before he slowly nodded. “Yeah… that’d be awesome.”
CHAPTER 17
Sacario’s eyes were everywhere. He was looking in all directions with that expression of pure awe, but he had his hands behind his back, as if he didn’t trust himself to not touch something he wasn’t supposed to.
The entrance and lobby to Alegria seemed to stun him. I would be the first to admit the entrance was a bit overdone. As soon as you entered you saw the white pillars and shin
ing marble floors, the guards in every corner and beautiful green plants and flowers of all colours boasting from antique vases. But what would one expect from the headquarters of the King of the World and his family?
“Silas is going to install a fountain sometime soon,” I said to Sacario. I pointed to the middle of the lobby which held two couches surrounding a round marble table. “The paintings on the walls to your left were brought in from a museum; that white statue beside the rhododendron plant was too, from a museum in England if I remember correctly. Perish brought it here before I was born.”
Sacario looked up and around, then slowly shook his head. “This stuff must be worth like a million dollars. It’d buy a shitload of Skittles, I bet.”
“Priceless actually,” I said. We walked to the elevator and Nero and I both nodded towards one of the thiens guarding it, there was an assault rifle on his back and a menacing look on his face. Only the toughest, strongest thiens guarded that elevator, and the stairwell. Silas spared no expense protecting us. “I mean… you can’t really put a price on these things since they’re pre-Fallocaust. Perish and his expedition just find them and then brings them here. Some things are even loaned to the College of Skytech to help educate people.”
“God, Elish, stop bragging.”
I gave Nero a heated look. “I’m not bragging! He showed interest and I was merely educating him on its origins and the uses we have for them.” Nero scoffed at my explanation and walked into the elevator waving his hand at me in a mocking fashion.
“You’re so easy to rile up. I think I should be going to school too… protect you and all since you’ve been there for two days and have already gotten beaten up once. Silas would want me to protect you.” The elevator gave a jolt and we began travelling up to the top floor. Sacario was still looking around with a dumbstruck expression. I don’t think he knew what to make of this quick turn of fate. “What did you do to piss him off anyway?”
