Far From Home

Chapter Eight

(Sorry I've lost my touch. I didn't really write this chapter so well, sorry about that. Also sorry for breaking promises that I'd be updating regularly it hasn't really gone to plan :/)

“Uh I don’t know I went through the same generic childhood as you all probably did. Then I went to do the Test expecting a generic result and to get on with a generic life.” Mochrie said smiling; we all smiled as well while we sat around the common room relaxingly. “Yeah didn’t we all buddy? And then the tables turned so quickly that even while we’re all sitting here under a calm facade, you can almost feel all of our disorientation in the air.” I looked over at the boy Dmitry who looked almost asleep sprawled out on a couch to himself. For someone who looked like they did a lot of recreational illegal substances, the words coming out of his mouth were quite profound. Looking at the three other faces sitting around me they thought so too. Dmitry lifted an eyelid looking at us, “what? I’m a communications genius; I spout shit like this all the time. Though don’t expect me to understand half of it.” He said laughing, I instantly warmed to him. You could see it in his eyes that he underneath the carefree and careless demeanour was sly and witty.

We talked for a while longer, just general things, though the main topic was definitely how crazy things are. Mia took this in a different approach though, “I have to expect crazy you know? For my twelfth birthday I got my flying license. I wanted it, but only after my parents pushed for seven years. So you know, when the crazy comes at you, you can either go against it and make everything a whole lot harder or you can run wild with it and let it take you where you obviously need to go. It’s definitely what I’m going with now and it’s a good idea if we all do so then it makes it easy for us all to work this out.” Everyone nodded agreeing, “true that sister.” Dmitry said laying out a hand for Mia to slap, she grimaced slightly and pushed at his fingertips away from her. I sniggered at Dmitry’s exaggerated unhappy face and Mia looked at me and laughed too, giving me a wink in the process. Then Zachariah cleared his throat looking unimpressed, “you know as much as you are correct Mia, this is a job. This isn’t some little game that we all get to play just because we are all still teenagers. I worked my ass off to become a medical professional, someone who could get to the top and mean something. But no I was picked out for my mechanical skills and my strength, to go into a career which I can never say anything about or accomplish anything in.” Zachariah was obviously seething inside but he was cold and indifferent on the outside. “Hey you didn’t have to say yes to coming man, they gave you that choice to be here and you took it.” Mochrie said countering Zachariah. After Mochrie finished talking we all fell into an uncomfortable silence.

We sat there all looking at something except each other, though Mochrie and I gave each other reassuring glances. Breaking the awkward silence was the noise of the lift opening and footsteps cracking down the floor. Professor Goswami appeared around the corner smiling hopefully, though her smile drooped when she saw us all sitting there not conversing. “Okay, how’s everything going then?” Professor Goswami said looking around at the five of us. She stopped at me, “Adira? Is everything fine?” Professor Goswami asked. I lied through my teeth, “yeah we’re all getting along just fine. We’ve just pretty much run out of things to talk about at this point. We’ve pretty much just gone over what’s been happening so far.” I gave a very unconvincing smile, in which I know professor Goswami saw through entirely, by giving me back a look of complete hopelessness. “Uh well if you are all hungry lunch is being served down in the mess hall.” Professor Goswami said, I nodded grateful for a way out of this awkward situation. I got up before anyone else and started making my way out of the room. As I walked I could hear them all getting up but someone moving faster. I turned to see that it was Mochrie catching up with me, “you know I am so glad you’re with me, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to spend another minute in this place.” Mochrie said, I grabbed his hand and squeezed it and gave him a smile. “You’d be lost without me in any situation.” He laughed and bumped me; we got onto the elevator together and held hands all the way down.

The mess hall looked empty when we entered, people spotted around different tables giving the room a barren feeling. “What do you feel like? I can’t choose honestly.” I said, looking around at all the different cuisines. “Where’s the nearest wheel of choice when you need one?” Mochrie ignored what I said, still looking around at everything to eat. “Spin me Adira,” Mochrie said, “what?” I asked. He gave me an eye roll and motioned his hand twirling around his head. I gave him an exasperated look, I’d known he what he wanted. I was just surprised that we were going back to our method for choosing things when we were ten years old. I shrugged and laughed “okay”, Mochrie laughed too “okay.” I slapped my hand over my eyes and Mochrie did so too, I put my arm on his shoulder and started spinning him. Mochrie then put his arm out pointing and I kept spinning him, both of us laughing now. I stopped him, but his momentum made him fall into me. I opened my eyes while holding him steady and looked to where he was pointing. Unfortunately it wasn’t pointing at any food place, but instead at the rest of the group who were mostly laughing at us. I instantly felt embarrassed, but everyone else was smiling genuinely so I felt the heat on my face lessen. Mochrie put his arm around my shoulders and said to me “why don’t we just get a bit of everything instead?”