I parked the glider in the parking lot of the academy, a gray-colored building that towered over a couple of hundred meters high.
I had been excited to drive a Wings, you could say I was one of the unlucky ones, the problem was when Carter hugged me with the excuse of not falling out and I felt his little friend living in his pants start to grow inside him.
"You fucking pervert" I said to Carter as I got off the slider and took off my helmet" What do you think, that by seducing me I will forget about what you owe me? I need money, not romance".
"Wait" said Carter with a serious look on his face, " don't misunderstand, I'm too sensitive to the human touch".
"I can see that, you have the face of an idiot and you look like a teenager" I concluded and Carter let out a smirk, apparently he liked being insulted.
I turned around and started walking towards the entrance of the academy. Carter ran until he caught up with me.
"I don't want to go in with you, I don't want them to know I'm with a pervert" I said, Carter put his shoulders up as if it wouldn't matter.
"I'm not known as a pervert here" Carter said, " besides you don't have much of a choice, you don't know where class 3 is, so you'll have to come with me."
He had a point, but he was too annoyed with him, so he didn't intend to stick by him. At least he had managed to handle a Wings. If it wasn't for his little friend, he would have thought the day would have been worth it.
The door to the academy opened. Leaving me to see several uniformed officers moving around as if they didn't care about us.
There was a female officer at the front desk, maybe I could ask her where class 3 was, that was what I had planned, but with Carter that plan had gone to the trash. Carter turned right and I started to follow him, but was interrupted by a voice.
"Aaron Mark" said a woman's voice, I turned around and watched the officer keeping her eyes on me.
"That's me" I said, in a polite, hypocritical voice that I was having trouble keeping up.
"The director has asked for you to go to his office" said the officer, " he has asked me to accompany you".
"Thank you and I'm sorry to take up your time" I said, Carter seemed to laugh at my stupid behavior and with my elbow I slapped him on his stomach to get him under control.
The officer left the address and started walking in the opposite direction of where Carter was headed.
"I'll be waiting for you," Carter said before we parted ways.
"I hope you make it with the money you owe me" I said before walking away.
The officer led me down two floors to what looked like an administrative floor. Several officers stood behind desks as virtual screens and different paperwork piled up on them.
We reached the end of the hallway where the officer stopped, nodded for me to approach and I opened the door without fear of reprisal.
The director of the academy stood behind his desk. He was a fat, disgusting looking man, with small glasses that covered a small part of his fat head, with a black pimple on his left cheek from which a disgusting hair came out. His hair was short, you could see receding hairline indicating that he would soon be bald. The worst part was his hypocritical smile when he saw me, to which he stood up indicating me to come closer.
"At some point I thought you weren't going to come, I had thought I would formally go to your house so I could bring you" said the director keeping his stupid smile, indicating me to approach the desk and pointing me to a chair so I could sit down.
"I'm already here though" I said, walking over to the desk and sitting down across from him, " it's not like I have much of a choice."
"I can see why you still have doubts as to why you were assigned to the police academy, being honest, many academies fought over recruiting you" said the officer.
I smiled inside, we were supposed to take an exam at headquarters after finishing high school to be one of the chosen few and be assigned to an academy. I tried to fail that exam, I didn't want to keep wasting my time when I could barely get enough to eat. It was an unpleasant surprise when I was notified that I had entered the police academy.
"I guess the exam is a sham" I mentioned.
"No, it isn't. Before the exam, many students are already assigned to the different academies because of their academic achievements. Sometimes there are spots left that are filled because of the exam results, but I would be lying to say that exam manages to make a difference."
"In your case, you always showed a talent with the use of technology, several academies tried to recruit you, but the law rules in this city, so I had nothing to lose when I requested that you come to our academy."
"I don't know if I should feel grateful" I said.
"I see you still have your doubts, but you have nothing to fear. When you graduate, you will be assigned to the technology team, where you can continue to develop your devices with a great salary."
"It sounds too good in the future" I mentioned, " but you know how my situation is right now, it's not like I can come and think that with the salary in the future I will be able to eat now."
"I understand your situation and I also understand that you have a robot that you stole from the government to do your work while you go about your projects" said the director with a wicked grin he kept on his face.
I didn't know what to say, he left me cornered. If the director gave the order, I would be arrested for several years for stealing from the government, it was the last thing I wanted. I cursed Bill, my stupid ambition to have a robot do my job led to my ruin.
"here will be the deal, you will keep coming to the academy, you will live with your classmates and fulfill your tuition and I will see to it that no law enforcement officer bothers you or reviews your file" said the director with an ecstatic expression on his face. He had won that round, he was the face of a winner.
"I understand" I said, having no other way out.
"I appreciate you cooperating" said the director.
The director pressed a button on his desk. A man's voice answered and the director said to come into his office, he had an assignment. A few minutes later an officer no older than twenty-five came in. He was fair-skinned, his hair was freshly cut, he was tall and somewhat handsome, if it weren't for his huge nose that covered half of his face.
"Hall, this is the student who was missing, he instructed you to show him around the facility and take him to class 3" requested the principal.
Hall nodded and with his eyes told me to follow him.
We left the principal's office, after a long time I was lost, aware that I had to resign myself to a life, trapped in a building that could kill my creativity and to absurd laws that I kept questioning.
Officer Hall took me to where the dining room was, the weapons practice room, the auditorium where they taught self-defense, the technology area, the bathrooms, the locker rooms and finally where the classrooms were located. It seemed like a huge place, even though the academy only had about a hundred students per year.
"The school consists of two resources, the first is the basic teaching area, where you are assigned to a classroom where you are taught what every police officer should know. How to fire a weapon, self-defense, questioning suspects, as well as how to identify plants and other resources that can come in handy for survival".
"Then there is the area of specialization, which is the department where you work in the future. First there are the field agents, who patrol the city, then detectives, torture agents, clerks, law makers, technology, teachers, among others."
Officer Hall stopped in front of the door to Class 3. He knocked on the door several times until he heard an officer's voice indicating to open the door.
I observed a huge classroom that looked like an auditorium of sorts. Several armchairs that were raised one above the other to the front, at the bottom, leaving the view of the teacher.
The teacher looked like a young man, about thirty years old, with long blond hair that reached below his ears. He was light-skinned but thin.
"Officer Hall" said the teacher with some mischief on his face" that must be the famous missing student, Aaron Mark."
"Sorry to interrupt your class" said Officer Hall.
"It's no bother " said the teacher" Aaron, come on in, there's plenty of room".
I watched the different students, each one looked at me curiously, Carter was sitting at the top, in the corner, he indicated with his hand for me to approach him, but I moved in the opposite direction when our eyes met and Carter dared to say my name in front of my classmates.
I sat next to a boy with orange hair, a little dark, with several freckles on his face. The teacher continued to lecture about a silver that was useful against poison in case we were intoxicated.
My mind went blank when the teacher left saying that the class was over. It was a waste of time, I should have been working on my projects at the time.
I remembered the invention I had in my backpack, maybe it was time to continue putting it together, I looked at my classmate and he looked at me with some fear when our eyes met.
"Excuse me?", I asked somewhat politely" What's next after this?".
"It's Thursday, so off to our house" the young man said with some effort.
"Thank you, that will be perfect" I said, standing up with some enthusiasm.
"Wait" said the boy", Are you a friend of Carter's?".
"That idiot's, I would never be friends with a jerk like him" I replied and the boy seemed to show some relief on his face, until someone from behind came up.
"Wallace? What are you talking about?" asked Carter with some madness in his voice.
Wallace's eyes filled with fear, as if just hearing Carter's voice meant he would be in trouble.
"I was just getting to know Aaron" Wallace explained trying to stand up, but Carter grabbed his shoulder and forced him to stay in the seat.
"What's wrong with you asshole" I asked Carter" get your hands off him".
"Sorry" Carter said putting his hands at the level of his head, going back to his nice guy role, " I was just talking to my friend Wallace".
Wallace stood up when he had the chance and ran out of the classroom. I let out a sigh, it was an unlucky day, I had hooked up with a crazy guy who apparently everyone was afraid of.
"Do you want us to go to your house?" Carter asked, " you could go back to driving my slider."
"I'm not driving your slider again, you fucking pervert."