When I woke up, I was in a bed.
Once I saw the gurdy bars and the cracked porcelain ceiling, I realized I was just in the school infirmary. Next to me sat the assisstant nurse. We called him Naj.
My shoulders, and back suddenly got heavier. My hands and elbows suddenly started sweating. Naj was asleep. I needed serious help getting up. Should I just tap him and wake him up? Would it be rude? What if he yells at me?
Before I could act though Naj grunted and woke up after his clipboard in his lap hit the floor. He squeezed his eye lids together and pinched the bridge of his nose before opening his eyes wide and clearing his throat.
He twisted his neck to the right a bit and I heard a quick and sharp crack as he let out a low sigh. "Okay, uh, Xin right? Sorry about all of that you were out for a while," he said, as he looked at his clipboard and a smile cracked through his serious demeanor. I knew Naj was more than intolerant of kids, but I really didn't need his attitude from frustratingly low pay at the moment.
"Define 'a while'," I whimpered as I looked up at him.
"Three,"
"Hours?"
"Days," he said nonchalantly as he thumbed through pages of the report on his clipboard.
"Three DAYS!?" I exclaimed, trying to sit up properly. However the sudden change in elevation of my head and shoulders made my arms give out as my body slumped like a rag doll. Probably from exhaustion and the fact that I had subsistence off of an IV for three days straight.
"Mhmm, yeah, go ahead and move without assistance. That was a great idea. Damn, teenagers. But that's about right. Don't worry though, you were accepted to a Tetiary Program here in New Midland," he said as he passed some other students on beds and reached for a PlaSma Tech wheelchair.
I sighed. "Yeah that seems about right. No way the Mericans would accept a middie," I said. I wanted to scream, but I was still in so much pain I could barely even raise my voice again.
"Well, simply put, your written examination scores were pretty bad. Like seriously bad. Like, your score was so low it should be illegal," he said.
"They weren't that bad," I mumbled under my breath and into my chest as Naj picked me up bridal style..
"Your combat exam scores broke almost every record set since the beginning of the Voyager Association. Nothing to brag about really. Your potential is sky high for the most part," he said as he basically picked me up and threw me onto the wheelchair.
...
When I got home, my mom wasn't in the house. She was most likely at the market doing party tricks or volunteering or something. Either way it didn't matter. Her line of work seemed to change every other week.
I put my backpack on the kitchen counter and rolled into the living room. Suddenly I heard a rat scurrying near the stove.
I wheeled around to see nothing less than a rat on the tiled floor with a piece of bread disappearing into its mouth at lightning speed. We had had rats for month and the sticky traps we had were fine, but for some reason I wanted to get rid it even more now.
"Get over here you schiesse!" I lunged out of the chair suddenly and quickly snatched the fat rat from the floor. I was lying on the ground with a chunky rat in my hand, muscles in my legs torn, and scrunched up against a stove.
It started squeaking wildly shaking its head and writhing trying to get free. Rats in New Midland were notoriously gluttonous, so it was no surprise that it had already taken several stinging bites of my hand and knuckles.
"Fucking waste of ATP!" I swore as I squeezed it harder. The more I squeezed it the less and less it squealed. And then suddenly it stopped moving altogether. But that wasn't all, while in my daze of confusion the fur and skin started decaying in my hand too. It quickly became translucent and I could see its skeleton through its skin.
After that the skeleton too became hollow and loose. After the shock of absorbing the life force of a rat I finally found the ability to scurry away and throw away the hollow rat skeleton remains.
Hey look you're standing
"Wait what?" I asked Jack. But I realized it too. I had scrambled to my feet almost as suddenly as Jack had re-entered my head.
It felt like my neck weighed a hundred tons as I slowly turned my head towards my hand. I clenched it into a fist. It felt good?
Wow, look at you! Finally, the little runt is becoming a man. Haha
"Oh shut up," I said, but I couldn't help but crack a smile after I stretched a bit. The only creepy aspect of the laugh was that I could practically see him smile because it was do audible. "What did I just do?"
You're actual father's name is Necros. Take a wild guess, Jack said.
"So I can make things decay and in return I get energy?" I asked.
No, not exactly. You can absorb or distribute the ATP out of any living thing and use it as back up energy. You need to train it though.
"Huh, well look at that. I guess the nanobots had some thing good in store for me," I chuckled. I don't know how, but somehow I could hear Jack smack his forehead and sigh. But in my head.
Before I could respond, the mail shoot near the door beeped loudly and a tube of mail shot into our mailing tube compartment.
I opened the tube and the holographic display that said Powered by PlaSma Tech was in the lower left corner.
Those bills wont pay themselves. Right Xin? Jack said.
"No. They won't," I responded while swiping past them. "Guess I have to start working part time again. I wonder if Kaila will hire me again at her tourism center. It may be one hell of a walk to the 8th, but it should be worth it" I said, as I stopped swiping and reminisced about that playing around with Kaila's kids on the job. "Y'know, I only got fired 'cuz of my slacking," I explained out loud to nobody in parricular.
Dexter, I'm in your head. No need to explain. Besides, you do look and dress like a crook. A grey hoodie? Seriously?
"Dont read my mind like it's your own book," I said in a grave tone. My brow furrowed and my grip around the counter top tightened. Jack didn't answer back then.
I kept swiping through the letters until I came upon something insane.
I'm pretty sure I smiled wider than I ever had before once I saw the words "Jurock Academy Acceptance Letter" pasted in big bold letters on the screen. I tapped on it and started reading out loud:
Good Day and/ Night families of the accepted,
The Acceptance Committee of the New Merica Voyager Association is glad to announce that student,
-Xin, Dexter (16)
-New Midland Ward 17 Charter High
-Blood Type: LH
Has been Accepted. Your student, parents, will be kept in our local campus dorms seperated by Ability Merit. They will be fed three meals a day and attend classes key for the Voyager Profession everyday in the buisness week for the next 2-4 years. Please Attend the New Midland National Mariner Docks in the 3rd Ward by the 11th of Augun at noon with the listed school materials:
Book List:
- Voyager Association Pamphlet
- Kenof Combat Series 8
- New Merica Social and Cultural Basics
- 274 Easy Ways to Study Social Proficciencies
- The Maron Laws of Physics, Science, and Art
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
- Plato's Republic
Tools List:
- Basic Medical Equipment
- Combat Uniform of previous school
- Basic Set of Pencils and Pens
- 5 Weeks worth of clothing to change
- Hygenic Procucts
This is the end of the list. We are very excited to see your student attending the Program.
The student's Combat and Test Scores are listed on the next page:
Written Test - FFC10
Physicality Test - FCA2
Full Combat Test - AAA1
"Now those are some good numbers," I said outloud. "When mom sees these she is gonna flip!"
I ran over to my room and threw myself onto my bed, sinking into the mushy brick that was my mattress and disorganized covers. Jurock Academy was the only institution in New Merica's Voyager Tertiary Program that allowed in New Midlanders.
I couldnt wait to walk past those gates in New Merica and say goodbye to the 17th Ward finally. Away from the fake friends and the unfairness and the spite. The dirty roads the silent anger.
The Color Gangs, the poisonous air, the inescapable yearning for better. For more. That feeling that no matter how many steps I took, the systems New Merica put in place would stump our growth each and every time.
But this time, I could escape. I could be free.
Suddenly I heard a click at the door and the thud of boots as they fell on the floor and a sigh.
Slowly I got up from bed and got up to lock my door. It must be a burglar. I was sure to not lock the door though. This must have been the third one this month. I would have to lock this door and wait for them to leave.
Suddenly after a few more soft thumps on the ground there was a knock at the door and my mother's voice rang through the wood. "Is my little Grimm Reaper there at all?"
Mom always called me Grimm Reaper. She said I used to suck the life out of her as a kid. A huge sigh of relief echoed throughout my whole room. I unlocked the door and swung it open. "Mom you know I ha-" I was beginning to say but was cut off by the sight of a small, circular cake with frosting words hastily scribbled on top.
"Have a name right?" I continued and went to hug my mom. Me being taller than her now, I had to bend down for her to kiss my head. She then took the cake to the coffee table and picked up a knife she had set on it earlier. "How did you even get something like this?" I asked as I sat on the chair across from my mother's.
"Why do you think I was gone for three weeks?" She chuckled as she cut the cake into fourths.
"Work?"
"Well, partially," she said. "The insides of the cake should give you a clue," she winked at me as she lifted one slice onto a SnapWare plastic cover. Immediately the multiple layers of solid chocolate cake practically spilled out of it's sides. My eye lids expanded to the size of a satellite dish.
"You mean you went all the way to-" I started, but she finished off the sentence for me.
"All the way to the 3rd Ward, yeah. I've been saving up since your last birthday. It was a complete hassle to get ahold of the frosting and chocolate with our monthly ration badges almost all used up. And i reckon, they will be gone sooner these days," she exclaimed with a huge smile as she gestured toward my new height.
For a while I really just stared at her in awe. THIS was my mom! She always told me she could do everything. Even when I was a kid she would come back home with a broken nose from a fight with another parent who had patronized me just to show others that she was never afraid.
She made trek all the way from the 17th to the 3rd Ward. Being a construction worker was seen as menial labor, so they weren't allowed rides on monorails across Wards. Meaning she made the trek all the way to the 3rd Ward and back just for me. Not even keeping in mind the countless other stops she would need to have made on her trek.
And with that thought my smile started to fade. I sighed, got up, and went to hug her and lead her to sit down in her chair. She had probably been on her feet for days. She didn't need to stand any longer.
And I thought I was having it rough.
I gave her the plate of cake and got a spoon for her. Forks required more metal work than spoons, so we only had spoons in the house. "You should try and eat up," I said to her. She smiled, and let the plate rest on her lap.
"So, I'm assuming you got into Resotrik Academy?" she continued with a solemn tone as she played around with the triangle of cake on her plate. My eye twitched, and my stomach sort of boiled. I wanted her to eat so badly. How could she do so much and then come back and not try to eat right away? And I know for a fact she hadn't eaten before she came.
"Actually, no" I said, while getting ul and grabbing the envelope disk. "I'm in Jurock!" I exclaimed as I showed her the Acceptance Letter.
She cheered as she tried to out the plate down and hug me, but before she could, I picked up the plate out of her hand, took a scoop of cake, and shoved some in her mouth. She wrestled with my hand and ripped the spoon away. "Hey!" She yelled, legitimately angry at what I had done. Her shout had turned my knees to jelly as I stood back, bracing myself.
Then she just sighed. She looked down at the cake. She looked up at me and gave a weak smile as tears streamed down her face. She sighed. "Y'know, it's your birthday. You should be the one getting the first slice," she chuckled as she went to hug my torso again. I patted her back. But I didn't say sorry. I wouldn't apologize this time.
Not for something like that.