I decide to sit on our couch facing the vid screen. It is off like usual. It is huge and takes up one whole wall of the room with the exception of the door to the hallway squeezed into the farthest right edge of that wall. We only turn it on to watch pre-Dome shows and plays. It is set to stream the general Dome news as a default, constantly talking and saying the same things over and over again. Once every three minutes, we counted one day when we were younger, they remind watchers to, "Stick to the Plan, save the Queen."
I can see Hong-er's door swing open behind me in the reflective surface of the screen. Her red hair is wound up into tight ringlets. It's wound that it barely touches her shoulders.
"Hong-er, what is wrong?" I say standing up and turning towards her in concern.
"I'm late, so late, I tried to get out of bed on time, but..." she says as her ringlets tighten further. I look at Wuji to see if he will explain his update and help her relax, but he's quickly patting out something that has begun smoking on the desk muttering, "Ten, nine, Quick, quick, quick, five, four..." The smoke stops as the AI says, "Smoke detected turning on foam extinguisher in three, two.... smoke has been contained, canceling extinguishing protocol"
We all sigh in relief.
"Hong-er, Wuji got the AI ahead of Dome Standard. So, you are not actually late yet." I say as I watch the tension in her curly hair relax with each word I say.
"Really?!?" she asks as her hair returns to its usual wavy red and now stretches half way down her back.
As I nod, I am reminded of her given name TouFa Hong, because of this extraordinary bright red hair that she was born with. It was famous for changing. I don't me color or anything but her hair shows her emotions. The nurses were stumped when she was a baby, but once she learned to talk, they realized that the ringlets form and tighten with her anxiety level.
Frustration causes her hair to become frizzy, but often frustration comes with anxiety so the result tended to be tiny tight frizzy curls that actually defy gravity somehow forming lovely red orb around her beautiful and strong facial features.
Her hair never fell perfectly straight unless she was asleep. Then it fell like beautiful long waves reminding me of an old tale about mermaids. This subtly wavy texture showed that she believed me and no longer feared missing breakfast or worse.
I glance at LiBang's door, which is still resolutely shut. Of the four of us he is the most introverted, and does not like to deal with the noise and drama that the rest of us tend to cause in the morning. I silently will it to open and for my favorite of my foundling siblings to walk into the common room. I'd put it at number two of my very favorite parts of every day, getting to see his face every morning.
I know it's just a crush and that he will be trained as a Protector as his once we take the Assessment for Job placement and move from this orphanage into the Dome at large. That pretty much excludes me from being his life partner since people tend to pair off within their job group, and I will never be chosen as Protector material. If I knew what was good for me, I would set my sights on someone closer to my league, but that's easier said than done.
As though in answer to my thoughts, his door opens, and LiBang walks slowly into the common room. He's tall, so very tall. Since we were all assigned into this room, he has been the tallest students in our year, by a couple centimeters at least. Right now, he stands head and shoulders above the rest. You can always see him coming even in a crowd. Its like they know and subconsciously steer away from his large frame.
That is part of the reason he was named LiBang Zhu, "powerful help," because even as a baby he had great strength. Like Hong-er he baffled the nurses at first. Every time a nurse got close enough to touch him, he would get upset and kick and cry until he fell back asleep. Once he could talk it was like all that anger and sadness was consumed and rolled into his large frame. For those who he considered friends he was a mountain of calm in a sea of chaos, but if you hurt someone he cared for, he could almost kill you with just his eyes. I had never been the focus of his anger, but I'd seen people deflate in the presence of him, regretting their previous actions.
Apart from being tall he was mostly silent with his eyes always roving around the room he was in like he was watching for trouble. I told you he was Protector material. I can't tell you how many times I have almost walked into something to have his strong arms stop me at the last moment. I tend to be in my head a lot.
"Lulu!"
"Huh?" I jump and try to focus my eyes again.
"Lulu? Are you coming?" I hear his low voice say from somewhere by the door to the hallway beyond.
See it's just like that I start thinking, and quickly get lost in my thoughts. I start to turn around just as his firm hand grabs my shoulder and guides me into the hall. Wuji and Hong-er stand farther along in the hallway looking back at me in curiosity. Every time I get wrapped up in thinking about him time seems to move on independently of me.
"Go." he says calmly and gives me a little shove into the middle of our little group, and this is how it is with the four of us. Hong-er leading the way, Wuji and I in the middle lost in thought, and LiBang at the rear somehow pushing us forward with his presence.