I succeed in cloaking my mind! We greet the Madison human and several other juveniles without any difficulty. They emit a constant stream of chatter as we walk to the school. The conversa-tion is so rapid and strange, I find it hard to follow. Much of the talk centers on a Noah human. When I reviewed Earth history, this person was mentioned. He once built an extremely large boat and filled it with animals.
When we enter the school building, Chloe’s group disperses into a jostling crowd of other humans. The din is astonishing. I decide it’s a good thing I can’t hear their thoughts.
“But I can still hear yours, Welks,” Chloe mutters.
“You can?”
She halts at a small metal door, one of many, and releases a locking mechanism. She puts our head partially inside the small compartment and says, “Yeah. But you’re sort of muffled. I think I can handle it.”
Oh. I suppose muffled is better than nothing.
“It is.” She withdraws our head as she places some baggage into the compartment and glances about. The crowd continues to swirl around us, and Chloe pops our head back inside. “But just so you know, Noah is the guy I like. Not the one with the ark.”
“There’s more than one of them?”
“Oh, brother,” she sighs.
“Josh is here?” I ask.
“No! Jeez, I don’t have time for—”
“Chloe?” A new human voice interrupts us.
The sudden change in our body is alarming. It’s as if an electrical current flashes through every molecule and floods us with heat. Chloe straightens abruptly and turns to face the speaker. “Noah,” she says. Her voice flutters with residual electricity.
“Hey. Were you, uh, talking to someone?” Noah asks.
“Oh! Ha ha,” she laughs. “No.”
That’s a lie.
“I mean, I, uh,” Chloe stammers. “I was talking to myself.”
Noah’s mouth moves into a smile curve. “You do that often?”
“Uh, no,” she says. “Well, maybe sometimes. Just lately, I guess.”
Noah raises a brow. “Problem?” he asks.
Our mouth smiles widely as we shrug. “No, no. Everything’s cool. How’s it going with you?”
“All good,” Noah says. He shifts his weight from one foot to the other. “I was wondering about, uh,” He pauses to swallow. “The dance.”
Oddly, our lungs stop functioning. Chloe barely has enough breath to say, “Oh?”
“Yeah.” Noah nods. “Are you going?”
Our stomach is behaving oddly. Perhaps it’s begun the work of digesting the yogurt?
We smile at Noah, but our facial muscles feel as if they’re straining. “Yeah,” Chloe says.
“Cool.” Noah grins back. “So I’ll see you there?”
“For sure,” Chloe replies. A loud ringing sound occurs, and we startle. “Shoot,” Chloe says. “I’ve gotta go. Dorkan’s being a cow about lates.” We spin away from Noah, and she quickly slams the door to the compartment. Then we turn back to him and smile once more. “So, uh, later?”
He smiles too. “Later.” He walks one way while we go the other.
“Frick!” Chloe mutters. “Yogurt!”
“It’s very tasty,” I say.
“But I don’t want to think about digestion when…” Chloe catches the eye of an approaching human and forces a smile. “Hey,” she says.
The human replies, “Hey” as she passes by us.
“Grrrr,” Chloe rumbles. Softly. “Welks, the mind cloak? Please.”
I’d forgotten the mind cloak. I work at it while we rush down the hall and into a chamber filled with other humans. They appear to be in a state of chaos. They are flinging baggage and clothing about the room. Chloe joins in. She removes most of the clothing she put on a short time ago and replaces it with other clothing. Incredibly, she also once again binds her hair with elastic.
“Gym class,” she mutters.
“I know, hey?” a human responds. “It sucks.”
It sucks? I ponder this. Possibly, some sort of vacuum device is involved?
“Exercise,” Chloe groans.
Ah. That would be movement of the body to promote physical wellness. The room is emptying rapidly. As another bell sounds, Chloe is the last one through a door into a much bigger chamber.
A large human watches our approach. It is holding a clipboard wedged against its abdomen as it says, “Glad you could join us, Chloe. Take three laps.”
“Three?” Chloe squeaks. “But Ms. Dork—Doran, I was here on time.”
The large human’s eyes narrow. They almost disappear into the fleshy face. “Barely,” it says. “And your attitude hasn’t improved, has it?”
Our muscles stiffen as Chloe mutters, “It’s fine.”
“Is it?” Ms. Dork-Doran asks. Its body appears to swell. This is a most interesting performance for a human. I recall that a certain amphibian being displays this swelling behavior. Also a fish and some birds, such as one known as a turkey.
Chloe suddenly snorts through our nose.
Ms. Dork-Doran sighs, and the swelling subsides. “You’re wasting your talent, Chloe. You need to train hard.”
Chloe directs our gaze toward a door on the far side of the chamber. “Yes, ma’am,” she says.
Ms. Dork-Doran’s mouth opens as if it has more to say. Then the mouth closes, and it sighs again. “Go,” it says before it turns away.
Chloe moves us swiftly toward the far door. When we pass through, we are outside the building. Gray clouds cover the sky, and an expanse of grass stretches before us. Numerous juveniles are scattered about, performing various movements.
“Turkey,” Chloe mutters.
“I believe that’s correct,” I say.
“So do I.” She snorts again as she takes us away from the others. We go through a gate and onto a rubbery surface. It’s marked with parallel lines that extend away in both directions. “It’s a track,” she says.
She begins stretching our legs. “Frickin’ three laps. I can’t stand Dorkan. What a hypocrite. Where does she get off telling me I need to train hard? She should take a look at herself in the mirror.”
“Why should she do that?”
“Because then maybe she’d notice she’s the one who needs to run.” Chloe begins moving us along the track with a bouncing gait. “It’s called jogging,” she says. Then she adds, “I used to like running until she came along and wrecked it.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Chloe asks. Before I can answer, she says, “It’s like this. I’m pretty good at running. Not great or anything. Just good. I mean, in elementary school, I won all the races. But not anymore. There’s too much competition.”
“You dislike competition?” I ask.
Chloe increases our speed. “I don’t mind competition. It’s losing I don’t like.”
I struggle to piece this all together. “So, you don’t like running anymore because you dislike losing? This causes you to dislike the Dork-Doran?”
“She thinks if I train more, I can win again. She wants me to make her look good.”
I am truly confused now. “Possibly, you could allow her the use of your chemicals and hair devices?” I suggest.
“Not that sort of looking good,” Chloe replies. “I mean, if I win because I do what she says, then she can take the credit.”
“I understand,” I say.
“Don’t lie, Welks,” she says. “Okay, no more talking. I’m going to run now.”