Chapter Three
As the long line of students filed into room number seventeen, the screen at the front of Seventeen came to life, as did the Personal Teachers each student had tucked under their arms. The students silently took their seats and set up their Personal Teachers. Each Teacher screen in the classroom was white with a thin, black line running horizontally across the middle. As each student signed in, plugging their headphones into the hole in the side of their desk, Christopher glanced about, locating Alexander, who was already plugged into the system. When every student had plugged in and the line across the white screens began to move up and down to indicate sound, Christopher lifted himself from his desk and slipped around the entranced students. When he reached Alexander’s desk, he yanked his headphones from the desk.
Alexander gasped, suddenly signed out of the class. He turned his attention down to Christopher, blinking in surprise.
“Wha-what was that for?” he asked, casting a glance around at the other students. No one seemed to have noticed anything wrong.
“I’ve got something I wanna show you,” Christopher replied, excitement obvious in the way he suddenly jumped up and ran to his own desk to grab up his Personal Teacher. Christopher clapped his Teacher shut and stuffed it under his arm. “Follow me,” he whispered before taking off out the door. Alexander glanced back at his Personal Teacher. A red light blinked at the bottom, right corner, presuming Alexander was absent. While he did not want to leave, he realized he was already signed out, and to sign back in would only create more confusion, and possibly a few questions from Them. The last thing Alexander wanted was to have Them come to his house. With that, he had grabbed up his Personal Teacher and ran out the door, were Christopher was waiting.
Christopher led Alexander down the silent hall, swerving back and forth through different doors lining the spiraling hallway. Alexander was impressed by Christopher’s knowledge of the school, but also realized this was probably not the first time Christopher had taken off to explore during Seventeen. Alexander also realized this was one of the things he did that caused him to go Missing. The thought made him nervous, and Alexander quickened his pace, eyes darting about the hallway, each noise catching his senses.
“No need to be so jumpy,” Christopher reassured as he pushed through a strange-looking door that did not automatically spring back at the touch of his hand. Christopher held the thick door open and Alexander slipped into the dark, odd-smelling room. Christopher shut the door behind them and Alexander blinked into the blackness, rather surprised by how dark the room was. Suddenly, a bright, yellow light flooded the room, causing Alexander to cringe as he squinted against the pain.
“What is this?’ he asked, his voice strained, anger evident. Christopher did not answer at first. He went over to a table in the middle of the room and set up his Personal Teacher. Alexander hesitated before following him to the table. He reached his fingers out to brush over the tabletop, noting it was of the same material as the door. Alexander frowned down at what appeared to be a chair, but was oddly shaped and rocked slightly upon its half-moon legs. He slowly lowered himself into it, surprised by the way it sunk beneath his weight.
“Last night, after we talked, my cousin Jonathan called me,” Christopher finally announced. He spun the Personal Teacher around so that the screen faced Alexander, who glanced up from the chair.
“Is that him?” Alexander asked, eyeing the rather young-looking man, dark hair neatly combed, brown eyes shining to match his brilliant smile. He was dressed in a white coat that fell down to just above his knees, and he held his hands out as if to show this new accessory off. Christopher nodded, reaching over to tap the mail icon on the top left of the screen. A letter popped up on the screen.
