by Tina Chan
Ludus High School was a wealthy private school. The school building squatted in the middle of a ten-acre plot of land in the center of Charleston. There was a well-maintained front lawn, a pristine track and the parking lot was jammed with expensive solar and hydro-cars.
“School should be out in a minute or so,” Chelsa said.
The words had hardly left her mouth when the massive front doors of the high school were flung open and students streamed out. Jaiden, Chelsa, Ghost and Kristi were semi-hidden behind a statue of Charles Landers, the founder of Ludus High School.
They figured they could easily pick out Troop from the mass of genetically perfect students, follow him and confront him once he was alone.
Like with most high schools, the school junkies were the first to escape the building. Next came the gaming whizzes that were eager to get to the gaming center as fast as possible. After the gamers usually came the popular crowd. Finally, the outcasts of the school exited the building last.
They didn’t spot Troop among the junkies or gamers.
“He’s probably an outcast,” Chelsa said. “Especially among all these rich, perfect kids. No offense to you, Jaiden,” she added.
Jaiden flashed her a quick grin to show that he understood Chelsa’s point of view.
They returned their attention to watching students file by. The wind carried their trills of laughter far and wide.
“Here come the popular kids,” Kristi said.
As customary, the ringleader of the crowd was surrounded by his posse. In this case, the popular guy was joking with his friends while all his followers hung on behind him. The guy in the middle was tall and had dark hair carelessly swept to the side. His friend, a muscular guy with the build of a personal bodyguard, whispered something to the dark haired boy and pointed to a girl hurrying out of the high school.
Kristi knew a bully when she saw one, and she was certain the girl was going to be the target of some bullying. She was right.
The dark haired boy left the protection of his circle of lackeys and sauntered over to the girl. The girl glanced over her shoulder, saw that she was being hounded and walked even faster. However, the boy had longer strides and easily caught up to the girl.
He grabbed her shoulder and said something into her ear. Whatever it was, the girl didn’t like what she heard and snapped back, “Take your hands off me, you asshole.”
“What did you call me?” the boy asked, raising an eyebrow.
The rest of his friends caught up with him. The girl cast her gaze around his friends; all of them were broad-shouldered, tall and probably more than happy to beat her to pulp if their leader told them to do so.
“I called you an asshole, because that’s what you are.”
“This isn’t going to be pretty,” Kristi said.
“The girl has spunk though,” Chelsa replied.
The girl wrenched her shoulder out of the guy’s grip, but his arms snaked out and grabbed her by her waist.
“Let go of me!” she said.
The boy’s friends snickered, watching the spectacle. The boy holding the girl seemed to be enjoying the attention.
“That’s it. I’ve had enough,” Kristi said and stormed towards the scene.
“Kristi, come back. We’re supposed to be looking for Troop,” Jaiden called after her.
Kristi answered over her shoulder, “Why don’t you go inside the school to look for him? He might be in some kind of school club. Don’t worry about me.”
She didn’t see what Jaiden and Chelsa decided to do because she marched on towards the crowd without a second look back.
“Let go of the girl,” Kristi said in the most commanding voice she could muster. “And while you’re at it, why don’t you go get a life instead of harassing people?”
She pushed her way to the center of the gang. This is probably one of the dumbest things I have ever done in my life.
A few guys whistled and someone called out, “Looks like you have a challenger.”
Mr. Popular was momentarily distracted and the girl took this advantage to free herself from his grip.
“Who are you?” he asked Kristi.
“Somebody who’s telling you to stop acting like a jackass,” Kristi shot back.
She felt whispers and fingers pointing her way.
“That girl’s obviously not from around here—”
“—everyone at the school knows not to mess around with Troop.”
“She better hope she’s not attending Ludus or else she’ll pay for this.”
“You’re Troop?” Kristi managed to ask before she was rendered speechless from shock. This doesn’t make sense! How can he get along with all these Perfects?
“That’s me. And as far as I’m concerned, you’re in some serious trouble with me,” Troop said. “I’m not going to let you make a fool out of me,” he whispered into Kristi’s ear, leaning too close for comfort. Kristi took a step backwards.
Wham!
Something big and furry landed onto Troop’s chest, knocking him down onto the brick sidewalk. He swore, and pushed himself up. Ghost sprung away from Troop.
“Let’s beat it,” one of Troop’s friends said. “The principal’s headed this way.”
Troop stood up. Kristi noticed him wince and felt a sense of satisfaction.
“Are you going to run away now?” she taunted him. “Is Troop going to follow all his little, Perfect friends and hide from the principal? You’re just a Perfect wanna—”
His slap caught her by surprise.
“They don’t know I’m not a Perfect,” he hissed. “And I would like to keep it that way.” He looked over his shoulders to his remaining friends and said, “You guys can leave. I’ll deal with this myself.”
“You sure?” asked the brown haired guy that had pointed out the girl Troop was harrying earlier.
“Go on,” Troop said. “Unless you want a chat with Principal Burnd.”
His friends left, not wanting to get in trouble with the headmaster. Chelsa and Jaiden walked over to Troop and Principal Burnd. The principal looked like he was in his early thirties.
“Is there a problem?” he said. “These two informed me that there was some trouble brewing up in the front of the school.” He scanned Troop, who had a few scratches on his arms and face, from head to toe.
“We just had an argument, sir. Everything’s fine now,” Troop replied slickly. “There was a slight misunderstanding. My fault completely.”
“I hope you have apologized to this young lady?” Principal Burnd asked, nodding his head towards Kristi.
“I apologize for my rash and rude behavior,” Troop said, looking straight at Kristi.
He sounded so sincere he almost fooled her. Almost. Troop was a damn good actor.
“Very well. Please do not let this happen again, Troop,” Principal Burnd said. He turned on his heels and went back into the school, satisfied the conflict had been resolved.
“You’re Troop?” Chelsa asked as soon as Principal Burnd was out of earshot.
Troop nodded. “And who are you?”
“Chelsa. That’s Jaiden and that’s Kristi.”
“Are you the three people my mother was referring to when she sent me an instafication?”
Jaiden nodded. Kristi shot Troop a scowl. She was not looking forward to be traveling with this jerk.
“Let’s talk more at the Rex Hotel,” Chelsa said.
Troop shrugged. “Whatever. Lead the way.”
“So you already know about the Naturals and all that fun stuff, right?” Chelsa said.
They sat in the living room of the suite. There was a bowl of pretzels in the center of the coffee table, but only Troop had touched the food.
So far, Kristi had refused to speak to Troop and was more than happy to hand over the get-to-know-you chitchat to Chelsa and Jaiden. Troop’s behavior today had disgusted her.
All her life, she had been treated like scum and ignored.
In the past, she might have stood up for herself if somebody made a rude comment or gesture towards her, but she usually pretended nothing happened.
“My mother told me the basic idea of the Naturals,” Troop said. “I don’t know the nitty-gritty details, but yeah, I have the general concept.”
Chelsa quickly reviewed what they had learned from Tiffany today. Once Troop was all caught up, Chelsa said, “I didn’t even recognize you as Troop because you blended so well with all Perfects. I’m curious; why aren’t you considered an outcast at Ludus High School? From what I know, Accidents aren’t treated very well in public.”
“That’s because his friends thought he was a Perfect. He didn’t tell them that he wasn’t one,” Kristi said, jerking her head in Troop’s direction. “He’s just a Perfect wannabe.”
“I do have a name, you know,” Troop said. “It wouldn’t hurt you to use it. And like I said, I’m sorry about what happened today. The only reason I was acting like that was because today’s VicDay. I usually don’t act like that.”
“What’s VicDay?” Chelsa asked.
“Nothing important,” Troop hurriedly answered.
Kristi gave him her best death-stare. He met her eyes and didn’t flinch. She sighed and dropped her gaze to Ghost. Kristi patted her lap and Ghost gracefully leapt besides her on the couch. Troop seemed a bit uncomfortable with a live leopard so close to him.
Good, she thought.
“You understand you can’t continue that sort of behavior while you’re with us, right?” Jaiden said. “You better have a good reason for your behavior.”
Troop sighed. “Long story short. I used to go to a public high school where I was known as an Accident. As a result, I got picked on. I was eventually transferred to Ludus High School after some kids tried to lock me in a classroom and set it on fire. At Ludus, nobody knew I wasn’t a Perfect and they accepted me as I am. Basically, I made the right friends, acted the right way and fit right in.”
“That’s still no excuse for your behavior,” Jaiden said.
“I was getting to that,” Troop said. “You’re either the hunter or the hunted at Ludus High School. I was sick of being tormented all the time at my old high school and decided I was going to take charge of my life. I’ve learned that if you don’t want to be a hunted, then you have to be the hunter. I wasn’t actually going to hurt the girl, you know.”
“I’ll accept that,” said Chelsa.
“Jaiden? Kristi? Do you believe me?”
“I trust Chelsa’s gut instincts, so yeah,” Jaiden said.
Kristi responded to Troop with another one of her death-glares. Troop was a smooth actor and talker for sure, but he wasn’t going to fool her.
“Do you have your electro-slate on you?” Chelsa asked.
“Yeah,” Troop said. He pulled it out from his jacket pocket. The slate was top-of-the-line and looked so new it could’ve been just taken out from the factory.
“Good. Hand it over please,” Chelsa said.
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
Troop hesitantly forked over his slate to Chelsa.
“Thanks. I’ll be in my room. Don’t disturb me unless it’s an emergency.”
Chelsa left the living room and headed into her bedroom, locking the door behind her.
“What is she doing with my slate?” Troop asked.
“Probably removing the tracker from it,” Jaiden said.
“There’s a tracker in my slate?” Troop sounded surprised.
You would’ve thought he already knew that, considering he was raised in a spy-community. After all, his mom, Tiffany, works for the Revealers, Kristi thought.
“I need some space.” She abruptly stood up and left.
chapter twenty-five
[ Troop ]
