Atomic Rebooted

21. School

CLAIRE

On Monday I was grateful to have the distraction of school. Now that the monorail was back in motion, it was like the crash on Thursday night had never even happened. For that, I was grateful.

But a part of me was aware that it wasn't the case for every family who knew someone that was on the tram that Thursday evening. That's all I could think as I entered the monorail. It was a little emptier than it usually was, even for a Monday morning.

I supposed that not everyone was comfortable riding it again given what had happened— and I didn't necessarily blame them for that decision.

Heaven knows Dad was worried the night before at dinner.

"Are you sure you don't want me to drive you in?" He asked as he passed the vegan potato salad Holly had made. "I'm not sure I'm comfortable with you being on the tram again, especially so soon. . . "

I'd just bravely smiled and assured him that I would be fine as I repressed the questions that felt as if they burned, trying to ignore the secrets I had uncovered. I noticed that Julien also wouldn't look at me for the rest of the day.

I had gone too deep, and I wouldn't dare go further, lest I end up in over my head.

Or at least, that's what I'd told myself.

The day was going as well as could be expected. I was going to go interview one of the bio teachers since her planning period was at the same time as my journalism class, so I could go and ask her questions for her teacher's profile on the Princess North's website.

I was reviewing my psych homework as the others filtered in the classroom when Malcolm McQueen got up out of his seat to come see me. He hovered over me awkwardly for a moment before I noticed him and he gave me the ol' charmer smile.

"Oh, hi," I said. "Do you need something?"

"Oh, no, I just wanted to see how you were doing," he said. "I think sometimes we don't do enough to meet people outside of our cliques and social circles. It's a pity, because sometimes the most interesting people are the ones who are not like us."

Ah, so it's about seeing what the masses are like.

"That's true." I searched for the words to say next. "However, it's not like we're all Mean Girls at North Kingsbury. The popular kids aren't mean or oppressing the rest of us. Who knows, maybe society's changed since like, 2005 or whatever?"

"That's true, but I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be less visible." Malcolm trailed off.

"Thanks," I retorted sarcastically. "I was thinking of picking up some more camouflage, so I could be less visible."

"It wasn't meant as an offense," Malcolm said quietly. "You're not a target if you're invincible. You can just live, y'know."

"I guess there are some advantages to being invisible," I agreed. I wasn't thinking of anything as petty as stupid high school stuff that wouldn't be relevant in as little as a year. "I hadn't thought of it like that, but I must imagine it's difficult, being watched all the time."

It was hard enough, after all, coping with only feeling watched, not actually being watched.

"I shouldn't complain." Malcolm's cheeks flooded with red. "I'm sorry— you probably must think I'm acting like some whiny jerk—"

"No, no, it's fine." I even managed a smile. "I don't mind hearing about your problems, either."

They're much simpler than mine, after all.