Devour

Chapter 30

I don't get home until well after four in the morning. Pippa insists on walking me back to the barracks, and then I insist on seeing her to a cab that she insists on paying for. There's a whole lot of insisting and not nearly enough sleeping going on in my night.

Christine shows up ridiculously early, woken by her noisy children, to take back my tracers and tell me to get my sorry self to class. I have an early one.

"Then we have that dinner thing this evening," she says, tossing clothing items at me as I lay in bed pathetically.

"What? No I want to sleep," I would go out again, except I really am very tired and if she's not going to give me the tracers then I'd sooner sleep than not. I am sore from the tasing and all else last night.

"Well, you should have slept last night that's the general idea of last nights to go to sleep," she says, unsympathetically.

"What's the dinner anyway? Why do I have to go I'm not anybody and I don't well on tests and things."

"You use that as excuse for everything, not doing well on tests and things---"

"Well I don't!"

"One day you'll be arrested or something and you'll say 'oh I don't well on tests and things'---"

"Don't be cruel to me when I'm miserable; what is the dinner for?" I ask, sitting up and rubbing my hair.

"It's a big appreciation event thing for all of the psychics and their handlers it's a nice hotel downtown London and we have to go there's loads of food and it looks good that we went and absolutely everybody will be there it's good for my career," she says, fixing her hair in my mirror that I don't like to look in.

"Sounds boring."

It is boring. I have to wear a tux which I didn't own so I had to be taken to get one which Christine informed I should have done ages ago since she told me about the thing ages ago. I asked her when she expected me to do it when we're always together. She shut up then. Anyway she wears a deep lilac dress that's a little slinky and I wear the tux. I think it's stupid all of us mutants dressed up like something while our handlers still have our leashes firmly in their grasp.

"Come we have to meet people then you can go ahead and find food," Christine says, "You're not allowed to drink anything though."

"I'm probably going to go sleep someplace," I mutter, knowing better than to make a smart remark about not getting water which needless to say I'm allowed to have she just meant alcohol. Christine's in a bit of a mood with her husband being home and I ought not push it but I've only slept like two in the past forty eight hours.

"Why haven't you slept?" Emma asks, sidling up next to me.

"You look like a girl," I say, to annoy her. She punches my arm. She does look quite pretty in a long blue dress and actual make up with her hair done nicely all curly. Surely her mum helped her with it. "Well you do, take your nose out of book sometimes you can be a proper human." Instead of looking like our dad all the time in clothes three sizes too big with her hair frizzy cause she didn't condition it like Miss Cora told her to.

"You are delirious I'll sic Nel on you tomorrow, see how you like that," Emma says, as we walk into the fancy hotel place they're having the reception. She fusses with my hair.

"Good luck, he wouldn't let me fix it," Christine tells her.

"There's no let I'm his sister," Emma and my other siblings who aren't Patch don't like Christine for reasons they don't even know. I ignore it.

"I'll let you have him once we meet people," Christine says, tugging me away.

"I'll see you tomorrow," I tell Emma in case I don't see her again tonight. I don't see Patch anywhere but maybe he's not allowed places like he shouldn't be.