Forty-four

 

Talia slouched in the back of her History of Earth class. History of Earth. Like anybody cared. Most of the kids going to this school had never even been to Earth. Talia hadn’t. And she certainly didn’t care about its stupid history, which seemed to have gone on forever and ever and ever.

A security guard stood outside the door. Ms. Rutledge had increased the security on all of the rooms and in the hallways, not to prevent anyone from getting in, but to prevent the kids from rioting, which was her word. Rioting. If Ms. Rutledge had sat through a History of Earth class she would know what rioting really was. What had happened in the cafeteria yesterday was just a fight.

Most of the kids involved in the fight looked tired this morning. Their parents had probably yelled at them. Like that was a problem. The Chinar twins hadn’t even come back to school, and Talia heard a rumor that they might not ever return.

The door opened, and Kaleb Lamber tried to sneak in. He hadn’t been at the assembly this morning, and Talia had heard he was hiding out in the Office of the Headmistress with some lawyers. She had no idea who they would’ve been talking to, since Ms. Rutledge had conducted the assembly.

Kaleb looked smaller somehow. His right eye had closed completely and his face was a mass of bruises. Apparently, his parents hadn’t let him get fixed up.

His friends said his dad was a nightmare, a bigger bully than Kaleb himself. No one went over to Kaleb’s house because no one wanted his dad near them.

If Kaleb hadn’t been so mean, Talia would have felt sorry for him. The fact that she felt a bit of sympathy now pissed her off. She didn’t want to feel anything for him.

He glanced her way and caught her looking at him. Her cheeks flushed. She would’ve looked away, but that would’ve sent the wrong signal, like she was interested or something, like her dad had said. Sometimes her dad could be so clueless.

Instead of looking away, she sent, So what’s with the lawyers?

None of your damn business, Kaleb sent back.

It’s my business if you’re siccing a lawyer on me, she sent, kinda proud of herself for doing it. After all, she was investigating, just like her dad did, and doing it without giving herself away too badly.

You’re not important enough for lawyers, he sent, and headed to the only empty chair in the room.

“Mr. Lamber,” the teacher, Ms. Schultze, said, her hand pausing over a 3-D replica of the population of Earth in something called the Middle Ages. “So nice of you to join us.”

“Those Ages can’t be Middle if they happened a million-zillion years ago,” Kaleb said as he slipped into the chair. He was letting Ms. Schultze know that he was up to date on his homework.

“We don’t name the eras,” she said with a sigh. “We just teach them.”

So what are the lawyers for? Talia sent, deciding to go with the direct approach after all.

If you must know, he sent, the school instituted some kind of anti-bigotry policy thirty years ago, and Ms. Rutledge is thinking of expelling me, using that as her reason. I’m not a damn bigot.

Could’ve fooled me, Talia sent. She felt a little better than she had just a few minutes ago. Ms. Rutledge was protecting kids against bigotry? Against bigotry against clones? Maybe it would be safe here after all.

What do you care, anyway? Kaleb sent. You’d be happy if I get kicked out.

Would she? She wasn’t sure. He could be funny and entertaining and weirdly nice at times, although it’d been a while since she’d seen the nice.

I’d be happy if you just stopped picking on people, she sent back.

“My alarm has gone off,” Ms. Schultze said. “Your links are too active. I will shut them down if I have to.”

Kaleb bowed his head. Talia sighed, and leaned back even more. She wished she could go home.

She’d rather keep fighting with Kaleb about bigotry than think about smelly people with short lifespans on a planet she had never seen.

She wondered if it would set off the link-activation alarm if she did some research for her dad instead of listen to Ms. Schultze. It probably would.

An hour of hell, followed by another hour of hell, followed by at least six more. Then, maybe, she could do some real work at the security office, and think about things that actually were important, rather than stuff nobody cared about even back a million-zillion years ago.

What she needed to work on was an argument that would get her out of school for the rest of the year.

She needed to come up with something plausible, preferably in the next six hours. Because she didn’t want to sit through any more stupid stuff while she missed out on all the important things.

She was too smart to waste her time on a million-zillion years ago. She needed to focus on now.

And so did everybody else.