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  Her silky, chestnut hair cascaded impeccably past her shoulders. Although Jennifer had shown interest in Troop for a while, he’d never considered her to be more than a friend.

  She tapped her electro-slate, letting him know she’d sent him an instafication.

  “Jennifer,” Mr. Brunes, the chemistry teacher, said. “Since I am sure you have your complete attention on my class, please tell me the name and number of valence electrons of the newly discovered element made by Dr. Snyders last week.”

  “Name: Novium. Number of valence electrons: eight,” replied Jennifer without missing a beat.

  Troop tilted his electro-slate so that Mr. Brunes couldn’t see his screen. Then he opened up the instafication from Jennifer:

  Chem is such a bore. Want to hang out at Eden’s Park after school today?

  Troop slid a sideways glance to make sure Mr. Brunes was occupied with some other student before replying:

  Sorry, but I can’t. I promised to hang out with my guys today at the indoor snowboarding center. You can come if you want.

  He looked up to see Jennifer cast him a pout. Fortunately, the bell rang, saving Troop from having to deal with Jennifer’s puppy-dog looks. She was so damn adorable when she used her full-on persuasive powers; Troop sometimes found it hard to say “no” to her requests.

  “What’s up?” Darrel, Troop’s right hand man, met him at the door.

  He gave Troop what he considered to be a light punch to the shoulder. However, because Darrel was built like a linebacker, the punch really wasn’t light at all. Troop masked his wince from the blow though; he had a reputation to maintain at Ludus High.

  “Chem with Brunes,” said Troop.

  Darrel made a face. “Tough class.”

  “Not so much as tough as mind-numbing.”

  “Tompkins was looking for you. Said he found the perfect person for VicDay.”

  VicDay. It was a day Troop both loathed and loved at the same time. It was a monthly event started by him, so there was no one else to blame but himself. But it was a necessary event—something that couldn’t be skipped.

  “I’ll see Tompkins at Shawn’s Snowboard Center after school today. He can tell me the person’s name then,” Troop said.

  “Jennifer’s still hounding after you.” Darrel jerked a thumb in her direction. “She’s ogling you from across the hall. Never mind—she just looked away.”

  “Just drop it. I already made it clear to Jenn I don’t want to date her.”

  Darrel snorted. “Why, is she not good enough for you? Honestly, I can’t figure out why you haven’t picked a girl yet. I swear, more than half the girls at Ludus are willing to cut off their arm if that meant they could go out with you.”

  Troop suppressed a sigh. “How many times do I have to tell you? I’m just not interested in a relationship. I have to go to World Studies class now. See you later, alright?”

  Darrel gave Troop another friendly punch then headed into the chemistry lab. Troop turned away from Jennifer, feeling her eyes bore through his back like lasers, then strode through the crowded hallways. He didn’t have to shoulder his way through the crowd, though; most of the students parted before him, acknowledging their place on the social hierarchy.

  A few members of Troop’s faction exchanged curt greetings; a brisk nod here, a high-five there. It was good to be king.

  Some students regarded Troop with reserved respect; others threw themselves at his feet, hoping to brownnose their way into his circle. However, every so often, Troop would spot a student look at him with dread burning bright in their eyes. It was these students Troop’s conscience often bothered him about. After all, it was his fault that they feared him. Better to be the hunter than the hunted. Troop extinguished his guilty conscience like a candle being blown out.

  R-i-i-n-n-g.

  Two minutes until the next period started. The World Studies classroom was in the opposite wing of the chemistry lab. The fact that Ludus High was a massive school didn’t help. Troop sped up and crossed into the classroom just as the final bell rang.

  There was an empty desk in the back corner of the room. Troop grinned to himself. That was his seat and others knew better than to take it. Not unless they wanted the rest of the school year to be pure misery; Troop’s gang had that type of power. It never ceased to amaze Troop how the right connections could make the difference between being the alpha or the omega.

  He slid into his designated seat and promptly tuned out the lesson being taught on the smart-screen. He could always swipe the key points of today’s lesson from Darrel later.

  Flipping on his electro-slate, Troop saw that Jennifer had sent him three more instafications.

  Want to come over to my place after snowboarding?

  I got some new music I know you will like.

  Okay, are you just going to ignore me? Fine. Be that way.

  Typical Jennifer, thought Troop. He typed back a reply:

  Jenn, I’m not ignoring you—I just don’t check my inbox every other second of the day. Like I said before, you can come along to Shawn’s Snowboard.

  Troop lazily took a few bullet points’ worth of note. When he returned to the home screen of his slate, Jennifer had already answered his message.

  Nah. I’ve never been good at snowboarding. I guess my parents were too cheap to code some snowboarding skills into my DNA.

  Troop didn’t bother to reply Jennifer informing her athletic skills couldn’t be genetically coded.

  He started to reply but got interrupted—another instafication from Jennifer. He began to wonder if he should block her from his contact list.

  It’s Maya, isn’t it?

  Troop creased his forehead and typed back a message:

  Who the heck is Maya?

  Jennifer’s reply:

  Don’t pretend you don’t know her. She’s the girl with blue eyes, black hair…good snowboarder. You’re meeting her after school today, aren’t you?

  Now Troop remembered who Maya was. New girl at Ludus; moved to the city a few weeks ago. She was pretty, but not exceptionally eye-catching in a school full of Perfects. Troop thumbed back a reply, hastily covering his electro-slate for a second when the teacher glanced his way.

  Sounds like you’re jealous of the new girl.

  He didn’t have to wait long for a reply.

  I am so not jealous of her. I mean, really, blue eyes and black hair? That’s so cliché. I bet her parents were “Ravenhood” fans back in their days and wanted a daughter that looked just like Raven.

  Troop grinned, fully aware that Jennifer was a Ravenhood fan herself. Ravenhood was a popular e-book published thirty years ago. Although the novel was no longer on the top ten books of the year, most people still recognized the title “Ravenhood.” Troop had read the story only once—he didn’t find it especially interesting.

  The main character in the novel was a girl named Raven who had black hair, blue eyes and a snappish attitude. So Jennifer is jealous of Maya. Poor Maya; she’ll be receiving Jenn’s wrath. Jennifer was ruthless when other students threatened her popularity at school. Feeling some pity for Maya, Troop did his best to mitigate Jennifer’s envy towards her.

  Jenn, how many times have I told you I’m not looking for a girlfriend? Maya’s not an exemption.

  Jennifer shot back an answer:

  Well, maybe you’re not interested in Maya, but she’s definitely interested in you.

  chapter three

  [ Kristi ]

  Kristi couldn’t shake off the feeling she was being followed. Probably just Glenn and his friends trying to harass me, she thought. Wait—that can’t be right since I just saw them leave with the Speaker to look at colleges. Maybe they’re back early.

  Kristi passed over the short cut that ran through the center of town, trying to throw off whoever was following her. She ducked into an alley in the poorer part of district, thinking if it really were Glenn, he would stop following her. He would never associate himself with the lower
class.

  The normally well-maintained sidewalk progressively grew more neglected and chipped the further Kristi strode on. Footsteps mirroring her own echoed loudly in the backstreet. She paused and whirled around.

  No one.

  She resumed walking, heart thumping loudly in her chest. The footsteps behind her picked up again. Kristi unexpectedly stopped once more, hoping to surprise her pursuer and get a glimpse of him or her. A low-lying rose bush to her left shuddered. She whipped her head around.

  A pair of luminous gold eyes blinked back then disappeared.

  Louder, faster footfalls sounded. Someone was definitely chasing her. Racing blindly, Kristi turned into another twisted alley. Warped shadows of the tall brick buildings leaned over her. Kristi glanced at a street sign. She had no idea where she was.

  But what she did know was that she had just entered a dead end. In front of her, two silhouettes materialized. Gasping, Kristi turned around and saw the original pursuer behind her. The three men were wearing loose, nondescript clothes and bore a buzz cut.

  All of her escape routes were blocked. I need a weapon, Kristi thought. She frantically ran her hands over the grimy brick walls in search for something hard and wieldable, like a loose brick. Perhaps she could knock out one of the three men if her aim was accurate. Nothing. Her fingernails scraped up a lot of dirt and gunk, but found nothing useful.

  Kristi glanced around. The gang was closing in on her; they were no more than fifty feet away. She slapped the brick wall with frustration and fear. A hole opened up in the wall and she fell forward and through. Tumbling through the darkness, Kristi hit the dirt floor with a thud.

  Then she groaned when she realized any second the gang was going to find her. She curled up into a small ball in the corner of the room.

  Thirty seconds passed.

  Then a minute.

  After five minutes, Kristi worked up the courage to uncurl herself and switch her electro-slate onto flashlight mode. She was in a small, barely furnished room. The gap she had fallen through had completely closed up. Cautiously, Kristi made her way to the wall and heard people conversing on the other side.

  “We lost her, boss,” a deep voice said.

  “What do you mean ‘we lost her’?” a female voice snapped back.

  “She just disappeared on us.”

  “Yeah, she was standing by the wall, then poof! She vanished,” said another guy.

  The female voice lashed out, “You guys are useless. Can’t even do a simple task. Did you search the area?”

  “Of course. She’s not around anymore.”

  The woman snorted. “Well, the girl’s obviously far away now. No point in going after her. You guys are terrible at snatching electro-slates for the black market. Let’s leave.”

  Their footsteps faded away and Kristi let out a sigh of relief. For the first time, Kristi noticed the TV standing in the corner of the barely lit room; her electro-slate was the only source of light. That’s strange, she thought. Nobody watches TVs anymore.

  Fictional movies and TV shows were banned since the actors were sinning every time they performed a script. Actors were no more than paid liars. The only shows approved by the government were learning channels and the official news station, which were broadcast on the electro-slates and public news-screens.

  Kristi’s stomach growled, reminding her it needed food. She placed a hand on the bricks that outlined the entrance to the room. Silently, the bricks revolved away creating an exit back to the alley. She stepped outside, blinking in the sunlight.

  When Kristi looked behind her, the brick wall was solid once more. Shrugging, she sped-walked home as fast as she could. She no longer felt as if she was being followed.

  Kristi grabbed a quick lunch of waffles (leftovers from breakfast) then flicked the kickstand of her hydro-bike away with her heels. All level eleven students were required to fulfill a minimum of five service hours per week, and Kristi still needed two more hours.

  She guided her bike around a lamppost and then between a wishing fountain and a bronze statue of a winged lion guarding the steps leading up to the learning center. The pair of lions that guarded the center’s entrance looked well-aged; in truth they were less than five years old. A special ageing acid wash had been applied to the statues to give them a weathered look.

  Kristi rolled her bike to the rack and double-checked to make sure she had properly locked her padlock; many people would be more than happy to steal the bike of the only freak in town.

  After scanning her ID card at the front desk, Kristi ambled into the library of the learning center. The library wasn’t very big. Five floor-to-ceiling bookshelves lined three of the walls. Only two of the shelves contained paper books; the other three shelves held government approved DVDs. Smart-glass desks and one smart-screen occupied the rest of the room.

  Jaiden stood at the front of the room, beside the smart-screen. The group of level-six students he was tutoring leaned forward in their seats, not wanting to miss a word of his lecture. Jaiden’s sessions were always full; not only did he teach, he taught classes in a fun and engaging style.

  Since Kristi had twenty minutes before it was her time to tutor, she decided to wait in the library. She looked on the tutoring session with as much attentiveness as the students; perhaps she could pick up a few tips from Jaiden to make her own class more interesting.

  “Who can tell me the four regions of the United Regions?” Jaiden asked.

  Fifteen hands shot up into the air.

  Jaiden pretended to look shocked and said, “What? No one knows the answer?”

  Grinning, he closed his eyes and randomly pointed at a girl wildly waving her hand. He called on her.

  “They are the North Region, South Region, East Region and West Region,” said the girl.

  “Very good. And can you tell me which region we live in? You better know this or else…” Jaiden wagged a finger at her.

  “North Region.”

  “Correct. Who can name the countries of the world?” Jaiden asked. He chose a boy with sandy hair to answer.

  “United Regions, South Union, Asian Republic, and the Unified Provinces of Europe.”

  “That’s right. Okay, here’s a harder question. Whoever answers this question right gets brownie points. Who are the leaders for each of the named nations?”

  After a moment of hesitation, the boy with the sandy hair raised his arm up again. Jaiden called on him without missing a beat.

  “President Ducix runs the United Regions. Chief Imperate is in charge of South Union, Empress Regina rules the Asian Republic and, uh…” the boy trailed off, flushing with embarrassment for forgetting the name of the Prime Minister who ruled the Unified Provinces of Europe.

  In the meantime, several other students had raised their hands, ready to be called on by Jaiden. Jaiden let the boy have another fifteen seconds to come up with an answer before picking on a girl with a French braid running down her back.

  The girl blinked her unnaturally blue eyes and said, “Prime Minister Rector commands the Unified Provinces of Europe.”

  Jaiden nodded his approval. Using his index finger, he powered off the smart-screen and wrapped up his class. “I hope you’ve all learned a lot. If you remember at least eighty percent of the materials we just went over, you should be well prepared for tomorrow’s test.” He paused to confirm the time on his watch. “Class has been concluded.”

  The kids packed up their belongings, thanked Jaiden and left. Kristi took a look at her own watch; ten minutes left before she had to leave. Her tutoring class would be taught in one of the spare classrooms.

  Jaiden finished gathering his belongings and noticed Kristi hovering by the door.

  “Did you get your hydro-bike fixed?” he asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “I didn’t tell Maria and Don about it. I assume you want to keep it this way?”

  “Yeah,” Kristi said, nodding a little and grateful that Jaiden understood she didn’t wa
nt Don and Maria to be concerned with her wellbeing. “Do you know if anyone still uses a TV set in town?” Kristi asked, a picture of the TV she had found earlier flashing into her mind.

  “I don’t think so, but I might be wrong.”

  Kristi mentally rolled her eyes; Jaiden was never wrong.

  “I have to go now. Professor Smetana is probably wondering why I haven’t shown up at the lab. I promised her I would return to the lab as soon as I completed my service hours.”

  With that, Jaiden left the library, giving Kristi a slight pat on the shoulders as he walked away.

  Well. That was Jaiden: wanted by everyone because he was good at everything. Kristi left the library then stepped down the hallway and into the empty classroom.

  The smart-screen in the room was an older model, and it took four attempts before Kristi got the machine to spark to life. Even after coaxing the ancient screen to turn on, it was several minutes before Kristi was able to connect her electro-slate to it. She irritably tapped her foot, waiting for the lesson to finish downloading.

  The kids she was tutoring were level two; most of the children were six to seven years old. Kristi counted the number of kids seated at the desks. Five in total. Not a bad number. She told herself she preferred her classes to be small.

  I get to do more one-on-one teaching this way, she thought, refusing to acknowledge the reason why her classes were generally smaller than the other tutoring groups was because not many parents felt comfortable with the idea of having their Perfect youngsters being taught by an Accident.

  The lesson finally completed its download. Kristi turned to her group and said, “Hope everyone’s interested in learning about polynomials today because that’s what we’re doing.”

  Kristi plopped down onto a soft, cushioned chair, exhausted from teaching. Dealing with kids she knew who were going to one day turn out smarter than her took a heavier toll than expected. Although her students were generally well behaved, they were still only six year olds, and had the tendency to wander off topic.